I have been on the hunt for a pair of reasonably priced(!) warm white lights for my gopro. Have I missed something or ~4000K, 95 CRI is STILL rainbow unicorn category?

Apparently little $ can buy loads of lumens on Aliexpress, but those are typically 6000K and digging deeper, poor CRI/spectrum. There are lights with combined LED's, where you get a few warm 3500K LED-s in it, BUT after little research I found some horrible CRI figures for those warm LED's too! E.g. this beast claims to have "4 pieces of XHP50 LED yellow light (3500K)". Now checking the documentation, I find a poor 70(!) color rendering index and a spectrum with a Mariana trench @ 480nm (most likely the reason for those terrible CRI's). As water likes to absorb red very quickly, I am leaning towards WARM lights but definitely with a more even spectrum. Absolute worse case, I still have a pair of Tungsten lights but they are ofc super power hungry (100W each) and require a heavy battery, something I am not keen travelling with.

TLDR: any recommendations for reliable, serviceable (e.g uses standard Li batteries) video lights that preferably don't break the bank?

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by GTom

I have not found anything in the warm color temp, and CRI numbers seem to be nonexistent.

Edit: Keldan quotes CRI, but they are very expensive.

The Backscatter HF-1 is not cheap, nor does it have warm color temp, but it has a lot of light available so you could add diffusers/filters to warm the light at the expense of lower output.

Bluewater has a 3000 lumen video light with a nice looking diffuse beam at 6500k for $250. I don’t see a CRI listed. If you put a diffuser on it the color temp should drop below 6K. Not experience yet—I have one ordered.

I’m just getting into lighting underwater, but have been told color temperature is less important as long as you set the white balance. Maybe others more knowledgeable will comment.

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by ACHiPo

The Lumen ratings on cheap lights in aliexpress and similar sites are likely works of fiction. I have heard many say they all seem to come from the same factory, so not much to choose between them until you get into named brands and more $$$.

The reason for warm light is that when colour balancing on the subject, the background water becomes a deeper blue, this is mainly used in strobes for still images. Strobes are way more powerful than lights and I would expect that you would struggle to get the same effect on video as the amount of artificial light is generally less than what you get with a strobe as you need to push the colour temperature further overall to get the same colour balance on the subject with less artificial light added.

10 hours ago, ACHiPo said:

I have not found anything in the warm color temp, and CRI numbers seem to be nonexistent.

Edit: Keldan quotes CRI, but they are very expensive.

The Backscatter HF-1 is not cheap, nor does it have warm color temp, but it has a lot of light available so you could add diffusers/filters to warm the light at the expense of lower output.

Bluewater has a 3000 lumen video light with a nice looking diffuse beam at 6500k for $250. I don’t see a CRI listed. If you put a diffuser on it the color temp should drop below 6K. Not experience yet—I have one ordered.

I’m just getting into lighting underwater, but have been told color temperature is less important as long as you set the white balance. Maybe others more knowledgeable will comment.

Look into Kraken (Hydras) or Weefine lights - also, importantly, they're constant output

I can also recommend Weefine lights

On 12/28/2025 at 1:06 AM, ACHiPo said:

I have not found anything in the warm color temp, and CRI numbers seem to be nonexistent.

Edit: Keldan quotes CRI, but they are very expensive.

The Backscatter HF-1 is not cheap, nor does it have warm color temp, but it has a lot of light available so you could add diffusers/filters to warm the light at the expense of lower output.

Bluewater has a 3000 lumen video light with a nice looking diffuse beam at 6500k for $250. I don’t see a CRI listed. If you put a diffuser on it the color temp should drop below 6K. Not experience yet—I have one ordered.

I’m just getting into lighting underwater, but have been told color temperature is less important as long as you set the white balance. Maybe others more knowledgeable will comment.

Yeah, that's my problem too. SOME (but far from all...) "Aliexpress" lights do deliver near the lumen figures they claim, or at least "bright enough for the money". BUT they do that at 6500K that becomes like 10'000K with a subject distance of 0.5m and have literally a Mariana Trench in the middle of their color spectrum, around @480nm.

After days of hunting I found CRI's very rarely quoted, and as with everything in life, I highly suspect that that's for a reason.

I got another idea: get a pair of really bright but cheap lights and leave my snorkeling orange filter on, acting as a full CTO color temperature corrector. That'll likely affect CRI/R9/the overall SPECTRUM of the lightsource positively while sacrificing maybe 30% of the light intensity. Started a separate topic with a candidate (Leton L15): I am reluctant to shell out $600+ on lights that are still of questionable CRI, not to mention $4k on Keldans that do what everybody should do...

On 12/28/2025 at 5:15 PM, Nikolausz said:

I can also recommend Weefine lights

Many thanks! Seems their Smartfocus 4000 model is getting close. Will investigate if I'd be significantly better with that compared to a Leton L15+CTO filter. Not cheap but at least not Keldan money...

I just came across Sea and Sea's 1200 lumen video light. Not cheap, but not outrageous at $385. It has 5400k color temp and 90 CRI. The Weefine Smartfocus 4000 is more powerful on paper--not sure how accurate any of these numbers are?

Backscatter.com

Sea & Sea LX-1200SW FS Underwater Video Light

Sea & Sea LX-1200SW FS Underwater Video Light: No looseness in both wide and spot light "single light source/center light distribution" for a clean and beautiful image.

Edited yesterday at 09:38 PM1 day by ACHiPo

4 hours ago, ACHiPo said:

I just came across Sea and Sea's 1200 lumen video light. Not cheap, but not outrageous at $385. It has 5400k color temp and 90 CRI. The Weefine Smartfocus 4000 is more powerful on paper--not sure how accurate any of these numbers are?

Might be good light quality, but 1200 lumens seems a little weak, probably be OK with macro where you can get in really close. The thing with video lights is you are trying to add reds and yellows into the ambient light and this one will do that a little but will be over powered by the ambient light in shallow water. I see they have a 4000 lumen model which would probably do better - it's $549. Of course look for reviews, need to confirm that paying the extra $$$ will actually deliver good CRI. Don't know if you saw Blue water photo has a comparison table:

https://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/best-underwater-video-lights/?srsltid=AfmBOopHlreMa-kGVb6def7NBCwtFGPY3ti-JcEd7TUrNuAfK3Cvptcn

Not exorbitant pricing indeed, slowly finding some real competitors around:

1. second hand Sealife 4500 pro (about the £300 mark with old battery): top color (CRI96!) but proprietary battery, not huge lumen figure

2. Nitescuba SEA60 (on sales now) or NVS60 - these are only CRI 90, yet probably the best of the "cheap" lights: I could get a pair for the price of the Sealife. Other great plus is that it uses standard batteries!

3. Second hand weefine smartfocus 6000: I am finding VERY conflicting CRI's here though. This is an older model, manual says CRI 80 (no-go), seller says from whatever datasheet: CRI 96... Probably skipping that and look at the new 4000v2.

Need to research other practical parameters like shutter-free dimming, reliability, weight etc as it seems I am looking northwards of £500 for a pair, definitely not a "don't like it, throw it in the bin" purchase.

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by GTom

have you looked into the new Backscatter Octo 3500 Wide video lights?

They're listed as $300 USD here:

https://www.backscatter.com/Backscatter-Octo-3500-Wide-Underwater-Video-Light

3500 Lumen Brightness

• 100º Wide Even Beam - Light Scenes with Wide Angle Lenses

• Three Power Levels

• Compact Size - Perfect for Travel

• Backscatter Color Filter System Compatible

• Enjoy the vivid colors of fluorescence with the optional Backscatter Video Light Excitation Filter

• Powered by two interchangeable protected 18650 batteries

• Simple Single Button Control

• 5000K Color Temperature

• CRI 90

• Triple O-ring Seal

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by bghazzal