How do you night dive?

Hi All, this is a general question to compare notes on how do you conduct night dives, as I am curious at how others do it.

• What dive/focus/modeling lights do you use?

• How have you set them up on the camera?

• How do you use them for navigation, search and modeling?

On my own journey these are my notes:

In my first setup, I used a single focus light (Light and Motion Gobe 1000 Wide) mounted on the hotshoe as my navigation, search, and modeling light. This worked well for navigation and search since the beam aligned with my camera’s view — I simply pointed the camera toward where I wanted to move or search. However, in murky water the in-line light illuminated suspended particles, causing the camera to struggle with focus. Additionally, because the light was hotshoe-mounted, it blocked my line of sight whenever I looked over the camera to visually recheck the subject.

For my second setup, I moved the focus light off the camera and mounted two lights on the strobes (aligned with their direction) — Light and Motion Sola 1200 Photo. This gave good cross coverage and avoided illuminating particles directly in front of the lens. The drawback was navigation and subject search—because the lights weren’t aligned with my vision, it was difficult to peer into crevices or see far ahead when navigating.

My third setup I decided to just have a single focus light (Light and Motion Sola 1200 Photo) on a triple clamp at the base of my strobe arm. This kept it clear of my line of sight when looking over the camera and angled enough to avoid lighting up particulate matter. For navigation and subject search, I decided to use a separate hand mounted dive light (generic dive light). This allows me to move freely without constantly maneuvering the camera — keeping it light and nimble until I find a subject, at which point I bring the camera into position.

I am now thinking of optimizing the focus light to just light up the immediate working area and minimize disturbing subjects (red or low lumens) — the Sola 1200 is too bright on both the red and white light. I am thinking of getting one of the inon focus light as I heard they can go very dim. Any suggestions here would be happy to hear.

While the dive light can be bright and provide good long range illumination — again any good suggestion on dive light would be appreciated. I am looking to the OrcaTorch D570-GL Light with Laser Pointer at the moment, thinking a laser would be helpful in pointing out subjects.