Hello,

I’m considering buying some Keldan video lights. I do a lot of filming in blue-water environments. Are they actually necessary there, or should I save my money? Thanks in advance for the tips!

17 hours ago, Richy123456 said:

Hello,

I’m considering buying some Keldan video lights. I do a lot of filming in blue-water environments. Are they actually necessary there, or should I save my money? Thanks in advance for the tips!

No experience with this, however the range of video lights is quite limited so you need to be quite close for them to have any impact. Video lights have much less power than strobes and they run out steam at about 1m or so, depending on strobe power, aperture being used etc.

It also depend son how deep you are, if you are quite deep and ambient light is limited you can raise ISO to compensate as the ambient light is low.

Yes, as Chris wrote, video lights are very limited in terms of throw, so it really depends on your usage.

For wide angle, your lights will mostly be used to bring out highlights of subjects in the foreground (a large animal passing by, say a manta or a whale shark, or a fan coral for a reef shot).

This is not without complications, as if you're mostly shooting in ambient light and white balancing for this, you have to avoid a red spike caused by the difference between sunlight filtered by blue seawater and your much less filtered artificial lights (hence the idea of using filters on the lights, or filtered LEDs, an idea that Keldan pioneered and developed).

For medium shots, you can be artificially dominant, but will need a lot of power, around 2 x 10K lumens to light things properly. This is, of course, depth- and condition-dependent. Deeper dives will be closer to night dives, with less ambient light, for instance.

As for the choice of lights themselves, Keldans are great, high-quality lights that will last. There's not much competition on the durability front, but this comes with a price tag that makes them out of reach for quite a few of us.

On 10/22/2026 at 9:02 PM, bghazzal said:

Yes, as Chris wrote, video lights are very limited in terms of throw, so it really depends on your usage.

For wide angle, your lights will mostly be used to bring out highlights of subjects in the foreground (a large animal passing by, say a manta or a whale shark, or a fan coral for a reef shot).

This is not without complications, as if you're mostly shooting in ambient light and white balancing for this, you have to avoid a red spike caused by the difference between sunlight filtered by blue seawater and your much less filtered artificial lights (hence the idea of using filters on the lights, or filtered LEDs, an idea that Keldan pioneered and developed).

For medium shots, you can be artificially dominant, but will need a lot of power, around 2 x 10K lumens to light things properly. This is, of course, depth- and condition-dependent. Deeper dives will be closer to night dives, with less ambient light, for instance.

As for the choice of lights themselves, Keldans are great, high-quality lights that will last. There's not much competition on the durability front, but this comes with a price tag that makes them out of reach for quite a few of us.

I agree with all @bghazzal shared.

Another consideration beyond overall durability is the quality of light as the battery is depleated. Keldans do not lose their intensity as the battery level drops. This is key for consistency during the entire video as well as ensuring both lights match brightness when you want an even lighting across the scene. In shallower scenarios this may not be as noticeable, but it is critical when artificial light is the more dominant source.

While Keldans demand a premium price, their durability and overall quality allow them to be considered an investment that will hold up.

While I have not personally tried them, Kraken also claims their newer top-tier video lights maintain intensity throughout usage. There is a substantial price difference between the brands, if that is a factor. Their remote control seems to be interesting as well.

Edited October 25Oct 25 by ChipBPhoto

The Keldan wireless remote seems to be something nobody else is attempting. Trying to change light intensity while filming is a big challenge.

On constant-output video lights (i.e. lights that maintain the same output as the battery discharges), we have a thread on the subject here:

Keldan, Kraken, Weefine, RGBlue, Backscatter, Light & Motion, and possibly Seafrogs are confirmed to offer constant-output video lights.

Otherwise Kraken, Weefine and Seafrogs offer wired (optical cable) remotes for their lights, which are a real game changer for video.
I really couldn't imagine shooting plankton without one now. Keldan is the only brand I know of that offers a wireless remote.

I'm honestly really tempted by a set of the Seafrogs 10k lights and remote. Video isn't my focus but they'd be great as a starter set and constant light seems to work well on wrecks.

12 hours ago, Grantmac said:

I'm honestly really tempted by a set of the Seafrogs 10k lights and remote. Video isn't my focus but they'd be great as a starter set and constant light seems to work well on wrecks.

Yes, they're very tempting - if video isn't your main focus I'd definitely go for these.

The issue for me is that video is my focus and I dive a lot, and have been having serious durability issues with video lights.

The Seafrog look less well finished than similarly designed, Shenzhen-made products Kraken or Weefine, and given that I'm getting a lifespan of under 2 years on these products, I'm a little worried that it will be wasted money if they only last me less than 12 months or so...

It's a really difficult decision, more recent remote-compatible Keldan models are completely out of my reach financially (and inexistent second-hand), otherwise I would definitely go for this to stop stressing about light issues.

I'm afraid of having even more issues with Seafrog lights, and there's very little feedback. Sure, design and specs are similar, but finishing, and possibly quality control is unknown.
Beyond durability, it's not even clear if the Seafrog are constant output, and how the light quality actually is (CRI is a bit of a hoax tbh ˆˆ), as well as battery pack design, which are all crucial aspects.

Edited October 27Oct 27 by bghazzal