GTom

Meantime getting leakage/battery swelling news across the "Leton world"...

Couldn't agree more. Cheap manufacturers probably cater for the single light user. It's not all lost though, sticking to flat window lights instead of domed ones moderate those extreme wide beams.

Built in without quick replacement option is an absolute no-go. Imagine being out all day long on a zodiac, you defo won't mess with USB charging between dives. Quick battery swap both in the light and the gopro, that's it. Also, batteries usually have a limited lifespan. If you can't reliably disassemble the light and swap the cells, that's the end of it, the whole gadget goes in the bin.

That sounds interesting, don't get the "built in" but "21700" concept, would be interested to see a teardown video if this is somehow user-serviceable.

Just figured the big Leton's have built in battery. Big no-no for practical reasons, one of those planned obsolescence stories, LoL.

I think I can get the same for about half the price in the nitescuba NVS60. Apparently a tried and tested unit, not the average Aliexpress stuff.

Got my genuine gopro13 housing on the festive sales for £22 so I think I'll skip this one :)

Not exorbitant pricing indeed, slowly finding some real competitors around: second hand Sealife 4500 pro (about the £300 mark with old battery): top color (CRI96!) but proprietary battery, not huge lumen figure 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! 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.

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...

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...

I have an opportunity to pick up a second hand Leton Power L15 light, pricing seems quite attractive for the claimed output. Does anybody have experience with this manufacturer? I am looking for high CRI lights for my gopro setup, this might be a useful start. Claimed CRI 90 needs to be valid though and thought about further improving that with a filter sacrificing maybe 2-3k Lumens. 4000k, CRI95+ video lights seem to be rainbow unicorn category at down to earth prices...

I'm also guessing you haven't seen many divers with wet wide lenses attached to their action cams in the wild either?

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?

Indeed, deep+dark=lights

I'll definitely look into that. Also if it does Temporal or just Spatial NR.

That one looks interesting. Not super hurried but would like to get and test the gear before Summer. Valid point, Lights are not ideal for some of my favorite targets: underwater landscapes & groups of people. Latter even in the pool might benefit from slight filtering if the subjects scatter 1 to 5 meters from me (subject to loads of testing though).

In my previous life I was a tray+arms person. Coming back to the hobby I am thinking about selfie sticks. Not necessarily because I love filming myself but with that I could move the camera in places where e.g. a "giant crab configuration" (arms+tray) simply doesn't fit. Drawback ofc is that I can't mount lights on a stick easily if necessary. What is your take with an action camera, stick or tray?

Wow, amazing work, looks like I got enough reading material for the whole weekend 😅!

I am hobbyist, not planning to shed the price of a camera on expiring software licenses. Just realized that the denoise feature in resolve is only available in the $300 studio version. Found the Neatvideo plugin, praised in several tests saying it's even BETTER than the resolve studio's built in noise reduction. Okay, looking at NV's website it says they got a limited demo plugin that might work for me if I do <15min clips. Fantastic. One caveat though, it says: "All editions of Neat Video can be applied to footage with any frame size, but actual filtration in the Demo and Home editions is applied to a part of each frame when the frame is larger than the specified limit." What does it mean in practice? Anyone working with this plugin? Does that mean if I shoot 4k, not to mention 5.3k (gopro) I need to do several runs with carefully selected windows to denoise the entire frame, even in the paid Home edition?

£500 fetches you a fully serviceable GH5 housing+tray+arms kit and another 400 a camera+kit lens second hand. True, wet lenses are heavy for larger cameras, saw a WWL-1 selling sub 400 on fleabay 2 weeks ago, that beast weighs over 1kg itself. IMHO I would not dive with my primary phone especially while on the far edge of the world with no easy access to replace hardware and personal data if it gets soaked or lost for whatever reason. Gopros are tiny and cheap, you can even bring along a spare one in case one dies/gets lost. That means you need a top of the line phone dedicated to diving/ photography only and an other one for daily business.

! That's a perfectly valid point! Will test that handheld with some makeshift spacers. Also, if the lens is further out than the original optical design suggests, correction might not be as good as intended. Planning to use 4:3 aspect ratio at the highest resolution available. So the Backscatter and AOI mounts are all compatible with Inon's SD bayonet? That sounds great.

I used a gopro 4 black before and have an Inon UWL-G140 for it. Just updated the age old camera with a gopro 13 I wonder what's the best option to fit the lens on the original gopro dive housing? Compatibility with my polarpro filters (basically gopro's stock diving & snorkeling orange/red filers) would be a fantastic plus. Apparently I got two options: stock Inon SD front mask (haven't found a UK dealer yet): doesn't seem to be polarpro compatible nor has its on provisions for filter. The Backscatter mount, here it says is compatible with Inon SD lenses (should be verified though). Maybe it doesn't work with the polarpro filters but at least I can buy the backscatter filter inserts.

Hi Gals and Guys, After years of hiatus coming back to this wonderful hobby slowly. My last dives were pre-covid on the Red Sea, truly amazing world I am hoping to revisit soon. I used a gopro 4 back then, upgraded now to gopro 13 and certainly coming for information in the technical topics. Many thanks for admission and dive safely!