SimonK

I have used strobes and video lights in UK waters. The advantage of video lights is you don’t need a separate torch and don’t need to think to much about camera setup which reduces task loading. You have already found out from your club lots of people are happily using this system. As pointed out you don’t get as much light as with a strobe and in the shallows with lots of ambient light you may struggle to get a good balance. Rick Ayrton used quite small video lights with a Nikon Z9 to great effect on deeper dives, he did use the cameras ludicrously high ISO capabilities. One thing to watch with the cheap Chinese lights is they have a very sharp edge to the light cone which can put nasty lines across your image. In short both work but if you are serious about your photography you will end up buying strobes at some point.

Sometime in the early 80s I did a marine fire fighting course. Mock-up of a ship, two decks and two compartments on each deck. A small wood fire in one of the lower compartments. Using breathing apparatus and fireman’s suit we had to go in and search for a ‘body’. Couldn’t see a hand in front of your face and the deck was too hot to stand still on. We all ended up with minor burns even with all the kit. Without the BA sets you would have zero chance of getting out.

Brave? I sometimes wonder

I have allways thought of myself as a diver who takes photographs rather than an underwater photographer. Most of my diving is on wrecks in UK waters with a rebreather at silly depths so I have a vast collection of muddy brown photos. Did once have a picture used by CNN, not through any artistic merit. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/16/science/hms-hawke-shipwreck-found-wwi-intl-scli Simon