Whiskeyjack

Great article! Cool to see stuff from the Anilao guys, I div frequently with Jonathan Venn, and know Ram and Gutsy as well, they are definitely experts in blackwater/bonfire diving.

I use one of these as a focus light. It's pretty good overall, the red light is nice during night dives for skittish critters. My only complaint is that if you turn it off, when it's turned back on it doesn't remember the last mode/brightness it was set to. For example I use it on low power in the flood mode as a focus light. If I turn it off, when I turn it back on, it resets to 100% power in spot mode, requiring a long press to switch to flood mode, then 2 more presses to get to 25% power. I also use it as a focus light during blackwater dives, along with an Inon LF800-N 5 Degree I hold in my left hand for spotting things. I think this is ideal so I don't need to constantly change the Kraken from spot to flood and swing my entire camera rig around when looking for subjects.

Yep, they were pointed down and a bit outward.

The lines we used were Keldan lights (maybe 18k? Very bright) spaced out 5-8meters on the line, with the deepest at 27m/90ft. My partner shoots video on a Panasonic GH5. She kept her (much dimmer) macro-focused video lights on the whole dive and swam in circles around the line just like me and the other photographer did until there was an interesting subject to film. The photographers also generally have a constant focus light on, and additionally I have a narrow beam torch I hold in my hand to spot subjects as it cuts through the black much better than my wide-beam focus light mounted on my housing.

I've done it two ways, either the line hanging from the boat if there is a small or no current, or like @RichN mentioned with the light line attached to a large freediving float, and the boat follows along. This was in Indonesia and the Philippines. In neither case were any divers tethered. Just don't get out of site of the lights chasing a cool subject ^_^

Not sure if it's my absolute of the year, but here's a nudi shot from a day trip to Anilao I am rather pleased with.

I like the new changes on the V6! Probably won't upgrade from the V5 I have now as it works fine, but if I ever need to replace it glad to see continued improvements.

Been living in Manila for 8 years now. A lot of diving in Anilao of course as it's only 2-3 hours away, but also around the Philippines and some in Indonesia as well ^_^