Video lite instead of second strobe

Has anyone tried or toyed with the idea of using a video flood in place of a second strobe? I ask because I would like to be able to switch to video on my 707. It seems that on some level light is light and as long as it didn't interfere with the slave sensor it would be able to remove the shadows on a still pic and also give you the ability to switch to video.

Am I way off base here? I'm new to this so if this is a dumb question don't be to hard on me...haha

The problem I see with it is color temp of the two different lights. The video will be much warmer unless we're talking HID$$$$

So what is an acceptable color temp varience? How does it affect the shot and do you know where I could see some examples? How far does the light of a flood travel compaired to a flash?

Is warmer a higher or lower number? Who sells HID floods.

My problem is I want it all. I want duel strobes and the ability to switch to video. Being able to use the flood as a primary dive light would be nice also...

What is the best color temp for a light if you want true colors?

See....newbee....

Examples?

Here are some shots (video and still) taken with my Coolpix 990 and Ikelite Pro Video Lite II (100watts). These shots were taken on a night dive, so you can see how far the video light reaches:

http://www.reefpix.org/coralspawn/

As you can see from the photo:

Any of your shots taken with the video lite are going to have to be within the 1-3 foot range.

By warm, I think the others were saying that the light is more orange/yellow than from say a Nikon strobe. So, if you use the two lighting setups together, you may or may not notice it. You wouldn't be using the strobe to shoot video anyways (duh) so I wouldn't worry about it.

Cheers

James Wiseman

[Edited on 3-31-2002 by jamesw]

Great photo's! Thanks for the info.

So you took all the pics and the video with your flood/no stropbe on the stills. What is the resolution on your video capture and what is the max capture time? Do you find this to be something that is worth the trouble? I guess I don't want to buy a flood if the video capture isn't very good.

Yep, all those photos were taken with a video lite only...no strobe. My thoughts: A video lite is nice, but it cannot replace a strobe for still photography. Obviously it's great for video.

The video capture size/quality? Well...hopefully you saw it. Did you click on the link at the top of the page to bring up the Quicktime Movies? You can see the screensize there.

I'm not sure what the max length is on the movies. You'd have to check the website and specifications for your specific camera. It can vary depending on the camera's buffer size I think.

HTH

James

I was on a boat to Komodo recently. The 2nd captain used a UK 100 light cannon (an HID light) as his video light with a sony PC110 and got some very nice video. I was impressed that the light would make a good aiming light except that it may be a little too large. Good news though; I've been told that UK is going to come out with a smaller version of their light cannon.

I was wondering if anyone has tried the aiming lights on a stobe as a video light? The Ikelite 125 and 200 strobes have very powerfull aiming lights. I have used them as primary lights on night dives on a number of occasions. The color would definitely be warmer than those of dedicated video lights. I see where the battery pac on the ikelite video light can replace the base plate on their digital still camera housings. Has anyone tried this as an aiming light?

The reason I ask is that I am convinced that you can never have a strong enough aiming light for macro photography. Especially with digital cameras.:cool:

How bright is the aiming light on the 125? I have one on order and am just trying to figure out what to do on the other side. If the aiming light is bright enough that two would work for video without killing the batteries by having them on all the time that would be cool. :cool:

the 707 will do video capture for as long as the memory allows. I have run it for over 20 minutes with a 128meg stick.

How bright? Well I would say as bright as a moderate size dive light and they will last for a dive.

Is it enough for video? I haven't shot video so you will have to experiment. When I house my 5000 I intend to try. Naturally a dedicated video camera and video light would be best. However some small scale video with a digital still camera might work okay with the aiming lights on these strobes.:cool:

I think I'll borrow a friends flood and take some pics with it and the 125 and see what I get