Video light review: Salvo 35W HIDs

I wrote up some notes on my newly acquired 35W HID video lights from Salvo here, including details on how everything was put together.

I've only done a handful of dives with them so I'll update the document as I get more information and pictures. So far I'm lovin' the new setup! Very powerful and four hours of burn time... Fried fish anyone?

If anybody has suggestions on additions or improvements, I'm all ears.

Enjoy,

Liz

http://lizhanks.com

Great report Liz, thanks for that.

The Salvo light head look pretty exposed and delicate, do you feel that is the case? Do they come with any kind of diffusers?

Thanks

Jon

Great report Liz, thanks for that.

The Salvo light head look pretty exposed and delicate, do you feel that is the case? Do they come with any kind of diffusers?

Hi Jon. It is a bit freaky to be able to just reach in and touch the bulb. I have no idea how easy it would be to actually cause damage. The reflector already does a great job of diffusing the light, so adding a diffuser would just reduce the power. A clear cover of sorts would add some protection and the lights don't come with one. The reflector is quite deep and large though, and that in itself helps protect the bulb to some extent. I guess I'll have a better feeling for this after I've taken the puppies diving a lot more...

Cheers,

Liz

Liz,

Nice review, do the Salvo’s show any hot spots? It would seem to me that much power without a proper calibration of the reflector you would have some wash out and hot spots. Is that the case?

Very promising

Scott

Nice review, do the Salvo’s show any hot spots? It would seem to me that much power without a proper calibration of the reflector you would have some wash out and hot spots. Is that the case?

Hi Scott,

The lights don't exhibit any real hot spots. The beam is very uniform. As you get closer to your subject, the color just becomes more apparent, but it's hard to tell where the light beam begins and ends. The next time down, I'll take some clips at various distances to try to show what it looks like.

It's quite a contrast with the UK Light Cannons I had been shooting with: I couldn't take any reef shots more than a couple of feet away without getting a pair of ugly white blobs in the clip...

Liz

Liz,

Excellent review and documentation. Overall, how negative is your light setup, not counting the video housing?

Overall, how negative is your light setup, not counting the video housing?

Glad you enjoyed the review. The setup is still quite negative, although I don't know exactly how negative. One of my future planned refinements is to add more buoyancy to the system. The canisters themselves are 4 lbs. negative, and everything else except for the two buoyancy arms (that only give a total lift of 22 oz.) is also negative. That includes the bracket, the clamps, and, I assume, the light heads.

Interesting that you mated the Seatool housing with such large lights. I know - its a trade off for lights larger than 10Wx2.

I'm a big fan of Salvo light products and had been using Barry's light for technical diving before. I went with the 24Wx2 setup and reused my existing 9amp NiMH battery/ canister. I dive a backplate and the battery canister is put on my waist belt and I use wetconnects. This keeps my setup slight negative with the two HID light heads and ULCS arms (I just used a single med arm on each side with pool noodles over them)

Barry did tempt me with the 35W's but I decided to just go with the 24W's to keep the size down and have reasonable burn times without needing to recharge after each dive. Someday I'll probably regret not having the extra wattage, but I've been happy with the 24Wx2 so far. You can see how this performed in my Coco's video I posted earlier.

The HID lightbulbs are sealed behind thick "test tubes" that slide over dual o-rings. It's pretty sturdy and would have to take a pretty strong jolt to dislodge. The video reflector does protect it well. The downside of the open reflector design is that it does create a lot of drag. I found myself turning the camera backwards a few times when trying to swim against some pretty fierce currents in Cocos.

Interesting that you mated the Seatool housing with such large lights.

Yes, it must seem kind of silly, but it doesn't really matter how big the setup is for my local dives and these single chip camcorders need all the help they can get. Also, I got the HC3 as my first camcorder to make sure I really like doing video before getting a larger and more expensive camcorder/housing combo. I fully expect to move the Salvo lights over to whatever my next housing ends up being. After shooting with an FX1 for a few weeks in Komodo last month, I now know I can't live without a single push manual white balance button :-)

I'm a big fan of Salvo light products and had been using Barry's light for technical diving before. I went with the 24Wx2 setup and reused my existing 9amp NiMH battery/ canister. I dive a backplate and the battery canister is put on my waist belt and I use wetconnects. This keeps my setup slight negative with the two HID light heads and ULCS arms (I just used a single med arm on each side with pool noodles over them)

Yep, I think that's what most people do with these lights. Given how small and unstable the Seatool housing is though, I really wanted the canisters under the housing.

Barry did tempt me with the 35W's but I decided to just go with the 24W's to keep the size down and have reasonable burn times without needing to recharge after each dive. Someday I'll probably regret not having the extra wattage, but I've been happy with the 24Wx2 so far.

Funny. They kept on trying to tempt me with the 50W's :-) I prefer the longer burn time of the 35W's though, and so far I don't feel like I need more wattage. I suspect that the 24W's would have been enough as well, and I'm sure you'll be happy with those for quite a while. I just went one step bigger since they had canisters that could still get me four hours of burn time with the higher wattage.

You can see how this performed in my Coco's video I posted earlier.

I watched the DivX version. Very cool.

The HID lightbulbs are sealed behind thick "test tubes" that slide over dual o-rings. It's pretty sturdy and would have to take a pretty strong jolt to dislodge. The video reflector does protect it well.

Thanks. That's useful to know. I've added a note to that effect to my review and it will show up the next time I upload it.