Nocturnal Systems LED

Hey, all - New guy here...

I did a search and couldn't come up with anything, so apologies right away if this is a repost and these lights have already been discussed.

A little backstory - I've been shooting forever on a VX1000 in a Gates housing, and had an old light kit with it that bit the dust. Also, I let someone borrow my housing and they put a nice little scratch on the port - so....

I'm a professional producer topside, and I use HVX-200s and HPX 500s for my topside work. I thought about getting a housing for the HVX, but I really don't want to invest that much into it, as it's more of a hobby for me. So I decided on getting an HDR-HC9 and the Gates housing for it. I need a light kit, but budget and the fact that this is purely recreational, are stopping me from spending a ton of money on them now. I was looking into LED lights, and ran across a company called Nocturnal Systems. I don't know if linking is kosher around here, so if you Google "Nocturnal Lights Underwater" you'll find them.

The first thing that caught my eye is that they are cheap. So cheap that they give me quite a bit of pause in even looking at them any more. Anybody have any experience with them that you could share with me?

Anyway - glad I found this board. Just lurking has been giving me a lot of ideas and knowledge that I'd not had before. Good to be here.

Hello New guy, welcome to Wetpixel. I have no experience with Nocturnal Lights, except that I researched them prior to buying L&M Sunray 2000 LED light system. First off, the high end Nocturnal Lights LED SLX Quad Underwater Video Light Package is a 300 Lumen light, which will not be much good for anything more than very close up or macro shooting. This may be good for you, but was not of interest to me. Second is price and you thought they were cheap. They are $1,250 per pair, so 2 x 300 lm = $2.08/lm plus batteries and charger. By comparison to L&M Sunray 2000 LED light system which are $3,799 per pair, so 2 x 2000 lm = $1.05/lm with 3 power levels, batteries and charger included, plus the light heads are neutrally buoyant. Sunray's are more expensive overall, but half the price per lumen. I'll bet the SLX Quad's will make your housing top heavy, which is not recommended. You are on a budget so you're probably better off finding used Halogen or HID lights, and best if they specifically fit your housing. Also do a Wetpixel search for "lights" and find out what others have been using. Good Luck.

Dan

Thanks, Dan. About three hours ago I ordered NiteRider HID 20's.... Gates highly recommended them for what I'm going to be shooting. Eventually this will turn into more than a hobby for me, but for now, the NiteRiders will suffice.

Thanks again!