Which Lights

Hi,

I am looking to buy Ikelite housing for my Canon 5d Mark II (that's what I can afford) I will be using the camera for Photo and Video. What would be the best lighting setup which can be utilised with the housing / camera ? I was going fro DS-161 Photo/Video Combo x 2 but there are opinions about these lights are good for Photo but not so good for Video. Also, some people don't have confidence in Ikelite in terms of leaking. Anyone has it for a longer time? What's the experience?

Thank you.

Mario

Hi Mario,

i have 2 Ikelite housing and none of them flooded in sever hundert dives and i don't believe that Ikelite housings leak more than others.

Indeed, if the housing should leak you will notice it immediate due the transparent material of the housing.

With your housing you will gt a built-in e-TTL controller giving you e-TTL with a recent Ikelite strobe and this is a nice thing to have,

but not necessary.

The Ikelite strobes are excellent and powerful but heavy and bulky strobes and i can recommend them,

but the video light function of the DS-161 may work on a night or cave dive, but will be too weak for daylight video.

For useful video illumination you should have at least 2000 lumen or 2 35W HID / 100W HLX lamps with a flood reflector.

Most video light manufacturer are presenting now new 4000+ Lumen LED video lights and the should be a good (but expensive) solution.

Check the websites of L&M, Green Force, Gates to get a idea.

Chris

Hi Mario,

 

i have 2 Ikelite housing and none of them flooded in sever hundert dives and i don't believe that Ikelite housings leak more than others.

Indeed, if the housing should leak you will notice it immediate due the transparent material of the housing.

With your housing you will gt a built-in e-TTL controller giving you e-TTL with a recent Ikelite strobe and this is a nice thing to have,

but not necessary.

The Ikelite strobes are excellent and powerful but heavy and bulky strobes and i can recommend them,

but the video light function of the DS-161 may work on a night or cave dive, but will be too weak for daylight video.

For useful video illumination you should have at least 2000 lumen or 2 35W HID / 100W HLX lamps with a flood reflector.

Most video light manufacturer are presenting now new 4000+ Lumen LED video lights and the should be a good (but expensive) solution.

Check the websites of L&M, Green Force, Gates to get a idea.

 

 

Chris

Thank you Chris for your advice. If I get the light you suggested would I be able to use the light for stills as well? I'm sorry for my ignorance in this matter but I'm new to underwater photography. Do you mount two still strobes say, DS-160 or similar and you attach another arm and mount a third light (video light) in between the two? Or would you aim for 2 x combo Photo/Video lights (if there is combo good enough for stills and daylight video)

Hi Mario,

all depends on your budget and how much gear you are willing to haul around....

For pictures for personal use one strobe is enough to make beautiful pictures but two strobes offer you a better and more flexible way to illuminate the scene and gives you more power for wide angle photography. This rule is the same also for video lights, more lamps equal more power and more ways to illuminate the scene.

The new 4000+ lumen video lights may give acceptable results in macro photography but a strobe like the DS-160/161 is much more powerful and don't shy the critters.

Video lamps should be mounted on a arm like the strobes to illuminate from the side avoiding backscatter, most of them are on minimum 8-10'' locline flexarms.

When you go diving with a video dslr you need to decide 2 things in advance: 1° what lens and 2° video or photo / video lamp or strobe

Usually you will decide the wrong lens and/or strobe/wideo lamp, thats one of uw photographers law... :-(

A dream would be a 12 to 60mm macro zoom and 2 video lamps and 2 strobes on 2 arms so you can record always what you want....

Chris

Hi Mario,

all depends on your budget and how much gear you are willing to haul around....

 

For pictures for personal use one strobe is enough to make beautiful pictures but two strobes offer you a better and more flexible way to illuminate the scene and gives you more power for wide angle photography. This rule is the same also for video lights, more lamps equal more power and more ways to illuminate the scene.

The new 4000+ lumen video lights may give acceptable results in macro photography but a strobe like the DS-160/161 is much more powerful and don't shy the critters.

Video lamps should be mounted on a arm like the strobes to illuminate from the side avoiding backscatter, most of them are on minimum 8-10'' locline flexarms.

 

When you go diving with a video dslr you need to decide 2 things in advance: 1° what lens and 2° video or photo / video lamp or strobe

Usually you will decide the wrong lens and/or strobe/wideo lamp, thats one of uw photographers law... :-(

 

A dream would be a 12 to 60mm macro zoom and 2 video lamps and 2 strobes on 2 arms so you can record always what you want....

 

Chris

Thank you Chris for your help. Really appreciate it. To start with I will be going for the DS-161 x 2 which might be used for both Photo and Video. Video might not come as good as with dedicated powerful video light but should be better than my sony compact with no lights at all. With time I will add 2x Video lights to the equation. I will try to find the 12 to 60 mm macro zoom lens if such lens and port for it exists. If not, what would you recommend to start with in mind to take photos and videos with the 5d mark II ?

Regards,

Mario

Hi Mario,

unfortunatly the 12-80mm macro lens for underwater use does not exist and it will never fit a UW Housing and i only expressed a dream.

I start to experiment with my D7000 and video lights and as soon i have some relevant results i will post them.

Chris

Hi Mario,

I am currently using a Canon 5D MKII in an Aquatica Housing with the following lighting, 2 off Sola 1200 Video Lights, 1 off Sola 600 Photo and 2 off Ikelite DS 161, I have got a small video taken at Byron Bay (NSW Australia) with this set-up so you can see the coverage that I got with these lights (the video was a combination of the Canon and a GOPRO (you can tell the GOPRO clips as they don't have the colour or exposure range of the 5D MKII). The footage with the Canon was using the Canon 15mm Fisheye with a Kenko 1.4x Teleconverter. The Sola 1200s are mounted along with the strobes via triple clamps on the end of my arms (4" and 6" arms) and the Sola 600 photo of a centre ball mount on the housing.

http://www.vimeo.com/24492195

regards

Matti

Hi Mario,

 

I am currently using a Canon 5D MKII in an Aquatica Housing with the following lighting, 2 off Sola 1200 Video Lights, 1 off Sola 600 Photo and 2 off Ikelite DS 161, I have got a small video taken at Byron Bay (NSW Australia) with this set-up so you can see the coverage that I got with these lights (the video was a combination of the Canon and a GOPRO (you can tell the GOPRO clips as they don't have the colour or exposure range of the 5D MKII). The footage with the Canon was using the Canon 15mm Fisheye with a Kenko 1.4x Teleconverter. The Sola 1200s are mounted along with the strobes via triple clamps on the end of my arms (4" and 6" arms) and the Sola 600 photo of a centre ball mount on the housing.

 

http://www.vimeo.com/24492195

 

 

regards

 

Matti

Hi Matt,

Nice video, thank you. Did you have 2 x Sola 1200 Video switched on together with Ikelite DS 161 at the same time? I think some of the Video was taken in cave'ish environment and some night shots and some day. Was the day light bright? How many meters? Also, what is the Sola 600 used for if two of the DS-161 are more than sufficient for strobe illumination, can the Sola 1200 video be used as focus light fro the strobe work? Or do you use Sola 600 as focus light?. Sorry for these questions but I'm trying to understand the basics of uw DSLR Lighting. Thank you,

Regards,

Mario

I had all the lights on, as I was too lazy to turn them off, inside the cave I probably didn't need all the lighting but I was on a mission to get as much footage as could over two dives. I nominally tried to have the lights spread so that they all contributed to the overall coverage. If you send me a message I can send through some photos of how the housing and the lights are set. Normally I would only turn the sola 600 on if I am having trouble focussing or on a night dive (haven't been on a night dive with the 600 yet).

The scene with the pelagics (at the top of the cave) was about 18m the vis that day was about 8m and the footage was taken around 10.30am.The start sequence with the Blue Grouper was in 14-16m, the goatfish about the same. The anenomefish was with natural light in about 14m.

Strobe illumination is vastly different to the video lights as the strobes put out a pulse of light which depend on the power setting will be well in excess of what the video lights can do.

I thing I have found that its very difficult to take effective video and stills on the same dive as the mind set between the two is so different. The video you are using a series of images to create a story so you need the sequence to start the reason for the sequence and an end to the sequence. Where as the still has to tell all of this in one frame.