Red filter for Sola 4000 - available?

I'd like to find a pair of red filters for the Sola 4000 lights for using the lights at night. I've looked pretty hard and haven't been able to turn up any red light filters that have a 35mm thread to fit the plastic adapters that hold the cyan daylight filters.

Any thoughts for a source (or a workaround?)

Thanks,

Tom

Why do you want to use red (or any) filters on your lights at night (other than an exciter filter for UV)?

You can use gel filters used for cinema lights, and just tape it to the front of the SOLA 4000 (Rosco cinegel, for instance).

Bob,

I'll use them to avoid spooking marine critters that would otherwise quickly hide from white light.

Rui,

Thank you! I ordered a Rosco Cinegel sampler from Amazon for 9 bucks. If I can find a good heat resistant red color, the samples are large enough to cut in half and do both lights!

Tom

Interesting - I understand the technique for focus lights used with UW Photo, but not familiar with this concept for UW Video. Is your intention to shoot video with this approach and achieve proper white balance using MWB?

I have the cyan filter holders as well, but for some reason was thinking that the filters were 37mm - and was hoping that was the case to be able to use an exciter filter for UV purposes. Have you checked for a step up ring from 35mm to 37mm or higher?

Can't vouch for this site - but I found this via a quick google search: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/NEW-35-to-37mm-35mm-37mm-35-37-mm-35-to-37-Step-Up-Ring-Filter/948097323.html

Bob,

Thanks for the idea about the step-up rings (forehead slap!)

Yes, MWB seemed to work fine when I tried it on a Mandarinfish dive. I was using Sola 1200s at the time and have since switched to the 4000s.

Tom

Please report back here on your progress - I'm very interested in this as a lot of reef fish tend to shy away from the white light (obviously not as much as the mandarin fish) - but this sounds like a great approach.

Bob,

I don't think what I'm doing is anything new - I'm just trying to do the same thing the still photogs do when they use a red spotting light for their night dives.

Admittedly the strobes are not red so their white balance won't be off; they can spot with the red light without spooking marine life as much, then blast the strobes normally.

I won't have this to try for a while yet - the gels may not be here by the time I do my next dive trip.

Tom

I think what you are doing is something new for the following reasons:

1. In the 12 years of shooting underwater video, I've never seen or heard of the approach for shooting video.
2. While the use of red light light is used for focus lights for UW Photography, the light from the flash always over powers the red light and you never see any of the red light - so white balance is not an issue there.
3. Without the use of a filter on your mask, everything will be red to the naked eye, with the exception of the lcd, assuming you can achieve a correct white balance.

That being said, it sounds like a sound approach for skittish creatures. While I've used a red light for nautical navigation at night, I definitely never used red light on a night dive. I wonder if it will have any affects on depth perception? At any rate, you've spurred some interesting thought at least for me - I may try out your approach before you get a chance to. If I do I will report back my findings.

I received my cinegel samples today. If I cut it in half, one sample may work for both lights! Haven't tried yet, but will possibly on Sunday.

The relevant samples appear to be three different heat resistant red ones:

cinegel 4630 red, at -.9 stops/55%transmission,

cinegel 4660 red, at -1.4 stops/39% transmission and

cinegel 4690 red, at -1.7 stops/30% transmission

Since the 4000s seem to have plenty of power my thought is to try the 4690 ones first.

I hope I can find some waterproof tape and can do this experiment and have something to report...

Tom

One of my friends tried same thing (red gel on lights) last year. He was using 5dmk2 and mwb with red lights.

It seems like in the video above the videographer was able to achieve good white balance on most shots. It would be interesting to know just how "red" of a filter can be used and still achieve very good manual white balance, without sacrificing the benefits of the level of red. For instance, you may be able to achieve MWB with a #23A Red filter, but not with a #25 Red filter, but does a 23A spook more critters than the 25 Red filter..

FYI - the threads on the SOLA 4000 filter adapters are 37mm, not 35mm as mentioned by OP - at least on the filter holders I have (purchased from L&M). That being said, I see better bargains on larger filters, so a step-up ring still might be a good idea.

I actually tried shooting video using red light. To be honest, it's a hit and miss, depends how you hold your white slate during custom white balance. It may work okay for Mandarin fish since you still have good amount of cloudy/evening sun light left.

When doing it at night dive, the color can be very off since there is only so much level of blue and green the camera can push to bring everything back to the new "white". My experience is that the color is very wash out, but I only done it once, and my red light is only about 200 lumen, so that could be an issue, may be a gel on a 1400 lumen light may have better result.

I tried to edit my original post but couldn't figure out how.

ScubaBob is 100% correct: the thread size on the L&M filters for the Sola 4000 is 37mm, not 35mm as I originally stated.

I'll hunt some more, and test the concept underwater when I can!

Tom

EDIT: Just ordered two of the B+W 37mm #25 Red (090) MRC filters from B&H @ $30US each. They say 6-8 weeks delivery - I hope they are overestimating...

EDIT #2: Just a thought - if I locate and set up on a subject using the red filters there may be a possibility that the the camera's white balance won't give enough correction - I'll need to try it to find out. Here's another thought: if the red filter is too red, the filter holders rotate on the Solas, so I could rotate them out of the way with the camera running. That way I might get some few seconds or so of usable video - after I previously white balanced with the unfiltered lights, of course. Still trying to think of more ways to complicate my fun!