Video lights

Hi I just bought the big blue 15000 pro mini. It has three light settings maxing out at 15000 lumens at a cool white 6500 Kelvin.

I haven't tried the lights yet because I thought I had bought the Tri color version, that in addition to the warm white has a 5500 Kelvin to a max of 6000 lumen. Also a 1000 lumen red focus light.

The only problem I see with all those light modes is the time switching on the fly.

Up until now I have been using a pair of the sola 3800 with dome. I believe the color is 5500 Kelvin on those lights.

I mainly shoot video in the Caribbean on the reef up to 120ft and in Cenotes. I'll be shooting video with the GH5, no filter with manual WB.

My lights are still in box and would like to know if I should return for the tri colour version?

If you can return them, I would definitely return them -- and for a refund, not for the Tri color version.

The biggest problems both models have is that they have a 160* beam angle (which is far too wide, and will lead to less light falling on the part of the subject that's actually in-frame and a lot of wasted illumination outside the angle of view of your lens.

Another issue is the light quality (they're <80CRI) and temperature (6500k is too cool. 5000k or lower will allow you to reproduce nicer blues in the water column).

For the kind of money you're paying for these, I suggest you take a look at the Jaunt G18 Plus lights instead.

Check out this thread for a more in-depth comparison of the best current options for underwater video lights: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=63400

I have a pair of those big blues in tri color that I used on one trip so far. Based on measurements in a pool, the angle of coverage is about 90 degrees. There might be scattered light outside of that but its of no use. I never felt that I needed less power so just kept it on the high setting the whole trip. Even with the power of these lights you still have to get inside of 3 feet before the colors of the corals come out. As a beginner I was too worried about other things, camera settings, positioning, light angle, holding still, not kicking coral, etc. Color temperature of the video light was lower on the list.

I have a pair of those big blues in tri color that I used on one trip so far. Based on measurements in a pool, the angle of coverage is about 90 degrees. There might be scattered light outside of that but its of no use. I never felt that I needed less power so just kept it on the high setting the whole trip. Even with the power of these lights you still have to get inside of 3 feet before the colors of the corals come out. As a beginner I was too worried about other things, camera settings, positioning, light angle, holding still, not kicking coral, etc. Color temperature of the video light was lower on the list.

Good to know about the in-water beam angle. 90 degrees is certainly much more useful. The 160* they advertise must be in air.