Which Keldan video light is the right one for me?

Hey everyone, 

I'm currently in the process of buying my first Keldan light. I want this to last a very long time, so I'd like to buy the right one now, instead of upgrading later. The plan is to buy one now, then add a second one later this year. Truth be told, the 24XR is kind of out of my price range. So I'm looking at the following 3 options right now: 

• 18XR 30k lm CRI82
• 8X 15k km CRI95
• 8X 18k lm CRI 85

The 18XR would definitely push my budget limits quite a bit, but would probably still be doable. Unless someone convinces me that I absolutely need 30k lumens, I'd probably go for one of the 8X lights. Now the question is: What's more important? Better color rendering or more brightness?

I personally think the 8X 18k is the one that I need. Almost all of my footage is wide angle stuff, a lot of wrecks, too. So I think power is paramount. The 18XR offers support for a remote. How important is this feature? The 8X lights seem to omit that support. 

Thanks for your help

-robotr0n

Hi,

What depth do you dive? Where (blue/green waters)?  What kind of visibility?

These may other members answer the questions you have!

Sure, Depth up to 40m at the moment, but I'm planning on going into Tek diving later this year, so will probably go up to ~60m soon. I spend most of the time in the 20-30m range.

90% blue water. 

Love to dive in >20m viz whenever possible. 

It could be counterintuitive but I would choose the most powerful ones for shallow dives.

Few days ago someone asked me more or less the same question. I'll copy here what I wrote:

I own a couple of vintage Luna 8 CRI lights. I'm very satisfied. I own them since 2013 and I couldn't have made a better choice.

Originally they were 5000 lumen and two years ago I bought the new 9000 lumen led modules. On Luna 8 They are interchangeable so you keep the light. Recently Keldan released more powerful modules.
With the modern camera ISO capabilities I find that 8/9K lumens are more than enough. Maybe you need more powerful lights if you use ambient filters in shallow water. 
On the other hand the compact series have not interchangeable led module but without the large reflector they are travel friendly. Is up to you. IMHO I prefer the CRI 95 version. You could wonder if the small head of the compact version gives the same as the large reflector of the Luna. The original Luna 8 design used led arrays to get the whole beam so a huge reflector with a inner white shade was necessary to get an even beam. Now modern lights use COB led with a uniform beam by itself.

You can see the type of dives I do in my signature.

The remote option could open up a LOT of creative possibilities. 

I spent a lot of time reading about the lights these past few days. Am gonna go for the 18XR just to have a little more power. Thanks for all your help!