Light & Motion Bluefin 950

Hi,

Have anyone used the Bluefin 950? What do you think about it? Is it worth buying the more expensive Pro lights from L&M? Can one do without the macro/wide lense?

Not into video yet, but I know several video pros and that housing with the L & M lights is the one they swear by. I do know one additional videographer who only uses Gates because of the all mechanical controls. :ph34r:

I don't think you'll find anyone that has the L&M HID lights that doesn't like them. They are expensive, though, and are still a low power light suitable for macro and night diving. Their primary advantage is in mixed light situations where their color is closer to daylight. Of course, as a videographer your goal will be to avoid mixed light as much as you can...

The real choice is between high power lights and low power ones. High power can do more things, but you don't often need them and they are a huge commitment to buy, travel and dive with. For low power, the HID lights are the best, but are they worth the money?

The lenses are very desirable. For casual use you will probably be happy without them. For most divers, lights allow shooting at night but a wide angle lens is good for many dives. On a limited budget I would rather have the lenses and cheaper lights.

Thanks Craig,

Sounds reasonable. I don't think my budget allows those huge lights. It is not really practical to bring those either unless you are a pro and have staff to do that...

The LM Bluefin seems to be really small. Sea & Sea just announced theirs

(www.seaandsea.co.jp) but it is almost as expensive, bulkier, and weigh

some gram more. The LM looks much better and I like the integration of

house & light.

Anyway, this purchase is for next year. Hopefully I will be able to see both

houses and hear more form users on this site

I am also thinking of upgrading my video editing software. Until now I have used iMovie 2 which is great! But there are some limitations with it. At first I was thinking about FinalCut Pro, but as I am using a lot of Adobe software already perhaps Premiere would be a better choice. Does anyone have experience with them?

TJO,

so far i have only seen one Bluefin with the Pro lights in action. I wouldn't call it small (especially when compared to our rig ;D) but it was diveable even in strong current.

Edi, the owner told us he had bought it because of the macro lens (he's a macro video guru), which produced outstanding results, like small crabs (2mm) filling half of the TV screen.

He seemed to be very happy with his setup, said that he wouldn't want to change it and that it was very robust (3-4 dives a day for more than a year), the only thing that flooded sometimes without real dammage done was one of the accu tanks.

As for editing software, Premiere seems to be the market leader. I'm playing around with Premiere 6 LE right now and although it has limited functionality i like it very much (as all the other adobe products too). It is easy to use and runs very stable, i.e. not a single crash.

I'd try to get a demo version of Premiere LE first and see if you like it.

Sabine

What I'm looking for is suitable DVD authoring and burning software, for Windows. Any advice? (This is one of those "maybe I should buy a Mac" moments.

I've tried a couple of them, and read about a few more, but while they all seem relatively functional, none of them seem elegant (and only the newest ones support widescreen content).

Sorry Eric, I can't help. I am a mac-user

I bought a used Bluefin this spring for the Sony TRV-900. I just got back from a trip to Kungkungan Bay Resort in Indonesia. It is mostly macro subjects. I loved it and would highly recommend it. So many unusual critters. My personal experience with the Bluefin and the Halogen lighting is as fallows. For macro during the day I would shoot with one sometimes two lights at full power. Wide angle definitely full power, both lights, and close to the subject, (two feet max). At night I would use one light at low power or I found I would blow the subject out. I had my choice of Hid's or Halogen when I bought and feel, for me, I made the right decision. I would imagine Hid for macro would be tough. Too much light and you do not have the option of stepping the light down as you do with the Halogen lighting system . For wide angle it would be the cats meow. I was also turned off by the fact that the Hid bulbs are $350 ea. And it is recommended they be changed at L & M. I would like to share some info I saved from another underwater video forum on the new Sony 950.

" The TRV950 is rated at 7 Lux while the TRV900 was rated at 4 Lux. Therefore the 900 should perform better in low light. Also, the lens size on the 950 is 37mm while the 900 was 52mm. The street price of the 950 won't be very much less than a VX2000 which is rated at 2 Lux and does very well in low light I don't know what market Sony built this 950 for but it sure wasn't for event videographers. "

Have fun shopping. dawhale

Hey Eric,

I've been making DVD's for a while now and have been through quite a few of the offerings, although not all recently.

I started out using ReelDVD because it was the cheapest thing ($1000) that actually worked. I'd say it just barely worked.

Since then I've switched to using Dazzle DVDComplete and am very happy with it. It's somewhat limiting because it wants to generate menus for you, but I can accept its limits. It also can transode for you, but I use the Ligos Premiere plugin for that and have been very happy there, too. DVDComplete can burn discs directly, print slip covers, and print the DVD labels, too. All of the artwork will be generated by DVDComplete if you like. About $100.