Hey there...a couple of things...
1st - Hey I wanted that light rig on ebay two weeks ago! You got it eh? Too funny if that is it.
I wish I had time to show you mine with pictures but I would consider the following...if it doesnt make sense let me know.
1. Get the battery attached to the tank and run the lights under each of your arms.
2. Clip the lights to your BC by doing a standard dogclip attachment to each cord.
3. I have the standard reflector for those lights dogcliped to my bc with the test tube inside those when entering the water to protect the bulbs. The video reflectors are still on the video camera housing and arms.
4. Once in the water and settled in. Move the lights to the arms and tighten down.
5. Now a few things you must know!!!
In an emergency, you CANNOT dump the camera because it is attached to you.
Attach two very large Boat Clips to the bottom of your housing. You will find this very very useful for attaching the camera to your chest when not needed or during fixes or emergencies. You can clip one or both boat clips. Clip the camera with the lens facing down so you can protect it and watch your housing closures
Last safety thing but VERY important...Keep your Octo around your neck on a bungee and be prepared to share your primary regulator. This usually means switching out the two hoses for lengths. This method will avoid entanglement of octo on the side with light cables AND provide you easy access to a second regulator if you need it.
6. When ready to exit, reverse the bulb switch.
7. This is how I use my rig at night or in a cave. It allows me to clip off my rig to my chest and use one of the lights as a handheld at any time. I have clipped it off during long swims and deco stops. During an out of air buddy situation, I actually dropped the camera and it swung below my legs on the two cords. Not pretty but it was my buddy and.... an emergency IS an emergency and the camera comes last.
8. I like your engineering ideas but it wont be practical getting in and out of the water, the rinse tank, or traveling. Solid ideas but they need some refining for practicality.
added comment....
Mixing HID with Halogen can be an issue so you will need color correction gels to match temperature. I would drop the HIDs since they dont have reflectors. they will cause hot spots and the "whites" burning out on the image and the backscatter of the straight on angle will be an issue. Put a good backup light on your BC. I believe those are dual 50s and that is a lot of light for most night open water stuff.
You may find only one light necessary most of the time for medium. None of my videos on youtube (search decopixel) is done with more than 1 50 watt halogen but I do have a good low light camera. ---- this gave me an ideas seeing your rigs for the HID batteries. If you used a "half pipe" for the halogen reflector holders and a velcro or bungee piece on the pipe and the reflector, you can make the changeover faster AND if you wanted to hand hold a light for a side lighting effect, you could do this quickly.
I do like one thing and that is the mass of the camera for helping steady shots as the water resistance reduces movement...but better buoyancy, breathing control, and a steady hand are better than fighting that thing in a 2.5 knot current.
Mark
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