SeaLife Underwater Photo-Video Light questions

[webstep1]

I do like the SL980 - I added it to my existing SL961. The main reason I got it was for focus assist in low light conditions and fill light for the strobe. The SL980 throws a wide circle, LED daylight color, easy to use and configurable. I ended up leaving it set to stay on during strobe fire, I found it better balanced the lighting.

I wanted an inexpensive and compact travel setup - it does its job well if I can keep it dry. My plan going forward is the same as I reported above - use grease on the switches and other sensitive 'bits'.

My setup is an Olympus Tough-6020 in Olympus housing with SL961 and SL980 plus a fisheye focus light on the flash mount. Here are photos I took with this setup.

https://picasaweb.google.com/psw097/Roatan2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink

 

[dierenarts]

how is the video light on videos?

 

[Captain12Pk]

I too had a problem with the video light... flooded on first dive. SeaLife was great; replaced it with no problems. The new one seems to have survived the first dive... though I haven't opened the battery compartment yet.
As for the light itself, it lights up quite nicely. My videos have turned out very nice.

 

[webstep1]

Another update.

I did 23 dives in Bonaire 2 weeks ago. Sealife has sent me a new SL980 after the problems I had on Roatan, these were the first dives with the new video light. On one dive early in the week the ligh shut off and would not restart, after surfacing I found the same failure mode as before - a small amount of water got into the switch causing it to short and no longer function.

I dried the switch with the wife's hair drier back at the room, used some silicone o-ring grease to create a fillet around the switch and it worked perfectly the rest of the trip.

The moisture appears to be wicking in through the back plate push button or its possible its condensation accumulating due to the metal back plate and using the push-button as a path to the switch. There is no space for a moisture muncher but the main problem is the use of an exposed switch on the battery cartridge. Any moisture that makes its way in from the back plate will be deposited directly on the switch that has no protection what-so-ever.

 

[rob1967]

Webstep, you are quite right, I was on my third videolight, and it recently died for the exact same reason you mentioned. Sealife replaced it no problem (again!), but I haven't picked it up yet from the diveshop. What's the point? I feel like it's just going to happen again, so it has gotten to the point where I don't want to take it underwater.

I don't know how people can say SeaLife is so great with customer service, I think reliability is more important! It is no fun when some part of your rig fails during a big trip. Plus, I am getting tired of explaining to my local dive shop how I managed to flood it again, when it is totally not my fault!

So I am now on my 4th SeaLife video light! Customer service may be great, but reliability is the pits. I would not recommend this light to anyone.