Second Strobe or Focus Light

[mjgoodman]

Hi,

What should I add on first, a second strobe or focus light? I shoot a Cannon G10 w/ Cannon Housing, and YS 02 strobe. I'm upgrading to either a ULCS or Optical Ocean tray and arm set. I shoot mostly in the PNW. Thanks.

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

A focus light will help you achieve focus faster with your macro shots, and a 2nd strobe will allow you to reduce backscatter even more with better strobe positioning, and give you more lighting options. So which of those 2 is more important to you? I'd get both

Scott

 

[bvanant]

You can do amazing photos with a single strobe and actually it is one of the best ways to learn about shooting. I would recommend that you get a focus light that will greatly help in terms of what pics you can get. Then when you feel that there are some shots you can't get with a single strobe, its time to get the second one.
Bill

 

[Magrone]

Unless you shoot a lot of wide angle I would suggest go with the focus light. One strobe for macro is sufficient and best to learn about lighting techniques in general. Many professional photographers, who have two strobes, turn one off in certain situations. A focus light attached to your housing is very useful for night dives as well. Like Bill said, you can upgrade to two strobes later.

 

[boogs]

Id suggest a focus light to get faster focusing when doing macro. Just as the others said, its less complicated to play around with lighting techniques with a single strobe then when youve mastered that go and get a second strobe.

 

[nudibranco]

I just got one of those amazing Sola 600 focus lights. I tried both for video at night and for focusing it is really a nice light. On my night dive the strobo (YS01) died on me and so I tried doing some pics with the Sola focus light.... It turned out that it was not able to achieve a motion freeze like the strobo of course but the light was even and good enought ot achieve good pics within 3 feet at 1/100 and f5.6 or so... So I decided to buy the SOLA 1200 which has even a slightly wider beam and almost 2x the power... I guess it is getting close to the output of a strobo (!). Typical strobo will go UW about 3 to 6 feet with a land GN of 20 and f5.6 or so and freeze at about 1/400 or so I believe.
So I am wondering what would happen if I had 2 Sola 1200 and no strobo??.

Anyway back to your question I think a strobo and a nice focus light is probably a better option given the costs and versatility ...

Andrea

 

[Moscuba]

I too go with the focus light; it's a must for night dives instead of having to muddle with a camera and flashlight.

 

[mjgoodman]

Thanks everyone, focus it is

 

[zcello]

sorry for asking a stupid question here. when using a strong focus light, I guess it won't turn off while shooting, so will it introduce some more back-scatter for the focus light is normally located closer to the lens?

 

[cardog]

sorry for asking a stupid question here. when using a strong focus light, I guess it won't turn off while shooting, so will it introduce some more back-scatter for the focus light is normally located closer to the lens?

Some focus light will turn off for 2-3 seconds between shots.