sola 2000 instead of strobe?

[tauchbaer]

Has anyone made some experience with the sola 2000 using it instead of a strobe? I want to use it for macro (distance max 1m)

 

[craracer]

I would imagine that you'll have problems with exposure control. I have a Sola, but use it as a focus light only.

 

[bvanant]

It is an intriguing but ultimately not-workable idea. There is just not enough light to make this work well. You CAN get exposures that will work i.e. you can take a picture but you will not have any control of DOF or background since even at full power you will be shooting slow shutter speeds and relatively wide apertures.
Bill

 

[Larry C]

Also, any hand movement will show up in the picture. The brief flash of the strobe freezes the action as much as the shutter speed. Most blur in a strobe shot is in the dark. I tried shooting with a divelight when I first started and got lovely pictures of motion blurred subjects from both the subject motion and the camera motion.

 

[RonFrank]

With High ISO performance getting better and some really bright lights we are closer than ever. What is the light reading of a 2000 lumen dive light? We are talking close up shots.

This would be DSLR for now as PnS does not do high ISO well depending on the answer to the question above. I am unsure how close we are, but close at say ISO 800-1600. Heck on a good day I have shot sans a strobe and got good results.

So the answer is it depends on how deep you are, how bright the day is, and how clear the water is as to if a strobe is needed. Unfortunately macro generally require small apertures to have good DOF. Maybe I'll get out my light meter tomorrow.

 

[bvanant]

I have done the light meter measurements on land and shooting with the 7D/60 macro lens at iso 400 I get 1/160 sec at f4.5 on land. In the pool that means f2.8 or maybe f 2.0. Going to iso 1600 gets you to f8 (maybe). This is with a Sola 600 at full power. To get to f16 you need Iso 3200 which even on full frame sensors is getting a bit tough for every day shooting. The original poster wanted to shoot at 1 meter, I was shooting at 150 mm. At 1 meter, the Sola reads less than f2.
I think with a Sola 4000 it could be fun to do this but as Larry says, it won't be easy.
Bill

 

[Lumin]

In addition many of the animals who have eyes and a way to move about will actually move away from a bright light. So if you want to shoot schools of fish for instance you will have a hard time getting close enough.

 

[alien]

Saw some great results with this on a NEX5 and twin SOLA 600s in TRuk lagoon in wrecks. Brilliant.