Any experience with the FIX LED1000DX?

[gustele]

I started this thread and want to thank everyone for their input. I bought the FIX LED1000DX and received it about 2 weeks ago. Based on my first experiences with it as focuslight, night dive light and video light I have the following remarks:
I agree completely with Anferney with respect to the night dive light. This light is amazing. It is far too bright, but that is no problem because you can regulate the intensity of the beam. And speaking about the beam: the wide coverage makes every night dive a completely different experience compared to using a regular dive light. Just point the light forward and enjoy the area in front of you; no more sweeping from left to right to find interesting sights. In combination with a camera it makes taking pictures during a night dive far easier. Normally I am wrestling with camera and dive light to get a good view of the subject and then to get a good picture of the same subject with the camera. Now my camera with the light mounted on the hot shoe acts as my dive light so I have both hands free to compose and shoot the picture. And because the area is well lit autofocus works great.
As a focus light during the day to light up the dark LCD of my S&S DX-1G (design flaw of this camera in my opinion) it also works well.
As a video light I agree that it lights up dark corners but the intensity is not enough to get true colors in the movie. And I definitely see that the coverage is not enough for the whole field of view with my cameralens at wide angle position. But I didn't experiment enough to get to a definite conclusion here. By zooming in a bit and working with objects that are closer by I think it could work for video too.
As a light during day dives it is also great! I have it with me on every dive because I have mounted it on top of my photo camera. Last weekend I was diving under the pier at Baya Beach and enjoyed the bright colors of the sponges because of the light. Having the light with you during the day means also that you can look in otherwise dark corners.

Is the light worth its high price? It depends: if you can afford to spend this amount of money on a light this light is definitely worth it. If you are a bit more constraint on money I would advise to go for the LED500; if you are even more constraint on money check other focusing lights but never dive with anyone who has the LED1000 of LED500 because you could regret not saving enough to get one of these.
So I am glad I bought the LED1000; I would certainly recommend this light to any serious underwater photographer.

 

[BackscatterUW]

For anyone that's interested, we recently did head-to-head testing of our most popular video lights in a spectrometer sphere to measure precise color temperature and lumens readings. You can read about the results here.

Both the Fisheye FIX LED 500 and 1000 lights are included in the analysis.

 

[gustele]

For anyone that's interested, we recently did head-to-head testing of our most popular video lights in a spectrometer sphere to measure precise color temperature and lumens readings. You can read about the results here.

Both the Fisheye FIX LED 500 and 1000 lights are included in the analysis.

Looking at the results my conclusion is that both the Fisheye FIX LED 500 and 1000 are more than worth their money. There is a huge price difference at more or less the same light output as the other tested lights per category.

My results with the FIX LED 1000 as a video light are also getting better and better. And inside wrecks and caves this light is also a marvel. More than happy with it.

 

[Fota]

I've been using the FX1000 as a focus ligth and night light since april 09. It's simply put amazingly good.
On night dives the viz is very bad you will have to turn down the power though.
On my first night dive with it, my buddy told me it lightened up the whole ocean. People on the shore wondered what the heck I was using. ;-)

As a focus light it's extremely good. On dives with loads of partices and shooting Fisheye WA you will have to turn down the power some to avoid back scatter from the light. Everything is relative, but the LED1000 is really powerful, so turning down the power is not a problem. Still, if it would auto shut off while taking the picture, it would be excellent.

If you only use it as a focus light you can set it to very low power and the batteries will lasts for many dives, and still have more than enough smooth light for your camera's AF to work perfecly.
I like the color as the light it will not show even on extreme fisheye wa.
I have no idea how good or bad the color of the light is for a video light, but I know a few who uses it for semi-pro HD-video productions and are very pleased.

The charger is very small, very light and charges very quickly. Perhaps a little fragile if anything.

As for a focus light, I'm sure the LED500 / HG20DX is strong enough.

 

[phil8diver]

I have a Fisheye FIX LED 1000 as my video light, I think these are amazing. Very compact and love the adjustment settings and leak detector. Thinking of getting another one to brighten it up a little more

 

[gustele]

The more I use the Fisheye FIX LED 1000DX the more I appreciate it. Since my last post I have used it a few times as a video light. If there is not too much ambient light this light is enough to get good results on video. In bright daylight it is not bright enough to overcome the daylight.
Today I made a video under the pier at Baya Beach, the home of the Tugboat wreck in Curacao. There was a large tanker moored to the pier so it was quite dark under the pier. The resulting video and also some pictures that I took during the same dive can be seen at my website. It gives you a good impression of the capabilities of this focus / video light.

 

[Clecio Mayrink]

I bought 2 Fix Led1000 to make video.

Do you recommend buying the diffuser ?

Clecio

 

[Fota]

I bought 2 Fix Led1000 to make video.

Do you recommend buying the diffuser ?

Clecio

Nope. I mean, the FIXLED1000 is extremely wide and has a super smooth beam.
Anyone disagree?
Haven't you tested it yet?

 

[Clecio Mayrink]

I bought and sent to the home of a couple of friends.

I arrive in New York next Saturday to get them.

Still do not know the result.

 

[gustele]

If you stay close to the subject you don't need the diffuser neither to widen the beam nor for color correction. Best try first before you decide to get the diffuser. Check a video that I shot with one FIX Led1000: YouTube - Diving under the pier at Baya Curacao (new version) You can see in some shots that the beam doesn't cover the whole frame but with 2 of these lights you have a lot more coverage.