Anyone using Big Blue VL8300P video lights?

[bamafan]

Whoa.. I was just about to order two of their Black Molly 3, but this is major. Do you know any information source on their beam angle in water?

I don't know about the beam angle but I do know lots of people use 2 of the Black Molly's videoing in caves and the results are satisfactory. For the money these lights are hard to beat. I really don't buy the 80 deg beam angle

 

[BDSC]

I don't know about the beam angle but I do know lots of people use 2 of the Black Molly's videoing in caves and the results are satisfactory. For the money these lights are hard to beat. I really don't buy the 80 deg beam angle

I believe the "testing" was done by Light & Motion where they compare their lights to everyone else. Not surprisingly, all their lights get incredible marks when tested and everyone else falls way short. Take it with a grain of salt.

 

[pinshootr]

Big Blue 30,000 video light testing
Big Blue 30,000 video lights
Big Blue 30,000 video lights red

 

[tbone1004]

I believe the "testing" was done by Light & Motion where they compare their lights to everyone else. Not surprisingly, all their lights get incredible marks when tested and everyone else falls way short. Take it with a grain of salt.

alternatively, everyone is making claims that they can't back up because they don't have the test equipment or are trying to make marketing promotions and L&M based on their history knew they had to call out specs that they could actually meet.
If you go to the math that I did in the beginning of this thread as well as others, the simple fact is that it the numbers that BB claims completely defy the technology that we have available today.
Their beam angle claims are also ridiculous and not plausible in water for the type of emitters and lenses they are using.

Again, great value lights, just don't expect them to do what BB claims they do because it's simply not possible

 

[pinshootr]

did my burn test the other night in my dunk tank, on high they were still on after 5 hours. should be plenty of power for all day diving and then recharging over night.

 

[BDSC]

Thanks for the feedback. Five hours is a long time. You got a lot of light for your money.

 

[tbone1004]

did my burn test the other night in my dunk tank, on high they were still on after 5 hours. should be plenty of power for all day diving and then recharging over night.

It most certainly bumped down to something other than high since it claims only 2 hours on high.

Assuming they died after 5 hours which gives a benefit to lumen output, and assuming they are using the highest end cells which gives the pack a watt hour rating of 150wh.
Average consumption is 30w.
Assuming they have the absolute best binning efficiency on the LED's, then the average light output for that duration is 5000 lumen.

Using real numbers, the pack is probably 125wh with 100wh usable, assuming to give lumen bump the pack lasted 5 hours, then you are consuming 20w on average, and with normal emitter efficiency I would assume no better than 2500 lumen average output over the course of those 5 hours.

Assuming they bumped down to low, after 2 hours, and low is the remaining 20% of the pack
100wh usable, 2 hours is 50w average consumption
Not possible to have over 10,000 lumen average light output using the absolute best conditions possible
More likely 5000-8000 lumen average lumen output during that burn duration.

That is a LOT of light, just not possible for that light to put out as much light as they claim.
If the light put out a constant 30,000 lumen, under ideal conditions and fully depleting the battery pack, it is not possible for that pack to run for more than 45 minutes. More realistically it would last for 20 minutes.

go in expecting a 5000-10000 lumen light, and come out really happy. Go in expecting a 30,000 lumen light, go home sadly disappointed.

 

[pinshootr]

get over it T-bone we know because you have told us a 100 times, for the money it a great light we don't need you selling UWLD every time we post about our lights move on to a UWLD thread please

 

[BDSC]

get over it T-bone we know because you have told us a 100 times, for the money it a great light we don't need you selling UWLD every time we post about our lights move on to a UWLD thread please

It gets old doesn't it. Behind the scenes some of us have a bet of how long it will take him to come along when BigBlue lights are mentioned and dazzle us with his math and then end up telling us how great the lights are from UWLD. Honestly, to say the 30,000 lumen is really only 5,000 is just absurd.

 

[bamafan]

I had UWLD lights. I even had the 5k lumen light. It is a good light but after diving with some people who had the 30k lumen Big Blue video light I sold it. There was no comparison even after 30 minutes or so. I can't really remember the exact times but I think I did one dive with a buddy who had the 30k BB light and even after an hour the BB blew away the UWLD video light. If you do some calling around you should be able to find a dealer who will sell a 30k BB for about $1k or so. They are a lot of bang for the buck. Yes the UWLD and Light Monkey lights are better quality but when you can buy 3 or 4 BB lights for 1 of the higher quality lights for most people it doesn't make sense. The Karst Underwater Research guys are sponsored by Light Monkey and these guys are using the Big Blue lights for a lot of their video. Brian Kakuk is doing the same and just posted a video of him and Edd Sorensen in the Bahamas using BB lights. Edd was the very first shop to sell UWLD that I know of.