Focus lamp. Has anybody tried this?

[John Gulliver]

It seems to have all the requirements - powerful, 80 degree beam with no hotspot, long burn time, three effect levels, on-off by means of a press button on the back and small size and weight. The price is also reasonable. My FIX LED500 DX works fine but it is big and heavy, making it less sutable for travel. Also, I'm always afraid it will put too much of a strain on the accessory ball mount on the top of my Ikelite housing. The Latuz Optics L800 also has a much longer burn time. But does anybody have any practical experience of it?
http://www.laluzoptics.com/L800.html

 

[Layla]

Hey John

We met in Galapagos 07 )
Have you gone digital yet?
I don't have this light, I use a Light and Motion Sola 800

 

[Drx6x]

Hey John

We met in Galapagos 07 )
Have you gone digital yet?
I don't have this light, I use a Light and Motion Sola 800

What do you think of the 800 was thinking about getting it soon

 

[terson]

Hi Guys,
I've been using the LaLuz 800 for a couple of months now and I find the unit to be extremely good.
In the past I have used Fisheye FIX varieties, Hartenberger Nano and some other simple DIY jobs. For overall quality of build and time to discharge and ease of use underwater, the LaLuz wins hands down. As a focus light, I have only ever used it on the lowest power setting and this is all that is necessary, I have not used the 800 as a video light because I don't do video. For general daytime photography I always use the red filter attached as supplied by LaLuz. This light, in my opinion, is far better value than the 4-600 dollar units that are being pushed down everyones throats by the media 'gurus' who get theirs supplied for comment! If I started doing video with my EPL-2, I would have n hesitation in buying a second 800 and using it as the beam of light is very broard with razor sharp edges and very white, quite pleasing actually with no apparent ability to scare the fish '****less'. . .
Hope that this has been of assistance.
Bruce

 

[bigwood]

I was find a video on Youtube , use two Luluz L800 and Canon S100

Laluz Optics L850 X 2 - YouTube

 

[John Gulliver]

Hey John

We met in Galapagos 07 )
Have you gone digital yet?
I don't have this light, I use a Light and Motion Sola 800

Hi Layla. Yes, I went digital in May 2009 with a Nikon D50, upgraded in July 2010 to a D80 (in an Ikelite housing), which does me fine and will no doubt do so the rest of my, presumably not many years longer, sports diver career.

---------- Post added April 10th, 2012 at 09:02 AM ----------

Hi Guys,
I've been using the LaLuz 800 for a couple of months now and I find the unit to be extremely good.
In the past I have used Fisheye FIX varieties, Hartenberger Nano and some other simple DIY jobs. For overall quality of build and time to discharge and ease of use underwater, the LaLuz wins hands down. As a focus light, I have only ever used it on the lowest power setting and this is all that is necessary, I have not used the 800 as a video light because I don't do video. For general daytime photography I always use the red filter attached as supplied by LaLuz. This light, in my opinion, is far better value than the 4-600 dollar units that are being pushed down everyones throats by the media 'gurus' who get theirs supplied for comment! If I started doing video with my EPL-2, I would have n hesitation in buying a second 800 and using it as the beam of light is very broard with razor sharp edges and very white, quite pleasing actually with no apparent ability to scare the fish '****less'. . .
Hope that this has been of assistance.
Bruce

Hi Bruce. Glad to hear you are satisfied with your Laluz 800 as I have now ordered one, with a spare battery, red filter and diffuser, after a fair bit of discussion on Wetpixel, during which several people tried to pursuade me to buy the 300 dollar more expensive Sola 800 instead. I bought mine on e-bay. I submitted a best offer of $175 for the light which was accepted.

 

[terson]

Hi Bruce. Glad to hear you are satisfied with your Laluz 800 as I have now ordered one, with a spare battery, red filter and diffuser, after a fair bit of discussion on Wetpixel, during which several people tried to pursuade me to buy the 300 dollar more expensive Sola 800 instead. I bought mine on e-bay. I submitted a best offer of $175 for the light which was accepted.

Hi John,
$175 is a great price and I guarantee that you won't be disappointed with it's build or performance. I also bought mine through ebay and got the spare battery supplied with my unit for NO extra charge. Can't beat that. The spare battery of mine hasn't been used yet because I can easily do two long shore dives down here in very cold southern Australia, and still have plenty of charge left for more dives. Video use would shorten the times but you did say that you were buying as a focus light.
Bruce

 

[Larry C]

Were your two dives with the light on full time or turned on and off for pictures? What is the actual burn time at low/high settings? What is the switch system? I've had problems with lights that turn on and off by unscrewing/screwing the light head underwater.

 

[terson]

Were your two dives with the light on full time or turned on and off for pictures? What is the actual burn time at low/high settings? What is the switch system? I've had problems with lights that turn on and off by unscrewing/screwing the light head underwater.

The shore dives were carried out with the light continuously burning and no problems.
Research will show you that the LaLuz 800 is operated by a push button switch located on the rear cap of the light. . .
I would assume that you would have problems with any product if you unscrewed its parts underwater ???

 

[Larry C]

The shore dives were carried out with the light continuously burning and no problems.
Research will show you that the LaLuz 800 is operated by a push button switch located on the rear cap of the light. . .
I would assume that you would have problems with any product if you unscrewed its parts underwater ???

Thanks. It was a very popular product that used a switch activated by partially unscrewing the front cover. Some people had good luck with them, but I went through three in 2 years. It sounds like the LaLuz is a bargain, though the $30 freight from Hong Kong is a bit steep.