Focus light with Cold Shoe mount

[Scubanomad]

Now that I got the RDX-600d for my T3i I would like to add a focus light to the cold shoe. I was looking at the Fantasea Nano with Cold Shoe mount as the price seems reasonable. But also read a lot of ppl have reported flooding problems.
Given that price range around $100 to 150 there is also the Fisheye FIX mini LED Focus Light from backscatter but it seems very close similar almost the same as the Fantasea, is it just a copy re-branded sold under the Fisheye brand name?
Any other options I can consider in the under $150 price range with Cold shoe mount?
Thanks.

 

[Kilili]

I didnt like using the Nano. Too puny.
Try mounting a Fantasea Led 44.

 

[Larry C]

Inon 550s or 550w would be another choice. You can get mounts for 1, 2 or 4 of the 250 or 550 lights that will go on the cold shoe if you want to add more light later.

 

[Interceptor121]

The op said under $150 price that does not get him an Inon

 

[DSR-3]

I agree that the Nano seemed too wimpy on my last rig.
I have a BigBlue FF-1x5W, which comes with a ball-adapter that can be mated with a cold-shoe ball adapter. Personally, I like to have the focus light closer to/more in-line-with the lens than most systems are designed for, so I made my own simple mount.

 

[Larry C]

The op said under $150 price that does not get him an Inon

LE250 runs about $145 plus mount, which depends on qty of lights used. If you're outside US, Divervision gets $135, I think. The 550 is a little more-$185, as I recall. No more than..... is very relative in UW photography. I had 3 different little nano lights that failed, at a total cost of around $250 if you count the cold shoe mount. That made it worthwhile to spend double that on a L & M 600 and save the grief.

 

[Scubanomad]

I opted for this Big Blue Focus light

 

[Interceptor121]

I found this useful piece of information on reefphoto Focus Lights 2.0

Basically at that price point you made the only choice

For what concerns the cheaper Fisheye mini LED (that I guess is similar to the fantasea) I can confirm what it says on that report which basically makes this light only good to focus macro as the beam is really narrow with a guide number of 1.85 or 0.925 in water

I have this light (I wanted something small for my Canon Powershot A570IS) and for macro serves the purpose and does not scare creatures however if I had a dSLR I would definitely step up a notch as you have done

 

[dna77054]

A few months ago I did exhaustive research to find a good "low cost" focus light use with my Oly Epl2. Here are the winners:

I-torch plus led (red plastic body)) from dive gear express $84

and

Intova MINI wide, available at leisure pro, about $70

You can look up the specs. I purchased both and speak from experience. Both have sufficient similar power, wide very even lighting with no hot spots, and a couple of different power modes, plus a flashing strobe mode in case of distress. In addition to working as a focus light, they can be helpful as a video light for macro.

The I-torch is plastic and uses 6AAA. Light and modes are activated and cycled by twisting the bezel "off and on", NOT the easiest of one hand operations.

The Intova is metal and uses 2 CR123A batteries. It is activated and cycled by a push button on the rear end cap. Simple one hand operation.

Both have round bodies, so you need to find the right type of cold shoe adapter/clamp.

Both lights are LED, so they have great battery life (look up the specs). Also note the burn time and battery life in the spec. In the end, if choosing between the two, I would go with the Introva MINI wide and take a couple pair of extra batteries on long trips. The easy one hand operation of the Intova trumps the rechargeable batteries of the I-torch. Also the I-torch can be activated by the pressure change as you go down, so you may need to readjust the tightness of the bezel once you are at depth. This is not an issue with the push button Intova.

Hope this helps,
Mike