Sola 1200 Photo or video light

[Diver2fun]

Hi all,

I am considering buying a Sola 1200 light, however I'm stuck on the choice between the photo or video version.
The idea of using the red LED of the photo version as a focus light for stills sounds good, but the light can't be turned off when the strobe fires...
Is there anyone who has experience with this? Can the red tinge from the LED be removed afterwards?
Also, is there any difference between the quality of light between the two lights? I don't really care much about the spot light feature, I do care about the flood light though.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Interceptor121]

This has been covered many times but here we go again the strobe does not even see the focus light and even if it did you can correct it in RAW
For what concerns photo vs video the photo is flood only so if you go on a night dive you will also need a torch
You can (I just tested it) put a red filter in front of the video light not the same effect but similar

 

[Searcaigh]

I use the Sola 1200 and have not noticed any red tinge on jpg files, I guess it might depend on strobe angles etc., I am using two Sea & Sea YS110 for macro work.

 

[nudibranco]

Here is what I experienced and to hear some comments and suggestions...:

I have a Sola 800 photo and I have been using the red setup sometimes (based on some notes that say you do not scare critters...) but I am not so convinced it is of great help in preventing critters from running away. In the Mediterranean waters, where I work and dive a lot also at night, I often switched to red to see if I get any closer to animals that would otherwise swim or move away. Apart from the fact that is hard for me to see well when it's red lighted rather than using the regular white light, I see no difference made by the red light with most of the organisms I search for. So: is there a scientific paper that talks in depth about this?

Instead I see that at F11 and 1/250 (my typical setting for MACRO shooting on the Olympus OM-D) some red light does indeed tint of red at the medium and max Sola setting the picture (at low setting it is so low that the strobes cancel completely any effect). You will not see much of this with the strobe(s) on but indeed some red channel seems slightly saturated by this light. If you use WB auto it may overcome this somewhat so this would be a good setting to use I think. Of course this will not be much of an effect in most situation but since I see my macro shots I bit too reddish when I use the red light I decided not to use the red light anymore (and it did not seem to keep critters more relaxed anyway...). So from now on I am using the regular 5500K white light setting ...

If anybody has some details or more in depth understanding of WHICH organisms do not mind red light vs. white light I am willing to try again and justify my expensive Sola light...