Sola light 1200 or conventional strobe for photos

[coralgirl]

Hi,
I am planning to purchase a strobe and thinking of getting a Sea&Sea D1 but then I went to the store and saw a customer purchasing a sola light 1200 with red light and now I cannot decided which one to buy. I like the sola light it is small and has red light that would help with the photo. The size is important to me as I will to travel lite. I like to take macro picture and sometime wide angle. I have the Sony Nex 5 and Canon G12. I only have the money to buy either the Sea and sea D1 or the Sola light.
Which one would be the best buy for me. Will the sola light be as effective as the conventional strobe for picture. Is it true that the redlight can reduce back scattered? Please advice what is the pro and cons between the two. Btw is 1200 an overkill?I am afraid of pissing-off any fish and encourage aggressive behavior because my torch was on them.

 

[mjh]

This question comes up a great deal. At this time it is "possible" to do still photography with video/continues lights IF....the light is 1200 lumens or more, you are shooting a fairly still/static subject, shooting at a high ISO, +800, and wide open F stop. It seems the consensus is that the results are not great due to noise and limited to shallow depths of field.

It is not clear from your post but the red light will help the camera focus but is meant to be used in conjunction with a strobe. The theory is some creatures cannot see in that red spectrum allowing you to get closer. Some also like them for night dives as the red light does not seem to attract all the little creatures that swarm to bright white lights.

I have tried to find the "math" on comparing strobes to video lights but have not been able to find a formula. But in general it seems Strobes are many, many, many times more "powerful" when they fire than say a 2000 lumen video light. In addition the way a strobe works it does a much better job freezing moving subjects. At this point Strobes give you more flexibility in your camera settings and subject matter.

So if your main goal is Still photography the S&S YSD1 is a great choice. Go with an inexpensive focus light for now and add the Sola light later. If you prefer video than go with the Sola now and add the strobe when you can.

Please note the above are "sweeping generalizations", lol

 

[coralgirl]

Thank you for your reply. Can you recommend me with an inexpensive focus light? I might be able to reach deeper in my pocket for an inexpensive focus light.

 

[Interceptor121]

Get a boss K or a Fisheye Fix

 

[mozaik]

Hi Coralgirl, If you are taking stills shots , a strobe , especially the YS-D1 will get you much better results than even a 4000 Lumen video light. There is a very big difference in both power and angle of the light.

It is possible to take stills shots with the SOLA and you can get some decent results but again , a different league from using a strobe.

You can find many strobe shots on the internet , let me show you some taken with the SOLA 1200:
Stills Shots with Light and Motion SOLA 1200

More shots from this photoshoot and others can be found on our gallery at:
Eilat , The Red Sea with Nikon P7000 and Strobes / Video Lights

Regarding Focus Light , I highly recommend the Big Blue lights as they have AFO (Auto Flash Off) on many of their lights.

 

[Ardy]

Hi Coralgirl, If you are taking stills shots , a strobe , especially the YS-D1 will get you much better results than even a 4000 Lumen video light. There is a very big difference in both power and angle of the light.

It is possible to take stills shots with the SOLA and you can get some decent results but again , a different league from using a strobe.

You can find many strobe shots on the internet , let me show you some taken with the SOLA 1200:
Stills Shots with Light and Motion SOLA 1200

More shots from this photoshoot and others can be found on our gallery at:
Eilat , The Red Sea with Nikon P7000 and Strobes / Video Lights

Regarding Focus Light , I highly recommend the Big Blue lights as they have AFO (Auto Flash Off) on many of their lights.

Very interesting thanks a lot. I think this clears up the argument for video lights for still shots at least to my mind.