Video light recommendations?

[VR78]

Hi all,

I often find myself assisting others with lighting during our cave trips, and I would like to invest into a reasonably decent video light. So far I have used several borrowed lights, and I think I would like to go for something in the vicinity of 10,000 lumen or above, 90-120 degree uniform beam, flat front lens, minimum 60 minutes burn time. Reputable manufacturer, tough build, reasonable warranty. The budget is 1000-1200 USD or so. No particular preference towards a fully autonomous or canister design.

I have already bookmarked a Gralmarine 16 Duo and a Sola 9600. Any thoughts on these, and any other recommendations? I heard about a 30K monster from Big Blue (autonomous, 2 h ar 30,000 lm/160 degrees), but it kinda sounds too good to be true.

Many thanks for your help!

 

[bamafan]

I have been impressed by the 30k lumen Big Blue video lights. They do decrease the brightness of their lights to achieve the stated burn times but for the price and performance they are hard to beat.

 

[VR78]

I have been impressed by the 30k lumen Big Blue video lights. They do decrease the brightness of their lights to achieve the stated burn times but for the price and performance they are hard to beat.

Thank you! Do you have any test pictures/video? How much burn time do you get on full?

 

[tbone1004]

remember that 2 lights are ALWAYS better than one, even if you sacrifice brightness.

as said above, no light is capable of 30k lumen for 2 hours with that small of a battery pack.
The light output profile will look like it's little brother
We Test Lights | VL15000P Test and Review

It will be less obvious on lower brightness settings, but they are certainly a bit optimistic with their claims. In video with high quality cameras, even gopro's, you aren't going to notice the dropoff. I had a fairly well known diver buddy of mine who is big into photography/videography swear they didn't do it until he he took interval shots on his dslr in manual mode and then he saw it. It's enough that if you want to do professional video work with them, I would probably avoid them, but for gopro work in a cave, they're perfectly fine. My biggest axe to grind is the false advertising they are doing. As long as you are fully aware that your 30k lumen is really going to be like a 25k lumen at the beginning, and probably a 10-15k light after an hour, then you're ok.

If I were looking, I'd probably go with a pair of these
1-V30WS_UV Video Light – ANO Online Shop
or these
V70WS Video Light – ANO Online Shop

I'm not a huge fan of the ring switches, but they work quite well and the charger dock is super nice instead of having to disassemble each night. A buddy has a pair of these lights and is quite happy with them. Another has the 2300 spot, and 6000 lumen video canister light which are quite nice. For budget lights, I'd have no problem with them

 

[VR78]

remember that 2 lights are ALWAYS better than one, even if you sacrifice brightness.

True that! But I am sufficiently task loaded with one for now
That said, I rather like the V70WS. Thank you for the recommendation, and for reinforcing my intuitive distrust towards the Big Blue's 30K/2hr claim.

 

[tbone1004]

True that! But I am sufficiently task loaded with one for now
That said, I rather like the V70WS. Thank you for the recommendation, and for reinforcing my intuitive distrust towards the Big Blue's 30K/2hr claim.

it shouldn't add any task loading with the second, but your video will really appreciate it since you'll get some pretty nasty shadows going on with a single light. You can get rid of the shadows by moving it closer to the camera, but then you get backscatter, so it's pros and cons.

Regarding BB's claim. To actually produce 30k lumen is completely possible. They use 45x XML led's which are easily capable of making a full 30k lumen. We need to make some assumptions to run it out. XML's are capable of around 100 lumen/watt, we know BB doesn't use the most efficient boards and what not possible to save cost, so 100 lumen/watt is a little generous but it makes for easy math. That runs out to 300watts/hour of burn. To get 2 hours of burn, 600 watts. Obviously assuming 100% utilization of the battery, which is bad, and no other losses, which will happen.
18650's are currently limited to 3400mah, or 3.4ah and rated at 3.7v which yields 12.6wh. Again making some assumptions, the pack would need roughly 48x 18650's to make that amount of light. The battery in this light is a 32650, which can get up to about 6500mah, and in that case would need 25 of them. This light has 6, so optimistically it could burn at 30k lumen for 30 mins. Since we know that BB is usually correct about the burn times, we can safely assume that the 30k light will burn for roughly 2 hours with an average output of 30k/4=7500 lumen. Roughly speaking. That's still a LOT of light,

 

[VR78]

but your video will really appreciate it since you'll get some pretty nasty shadows going on with a single light

Oh I see what you mean. We usually have one camera operator and three guys with video lights.
Thank you for the comprehensive explanation of the technology. This was very helpful!

 

[diversteve]

a couple other options:

Keldan sells a range of high powered video lights from 8K lumens to 26K lumens - just not in your price range.They retail in the US from about $1400-4500. underwater video lighting

Kraken slso sells a 10K lumen light for $1500 IDK much about it. Kraken Sports
OOS has it for $1499. Kraken SolarFlare Max 10,000 Lumen Video Light

 

[VR78]

a couple other options: Keldan, Kraken

Thank you! I like the Keldan lights but they are indeed a bit pricey. As for the Kraken, I would like to avoid huge domes (like in RedStar, this Kraken, and many other similar lights).

 

[bamafan]

Here is a video taken in Mexico with a 30k lumen light carried by oneof the divers in the video