Video lights power in low-vis

[vixtor]

Hello,

Last week-end I was amazed by the video footage made by one of my dive buddies. He was using a GoPro Hero 3+ - and I always thought the action cameras cannot deliver enough quality in poor conditions. But the video he made was crisp and clear, at a depth of over 40 meters, in poor visibility, in the Black Sea (think about the kind of visibility you usually see in the Baltic Sea, North Sea or the English Channel).

This is the video that I'm talking about:

Maybe it's not much, maybe you'll consider it just average/normal, but for me it was outstanding to see this kind of quality in those diving conditions.

It was enough to convince me to get an action camera. I have chosen the Sony X1000V instead of GoPro, for personal brand preference. Overall, I don't expect any quality difference.

Coming back to the question I really want to ask here: the guy had 2x3600 lights (Light4Me 3XML). How many lumens do I really need at least to get this kind of amazing quality in poor vis and pretty dark conditions? Is 7200 lumens really required, or I could have good results with less? I would like to buy the smallest light(s) which would deliver good enough quality, as I'm not not so much into video, and I just want to have some memories from my wreck explorations. The lights should be also good enough for penetration, in total darkness. So, in the end, physical size and price are important and I don't want to get more than what is really needed.

Please let me know what you think, from your past underwater video experiences.

Thanks,
Victor

 

[vixtor]

Just to understand my amazement, this is the kind of video that I was "used" to see, when filming with no external lights:

 

[kelemvor]

A lot of it is the lights. Especially considering that the hero 3 is two generations old and there are far better sensors in modern gopro devices. I found underwater videography exceedingly frustrating and gave it up myself.