jaghetermattis
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2012
- Messages
- 3
Hi everyone,
Clearly a noob and a first time poster here I humbly apologize for any stupidity to come from my side.
I recently purchased the GoPro HD HERO2, a very inexpensive camera which is becoming very popular among us divers which do not have thousands of dollars to spend on video equipment. Clearly it comes with shortcomings such as the focus issue but this is not the place for such a discussion and there are inexpensive fixes available. Rather I would like to ask and discuss with those among you with ideas and experience for video lighting with the intention to fit the budget of the GoPro (or any other underwater camera for that matter). As the camera uses a small sensor it produces amazing video with lots of available light but quickly goes to crap when it goes away. At depths greater than 100 feet/30 meters lights are needed (for macro, not much to do with the condition at greater distances).
To be honest, if you bought a camera retailing for $299 including housing you are unlikely to look for lights which costs two or three times as much. Therefore I'd like to hear about suggestions for home made solutions which costs the same or preferably less than the camera itself. Ideally from people that are GoPro users themselves, but those might be rare here. As with all video lighting one cannot really use regular flash lights as these suffer from hotspots and tend to be of weak output. As added difficulty the GoPro has a max FOV of 120 degrees, thus needing a wide angle beam.
I've looked around the forum and perhaps the strongest candidate I've found is this one:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?320903-Video-Light-Relfectors
If I will build the entire thing myself, something like this seem to be the easiest solution, perhaps with less output (this is close to 9000 lumen). Personally I have access to a place where I can get free material for canister, some types of batteries that I will use if possible, but for others that do not have this other solutions/suggestions might be more suitable. Other simpler and probably cheaper options would be to buy a cheap dive lamp on ebay such as:
Ebay Item number: 280820687293
And fit it with leds and driver equivalent to, say 2000 lumen. Fitting might be difficult, as well as heating. Ideally for the beam angle one would need to fit the leds a close to the glass as possible. Perhaps the easiest solution would be to buy a lamp as this:
Ebay Item number: 330602749875
And fit it with an aspheric lens and/or reflectors to deal with the hotspots and narrow angle of the flash light.
This became a long post but any relatively inexpensive suggestions, ideas and thoughts would be highly appreciated! As I this camera becomes more and more common among divers more and more have to deal with lighting solutions.
Cheers,
Matt
Clearly a noob and a first time poster here I humbly apologize for any stupidity to come from my side.
I recently purchased the GoPro HD HERO2, a very inexpensive camera which is becoming very popular among us divers which do not have thousands of dollars to spend on video equipment. Clearly it comes with shortcomings such as the focus issue but this is not the place for such a discussion and there are inexpensive fixes available. Rather I would like to ask and discuss with those among you with ideas and experience for video lighting with the intention to fit the budget of the GoPro (or any other underwater camera for that matter). As the camera uses a small sensor it produces amazing video with lots of available light but quickly goes to crap when it goes away. At depths greater than 100 feet/30 meters lights are needed (for macro, not much to do with the condition at greater distances).
To be honest, if you bought a camera retailing for $299 including housing you are unlikely to look for lights which costs two or three times as much. Therefore I'd like to hear about suggestions for home made solutions which costs the same or preferably less than the camera itself. Ideally from people that are GoPro users themselves, but those might be rare here. As with all video lighting one cannot really use regular flash lights as these suffer from hotspots and tend to be of weak output. As added difficulty the GoPro has a max FOV of 120 degrees, thus needing a wide angle beam.
I've looked around the forum and perhaps the strongest candidate I've found is this one:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?320903-Video-Light-Relfectors
If I will build the entire thing myself, something like this seem to be the easiest solution, perhaps with less output (this is close to 9000 lumen). Personally I have access to a place where I can get free material for canister, some types of batteries that I will use if possible, but for others that do not have this other solutions/suggestions might be more suitable. Other simpler and probably cheaper options would be to buy a cheap dive lamp on ebay such as:
Ebay Item number: 280820687293
And fit it with leds and driver equivalent to, say 2000 lumen. Fitting might be difficult, as well as heating. Ideally for the beam angle one would need to fit the leds a close to the glass as possible. Perhaps the easiest solution would be to buy a lamp as this:
Ebay Item number: 330602749875
And fit it with an aspheric lens and/or reflectors to deal with the hotspots and narrow angle of the flash light.
This became a long post but any relatively inexpensive suggestions, ideas and thoughts would be highly appreciated! As I this camera becomes more and more common among divers more and more have to deal with lighting solutions.
Cheers,
Matt
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