Dive and focus lights

Night Diving in a New (UV) Light

Brent Durand
Diving with the Dyron Solaris 4200 lumen ultraviolet light. Check out these awesome results!

Night Diving in a New (UV) Light

Diving with the Dyron Solaris 4200 lumen ultraviolet light

By Brent Durand

 

 
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When I was younger I went through a blacklight poster phase, but didn’t think much about it again until diving with Dyron’s Solaris 4200 lumen ultraviolet light. I’ve used the UV light a few times and it has turned my familiar Malibu reef dives into a whole new experience. Switching off my primary light and turning on the UV light awakens a new fluorescent world popping against the dark structure of the reef – green anemones, sea stars, metridiums, cup corals, fish eyes and much more. Before we dive in, let me talk briefly about how ultraviolet light works underwater.

 
 
 
 
ISO 400, 1/5, f/2.0:  Diving with a UV light awakens a brilliant fluorescent world.
 
 
 

UV Light Underwater

 
Most night divers are familiar with bioluminescence, where single-celled organisms glow when disturbed by fin kicks or any other turbulence in the water. Fluorescence has similar properties because both are a type of luminescence, however it is only seen when shining a UV light on the subject, which stimulates the glow. The effect of the UV light is maximized at night when there are no ambient light wavelengths.
 
The Dyron Solaris UV light has two modes – 40% (2000 lumens) and 100% (4200 lumens) and it's predicted to last 30 to 50 minutes, respectively. I shot my photos and hunted subjects at 100% power and it lasted for each full dive, turning it off while not in use.
 
Dyron also included an orange gel with the light, which serves to isolate the fluorescent subjects from the background. One gel is cut and carefully placed inside your housing port. Then, in order to see what your camera “sees,” you need to also look through an orange gel. I opted against putting the gel inside my mask for two reasons: 1) the gel heavily reduces the light you’re seeing underwater, making for a very dark dive, and 2) fogging issues. My solution was to create an orange gel viewing window and zip tie it to my strobe arm. This allowed me to dive without modifying my mask and look through the window while inspecting a subject and starting to compose a shot.
 
 
 
 
 
An orange gel is placed inside the housing port to isolate fluorescence and make it "pop."
 
 
 
 

In order not to be distracted by a gel cover in front of my eyes for the entire dive, I constructed this "viewing window."

 
 
 
I use a Canon s90 and the Dyron 67mm macro wet lens. I handheld the UV light, which allowed for great flexibility with angle of light as well as distance of light. I shot in AV mode to capture ambient (UV) light with no flash and spot metering, and was able to maximize brightness without burning out the highlights by increasing or decreasing the distance I was holding the light from the subject.
 
Compact cameras are more limited with ISO than dSLRs, and I pushed the ISO to 640 in order to get a shutter speed fast enough to produce sharp images. One thing to note is that the fluorescent glow of the subject needs to really fill the frame in order for the camera to focus and find a fast shutter speed. I tried unsuccessfully to shoot a number of smaller subjects and have a bunch of OOF (out of focus) abstract art to show for it. Maybe a fine art collector will purchase the series for a million dollars?
 
 
 
 

ISO 640, 1/2, f/2.0:  One of many fluorescent subjects that I just wasn't able to capture.

 

 

ISO 640, 1/4, f/3.2:  Green anemone next to a starfish.

 
 
 
 
ISO 640, 1/13, f/2.0:  A couple orange cup corals
 
 
 

Want to try it yourself?

In summary, the Dyron Solaris UV light will bring a whole new light (pun intended) to your night dives, whether shooting photos or just kicking around the reef. Bluewater Photo has one to rent, and once you try it, you’ll be hooked!
 
 
 

About the author

Brent Durand is an avid California beach diver and ocean-inspired photographer. You can see more of his work at www.brentdimagery.com.  
 
 

Further reading

 

 

Support the Underwater Photography Guide

Please support the Underwater Photography Guide by purchasing your underwater photography gear through our sister site, Bluewater Photo and Video. Click, or call them at (310) 633-5052 for expert advice!

 

Light & Motion Expands The SOLA Series

Michael Zeigler
Light & Motion has expanded their very popular SOLA line of underwater photo & video lights.

Light & Motion Expands the SOLA Series

New lights have been added, and prices have been lowered

by Michael Zeigler

 

 
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Light & Motion, developers of high-powered portable underwater lighting systems, has continued to expand it SOLA line of products.  The most popular focus lights amongst underwater photographers seems to be the new SOLA Photo 800, which recently replaced the SOLA Photo 600.  The broad beam allows photographers to focus on their subject, and not so much where the focus light is aimed.  The stealth red mode allows shooters to get close to critters that are typically more sensitive to white light, like some crustaceans, small gobies, mandarin fish, juvenile fish, and mollusks. 

They also introduced the Sola 2000 and Sola 4000 lights, targeting underwater videographers with those lights.

 

Lower pricing on the Sola lights

Light & Motion has also lowered the price on the SOLA Photo 500 and SOLA Photo 800 to $299 and $499, respectively.  

 

SOLA Series

SOLA Photo 800

The SOLA Photo 800, featuring a wide, clean flood beam, and a wide red light "stealth" mode, each with three intensity levels.

 

 

SOLA Photo 500

The SOLA Photo 500, featuring a clean 60 degree flood beam which can double as a video light for the new class of compact cameras.

 

Comparing the SOLA Photo 500 and Photo 800

See complete comparison chart below.  All lights are placed 15" from the wall.

 

 

 

 

 

         Photo 500 & Photo 800 - Low Power.                               Photo 500 & 800 - High Power.

 

Red "stealth" mode on the Photo 800.

 

 

 

SOLA Photo 1200

The more powerful SOLA Photo 1200. Featuring 1200 lumens, a wide, clean flood beam, and a red light "stealth" mode, each with three intensity levels. Similar to the Sola 800, but with 50% more power. Great for people who shoot stills and video.

 

 

SOLA Dive 1200

The SOLA Dive 1200 comes standard with the wrist mount, and features a flood beam of 60 degrees, and a narrow beam.

 

      

 

 

 

 

              Dive 1200 flood beam.                                                      Dive 1200 narrow beam.

 

The front of the Dive 1200, showing the flood and narrow beam lights.

 

Sola 2000 Video

 

sola 2000 video

The Sola 2000 video offers only a wide-beam of white light, 60 degrees wide, at 3 power levels, maxing out at an incredible 2,000 lumens.

 

SOLA 4000 Video

SOLA 4000, featuring an adjustable beam, and 7 levels of intensity, up to 4000 lumens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 SOLA 4000 showing on/off & travel mode.                                Front of the SOLA 4000.

 

 

SOLA Comparison Chart*

MODELS Photo 500 Photo 800 Photo 1200 Dive 1200 SOLA 2000 SOLA 4000
Lumens 500 Flood

800-Flood

226-Red

1200-Flood

226-Red

1200-Flood

500-Spot

 2000-Flood 4000-7 levels
Burn Time (mns)

100-High

400-Low

65-High

260-Low

65-High

260-Low

65-High

160-Low

50-High

200-Low

50-High

200-Low
Size 57mm x 101mm 57mm x 101mm 57mm x 101mm 57mm x 101mm 57mm x 101mm 85mm x 143mm
Weight 283gr 283gr 283gr 305gr 283gr 808gr
MSRP $299 $499 $699 $699 $899 $1599

*Source: http://www.lightandmotion.com

 

Pictures taken with the red "stealth" mode

All attempts of getting close to this tiny blue-ring top snail with the white flood beam resulted in the critter retreating into its shell.  It was un-phased by the red mode focus light of my SOLA Photo 800, and allowed me to get this picture. Due to the fast shutter speed, the red light was not recorded on the sensor as ambient light. Uncropped. Nikon D90, Ikelite housing, 60mm macro + 1.4x teleconverter. 1/200th, F40, ISO 200.

 

Similar story to the picture above, in that I could not get close enough to this Crevice Kelpfish with the white flood beam.  The red light did the trick. Due to the fast shutter speed, the red light was not recorded on the sensor as ambient light. Nikon D90, Ikelite housing, 60mm macro lens + 1.4x teleconverter.  1/200th, F14, ISO 200.

 

underwater photo with the sola 800 light

This photo was taken right after sunset, in Anilao. F13, 1/250th, ISO 200, NIkon D7000 + 105mm lens, Sea & Sea housing. The red light from my Sola photo light allowed me to not scare the Mandarin fish, and surprisingly my Nikon 105mm lens locked focus fairly quicky with the red light. It lit up the entire area, and several other photographers were taking mandarin fish photos using my light! - Scott

 

All of the Light & Motion lights mentioned here are available from our equipment sponsor, Bluewater Photo & Video.  Be sure to click or call for all your underwater photography needs.

 

Further reading

Support the Underwater Photography Guide

Please support the Underwater Photography Guide by purchasing your underwater photography gear through our sister site, Bluewater Photo & Video. Click, or call them at (310) 633-5052 for expert advice!

 

Nocturnal LED dive & focus light

Lee Peteson
Here is the first look at the new small single LED light from Nocturnal, the Nocturnal M220 LED Dive light

New Nocturnal M220 LED Dive Light

 

Here is the first look at the new small single LED light from Nocturnal, the Nocturnal M220 LED Dive light.

 

It uses only 3 AA batteries and is 5.5 inches long and 2 inches wide at the front. It weights 12oz dry and 6 oz in the water. It produces a white LED light, 220 Lumens. Depth ration is 100 meters. A simple twist on-off on the rear cap and it has dual O-rings for secure water protection - making it very hard to flood. Retail price is around $170 in the USA. There are a few for sale now, but the official release date is May, 2010.

 

Burn time is about 2 hours and then it slowly fades, according to Nocturnal - but I look forward to testing this out myself underwater.

 

small Nocturnal LED dive light / focus light

 

The light beam is a high intensity sharp center with soft but wide coverage. This is a great dive light because of it's size and bright output. It is solid and very durable and machined out of aluminum and hard anodized. It could be used as a camera focus light with a diffuser to lower the intensity of the bright center spot.

 

At ISO 100 at 1/60 of a second you will get an f-stop of f11.5 at 12 inches. If you are using an SLR camera with a good macro lens I would suggest a camera setting of F22 at 1/250 second to help keep the hot spot from showing up in the exposure.

 

Better yet, a diffuser that would cut the light output in half would be even better. Still enough light to support auto focusing but not enough to show up in the exposure.


The Ultralight mount will work very well with the Nocturnal light. 

 

This dive light also comes with a write-mount strap, which is perfect for underwater photographers who want to use it as a dual purpose night light and focus light.

 

nocturnal dive light with ultralight focus light mount

 

This light is carried at Marine Camera and other underwater camera shops.

 

 

Keldan Luna 8 LA-V 2100 lumen

Lee Peterson

Keldan Luna 8 LA-V 2100 lumen

Video Light Review

Reviewed by Lee Peterson

 

 

With the underwater video industry shifting into DSLR video, the need for superior lighting underwater has become a problem for those who want the best results. I have been testing the Keldan Luna 8 LA-V 2100 lumen LED video light and the color fidelity is the best of any of the light that I have tested. It is bright and the light distribution is very even and wide. I will be taking some underwater video with it shortly.

 

The best advantage with this system is that there are no external cords to mess with. It is completely self contained and in the water it weighs only 0.31 lbs. It can be installed on flex arms or Ultralight arms. With a burn time at high power of 80 minutes, two dives would be more than possible with just one charging.

 

 

 

 

 

Keldan Luna specifications

 

Keldan Luna 8 LA-V 2100 lumen LED Video Light
$1,993.99

* Electrical power: 10-40 watt, 5 power levels
* Color temperature: 5000 kelvin @ 20 watt
* Color Rendering Index: 95 (Ra)
* Luminous flux: 750 - 2100 lumen
A 23 watt compact fluorescent lamp emits about 1500–1600 lm.[
The difference between the units lumen and lux is that the lux takes into account the area over which the luminous flux is spread. A flux of 1000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1000 lux. The same 1000 lumens, spread out over ten square metres, produces a dimmer illuminance of only 100 lux. Mathematically, 1 lx = 1 lm/m2.
* Beam angle: 90_
* Candle power (HIGH): 1400 cd
Candlepower is a measure of light taken at the source-not at the target. Foot-candles tell us how much of that light is directed at an object we want to illuminate. If you want to figure out LED equivalents, first you must know how many lumens your LED's each produce. Then divide that value by 12.57 and you have candlepower of the LED. This is not foot-candles, remember foot-candles are illuminance. You are measuring radiance.
* Battery: 59 Wh Li-Ion ( nom. 14.8 V / 4.5 Ah )
* Burn time: 80 min (HIGH) / 240 min (LOW)
* Charge time: 3-4 h
* Dimensions: 12 cm/4.8 in diameter, 29 cm/11.6 in length,
* Weight: 1.10 kg/2.42 lbs (0.14 kg/0.31 lbs in water)
* Accessories included: Bracket

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sponsor Section

 

Purchase Kelan Luna Video light from Marine Camera

 

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