2 replies to this topic

[Davide DB]

Last week end, here in Rome, there was the Scuba-Show a small event at the Rome Olympic open-air diving pool. Nothing to compare with the Eudi Show held in Milan last February. Given the open air location and the short two-days duration the exhibitors set up nothing more than a table but people had the great opportunity to test in the pool most of the exhibited dive gear. Thanks to the good weather was really a cool event.




Besides scuba gear, rebs, uw scooters, we had some video and photography gears presentation too.

Nauticam Italy brought few housings: among the others, the new one for the Panasonic GX1, the housing for the Nikon V1 and D7000 and a full setup for the Canon 600D was available for pool testing.





Easydive introduced the new Onda Led video light system.
Aluminum alloy, 5000 Lumen at 5600K, 110° of aperture with a Delrin separated battery pack made of LiFe elements.
Despite I don't like having a separate canister for the lights, the system seems very nice and solid. A huge rear knob permits to dose the light continuously.





Actually the lights that caught my attention were the new CarboLed 5000 & 8000. MichiTeck is a small Italian company which produces lights and arms for photo and video. The owner, Fabio Micheli, is well known here: he run since twenty years one of the oldest uw-camera repair service near Rome. Years ago he took over the carbon fiber arms production from Underwave/Igloo (an Italian housing maker of the film era). With years of experience repairing uw camera, lens and flashes, he started a small but interesting video lights production.

The Carboled 8000 & 5000 shares the same dimensions: 58mm of diameter and a length of 250mm. They have a carbon fiber body, a aluminum alloy head and a Lexan transparent port. In water weigh is less than 390gr and they have an upcoming buoyancy kit. The light, based on model, emits 8000 or 5000 Lumen at 6000K with an angle of 140° (Wow). The magnetic switch is positioned under the body regulating the output power: 10-20-30W.





The 60Wh battery pack is made of LiFePO4 elements which guarantees 2000 charge/discharge cycles a 90' operating time (CarboLed 5000) and a charge time of 100 minutes.






Unfortunately I was not able to test underwater. I hope to take a test ride soon!


Another small accessory which caught my attention is the arm clamp made by Mychiteck. Instead of the common o-ring it uses a vitrified textile material that according to some seems to be far smooth and strong of the common o-ring systems.




Bye

[stargost]

Thanks. These looks like great video ligths.
A little expensive though. Especially in Euro...
We really need the ECB to act and drive the euro down to boost the export ;-)

Note that our spanish friends from Mangrove are distributing in the US with a more aligned $ market price tag.


So anyway, what is the solution for the best video system for the GH2 and wide angle !?

[Davide DB]

Thanks. These looks like great video ligths. A little expensive though. Especially in Euro... We really need the ECB to act and drive the euro down to boost the export ;-) Note that our spanish friends from Mangrove are distributing in the US with a more aligned $ market price tag. So anyway, what is the solution for the best video system for the GH2 and wide angle !?

Hi Stargost.
I reply here where we are IT with lights


Yes they are really great lights but still very expensive for a hand-made product. At the same price I get the Luna.
IMHO currently the best compromise price/features are the mangrove. They are really cheap and I've read only very positive feedbacks. Their only flaw is the weight and maybe the dimension. I tried two of them on my setup and they are really huge and difficult to compensate. They have a field of about 110° so they should be capable to cover a 8mm. With the 7-14 there's no problem. I don't know if two or three SOLA could fill the 7-14mm.

This video is shoot with two mangrove and a Canon 5D Mk2 DSLR with a Sigma 15mm fisheye. So the FOV it's the same. It struggle a little bit covering the field but it's nearly there....

[vimeohd]35833967[/vimeohd]

At the last Eudi Show in Milan I had the opportunity to see the new Fix Aquavolt 3500. They are really cute. They should be out shortly. Here some photos:






They should cost less than the SOLA 4000.
Here some characteristics:

*depth rate 100m
*size φ 65.5mm × 152.6mm
*weight on land 498g(included battery)
*weight in the water 295g(included battery)
*lamp 1.2w high intensity LED 24pcs
*3500lumens
*light angle 110°
*colour temp 6500~7000K
*work on land Not allowed
*working hour 90mins with full power
*charging time 3 hours
*capacity of the battery 3100mAh