123 replies to this topic

[Deep6]

Hi!
Seem's that most folks here have decided in favour of Fisheye aiming light.
But since it cost's allmost as much as my P&S or Ike housing for it, it really is a bit much (obviously it might be the best choise for DSLR setup's).

Anyone had any experiences with Fantasea Line LED Nano Focus Light?
It costs only like 40 $, but does it give any light at all for that price?

Cheers
Scubamoose

I am waiting for the new LED 360 light. Cuts off with strobe flash like the Nano, but much brighter and with signalling flash. Same price as the Nano.


http://www.fantasea....mp;category=496

[Scubamoose]

I am waiting for the new LED 360 light. Cuts off with strobe flash like the Nano, but much brighter and with signalling flash. Same price as the Nano.


http://www.fantasea....mp;category=496

Hi Deep!
I ordered Nano two days ago from B&H PhotoVideo
Gonna try it out in a few weeks and see if it's any good..
NB! If You get the LED 360 light, be sure to reply my how is it
Thanks
Scubamoose

[Deep6]

Hi Deep!
I ordered Nano two days ago from B&H PhotoVideo
Gonna try it out in a few weeks and see if it's any good..
NB! If You get the LED 360 light, be sure to reply my how is it
Thanks
Scubamoose

"Be the first kid on your block to raise sea monkeys" I remember this lead from ads in comic books. "sea monkeys" were brine shrimp. But I think this LED 360 is going to be a keeper at a modest price. I'll post when it ships (likely after the 1st of the year) and I can make a dry run.

Regards,
Bob

Edited by Deep6, 16 December 2008 - 12:13 PM.

[Scubamoose]

"Be the first kid on your block to raise sea monkeys" I remember this lead from ads in comic books. "sea monkeys" were brine shrimp. But I think this LED 360 is going to be a keeper at a modest price. I'll post when it ships (likely after the 1st of the year) and I can make a dry run.

Regards,
Bob

Hi Bob!
Be sure to post me how the 360 works etc. I got a 100 $ giftcard from P&H, so if the 360 is really good (and when PH start's selling it) I just might order it myself and leave the Nano for backup
Cheers,
Scubamoose

[Biodiversity_guy]

After flooding my G9 in the OEM housing (after about 180 dives with it) I have moved up to a G10 with an Ikelite housing and the DS-51 external flash.

My budget is about blown and my wife is not happy with my spending habits, but now I am shopping for an aiming light.

The nano looks promising, and seems to fit in my current budget range (the fisheye looks great but I will have to save for a bit). My question is: ikelite talks about the mini c as a focusing light, but no one mentioned it here.

Is that because it creates a hot spot? Can you put a diffuser on it? Or is it just better to go with the Nano.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Edited by Biodiversity_guy, 26 February 2009 - 09:44 PM.

[Mike L]

If you are looking for a great focus light, in the mid-priced area that is better than a mini flash light, but not the wallet buster like the bigger Fisheye and Hartenberger lights, take a good look at the Big Blue FF 1x5 with Flash Off LED. Its a very nice light, comes with the ball adapter and a handle...and sells for $149.

[Eyematey]

I have one of the new LED 360's and while it hasn't been underwater yet it seems nice and bright and the cut off works well. Been practice shooting around the house with full housing setup. At $53 plus shipping seems like a bargain. UW test will tell, not for at least a couple weeks.

I am waiting for the new LED 360 light. Cuts off with strobe flash like the Nano, but much brighter and with signalling flash. Same price as the Nano.


http://www.fantasea....mp;category=496

[JackConnick]

The 360 is out, I have stock. The light is about the same as the old LED44, but it has a much better body/handle, the "blink off during exposure" and blinking safety light feature. Nice yellow body color, deeper depth rating. Big difference is that it uses 4 AA batteries, rather than 5 which was a PITA.

The NanoFocus continues to be a best seller. The light brightness is about the same as the LED44/360 but not as large an area. but very nice and small.

I agree with Mike, the Big Blue 1x5 is a very nice, extremely well-made light for the price point. Aluminum body, magnetic switch, great mount/handle for a dive light also included. Easy load battery pack for 4 AA. Up from there, I like the Nocturnal Lights SLX, makes a good Focus/Video light for P&S cameras with that capability. They have a more powerful new 800i model out now.

Jack

Edited by JackConnick, 27 February 2009 - 05:29 PM.

[meister]

Can anyone tell me if the Fantasea LED 360 has the capability to turn off the blink off during exposure feature, like would be desirable to turn off when you're taking pictures of your dive buddy holding this light, taking modeling pictures?

[meister]

I have my answer from Fantasea:

"The automatic dim-out sensor mechanism featured on the LED 360 Light (#6036) cannot be turned off."

[Neopreneninja]

Hi All !
Fantasea 360...I've used mine during my latest Egypt trip and had NO problems...
Fairly wide beam and good range(have never tried any af the priciere Focus lights) chose this model over the "Nano"(bad reviews/flooding issue+ only 9 LED's) & the "Deeper Blue" 1x5w(pricy/+must have narrowere beam than the 360..36xLED's vs: 1x5w LED..so better for night time wide shoots)
I mostly shoot macro/to app. 1m at night...but I think it woluld do ok for more/deeper range.
Made a neopren hood and difuser (DIY)...workes just great with my little Fuji f31, 2x 50 ike's with controllere's and Inon linse's Kit!
I even used it as a normal Dive light...only little hick up was every so often some one would point a flashlight ore shoot of a Strobe and it would cut off...but only for a sec.
I'm generally really pleast with it...I'm NOT going to pay close to my system/Kit prise for a Focus light...Year they look great and every thing...but I'm not Diving with a Canon 5d ore worse...he he! (I'm just envious of you Pro Guys...love your pic's)
So as I see it:
Pro's: Good batt. life-Nice beam-The price-Ok build-Fairly compact
Con's: Beam coming true the side(Why? blind the Diver/buddy!??)-the swich is too small and fiddley-the flashing light mode(Why??safty Well...super batt. life in normal mode)
Hope this will help other Gear heads(jup i'm one!)
Have fun and send more pic's..I'm hooked!!

[Gus_Smedstad]

Anyone had any experiences with Fantasea Line LED Nano Focus Light?

I brought one of those to Bonaire last week. It flooded on the first dive. Salt water + 4 AA's NIMH batteries = a nasty mess.

I tried a Princeton 4AA dive light purchased locally as a substitute. The beam was frankly far too narrow, I had to constantly re-adjust the aim. In theory it was always parallel to the lens, but in practice it drifted. It's difficult to get a really stiff connection with a ball-and-arm system or even the YS-type bracket I used to hold the light.

I rented a Fisheye HG20DX from Buddy Dive for 2 nights. The beam is ridiculously wide, far, far wider than I actually needed, and at the lowest setting it was more than sufficient for focus on a night dive. For crevices on a daylight dive, I did end up using the max brightness, which is very bright at night. I'm here looking to see if there's anything in between. The HG20DX beam width is really overkill, and battery life seems like an issue if you use it for more than night diving. And it's expensive. But it sure does work.

- Gus

[Natalie_S]

If you are looking for a great focus light, in the mid-priced area that is better than a mini flash light, but not the wallet buster like the bigger Fisheye and Hartenberger lights, take a good look at the Big Blue FF 1x5 with Flash Off LED. Its a very nice light, comes with the ball adapter and a handle...and sells for $149.

I also use the Big Blue 1x5 FO. It's a great light, very even white light, no hotspots. I've found that the lock that is supposed to prevent the light turning on by accident doesn't always work well, so I check it after every entry/exit. This light is almost too bright in some circumstances, but for the price, I can't complain!

[CompuDude]

I used the Fisheye Fix LED focus light, which appears to be a dead ringer for the Fantasea Nano, for a trip to Bali last month, and really enjoyed it. No problems whatsoever in 32 dives. First time using a focus light for me, so it was quite a treat. Smaller camera, though. My buddies with DSLRs all had the Fantasea LED 360 (or was it the LED44? I never found out for sure), which was MUCH larger and put out a MUCH larger circle of light, but I think that would have overwhelmed my poor little camera. I did prefer the AA's used by the 360, however, and wish my light used that instead of AAAs, so I didn't need to manage multiple battery types on the charger.

The Fisheye Fix Mini LED focus light and the Fantasea Nano Focus light both use AAA batteries, however, not AA. There are a number of websites out there that do not accurately quote this information in their specs, I've noticed, including the manufacturer's site (in the case of Fisheye). Whoops!

Interestingly, the guys at Reef Photo told me they didn't carry the Fantasea Nano because they had so many units that were bad and/or leaked immediately when they were testing them. They carried the Fisheye version instead, and said they have not had any reports of issues. Seems odd considering it seems likely they're both made by the same OEM, I'd assume, since they seem identical, but there you go. Reports in this thread do seem to back up their report.

[Gus_Smedstad]

You're right, the Fantasea and the Princeton 21 dive light I used both took AAA's, not AA's - I have no idea why I consistently mis-typed that.

Very interesting about Reef Photo and the Fantasea Nano. It looks exactly like the Fisheye Mini. I'm not sure how wide a beam either throws, since mine flooded immediately, but the Princeton was way too narrow. I definitely have to get something with a broader beam.

- Gus

[DuikKees]

Is this focuslight-thing really such a big issue? I use for many years and dives a simple $10,- LED divelight. I sanded the frontglas to diffuus the light so I have a nice wide beam. The camera focusses nice with this light.

OK, it has no lightsensor to shut of when the strobe fires. But usually the shutter is fast and aparture is small, so you will not see any LEDlight in the photo.

Am I missing something that I must have a dedicated aiminglight?

[acuevas]

Is this focuslight-thing really such a big issue? I use for many years and dives a simple $10,- LED divelight. I sanded the frontglas to diffuus the light so I have a nice wide beam. The camera focusses nice with this light.

OK, it has no lightsensor to shut of when the strobe fires. But usually the shutter is fast and aparture is small, so you will not see any LEDlight in the photo.

Am I missing something that I must have a dedicated aiminglight?

This is maybe a newbie question but, how do you avoid the backscatter if the focus light doesn't have a light sensor?

I noticed that not all the expensive focus lights have a light sensor to shut off when the strobe fires.
Maybe for macro is not an issue but what about wide angle in low light and low visibility?

Regards,
Andres.

[DuikKees]

Okee with WA in low viz and low light, I can understand that.
But I have never even thougt about using a focuslight in such conditions, I just prefocus since the depth of field of my FE is enormous.

For how long will the light shut off? In low light the shutterspeeds can be verry long.

[alanchungsf]

Hi, just want to share my experience with my Fantasea 360. I got it after reading this threat. There's good news and bad. The bad is it flooded on the very first dive of a 2 week trip. But fortunately it was not a bad flood, I was able to rescue it after soaking it in fresh water for an hour and letting it dry for the next 2 days. It came back to life with only 2 of the 36 LEDs burnt out. Even the 4 rechargable AAs were fine. So that's the good news. I think the flooding was caused by a lack of instructions. There are 2 grooves below the screw thread, and the o-ring fits either groove, so I initially put the o-ring in the groove that is closer to the battery compartment. That is the wrong choice, it should go on the other groove. I suspect some of the floodings I've read in reviews are caused by this problem. No where does the instructions say which groove should the o-ring go into. After I got it working again, I decided to be super safe and put the spare o-ring in the 2nd groove so I had 2 o-rings. But be warned it was super hard to open it even with well greased o-rings. It took 2 people and a good port wrench to unscrew it. But it stayed dry the rest of 2 weeks, even with deep dives to over 100ft.

The other good news is once I got it working, it worked great with my Nikkor 105 macro lens. It was bright and the beam pattern was wide enough that I didn't need to aim it much during my dives. In terms of battery life it is good but no where near as good as it's claim of 30 hours. I found it would get dimmer after 2-3 hours of use, and I had to recharge after 4 hours. Which is fine because that meant it lasted the whole day even if I shot only macro, and I can recharge at night.

Overall I liked the light and it really helped me get some great shots of pygmy seahorses that would have been hard without.

[rinjani]

I purchased a Bossk Big Blue 1x5 and tried it on a recent trip. It worked extremely well for me. Comes with a set of rechargable AAs which lasted through a day or diving (I turned the light off when not using it). The auto light off when it detects a strobe firing is pretty helpful. The light is very white compared to an incandescent light (and seemed to attract a lot of critters at night). For $150 I am pretty happy with it. Comes with a ball mount and was easy to mount on my rig with some extra ultrlight components.

rinjani