orakei diver 0 Posted June 2, 2012 Hi all, my sea and sea camera just died so am looking at getting a G12 with Ikelite housing. Over the years I have found strobes a bit of a pain (cords only working with particular housings or strobes, changing cameras but strobe not working on new camera, strobes not firing all the time etc.) So i was thinking of getting a decent LED torch/light instead. I've seen people doing it but are they dreaming or is it a real option. I'm not a serious photographer and this camera system maybe the last i get (getting to long between dives to warrant any more expense). One other option is i have a sea and sea ys-27 DX strobe, is there any way to get this to work on a ikelite housing?Any help is appreciated Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Timmoranuk 10 Posted June 2, 2012 The opportunities to effectively use an LED light rather than a strobe are going to be limited to macro and not wide angle, unless you are prepared to spend a heap on very powerful (5000 lumens plus) wide FOV lights. Even these very powerful LED lights are less powerful than the highest priced strobes. Constant source lighting does have some advantages in that its very easy to assess the 'modelling' of the illumination on the subject and with two dimmable lights, you can adjust the modelling very creatively. However on the downside, many subjects are going to back away from bright lights shining in their faces, backscatter can be a greater problem to resolve than when using strobes and the lights can attract plankton clouds which will make photography impossible. At night, I've also found that constantly 'on' lights attract schools of lionfish which always seem to position themselves directly between the camera and your chosen subject... A flick on the tail-fin sends them packing but only for a minute or two. Your investment in a G12 and Ike housing deserves a half decent strobe, and probably a better one than the YS-27. A flagship model would be the INON S2000 or some of the medium priced Sea & Sea strobes. You'll be able to sync these using the G12's on-board flash and a fibre-optic cable. A small focus light would also be very useful too. HTH, Tim Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
orakei diver 0 Posted June 3, 2012 Thanks for the advice Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aliens 3 Posted June 6, 2012 Something nice and bright and wide like the SOLA 1200 works very well Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimSwims 31 Posted June 6, 2012 Something nice and bright and wide like the SOLA 1200 works very well Hi Terri, can you provide a link to some of your images to qualify that statement for the OP? Cheers, Jim. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
derway 2 Posted June 7, 2012 In order to use constant lights, you have to use a higher ISO, to make up for loss of the very short, very intense light from a strobe. Otherwise, you will be shooting very slow shutter speeds, and everything that moves will be blurred. The g12 may not have a big enough sensor, to really pull this off. Probably, the iso 800 and 1600 is too noisy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Packhorse 0 Posted June 13, 2012 I use LED lighting. ( just now starting to use strobes) I have a 4000 lumen "ring of light". What has been said above pretty much sums it up. Pros. Constant light source so what you see is what you get. Great for macro Cons. Does not match the power of strobes Can scare some life away No good for wide angle shots. Light and battery pack adds bulk to the rig. If done right you can end up with a very good lighting package. But I have not seen anything commercially available that comes close to my set up. http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=41884 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
