Video Light for stills

I tried using one of my video lights as a light for my stills camera. I mounted it like so:

The articulated arm used to have a strobe on it but it flooded hence the need for some light!

Here are some examples of the picture, mostly in the 20-30m range, vis was pretty good at 5-10m, across multiple dives.

Crab was out in the open so no rocks to obscure the light. No particulates in the water either or very little, treated it like a strobe where you want as little of the beam in front of the lense.

White balance incorrectly set for the video light, suspect I had used it topside and not corrected to use the video light. I've dedicated a button on the Canon s95 to reset white balance, just do it before taking a series of shots.

Positioning of video light on arm all important.

Love these little fellas... nice and in focus with the light. These are old ropes on an LST tank landing ship.

Again, I think I was shooting ambient light, the vis was that good at 25m! But switching to using the video light you get the colour temperature differences..

Capstan on the Susan B. Anthony troop ship, stern. This was taken about 1m away and you can just see the light affecting the colour of the fried egg anemones. 

Starfish

Cone of light visible but its in-focus and adds context..

New double video light rig

Trying something new for a video light right. When the lights are bolted onto the side of the Goodman handle I find the backscatter to be quite noticable, so this new rig is to push the lights further away from the camera and at an angle to reduce it... Its experimental at this stage... but here goes...

Ingredients:

Loc-Line Coolant Hose Pack
Description
Standard Pack of Coolant Hose containing 2 x 5.3/4" of 1/4" hose (10 Segments),
3 Nozzles (1/16, 1/8 & 1/4")
 and
1/8" &1/4" Male NPT Connectors.
£12.76

EPDM Rubber Lined P Clips Air Hose Pipe Clamps Cable Retention Tube Clip Mikalor
( 251259923794 )
Material: W1 Mild Steel Zinc Plated DIN 3016 (PHC-**)
Sold Per: 5 (Five) Clips Pack
Size: 26mm Pipe Retaining Clamp
£3.85        for the 4000lm torch

M4 SOCKET ALLEN CAP HEAD HEX KEY SCREW BOLT A2 STAINLESS STEEL (ABOLT-FTB)
£1.35 for 10

M3 M4 M5 M6 M8 M10 M12 A4 MARINE STAINLESS NYLOC NYLON INSERT HEXAGON LOCK NUTS
( 111035553279 )
£1.20

100g Polymorph Thermoplastic

To fix the loc-line to the Goodman handle I've cut the threaded section off the loc-line base. Its quite thin so a junior hacksaw will do it easily.

Then bolted the base to the handle with the bolts threaded through the base.

Once both loc-line bases are bolted securely to the handle I made the connectors for the torches. For these I used the nozzle ends provided in the pack, choosing the two largest ones. The finished product looks like this:

To make the hole for the bolt I used a soldering iron, it could be drilled but its quite a hard polished plastic so melting a hole was a lot easier.

Passing the bolt through...

I later added a washer either side but its not shown in these photos..

To make the hose clip connection more rigid, I used a small of piece of polymorph plastic to stabalise it. Take a small piece, say a lump the size a coin, melt it in boiling water and then place it between the hose clip and the nozzle end when you tighten the bolt up. It will form into the correct shape and solidify.

You can use the soldering iron to melt the polymorph plastic around the edges to make it neater.

To plug the whole thing together, lay the loc-line pieces in boiling hot water for a few minutes and then apply a little pressure.

The torches I've used in this example are the two LED torches I've previously reviewed on my blog, one with reflector removed for video and just a normal 4000lm torch with reflector.

I've added a chord to tie the torches to the handle, just in case the loc-line is not strong enough. Its 1/4" loc-line, out of water is seems a little flimsy but I'm hoping in water it will be ok. Its the same as the Ikelite kit.

I over tightened one of the nozzle heads and cracked it, so i'm going to reinforce them with some liquid metal or resin.. not done that yet.

First outing this week...

OK, the arms work really well, the connections stayed tight and secure for 6 dives. In the water they support the weight of the torches fine. Out of water they move a little.

The non-modified torch with its reflectors still in, was no good for video, hot spot ruined the video.

The video camera also developed a nasty fault of not turning on... so not to successful!

My 3mm gloves got ripped by the bolts connecting the arms to the goodman handle, so I think the bolts need to be reduced in length.

3x CREE XML U2 LED 4000Lm Dive Light Tear Down for a new video Light

Bought off ebay a triple XML torch for £30. It came from a UK seller and so arrived in 2 days but suspect it could be sourced more cheaply from China..

I'm following this thread as a lot of the hard work has already been done...

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?370370-Ebay-quot-4000-lm-quot-quot-120m-quot-Dive-Light/page2

Here goes then:

 #1 Remove the chrome Bezel, I used some long nose pliers.. it will move but its very very tight...

This leaves the glass lense jammed in with an o-ring across the top. I used my nails to pluck the o-ring out.

The lense fell out with a little vigorous banging of the light head onto the floor. The LED module can then be pushed from the inside of the lighthead and it just falls out.

There is another smaller o-ring inside the light head, the glass sits on this and hence there is an o-ring above and below. You can easily miss this lower o-ring. I've left it in-situe as I'm not sure I can get it back in again.

Here is a top view of the LED module, the spring is in the centre and the hall effect sensor sits in a small groove in the metal casing. Interestingly, there is only one sensor while the slider knob, is pushed forward to make the light intensity increases. My only thought is that the magnet(s) in the slider has some sort of coding/positioning inside to indicate position on the length of the slide? Its seem to increase the light output based on the strength of the magnetic field, as you slide the magnet along it gets closer to the hall effect switch. Feels like 10 increments to full power?

There is a small knurled ring to keep the Slider magnet in place, this can be unscrewed enough to let the magnet come out. Might be tricky putting in back in.

The Light steps through 7-8 power steps as you push the slider forward.

To Disassemble the LED module, push a screw driver in the small slot opposite the hall effect sensor.

The reflector piece for the LED module can be detached by unscrewing it from within the LED module.

Once you have disconnected the reflector module, the LEDs are visible. These seem to be stuck to a washer liberally coated in heatsink compound.

Other observations:

I measured 2.26A on full power at the tail.

Alignment of the magnet slider and the hall effect switch is done by the LED module only fitting in two ways and its always aligned correctly, there are two notches on the module to align it.

The Magnet slider switch can be removed by unscrewing the knurled ring, pushing it back over the o-ring a little and pulling the slider out.

This is the underside of the switch, its got a small rubber insert which gives it the resistance when you push it back and forth.  After  a while I found the switch to stick, put some silicon grease in the slot, this seems to sort it.

Run times:

Initial test show:-

On TrustFire 2500mAh batteries from Dealxtreme, the light lasted ~36 mins...

On Xtar 2600mAh batteries from Amazon, the light lasted ~52 mins.

The lights don't gradually go out, they go off immediately.
The Trustfire are not 2500mAh, suspect they are a lot lower...
Need to double check all these time.. with another run...
I use my test rig here :- http://johnohuk.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Torch%20burn%20time

Note the torch and sensor barely fit in the bucket.

Dived this weekend and noticed that the slider switch is impossible to feel in a pair of 7mm mitts, you just can't feel the knob, just have to rotate the light making the motion and hoping it engages and turns off.

It also started to flicker like mad after ~35mins full on use, it was so distracting (like a strobe) I had to turn it off. This makes me think it dies in different ways depending on the battery type (trustfires in this case xtars) . I'll do some more tests.

With the reflector in, its quite a floody light but because of its overall power it does throw a lot more that my other Chinese torch.

Pool shots of this triple XML light ( on left ) and the single version ( on right) with reflectors still in...

Triple light...

Single XML, much tighter beam below...

Single XML again..

Triple XML, less defined spot but much brighter..

All shots on manual 1/80 sec , f2.8, 1000 ISO, Canon S95 with Inon UWL-H100, FOV: 100.8° underwater.

Took it diving last week to 29m ( 95ft) and it was fine, vis was around 1-2m and it was dark, I actually prefered this light to my other Chinese single XML light.. The wider beam was actually more useful at this close range, wasn't much point have a long throw narrow beam.. Only issue for me is you need true >2600mA batteries to get an hour out of it ( two dives in my experience). Cheap batteries and it won't last the day..

In use at low viz... 28m..

Underwater Video Light - Dual light for Sony Action Cam

After the success of my single video light ( with reflector removed) I modded another identical light to fix a number of issues I discovered i.e. a small shadow in the top right corner and add a little more power..

So, I've added an identical light to the other side and moved the lights further closer to the camera itself by attaching them further up the handle.

The second light was modified in a similar way to the first, only the shape of the metal plate is different... rather a square rather than a strip in the first. Still jammed in rather than fixed in any way.

Used the same clip as before, using a bit of inner tube to provide a little extra friction, underwater I found the lights moving when I turned them on/off. From ebay :

EPDM Rubber Lined P Clips Hose Pipe Clamp Cable Wiring Metal & Stainless Mikalor, 27mm pipe fitting.

Going diving next week and will post the results...

Update : Made a slight mistake in diving with the camera set to slow mo which ruined my videos, slow mode underwater is not a good idea.. The camera also flooded on day #2 so i didn't get much shooting done. Did get this clip with the dual light though :-

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mae-2lmHQNo&feature=share&list=UUO66gb-TgVML3FtDPmxqX7w

Update: Another version of this set-up...

http://johnohuk.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/new-double-video-light-rig.html

Dive Light - Part #9 - Maglite - Another go and still leaks...

So tried the single 3mm O-ring on the front and letting the lense rest on the head. Result was that it leaked in exactly the same way as the last time. Small drops between the lense and the drop-in. Still works but not sure for how long.

This time I got 4 dives out of it at 32m ( 105ft) max, there was a slight flicker from the light but it didn't go out...

The only other thought I have is that the leak is coming from where the body and head screw together..

So might try the liquid casket in there or a slightly bigger O-ring, I know 2.5 is too big and it has a 2mm in there at the moment...Maybe even double up on the 2mm rings..?

Some other issues, the light fell out of the clamp and I nearly lost the goodman handle.

The plastic ring with the magnet slipped off and I found it halfway down the cable.

The maglite holder actually snapped, i needed to wrap an old inner tube around the light to stop it slipping in the holder, this increased the diameter of the maglite and this put too much pressure on the maglite holder, so one side snapped off, groan.

Dive Light - New O-rings setup, to cure small flooding..

I'm thinking that, under pressure, the lense might have pushed back into the torch and let water in. I based this on the fact that my lense might of been resting on an o-ring that would have had some give in it.. like so:-

Its a bit difficult to tell what's happening inside but when the o-ring behind the lense, is presented to the torch head, its lining up directly with the head wall, where it goes when I tighten it up, is anybody's guess.. But my thinking is, thats the lense is not resting on a solid/ immovable wall/surface, which could allow it to move under pressure. To make the lense rest on an immovable wall/surface, I changed the design to:

I've removed the inner o-ring to allow the lense to sit on the head wall and have increased the diameter of the outside one to 3mm..

The front 3mm O-ring might be too big as you can see quite a bit of it from the front when tightened up.

I've a 2.5mm section O-ring which I might also try at the front.

The 2.5mm O-ring is too big to go on the body, so the 2mm one is still there.

The lense is still the stepped one, but ideally, it would be better to have one without the step.

When the smaller diameter lense sits inside the head walls.. the bezel can screw further down onto the head which might also help water tightness..maybe!

This is now in testing. Overnight bucket test ok, 4m pool test ok and this weekend 30m dive.

Disaster Strikes (almost) - Torch has water in it..

Ok, first sea dive of 2013 this weekend.... 27m ( 88ft) in to the English Channel for the Broderick off Hastings... 7 degress water temp.

Torch worked fine for the duration of the dive and out performed the UK Light cannon and Green Force umbilical easily...

Used it throughout the dive with no issues but back on deck noticed a little water on the inside of the lense... Still worked but decided to stop using it there and then.

On opening it at home, the water seems to be between the drop-in and the lense... nothing behind near the electronics or cable gland...

So, it was ok at 15m in the lake... and now at 27m not so good.... I did drag it through the sand and generally not look after it... so not sure if depth or I knocked it... Even so.... not the spec I want..