Need suggestions for underwater video light

Other Types of Lights Diving Lights
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This isn’t really for a “dive light”, but for an underwater light that will pair with a GoPro, to video whatever creatures I can find at night in the lakes here in Michigan. It’s usually a variety of curious fish that come right up to the camera, crayfish, leeches, and even beavers.

I’ve been using a rig I made which currently holds a Zebralight SC600, and it actually works pretty good. But I am always looking for improvements.

These are the things I am looking for:

  1. Brighter than the Zebralight
  2. Wide flood of light
  3. Compact, but ok with it being a bit larger than Zebralight
  4. Must take cells that I can replace while searching, so no lights that are designed only for recharging as a unit.
  5. MUST be 100% waterproof. There are several lights that look like they might be good choices, but I am very skeptical of whether their switches are actually waterproof, or whether their charging ports are waterproof. E.g. some of the Olights claim to be waterproof but the USB-C cover plate is just a flap with NO rubber seal at all. How can this be waterproof?
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None of “regular lights” will work, you need a dive light. rubber switch boots, most o rings, usb port cover will leak in a regular lights, that are not designed to be submerged deep for long, IP ratings show how water resistant lights are, but for completely watertight light that you can dive 10+ feet, and actually run underwater, you need a dive light. regular lights water resistance may be good enough against rain, dropping them in few feet of water for a short time… but not for what you looking for. Don’t waste your money on trying different lights and finding out they leak, maybe not the first dive but second or third, when you get deep enough, or stay down there long enough, they will leak. get yourself a real dive light and use it for years.

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A typical dive light has a minimum number of parts in the housing. One opening is good enough to put in a battery. Look for a double set of O-rings, also in axial direction.

Generally it has no rubber switch, those tend to be activated just by the water pressure.
Most of them have a “lever” or a slide with a magnet in it on the outside and a “receiving coil” on the inside. A two piece body is better than a three piece body.

They certainly have no USB-ports with a rubber flap. I don’t know if there are " induction" charged lights on the market, but anything penetrating the body shell is off limits (imho).

And like other “tools”, clean your light thoroughly (with fresh water) after every dip. Especially salt water is corrosive at its best. On top of that you have to consider galvanic corrosion when the ano on your light gets slightly damaged. That’s why ships have sacrificial anodes on their hull’s and other places.

One of your main concerns should be the actual rating. It’s fine to gently lower a light into a pool and leave it there and say: look ma, ten feet. Working conditions,with movements and waves are much more tough than that. It’s like your regular watch: 100m guaranteed means you can take a shower, maybe even swim with it. But don’t consider it to be a dive watch (or light).

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I do understand what you are saying but I have been using a Zebralight for many years now, with zero problems. But Zebralights don’t have the USB-C port either, so less chance of leaking. Just looking for something a bit brighter.

I don’t actually “dive”. I have a pole that I use from my kayak, with a homemade rig that holds the light under the GoPro. So probably the deepest would be 8 feet deep.

I have bought two different “dive lights” in the past, but they were not nearly as bright as the Zebralight. And the ones that have more lumens are crazy expensive. Hence why I am thinking of just using a more modern version of a light similar to Zebralight, only with more lumens.

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Thanks. Yeah, I do have a couple “dive lights”. One has a simple on-off magnetic switch, which I love. The other is a simple twisty with several O-rings, which works great. But neither of them are nearly as bright as my Zebralight which has never leaked.

I was just hoping to find another non “dive light” like a Zebralight, only with more lumens for around the same price.

All the “dive lights” that are brighter are also 3 times the price as a Zebralight. So I am wondering if maybe somebody makes a light as bright as the Olight Seeker 4 Pro, but without any charging ports.

I did notice that Zebralight does have the SC700 but thought there would be other brands with a more up-to-date LED. But it looks like every brand is now “rechargeable” with the integrated charging ports.

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Armytek wizard C2 pro max. Extremely wide beam. If you want a little more reach but still a pretty wide beam go for the Pro Max LR. They are both available in 4000k or 6000k ish.
Double o-rings on the tail cap and magnetic charging so there are no openings for water intrusion. Rated for 10 meters.

Or look at their Elf C2 Max that has an internally sealed type-c port that is still rated to 10 meters. That one is only available in cold white at this time.

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Thanks a bunch! I will check them out.

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The wizard line gives you more mode options.
I have no doubt that it would sustain turbo 1 under water without dropping down until the battery is 3/4 drained.
These are the cold white specs on the max.

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177463038387334385712217635496241920×1080 386 KB

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RRight, 4000lm for 3h 15 min, no effing way, 15 min I’ll believe, but no more, it would either dim on thermal protection, but even if we assume heat is no issues, cuz under water it is not, there is no energy in that cell to run that long, 21700 is 18whr, xph70.2 or .3 which is what they use in that light, makes 4000lm at about 40w, the math does not add up at all. not to mention that company has been caught lying multiple times.

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I think you’re missing something.
They claim it will step down to 900 lumens after 50 seconds on turbo 2.
It claims it will step down from turbo 1 after 12 minutes to 900 lumens.
I suspect if you start on turbo 1 (1300 lumens) it won’t step down underwater and you would probably get near 2 hours before the battery is 3/4 empty. I haven’t looked up the amp draw but I could measure it tomorrow. I suspect somebody has tested it. Maybe it’s not really putting out 1300 lumens on turbo 1.
Either way he’s going to get more light and longer run times than the zebra light that he’s currently using.

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Yea I missed that 900lm “fine print” but still not seeing any point. he only has 50 seconds of 4000lm, then it drops to what his current ZL makes. turbos are on timer, whether hot or cold, high mode can run as long as temperature allows. He needs something that makes 4000lm or so on high, so it stays 4000 as long as he makes videos.

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It’s a bit frustrating when reading all the “Turbo” specs because it leads one to believe that the light can actually sustain that output for a reasonable amount of useful time. In reality, some of those “Turbo” times are a joke.

Imagine a light that claims 15,000 lumens but it only lasts for 5 seconds.

I think you have a good understanding of what my needs are, but given that my current ZL starts out with 1,700 lumens, and works pretty good, I was thinking that even 3,000 lumens would be a major improvement.

But I am also wondering, will a 3,000 lumen light from anther brand, which steps down faster, actually be any better than a ZL that starts out with 1,700 lumens, which steps down slower. It’s that step down period that keeps me from just buying based on lumens.

I also should have mentioned that I generally only record video for 2-5 minutes at a time. And the water is typically in the 50-75 degree range. So a nice broad flood of light, around 2,500 lumens or more, if possible, for about 5 minutes, is all I need.

My current set up is made for a handheld flashlight (forward facing). I hadn’t really considered a headlight, but given that headlights are more likely to have a floody beam, I suppose I may need to redesign my rig, which would allow more options like the Armytek.

I just thought that someone might know of a brand of handheld flashlight that was very similar to the ZL models, which does not have a charging port integrated into the side of the light.

I have yet to see a charging port cover that I would feel confident in while submerged in water, despite their claims of them handling up to 6 foot depths. Especially this latest Olight that I got. It’s just a flip lid with no seal at all. How could it possibly be rated for being submersible?

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I know nothing about dive lights, but I found this specialty diving equipment supplier for your consideration.

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Thanks!

Looks like all but one of their lights are shaped more like a Sky Ray King, which, for what I am doing, won’t work.

They do have one that is closer to the size I need, but it’s only 2200 lumens, assuming they are being honest.

The problem I face is that what I am doing is not actually “diving”, and therefore most “dive lights” simply are too big and heavy. What I do is not common. Ha!

The two “dive lights” I have tried, which had the perfect shape and size, simply were not bright enough.

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To double visible output, you need at least 3x of lumens, the way our eyes perceive light is not linear, and that is in the air, under water that number needs to be even higher.

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Thanks! I just learned something new. Much appreciated.

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I just realized I missed another detail, you will not be looking with your eyes, you will be looking thru a camera’s ccd array, which does not work like our eyes do, however with so many manufacturers making them, there is no way to know how your will react until you try.
Also digital cameras have exposure adjustment settings, EV it usually goes from -2 to +2 some cameras go to -3+3, try to adjust your sensor sensitivity with it, also you can raise ISO settings in your camera to make your sensor more sensitive, play with those, you may not need a new light if you can make your picture brighter with those settings, but keep in mind, higher ISO rating will make the array more sensitive, but it will also make video more grainy, so try EV settings first, this setting works a bit different and does not affect picture quality as ISO, keep ISO either on auto, or below 200.
However not all cameras have those settings available in a video mode, all have it in pic. mode but not video. See if that is something you can adjust with your camera, if it is a simple cam you may not have that ability, so back to plan A

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What would happen if we used those pupil dilating drops to lock the eyeball aperture? Would our brightness perception still be logarithmic?

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Good question.
There was a tribe/community in South America that lived in underground caves complex as big as a city, hundreds of years ago, there was no evidence of any torches found, so archeologists wondered how they lived in total darkness. at the same time in the same region there was a ritual that used some unknown drug, still practiced today by some, that would make you see in a dark as it was a day, some researchers tried it, and it does work, so they now believe those people were on that drug that allowed them to see in a pitch black caves. Seems like certain drugs can do quite a lot to alter how we normally perceive light,

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I did some testing last night with that wizard pro max.
I had the head and one quarter of the battery tube submerged in approximately 55° f water. It was a large yogurt plastic container. I obviously couldn’t submerge the whole thing because I was holding on to the wire to be able to measure the amps. I did the test with the armytek battery and with an Eve 58E 21700 battery. I got identical results.

I started it on turbo 2 and ran them both for three and a half minutes. They both started at around 9.4 amps and within 30 seconds or so they were up to and dancing around 10 amps for the remainder of the test.

I did not measure the battery temperature but I did feel both of them with the back of my fingers when I pulled them out and they might have been near 80° f. But that’s without most of the battery tube being submerged. That’s actually a perfect temperature for battery discharging.

So for your application I would say you could probably ignore any step down information with probably almost all flashlights.

One further issue though is you say you want a “wide floody” beam. I’m not familiar with that zebra light.
If the beam does go any wider than you’re going to need even more lumens to see the same distance straight out that you are currently seeing. But maybe you are after a wider field of view to find these things as you’re rotating around??? Are you currently looking straight down or out to the sides?

I believe just about all armytek lights are rated for 10 m underwater and some are rated for more.
The wizard c2 pro max is probably going to be one of the widest beams out there of almost any light.
The Pro Max LR is still pretty wide but will give you a little bit more distance. I don’t think armytek makes any straight flashlights with a wide beam without some sort of a spot with the 21700 battery. And that means most of the lumens are going into the spot.
Maybe a bit of a spot wouldn’t really be a bad thing. You wouldn’t know unless you tried it. But if you want to get them in close to the camera then I guess reach and a spot is not critical.

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