Wednesday 17 April 2019

A11 wide beam video light

This well designed and super powerful LED video light is a real surprise for the price.

The advertising says it's 20,000 lumen! Seems a lot for a mid sized light but it is very bright.

Requires 4 x 18650 button top LiPo batteries.

It produces a very bright unfocussed light with no hot spot. There are 3 power levels, which is great because full power is too bright for close ups, and 4 red LEDs and 4 Blue LEDs.

The red is used for still camera focus assist, without disturbing the marine life, and the blue is for UV fluorescence (maybe).

The coloured LEDs can also be mixed with the main white LEDs for subtle colour balance changes. There is also a red flashing mode which makes a great rescue beacon.

Solid alloy construction with 2 o-rings, and includes 4 spare o-rings, lubricating grease, ball mount and large handle mount with hex wrench.


Review video



For this shallow pier dive I used it wth an SJCAM SJ7 Star action cam in a Telesin 6" dome housing, with an SJ8 Pro for cut away footage.


Banggood Purchase links

Monday 15 April 2019

Telesin 6" dome housing for SJCAM

Using a dome housing can let you capture split level stills and video. It also gives an unmagnified underwater field of view and less colour fringing, unlike flat housings.

This is the Telesin 6" dome housing for SJCAM SJ7 and SJ6 cameras. Banggood product page


Review video



Here are some results from surface snorkelling in the Pt Lonsdale shallows.


Screengrabs from the 4K video









Sunday 17 February 2019

Action cameras underwater

Action Cameras, like the SJCAM SJ8 Pro and SJ7 Star, record superb quality 4K 30fps video. Although they will never replace a large sensor video camera with manual controls, they are very impressive and convenient for underwater use.

Videos from St Leonards Pier showing off the 4K results. 
View in YouTube using Chrome for best 4K experience, Safari does not support 4K video

SJ8 Pro camera at 4K 30fps. 
Colour Balance - Auto (would be better as CLOUDY) 
with colour and contrast adjustments in Final Cut



Testing the Crelant VD90 LED flashlight
 with diffusers and 80A colour correction filter.
 SJ8 Pro main camera, SJ7 Star cut-aways. Both at 4K 30fps
Colour Balance - CLOUDY. Exposure -2/3EV




XiaoMi Mijia and ThiEye T5e 4K cameras at 1080 30fps
Colour Balance - AUTO. Adjusted in Final Cut