It’s funny – it seems like all of the sponsors of the scholarship are on the cutting edge of their area of the industry. Lucky for me, when I visit them I get to see what’s coming next year and what new products will change the way we explore and experience the oceans. Lucky for you, I’m happy to give a sneak peek!
After my rebreather course, I made my way up to Monterey to see the great folks at Light & Motion and to attend the BLUE Ocean Film Festival as their guest. Light & Motion has been an innovator in the field of underwater videography with their non-penetrating infrared camera controls and professional-grade, compact housings for consumer-level cameras which I’ve been using since long before this year. Recently, however, they’ve been focusing on revolutionizing the way we light our underwater scenes with their new line of Sola underwater lights. What’s so different about these video lights is that they’re completely self-contained. That means no battery pods and no pesky cables – just a compact, high-output light that’s durable and easy to use. The first generation of these lights, the Sola 600’s, were more geared towards photographers as focus lights, with their red-light option which would allow a camera to focus without scaring away the critters. With a 600 lumen output, they were best equipped for macro videography. In addition to the original focus lights, the new line of Sola’s will offer a 1200 lumen video light and eventually a 4000 lumen video light; double the output of the current Sunray 2000X’s, which are still tethered to battery pods! And to top it all off, they’re going to be introducing a line of Sola dive lights for divers interested in getting the most out of their night dives. I’ve got a pair of Sola 600’s that I’ll be testing out, so stay tuned for more updates!
