External Lighting Question For Canon ZR 85

[peplogic]

I need to get a light for my DV Camcorder. The one Canon recomends is the Canon Battery Video Light VL-10Li . It's a 10 watt light with its own battery. Does any one have any opinions on this light, or a suggestion?

Thanks

[Skyman]

This really depends on what you want to light up and how long you need the light to last. the best results are normally achieved with a larger light source light that is not mounted on the camera, however for all sorts of reasons this may not be practical. how large an area do you need to illuminate ? 10 watts is not really very powerful. at uni we used several 800w lights for each shot, and this is a relatively small amount of light. i would acutally be looking at third party lights, they tend to be better. mains power would be my preference but if this is not possible or practical then one with a belt pack battery

[peplogic]

This really depends on what you want to light up and how long you need the light to last. the best results are normally achieved with a larger light source light that is not mounted on the camera, however for all sorts of reasons this may not be practical. how large an area do you need to illuminate ? 10 watts is not really very powerful. at uni we used several 800w lights for each shot, and this is a relatively small amount of light. i would acutally be looking at third party lights, they tend to be better. mains power would be my preference but if this is not possible or practical then one with a belt pack battery

I was going to use it for two things. First to help capture my babies moments in low light. I have noticed that the video looks grainy and pixelated and I was told that was due to low light.

Second my friend asked me to catch a few wedding moments for them since I know how to do the crazy dvd authoring. Problem is this will be in extremely low light and from your post it sounds like 10 watts wont cut it. I kinda thought that cause it is mounted right on top of the camcorder and it would be like a flash light in people eyes.

Bottom line will it work for either of those scenarios?

Thanks

[Skyman]

Bottom line will it work for either of those scenarios?

Yes for the baby stuff as you can get close to your subject and the baby will not react adversely to the light (depending on their age) however it will make the wedding stuff look quite unnatural, and may not be powerful enough especially if you are a little distance from the subject.

that grainy poorly coloured look you describe is what we refer to as "gain grain" the camera can electronically amplify the signals produced by the sensor. there is a resultant loss of quality when this occurs and the effect you descibe is a perfect example. if your camera has a manual mode you can take steps to reduce the problem. if your camera will let you manually control your shutter speed then sometimes the camera will perform a little better in low light by selecting a slower shutter speed. something of around 1/50th of a second or slower should work. there is a trade off problem though, subjects in motion will apear blurred as will any camera movement you make. give it a try in a non critical environment though.

Good luck