Which underwater light should I get for my Olympus Tough TG-7 or TG-6?

The Olympus TG-6/TG-7 are probably the best selling compact cameras for underwater photography ever.  They are brilliant in so many ways but no camera, not even the TG-7 can produce good images without lights.

The word Photo in Greek means light, that is the meaning of photography and the more you descend underwater the more you need it.

When divers come to me asking which camera should they get in a given budget, I first tell them to deduct the cost of lights, then with change that’s left choose the camera and housing.  I can’t emphasize enough how important that is.  You can read this article for some examples:

Now comes the ultimate decision: Photos or Videos?  or Both.

Most people choose photos and if you are like that, you should get a strobe.  A strobe is like a flash but for underwater and it’s super powerful. Even the smallest strobe power is equivalent x10 to the average video light.

The problem is when you want to shoot 80% photos and 20% videos, that makes your decision more difficult.  You have to take a couple of things into account:

1. You can shoot stills with a video light but not the other way around.
2. Carrying more than 2 lights is a bit cumbersome.

I’ve written a very good article on the consideration between video lights and strobes and I suggest to refer to that to make a decision:

Strobes vs Video Lights

What is the best video light for the Olympus TG-7?

Now, if you choose to do videos or if you want to do both, you will need to get a video light.  A video light is basically a continuous light but one with a wide beam angle that can light your entire frame.

The thing is with video lights is that they produce much less light than a strobe and you need to get very powerful ones to get good results so that’s what I will recommend:

Kraken 10,000 LTD vs Big Blue CB7200PB

Advantages of the Kraken 10,000 LTD Video Light

1. It has a spot mode (great to use as a dive light) of 1500 lumens.
2. Super powerful – 10,000 lumens
3. Comes with both a ball, YS mount and carrying case.
4. Has a CRI of 90 which means the color of the light is nice and warm and more similar to Halogen than to LED’s.

Advantages of the Big Blue CB7200PB

1. Extra wide 120 degree beam angle
2. Build in red light (great for night dives) and UV light (which is very cool)
3. Longer burn time of almost 2 hrs at max power

Just like with strobes, if you are looking to use one light only, I would go for something even more powerful such as the Kraken 15,000 WRGBU

Why did I choose the Kraken 15,000?

1. I think you need that amount of lumens with a single light.
2. It has a 120 degree beam which again is important for a single light.
3. It has a burst mode to double as a strobe of 18,000 lumens
4. It supports Red/ UV and blue lights so you get all in one.
5. It has two color temperatures so you can choose between white and warm.

One other option to consider if you want to do both video and photos would be to get one of each.  A single strobe or a single video light.   I said before it’s cumbersome but you can’t get it all and this gives you the best of both worlds. You can actually even get 2 of each by using triple clamps and splitting your arms but then you’re talking about a far more expensive setup.

See an example below:

There are dozens of different video lights and they also change all the time but that is why we have this article:

The Ultimate Guide to Underwater Video Lights

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