Kraken Sports Hydra Video Lights

An underwater video light, like a Kraken video light, is an essential piece of equipment for anyone interested in capturing high-quality footage while diving or snorkeling. When shooting underwater, the available light can be limited, making it difficult to accurately capture the colors and details of your subject. An underwater video light helps to illuminate the scene, allowing you to capture vibrant, lifelike footage. In addition to improving the overall quality of your footage, an underwater video light can also help to bring out the colors and details of your subject, making it easier to identify and distinguish different species. Overall, an underwater video light is a valuable investment for anyone looking to capture stunning footage while exploring the underwater world.

New in the underwater world is a brand of high end video lights, Kraken video lights, designed with the discerning videographer in mind. Gone are the days when you have to limit yourself or choose one feature over another as these lights come jam packed with a variety of functions, in a well organized package with all the options most divers could want.

About the Kraken Hydra Lights

The Kraken Sports Hydra lights offer a high quality flood beam for video shooting, spot beam for diving, signaling, red beam for focus and a UV beam as well. Easy to control with a dual button system these lights are well balanced underwater. The newer Solar Flare is a high end extremely powerful flood only video light, offering a very wide beam and high light intensity for those challenging to light conditions.

The Kraken lights offer a smooth beam with no hotspots, and a regulated output so that brightness remains the same thoughout the dive. Once the battery reaches a certain percentage, power will drop to 25% until the remainder of the battery life is cashed.

Every light offers a sealed light head to prevent water intrusion in the case of a flood. This protects the expensive circuitry and LED's helping you keep your equipment functional in the worst of cases. The lights come with two popular video mounts, a ball mount or YS mount and even include a handy carrying case for easy of packing and travel.

 

User Review

We sent a couple of Hydra 5000 lights over to customer Orvil Clark in Hawaii to test out and review, and here is what he says:

The minute you open the box you notice the really nice carrying case for the lights - then you open the case and the lights look very high end. Once you actually pick it up, it has a sturdy, well made, top of the line feel to it.  The 2 button design is great, you use 1 button for light settings ( Flood, Spot, Red and UV ) and the other for the intensity of the selected lighting option. The buttons are easy to use with or without dive gloves. The charging time of the battery is amazing, 1.5-2 hrs and they are fully charged which is such a relief as with other lights I’ve used the charging time is as much as 8 hrs. Burn time on full power was 63 minutes which is on par with running time for most all lights. The light coverage is great and the actual light produced by the Hydra 5000 is a soft-smooth light, regardless of how close you get to take the picture. Another great thing is that even when the battery level got low, the light’s intensity didn’t seem to change. One concern was the initial weight of the light, but even without using floats I really couldn’t tell a real weight different on my rig underwater. Overall I think this is a great light that far exceeded my expectations and will have no problem competing and exceeding much more established dive light makers in the industry.

Kraken Lights Options

Currently there are four Kraken video light's available. Each offers slightly different power levels and features. Choose the best one to suit your needs.

Hydra 2500 V2 - Is a small and compact video light which can also be used as a dive light or focus light. It features RGB LED for creative shooting and an auto shut-off when it senses that a strobe is fired. It uses 26800 single cell battery with built in USB C charger for a more convenient way of charging. No need to bring any battery charger cradle. It is also compatible with the Kraken Sports remote control which allows you to control your video light without lifting your finger to touch the light itself. All you have to do is mount the remote on your camera tray, and you have easy access to control one or two lights.

Hydra 4000 - The Hydra 4000 WRGBU produces 4000 lumens which is a lot for its size. It features white, red, green, blue and UV light for different types of shooting. It also has a wide beam angle of 100° underwater, has a high CRI rating of 90 and has a color temperature of 5000k. It features Burst Mode, which allows you to use the video light as a strobe.

Hydra 6000 - The Hydra 6000 WRGBU has the same body and features with the Hydra 4000 but has more power. It also has white, red, green, blue and UV LED. Burn time for this is 60 mins.

Hydra 8000 - The Hydra 8000 WRGBU is the big brother of all Hydra series video lights. If produces a whopping 8000 lumens, bult-in LCD screen which displays power & burn time left. The optional Kraken Sports Hydra 8000 dome allows you to shoot with a wider, softer, and more even beam if you love shooting wide angle.

LTD 10,000 - The powerful video light provides 10,000 lumens output and it utilizes a custom built COB LED for a smaller and lighter footprint. The light also features a high CRI rating of 90 which results to a very natural and high quality light. Operation is also very easy with its 3 button design. A simple button press would allow you to switch between modes and adjust brightness. In addition, the video light comes with a burst mode, allows you to use the video light as a strobe

Solar Flare Mini 15,000 - The Solar Flare Mini 15,000 offers 15,000 lumens output and has been designed for professional underwater videographers. It uses latest LED Technology and uses a COB LED which gives you the perfect color temperature with a very smooth light dispersion. It features 5600K color temperature and a CRI rating of 90. Also, this can also be used as a strobe with the Burst Mode functionality. Truly a light in a class of it's own. 

Kraken Video Lights - Our Thoughts

We find Kraken video lights to be very well crafted and highly recommend them for any level shooter. With the high lumen output the lights can also perform well for shooting still images. While using a constant light source will have some limitations compared to shooting with a strobe for photography, the flexibility of using one light for both purposes is great. In addition, the multi purpose use of the Hydra series, offers shoots the ability to purchase one light for both focusing and video. Easy to charge, easy to control, and small for traveling make the Kraken lights a great choice for any underwater system.