I am off on the first snorkelling trip of the season tomorrow, so I thought I would splash out on a new toy for the trip. And what is it ?… An underwater video light.

Although you don’t really need extra light most of the time because the water is so clear (most of the time) and most snorkelling spots not so deep, sometimes you find something interesting hiding under a coral or rock ledge and do need a bit of extra light on the subject. The battery life on my underwater compact camera is not that great, and using the flash drains the power even quicker. Looking on Lazada (the Asian version of eBay ) I found several people selling the same no-name light for 1200฿, around $35, as well as another model for 750฿.

 It was the first time that I had bought anything on Lazada so I was prepared to get a dud, if it arrived at all ! It actually arrived on a Saturday, 4 days earlier than the website forecast. It seems quite well constructed so I am hopeful that it will not be a dud.

It comes with a variety of fittings for use on top of my underwater housing’s cold shoe, with GoPro fittings or mounted via a normal tripod screw attachment.

The light fits on to a handle with gopro fittings, and the gopro on top of it.

The light has 3 modes – high power, low and flashing SOS (which I hope I don’t have to use !) powered by a built in, USB-charged battery. It did not give any figures for battery life so I will have to wait and see how that goes. I’m sure it will be better than the battery on the camera though, and as I will only turn it on when going down for a look at something hiding under a ledge it should be more than enough for a day’s snorkelling. At least with a micro-USB charging cable I do not have to take yet another charger. Having to take different chargers and cables for your electronic toys can be a real PITA !

So tomorrow we are off to Ko Lipe, a.k.a. paradise, way down in the south of Thailand again and then on to Ko Phi Phi. The GF has already packed most of her stuff….which is not much. How can she get enough for nearly 2 weeks into a small carry-on bag ? 🙂 Even without my fins, mask, camera gear, etc. I would n’t be able to do that ! Guess that I should start packing though ?

Stand by for lots of fish, beach and sunset photos over the next 2 weeks 🙂