Taking the Video:
Once it was dark and the coral polyps were out, our dive began. Over the corals, I turned off all white lights and turned on the Light Cannon with the Blue Exciter Filter. To my surprise, almost all the corals fluoresced. It was an eerie sight. I approached different kinds of corals and first took video of the corals with the blue light and yellow BlueBlock Filter. Flipping the yellow BlueBlock filter out of the way and turning off the blue light, I then took video with white light.

Anemone Fluorescing with Blue Light

Anemone with White Light
Corals at top page with White Light

As you look at the frames which were captured from the video you can see the fluorescence vividly. We explored the reef looking for other marine life that fluoresced besides the corals. Anemones will fluoresce as seen here.

Overall the experience was enlightening and well worth the expense and effort to take video of fluorescing marine life. As we get more experience with the technique, we will eventually put together a Fluorescent Corals Video which will appear in Wonders of the Sea Part Two. Look for that video in 2003.

For more information on Fluorescent Coral Video, check out the NightSea website.

A Note on the Underwater Kinetics Light Cannon 100. This is one of the most impressive underwater lights which I have ever used. The HID lamp may be the reason. Although only 10 watts, it light up the reef. It can be used as a night dive light or a video light (comes with a diffuser filter). I am using it as a backup to my video lights which only have a life of 45-50 minutes. It comes with either Alkaline C-cells or Nicad rechargeable batteries. I chose the Alkaline for price reasons, but the burn time on a set of batteries is over five hours. You can convert to Nicads if you change your mind later. Another plus is that it can be used in or out of water. Great when trying to find everything after a night dive.