LED light fixtures and selection criteria for underwater video inspections

The advancements in light emitting diodes (LED) technology in the last 15 years, especially with the introduction of white high powered LEDs, have had a significant impact in the design of light fixtures. The main advantages of LED based lighting; efficiency, ruggedness and lifetime, directly benefit underwater lighting needs. Since LEDs are a relatively new technology in the illumination world, and because there are many steps required for their integration into an underwater light fixture, the characterization of light fixtures in terms of performance can be very confusing. The objective of this paper is to explain and clarify the main selection criteria for underwater LEDs in the context of underwater video inspections.