Are Canister Lights fading away...

[decompression]

I rarely use canister lights any more. I think we are 1 generation away from truly effective handheld LED primaries; where canister lights will be necessary only for expedition-grade, ultra long duration, caving.

I've been experimenting with a relatively cheap LED recently. It has a tight focused beam, but also spreads to a nice flat, wide beam for use with GoPro. Burn time is 2 hours - sufficient for most of the wreck penetrations I do. It's rechargeable, but you can also swap out the (surefire) battery for subsequent dives. I take 3x batteries on the boat; one for each dive and a spare. The beam is more than powerful enough for wrecks and signalling....I find that the bigger canister lights are too powerful for many wreck dives - too much backscatter and blinding. Cave divers, working in roomier areas and clearer viz might appreciate more punch.

Several of the 'tech' manufacturers now offer handheld primaries...Expect to see more and more on the market in the coming 1-5 years.

Andy, are you seeing anything really ground breaking over there that we haven't seen in North America yet? Just asking due to your geographic location.

 

[lv2dive]

A significant percentage of the dives I do require a longer burn time than I'd be comfortable with on a non-corded primary. Some dives I end up with two canisters (one for heated vest). I must admit, however, I am quite grateful that battery technology has evolved as much as it has in recent years - longer burn times in smaller packages are always welcome!!

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Curious to see if y'all are putting handles on your non corded lights. Also curious to know how you're routing the long hose.

Everyone I dive with does and we have came up several different ideas. (I would like to see how Andy Davis does it).

I guess that by the long hose you mean the reg hose. I route it under my knife sheath.

 

[DevonDiver]

Everyone I dive with does and we have came up several different ideas. (I would like to see how Andy Davis does it).

Here's my simple design that I knock-up with recreational wreck students so they can conveniently mount a hand-held when doing penetration/reel-work...

It's a 5 minute job... you just need a few inches of spare harness/weight-belt webbing, a few inches of bungee and a hot screwdriver...

 

[DevonDiver]

Andy, are you seeing anything really ground breaking over there that we haven't seen in North America yet? Just asking due to your geographic location.

Here's a video that I shot yesterday, of a wreck student practicing restrictions... the same light provides video lighting (wide beam) and spot signalling (tight beam). It's on tight beam in the video.

What do you think of the performance? Hazard a guess at the cost? (clue: it's a hand-held light).


My student, for comparison, is using a canister light....

 

[Aquavelvet]

The only time I use my handheld lights as primaries is for recreational diving in warm clear water. And that's just for the first on or two dives in the day. For all other dives I use one of my HID or LED can lights. The HID beams are still superior for penetration in murky water. Plus I prefer being able to use a light for several dives before having to find an outlet to recharge the battery.

 

[kensuf]

We're close. I think for the majority of cave divers, the hand-held lights (I'm thinking LX20 specifically) are probably sufficient. Because some of the places I've been diving benefit from the extra punch that an HID gives, I'm not quite ready to give up my canisters yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if within two years the LED technology advances to the point where I'm comfortable with moving to a hand-held.

 

[Brandon]

I've had a Salvo 21W HID for 7 years... love that light and have rebuilt it twice. I've been in the water with buddies diving LED - for me, I don't see how a cordless LED, or even a corded LED would be much of an improvement at this stage. I have the lithium battery with the remote ballast - the canister is lightweight, and the light head is small and streamlined without the ballast on there. It's plenty bright, and I'm still on the original bulb. I don't mind managing the cord, and I don't notice the canister on my hip.

At a minimum, a cordless light needs to have the burn time and brightness of my current light, and I'd want it to be as compact as my current light head. Haven't seen a LED that can pull that off yet.

 

[Bennno]

I don't think we're gonna see more big leaps in LED tech anytime soon, there is only so much light you get out of a given amount of energy. The batteries almost certainly not gonna get any better in terms of energy desity in the near future, contrary to what a lot of people believe, Li battery technologie has been around for a long time it has just gotten cheaper.
We had the technology to build Li battery lights for decades, they would have been super expensive though.
BTW: That's also what 'killed the electric' car. It's not technology or some oil company; The problem has always been the cost of batteries.

 

[Superlyte27]

Most of my dives last year, 4 hours in, I was still in the cave.

We'll get there, but we're not there yet.