Are Canister Lights fading away...

[PfcAJ]

Your primary light is one of the most important pieces of cave diving equipment. Having your primary light tethered to you so it's almost impossible to lose it is one of the big advantages to a canister light. Also why I don't like EO cords.

I think this is really important. Losing a primary light would suck.

Sometimes you can reach down and pick it up, but a lot of times you can't.

 

[tbone1004]

it's not the LED technology, it's the battery technology that is limiting the move to can-less lights, simple as that. The LED's can throw significantly more light than HID's and they can do it in a tighter beam at the right color temp, the issue is you don't actually need that laser beam most of the time and it causes the heads to be longer, so an 8-10* beam is sufficient for most diving since total lumens is what you need to really punch. In particulate the light can only go so far no matter how bright or how tight of a beam it is, it will only ever go so far due to the particulate

 

[undrwater]

it's not the LED technology, it's the battery technology that is limiting the move to can-less lights, simple as that. The LED's can throw significantly more light than HID's and they can do it in a tighter beam at the right color temp, the issue is you don't actually need that laser beam most of the time and it causes the heads to be longer, so an 8-10* beam is sufficient for most diving since total lumens is what you need to really punch. In particulate the light can only go so far no matter how bright or how tight of a beam it is, it will only ever go so far due to the particulate

So, in the "Cave Diving" forum, I might agree with you, assuming I were a cave diver. I wish this were not in this particular forum, because I could, with experience, disagree with you.

I'm using a 10w Salvo HID in our local mud hole, and regardless of the "fancy" LED lights that accompany me (they do a great job of illuminating the first 3' or so of salt water), my light still outdistances theirs. Perhaps I'll start the same thread in another forum.

 

[Germie]

I don't think so. I bought a couple of months another cannister light. Why: burntime. I have now one which burns 12-15 hours.
And there is another thing I like with a cannisterlight: The cable.
My backuplights are not bad and bright enough, but I prefer to use a cable light as primary.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

So 2/3 use can lights - 1/3 hand helds. That is about what I see at the dive sites.
I have used them exclusively for several years now. Jon Bernot told me his Dive-Rite can light battery lasted for 12-13 hours on that last long dive at Cathedral...that is impressive. (The battery and the dive).

The punch my HID lights make in the cave is great and I do miss that as well as a super place to tuck the long hose. I just plugged the battery in for my HID can light & will dive it again...

 

[StefinSB]

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...

Took me 15min ;-) thanks for the nice idea.

 

[Aquavelvet]

I find it interesting to see what the examples are for the handheld lights that might replace a can light. For example, the manufacturer of the LX20 chooses to rate the brightness in LUX rather than lumens. However, given that it uses a single LED, it's going to be a variant of the XM-L2 (U2 bin) which is basically a 1000 lumen emitter. While it benefits from a well-designed focusing system, it's not going to out-perform one of the higher power LED can lights, and it certainly won't have the burn time due to the limitations of only housing four 18650 li-ion batteries. This is essentially the equivalent of my Hollis LED15 can light, the one I use for recreational warm water trips as I mentioned earlier. And it costs more.

When I'm cave diving, I use a 1500 lumen LED can light with a 12 Volt, 15 Amp-hr battery. It's gone for two full days of intensive cave training without being recharged. (It's the light visible in my avatar.) There's no question which I would rather have with me for cave diving. For recreational use, I supplement the LED15 with a Greenforce Tristar and the Hybrid 2 battery pack. I also like the looks of the new DGX 800 handheld, and have considered adding that to my equipment, for 1/10th the cost of the LX20.

 

[tbone1004]

Aquavelvet, that's why I'm in the camp of use 3 different backup lights in a spot beam instead of the LX20 and save $400. Keep a spare battery top side and swap them out and as soon as they die or start fading, stow it and get a new one out. Bit more work, but a lot less money and no real significant drop in light output.

 

[victorzamora]

I find it interesting to see what the examples are for the handheld lights that might replace a can light. For example, the manufacturer of the LX20 chooses to rate the brightness in LUX rather than lumens. However, given that it uses a single LED, it's going to be a variant of the XM-L2 (U2 bin) which is basically a 1000 lumen emitter. While it benefits from a well-designed focusing system, it's not going to out-perform one of the higher power LED can lights, and it certainly won't have the burn time due to the limitations of only housing four 18650 li-ion batteries. This is essentially the equivalent of my Hollis LED15 can light, the one I use for recreational warm water trips as I mentioned earlier. And it costs more.

What's interesting to me is that our guesses are close but I can't agree completely. It's certainly an XM-L variant, but checking the wattage and burn time specs it's not even being over-driven. I have the math somewhere, but my best guess is that it's putting out less than 700lm before the glass and notably less than that out the front. I bought some cheap chinese handhelds (like $30 shipped with two batteries and a charger) that had an over-driven XM-L and was notably brighter in the cave. I can't imagine canisters going anywhere in the next few years.

 

[tbone1004]

what he said, I have the same light, though the battery i think is dead, but even the Hog Morph 1000's and Cave Adventurer Explorers are putting out comparable light to the LX20. Albeit with a much shorter burn time due to 1 18650 instead of 4, but for $700, I can buy 5 of them and a full set of extra batteries and a nice charger, so I'll take that over the LX20 any day