Night lights

[1_T_Submariner]

I use LED's. I dive only open water and carry 2 lights plus a tank light so my wife and I can tell who each other are.

 

[mightymouse3882]

HID penetrates better. I noticed in our quarry which has some setiment in the water the HID cut better whereas the LED was bright but reflected off all the setiment.

 

[mikes351]

Regardless of the time of day that I am diving, I always have at least one light tucked into my BCD pocket. When diving at night or in caverns I like to use Xenon and LED, depending upon the amount of particulate. I stress to students that it is a good practice to never be without a light...

 

[RonzoTheGreat]

HID penetrates better. I noticed in our quarry which has some setiment in the water the HID cut better whereas the LED was bright but reflected off all the setiment.

these are my words verbatim copy cat (only i spelled sediment correctly in the other thread)

 

[acqua_girl]

I think it's all about personal preference.

Couldn't agree more...

BUT you have also to consider the kind of activity (photo shooting, filming, etc) and the environment (cave, quarry, open water....).

 

[Blazinator]

If you shoot occasional video, (which I find to be some of the most crowd pleasing) then HID is best by far (especially with some kind of diffuser). My 24 watt HID was only 400 bucks, so HIDs are not totally out of budget these days (Darkbuster HID).

 

[parrothead600]

When I started looking for my first dive light, I was leaning toward the LED just for the extra battery life. Then I realized that I would be replacing the batteries once a year, wheather they needed it or not,so there was no need to spend the extra$$ for the LED. Since then, LED's have dropped in price, so there isn't much difference.
I now have 2 matching lights, one is LED the other is xenon. I personaly don't see much difference between the 2.
A couple of points in favor of the LED: There is ussually more than one element in an LED, so the chances of a total light failure are reduced. Also, LED's will retain a brighter light thru the life of the battery, where a xenon will gradually go dimmer from the moment that you turn it on.
Hope this helps

 

[Chicago-Diver]

I love my HID light hands down. On one night dive, I even had a buddy complain that it was TOO bright!

 

[Air On]

Personaly I like my Princton Shock wave LED.

Its a lot brighter then any of the other lights I've seen on night dives but not too bright.
It also has a high and low brightness setting. I've found myself puttin it on low and shading the lense with my fingers to control the beam so i'm not blinding myself or other divers.

Thats another point... I can use it above water without danger of overheating it.
I can put it against my wet suit if I need to black it out to look at biolume or sneak up on something I want a closer look at without heat issues.

Even in low vis at the local lakes I tend to just use the backup single LED light and it works fine.
I'm not an aircraft landing in fog so I don't need to see 30' out into soup.

Thats just my take on it though...

 

[PeterVV]

Personaly I like my Princton Shock wave LED.

Its a lot brighter then any of the other lights I've seen on night dives but not too bright.
It also has a high and low brightness setting. I've found myself puttin it on low and shading the lense with my fingers to control the beam so i'm not blinding myself or other divers.

Thats another point... I can use it above water without danger of overheating it.
I can put it against my wet suit if I need to black it out to look at biolume or sneak up on something I want a closer look at without heat issues.

Even in low vis at the local lakes I tend to just use the backup single LED light and it works fine.
I'm not an aircraft landing in fog so I don't need to see 30' out into soup.

Thats just my take on it though...

I agree. Also this light is relatively cheap. I liked it so much that i bought the Torrent LED as backup or day dives.