Best Dive light feature: YES or NO!

[KeithG]

I have been looking at upgrading my divebuddy's ancient huge and heavy RCD8 and am slowly learning about the modern world of dive lights. I recently made 2 purchases: 1 really bad, 1 really good (thanks Jim Lapenta!).

This was done after a review of many old threads where people jumped up and claimed to be able to identify "the world's best" light. My conclusion was that 1 size does not fit all. Different lights for different uses.

BUT: Some features should prevail. Or not?

I thought it would educational (or maybe at least a little entertaining? especially if we can get some bickering going) if we had a different type of thread where people got to discuss dive light "features" as opposed to specific dive light "models".

So I ask: What is the best and worst dive light feature you have encountered?

I will start with a few of my own "opinions"...

a) Twist to turn on - worst feature ever, if it also unscrews the light in any way shape or form. My divebuddy has unscrewed everything I own when attempting to turn them on. Lefty loosy, righty tighty is too hard to remember. This feature is a non starter for any dive light for me. I require a light with a switch. My elcheapo light had a magnet operated ring that was way to easy to flip off.

b) 1 dive battery life - worst feature ever. Her RCD8 use 8 D cells (approx 97 lbs weight?) and can last a whole week of night dives on a single set of batteries with no visible drop off in light. So around 7 hours. We open it once per trip. Unfortunately, most of the new small LED jobs seem to run around 1 hour at high power. I am not sure that high power is required?

c) Battery power indicator - What? Why? Okay, very useful if you do not expect to get a full week out of 1 battery charge. So YES! Required on the new generation of "compact" lights that will not go the whole week.

d) Selectable light levels - very useful if your light puts out too much light. Or you need a light for different conditions. Even in high viz caribbean diving we can use 2 different light levels: watch the fish & where's the boat? So selectable light levels becomes a nice to have, but not a deal killer.


Discuss...

 

[Subcooled]

a) Light switches break, twist-to-turn-on lights do not [lost $150 because of this] and the light switches are hard to operate with gloves. I can almost imagine a PADI Light diver specialty

b) Agree. If you get an Underwater Kinetics SL4 with four C-cells then it won't run out of power in one our. Three cell options include offerings from Tektite or Heser tauchteknik. Plenty of choice actually - you just need to find the correct lights.

c) May be usefull. I use rechargeables and recharge them anyway.

d) Agree. Nice to have but not necessary.

You got 75% correct

Do you prefer a 4 degree search light or a 10 degree beam or a 90 degree video light? Or a diffuser disc? An adjustable beam width would be really really usefull, but then again, you pay HIDeous amounts of money for that.

 

[buddhasummer]

a) Light switches break, twist-to-turn-on lights do not [lost $150 because of this] and the light switches are hard to operate with gloves. I can almost imagine a PADI Light diver specialty

b) Agree. If you get an Underwater Kinetics SL4 with four C-cells then it won't run out of power in one our. Three cell options include offerings from Tektite or Heser tauchteknik. Plenty of choice actually - you just need to find the correct lights.

c) May be usefull. I use rechargeables and recharge them anyway.

d) Agree. Nice to have but not necessary.

You got 75% correct

Do you prefer a 4 degree search light or a 10 degree beam or a 90 degree video light? Or a diffuser disc? An adjustable beam width would be really really usefull, but then again, you pay HIDeous amounts of money for that.

unless it's an MB-sub light X1 or VB

 

[Damselfish]

a) I'm not crazy about twist to turn on either, even though it does have the advantage of simplicity.

b) I care more about small and light since I travel. If this means I have to change batteries occasionally on a week trip I'm fine with that, though with LED lights I often don't have to. (And I stick mostly to rechargeable AA batteries to cut down on weight. Even in a C cell light, I use AAs and adapters.)

c) I've never even seen a battery indicator on a light but I can imagine it's useful for some people.

d) I think having at least a high and low setting is very useful, especially on a brighter light. Sometimes less is more, and this also helps address b)

e) Width of beam is a major criteria for me. Adjustable would be nice but sounds complicated and expensive to implement. Having separate wide and narrow lights works well for me since I'm going to have 2 lights anyway. I use the narrow one during the day and it's my backup at night. In the world of smaller LED lights, wide beam choices seem limited, at least on the low end.

 

[kelemvor]

c) I've never even seen a battery indicator on a light but I can imagine it's useful for some people.

Some LED lights with pushbutton switches have an LED ring around the switch its-self. The ring will illuminate in a particular color to indicate charge level. Edge MORPH 1000 is an example here.