I have two 18W Halcyon HID lights. Its well documented here, my light is my fav piece of kit. I love it so much, I bring a second for non light-bearing dive buddies.

On our recent Kona trip, one of the W/A bulbs (the older one) dies. I'm bummed, but its not a thing as I'm shooting on this trip and was only using the light intermittently. I hand Jake the working light and bag the dead one for the rest of the trip.

I get home last week, and on my second dive the working W/A bulb dies. (lesson: take these fragile bulbs out of the light when transporting the lights for trips... even when I'm carrying them on.)

So I have two dead HID's. Not good. Did the dives last week with a little C4 something or another plastic thing. OY. Missing my flame thrower.

So I send one off to Corey at Halcyon (buddy light needs some work anyway) and I send the other to Sartek for a Brightstar bulb upgrade. (Bob: Your Frankenlight tales inspired me to even consider this move.)

OMG. Check this out: I ship it from SoCal to Sartek (NY) on 1/10. They get it on 1/16. On the morning of 1/18 they call me and tell me its DONE AND THEY ARE SHIPPING IT. I get home on 1/19, and ITS HERE.

Not only did Carl at Sartek crank this thing around in a day, but they shipped it overnight to me so I'd have it for the weekend (and from looking at the bill I got, they only charged me for ground rate.)

I took the light out last night. And all the things you've heard about the BS conversion are true. Its warmer, pretty darn bright, is pinkish on one side of the beam, and was about half of the price of a new W/A bulb. I'm now thinking about doing the conversion to the buddy light too.

Although I like the steely cool blusih light of the W/A (love it, really) I'm much more confident with this tough little BS bulb for all the beach diving and lobstering I do each week. Maybe I'll get a W/A bulb for the other light and just use it for boat diving. I dunno.

Bottom line: Sartek exceeded all reasonable expectations. Carl is great. The work was fast, thorough and the light is back in my waiting hands. I was stunned and am very, very pleased.

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Ken