Which Canister Light, Which Power?

[Lock Down]

I am in the market for a canister light. I have looked at several different companies and they all look good. I was wondering which company you all would recomend. Also what power should I get? Is 10w good enough or should I spend the extra money for 18 or 24w? thanks in advance for the advice.

[daveg1]

There are many good ones out there, I won't comment on who makes the best. Mostly because I have never used any of them. ( I make my own)

As for what power, it depends on where you plan to use it. 10W is good, 18 better, 21 even better or in my case 35W is best.

If you plan to do deep dives in very dark water then I would get as bright as you can afford. If you will be diving in clear water then 10 should do just fine.

[TSandM]

It depends on the use, your budget, and what the people you typically dive with are using.

In dark, green water, and given the same focus on the beam, brighter is generally better. Most of the people I know in Puget Sound are using 21W lights, a few the newer 35s, and a few the 10W. In the tropics, at night, a 21W light is massive overkill. But if you are diving with a team of people using 21W lights, a 10W, especially in the daytime, can be quite hard to see, which limits its usefulness as a communication tool.

The Salvo fixed-focus 10W light is a very nice, bright light, even in murky water, and is quite affordable as can lights go. My light is a Salvo 21W variable focus, and that's the light most of my friends have, too.

[medic001918]

Like others mentioned, it depends on where you're diving. I dive in New England where it's pretty dark and I use a 10 watt can light. At some point, I'll upgrade to a 21 watt or a 35 watt and probably use my 10 watt as a backup light. But you can find 10 watt can lights used for very reasonable prices. The prices of the larger lights push the price up quite a bit. It depends on what you're comfortable spending. If you can afford a larger light, I doubt you'd be disappointed. But that doesn't mean that you wouldn't be happy with a 10 watt light either. Only you can assess how much light you need for your dives, and more importantly how much the light is worth to you.

Shane

[Nocturnal Lights]

Hi Lock Down,

Like they mentioned, it really depends on the brightness that you want and the length of your dive. We offer a hand mounted SLX LED technical package, which comes is about 80% as bright as a 10W HID, and you can get it at a fraction of the price of how much those canister lights cost. You can do some searches on scuba board, we have had a lot of people who are extremely satisfied with it.

We also offer a line of halogen lights and you can swap out the light heads between 20w, 35w, and 50w. The output is actually about 40% more than the rated wattage because of our battery configuration. Compared to the HID canister lights out there, our lights can be as bright as a 21w HID when using the 50w bulbs.

You're welcome to check out our website Nocturnal Lights - Manufacturer Dive Lights, Underwater Focus Lights, and Underwater Video Lights for regular and technical divers, underwater photographers, and underwater film makers. I'm here if you have any questions!

[rexford]

Anyone know anything about the GZERO Sunshine 1 light? It is a canister light, uses 12 Nimh AA batteries and comes with 2 x 20w bulbs and a 50w bulb. It looks like a good deal at $474 USD.

[Nocturnal Lights]

I've never heard of them and I can't find any information on them. Do you have a link?

[fletcher]

It seems to be one of yours, tim.


SAMISH DIVERS - SCUBA Diving Equipment - Great Deal's

[Nocturnal Lights]

They probably bought them though a distributor overseas and re-branded it. You can get it from us for $460 with free shipping and we've been serving Scubaboard for several years now. If you have any questions regarding the lights please let me know, i'll be happy to answer your questions.

Tim

[rexford]

Great! Just received it last night actually. It came with a 220v adapter. Anyway i can get a 110v Tim? I picked it up off ebay from Samishdivers.com. Seemed like too good a deal to pass up.