Low budget light review: Dorcy II 220 vs Intova 4.7W Wide vs UK SL4 eLED

[eelnoraa]

I know none of this is the perfect primary dive light. But for beginner or people just starting diving at night or traveling, they should be sufficient. And at $50 they are very good value. I happend to have all the moment, so I want to offer my $0.02 to help out beginning to pick a budget light.

I have always have UK SL4 eLED, long before I started diving. I mainly use it for camping, hiking, and now diving. When I was taking AOW, I needed another light as backup or main for the night dive. Obviously I cannot afford a can light, so I started looking at this forum. Intova 4.7W Wide Angle gets a lot of praise. And I believed having wide angle beam will be useful in water. After a few night dive, I found I prefer the beam of SL4, so I got myself a Dorcy II 220 last week. Here is my experice with all these light over this weekend:

Hotspot Brightness: SL4 > Dorcy >> Intova

Beam color quality: SL4 > Dorcy > Intova
SL4 has the most natural white color
Dorcy has slight yellowish green tint to it
Intova is bluer compare to other

Beam shape quality: SL4 > Intova > Dorcy
SL4 has the most smooth hotspot and gradually diminishing side spill
Intova has a even constant brightness hotspot but NO side spill
Dorcy is similar to SL4 but with a dark spot in the center.

Beam usefulness: SL4 > Dorcy > Intova
SL4 has the brightness hotspot, good for point out object, signalling other. Side spill can be use to read instrument panels. Bright enough for day time.
Dorcy is about the same as SL4, but beam shape is not as nice. Bright enough for day time.
Intova's brightness is too low and too wide for pointing and signaling. It doens't illimintate too far ahead. No side spill for instrument reading and hotspot is too bright for this purpose. Useless in day time.

Apparent built quality: Intova > Dorcy > SL4
No comparison, Intova is easily the best built. However, the seemingly cheap built SL4 has gone through a lot of rough usesage and still functioning properly, so only time will tell the true built quality.

Shape and size: Intova = Dorcy > SL4
This is mainly because I want to use a light with Oxycheq light socks. SL4 doesn't fit in there.

Switch mechanism: SL4 > Intova > Dorcy
This doesn't bother me much because I usually turn the light on at the beginning and left it on the whole dive. But if I have to switch things on and off frequency, I think SL4's switch will be the easist. Dorcy's will be the most difficult.

Cost of operation (less is better): SL4 < Dorcy < Intova
SL4 use 4C, they are cheap, and a set just last forever in this light. I am using Enelopp on Dorcy, so still inexpansive for me. Intova must use CR123, it doesn't take 18650. The good thing about CR123 is they have 10 years of shell life, but they are more expansive than other batteries.

Will I buy again:
SL4, definitely yes, cheapest of all, and most useful beam, although it doesn't look too cool.
Dorcy, yes, only because I want to use Oxycheq light socks, and I cannot find anything better for the same price.
Intova, most likely not. The main issue is the beam is just not too useful for me.

I hope this is good information for people choose between these lights.

 

[Ze_Abron]

Sounds like you should have compared to the narrow beam version of the Intova, not the wide. Makes for an unfair comparison.

 

[eelnoraa]

well, it in not about fair or not fair. The situation is that I was new to night dive, wanted to get a light that won't break the bank and I went through these light and what I learned in the process. Much of my complains about Intova is its wide beam, which was what a lot of people prefer on this board. And obvious I prefer narrow beam.

I think if I take away all the complain for wide beam, and let's say the narrow beam version has same brightness as Dorcy, the only negative for Intova is CR123.

 

[gcbryan]

Nice review!

I think those who prefer the Intova Wide Beam are primarily those on night dives in clear tropical waters ... so good visibility and no concern regarding backscatter.

 

[TSandM]

Thanks for the review.

We've had nothing but problems with lights with switches -- eventually, they have all failed. That's why I personally prefer the Dorcy. But, to be completely honest, the best backup lights we have had, overall, are a pair of Halcyon Scouts we picked up cheap (with the old xenon bulb) and put SL4 eLED modules into. Great, rugged construction, and a bright, focused beam.

 

[gcbryan]

Thanks for the review.

We've had nothing but problems with lights with switches -- eventually, they have all failed. That's why I personally prefer the Dorcy. But, to be completely honest, the best backup lights we have had, overall, are a pair of Halcyon Scouts we picked up cheap (with the old xenon bulb) and put SL4 eLED modules into. Great, rugged construction, and a bright, focused beam.

Don't canister lights have switches?

 

[scubafanatic]

Thanks for the review.

We've had nothing but problems with lights with switches -- eventually, they have all failed. That's why I personally prefer the Dorcy. But, to be completely honest, the best backup lights we have had, overall, are a pair of Halcyon Scouts we picked up cheap (with the old xenon bulb) and put SL4 eLED modules into. Great, rugged construction, and a bright, focused beam.

Agreed! I've migrated to the mbsub lights with rotating/magnetic (no hull penetration of the light body) switches, so no more lights being accidentally activated by water pressure, and no more worrying about exactly how tight or lose to screw down the light head to avoid either flooding or unintentional light activation.

Yeah, I've got a couple of Halcyon 3-C-cell 'Scouts', the 'older' version with the original version (weaker) LED module....and a couple of the even older Xenon bulb versions too. The xenon versions are worthless in terms of light output, but have otherwise been reliable/rugged....and the early version LED Scouts are significantly better, but still pretty weak compared to modern standards, but still work OK for open reef critter dives/clear water and have been rugged/reliable too. I'm still debating upgrading them to the newer LED modules....but just the module costs $ 140 and I can get a whole new one for $ 200, and the new ones have the upgraded high-grip light bodies, so I'd likely just get new lights IF I were to keep going Halcyon. (but no matter what, I'm NOT a fan of pressure-activated lights, which unfortunately, also applies to Halcyon).

 

[HenrikBP]

Slight thread drift - sorry: you can build a fairly cheap LED upgrade for Scout lights using R5 (tighter beam) or XP-G LED drop-ins from dealextreme.com (DX). It requires a 7 mm sliver of 1" PVC pipe and a 1.25" (I think) OD brass washer with the center step-drilled and sanded up to a press fit on the DX module. Cost me about $15 and compares favorably to new Halcyon LED module, Light Monkey LED, Intova narrow and Dorcy 220.

Henrik

 

[divad]

I bought an Intova, but gave it to my dad (who will not pay for cree batteries) because it kept turning itself on at the slightest provocation, e.g., rubbing against webbing.

 

[scubafanatic]

I bought an Intova, but gave it to my dad (who will not pay for cree batteries) because it kept turning itself on at the slightest provocation, e.g., rubbing against webbing.

That's one of the many reasons I went with the mbsub lights, they use a ROTATING magnetic activation mechanism, NOT a sliding-switch so that it doesn't risk rubbing against webbing and self-activating.