Archon D11V video light review

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EL Pistoffo

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I received a pair of Archon D11Vs today ARCHON D11V (W17V) Underwater Photographing Diving Flashlight Torch (2*CR123/1*18650) - ARCHON Flashlights - Brand led Flashlights - LED Flashlight & Lasers Worldwide Free Shipping!!!. They seem solidly built and very compact in size. They shipped with an extra set of o-rings and the o-rings already installed on the light were lubricated and undamaged though I gave them a 2nd lubing of my own to be safe.

I did a light intensity test. As I suspected they are not as powerful as the advertised 860 Lumens. Their Lumen output is more on the order of approximately 550-600 max Lumens on high and 180-200 max Lumens on low. The wide beam angle is close to the 110 degrees advertised probably somewhere between 101-110 degrees.

Overall good bang for the buck granted the light holds up at depth.

I will update further as I test it some more.

Update: Run time high intensity: 75 minutes. Using single 2600 mAh 18650 Tenergy Li-ion (Tenergy Li-ion 18650 Cylindrical 3.7V 2600mAh Rechargeable Batteries (Button Top) with PCB for flashlights and others - Amazon.com)

Update: Run time low intensity: over 3.5 hours (got tired of waiting and turned it off) Battery longevity overall good IMO.

Update: Using low intensity setting does show horizontal moving/scan lines in video though not extremely pronounced. High setting is clear. Filmed at 1080p/30.
High High.jpg Lowlow.jpg

Update: Short Video clip showing the intensities: [video=youtube_share;NrEdmV9Yfmw]http://youtu.be/NrEdmV9Yfmw[/video]
 
Last edited:
I did a light intensity test. As I suspected they are not as powerful as the advertised 860 Lumens. Their Lumen output is more on the order of approximately 600 Lumens on high and 200 Lumens on low.
How did you measure this?
 
Have you shot any video with the low light setting? LED systems tend to flicker noticeably in low settings.
 
Have you shot any video with the low light setting? LED systems tend to flicker noticeably in low settings.
That test is coming up. I will post the result later tonight or tomorrow. I heard some talk about a change to the lights that may have corrected that.
 
What camera are you using with the lights? Is it a Go pro by any chance? If so how well do the light's coverage match the wide angle setting on the Go pro? Have you posted any videos on YouTube or Vimeo? If so would you post a link?

Did the light come with a battery or charger?

Thanks

I received a pair of Archon D11Vs today ARCHON D11V (W17V) Underwater Photographing Diving Flashlight Torch (2*CR123/1*18650) - ARCHON Flashlights - Brand led Flashlights - LED Flashlight & Lasers Worldwide Free Shipping!!!. They seem solidly built and very compact in size. They shipped with an extra set of o-rings and the o-rings already installed on the light were lubricated and undamaged though I gave them a 2nd lubing of my own to be safe.

I did a light intensity test. As I suspected they are not as powerful as the advertised 860 Lumens. Their Lumen output is more on the order of approximately 550-600 max Lumens on high and 180-200 max Lumens on low. The wide beam angle is close to the 110 degrees advertised probably somewhere between 101-110 degrees.

Overall good bang for the buck granted the light holds up at depth.

I will update further as I test it some more.

Update: Run time high intensity: 75 minutes. Using single 2600 mAh 18650 Tenergy Li-ion (Tenergy Li-ion 18650 Cylindrical 3.7V 2600mAh Rechargeable Batteries (Button Top) with PCB for flashlights and others - Amazon.com)

Update: Run time low intensity: over 3.5 hours (got tired of waiting and turned it off) Battery longevity overall good IMO.
 
That test is coming up. I will post the result later tonight or tomorrow. I heard some talk about a change to the lights that may have corrected that.
I posted a couple screen grabs above, video later.

---------- Post added August 20th, 2013 at 09:54 PM ----------

What camera are you using with the lights? Is it a Go pro by any chance? If so how well do the light's coverage match the wide angle setting on the Go pro? Have you posted any videos on YouTube or Vimeo? If so would you post a link?

Did the light come with a battery or charger?

Thanks
I'm using GoPro 3 BE.
The lights are 100-110 degrees wide.
I have 2 lights so they can illuminate a very wide field of course distance to object affects that but combined they are wider that the Hero 3 FOV.
I will be posting some video in the near future.
It does not come with batteries or charger. It can use either two CR123's or one 18650. I have the 18650 with a standalone wall charger.
 
I have been using a Archon D11vs for the last couple of months and have been happy with the results so far. I only use one light for close up work as I just go with natural light for wide angle med/far shots on my GoPro 3. I usually turn the light off between shooting scenes and have found the battery life is good for over 2-3 dives. Also I have only used it on the high setting. You can see a sample of mine below on a video I posted earlier using one light only w/ an EEl vision Green water filter on the GoPro. The distance of the shot was approx 12". IMO the lights are a great deal for the price.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gopro-video/461995-underwater-porn.html
 
I have a question about using 2 lights?

Do you overlap the beams in a way where they simply Illuminati a single spot twice as bright or should they be spread apart to cover a wider area even though you still get a bit of noticeable overlapping beams in the center?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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