Cheap-ish Torches

[RainPilot]

I've been pretty happy with my Orcatorch lights, and I am terrible at maintenance.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I like using my BigBlue 1200 Lumen. It is not the cheapest torch but very good quality.

I have a BigBlue 1200 as well. It only has 10 degrees which chokes me up. Either myself or salesman were confused at purchase or I was given the wrong box. Foolish me, for not looking at it until just before the dive trip when too late to do anything about it. Yes, not cheap. Certainly hope it lasts forever

 

[FezUSA]

Don't have direct experience on this topic, so maybe someone that does can chime in. I would have thought a brighter (higher Lumen) light, of say 2000 vs 1000, could be detrimental in silt water as it would just highlight more of the silt, not necessarily go further through it. Kind of like high beams in fog or blizzard conditions are actually worse than low beams. Not sure where the line would be though!

 

[fmerkel]

For water with lots of particulate it helps to have a more focused beam. You still need power to penetrate.

 

[D_Fresh]

Don't have direct experience on this topic, so maybe someone that does can chime in. I would have thought a brighter (higher Lumen) light, of say 2000 vs 1000, could be detrimental in silt water as it would just highlight more of the silt, not necessarily go further through it. Kind of like high beams in fog or blizzard conditions are actually worse than low beams. Not sure where the line would be though!

You're not far off.... But it depends on the usage of the light....

For most situations, more is better, but there are other factors at play here. For photography, you're pretty close to the subject so backscatter should be less of an issue. For video, you need enough light to penetrate but from an outside angle to reduce backscatter. For a primary dive light, more is generally better, but again depending on conditions, holding the light away from the body should provide enough penetration without too much backscatter. (Just like high beams vs fog lights in foggy conditions.)

So, if you're in very cloudy or silty conditions, too much light can be detrimental, but so too can too little light. It comes down to how you utilize(position) the light for the needs of the situation.

Does that make sense?

Edit to add: for video farther that a couple feet, generally you want as much as 5,000 lumens across the field of capture. Macro photography can get by with less, depending on water/visibility conditions. (That's why video lights tend to be more expensive... more light over an even field...)