I just got myself a FIXLED1000DX and used it for the first time on a week-long liveaboard trip in the Red Sea.
Overall i'm very impressed. The torch is expensive, but the build quality and versatility justify the price. I used it as a focus light, night dive light and video light.
As a video light: I was very impressed. The coverage is quite wide with the beam only noticeable when using my fisheye lens (165 degrees). The brightness was good, during the day it would light up dark corners and bring out some extra colour. I found quite a few moray eels that would otherwise have gone unnoticed because they were hiding in dark corners.
As a night dive light: WOW. This torch is much more than you need. I used it mostly at its lowest power setting and only cranked it up when i wanted to video something. What i really liked was the wide angle of coverage. Compared to a smaller torch where you find yourself sweeping from left to right to find things, with this torch you simply point it in front of you and look around. Really amazing.
As a focus light: I had to reduce the power considerably otherwise it would cause noticeable lighting effect on the scene. It also caused some backscatter when at high power, but this was probably due to being mounted on a very short arm. If the torch had optional auto-off triggered by strobe this would really be the rolls royce all-rounder.
The battery happily lasted through a 60 minute night dive, running at full power for most of the time (lots of video). However, it wouldn't have lasted for a second dive without a charge as it was showing 1/4 on the battery indicator. The custom battery was not a problem for me as the liveaboard boat had power so I simply charged it between dives. If this is a big problem for you, then you can always get a spare battery but it's not cheap at $150.
Overall rating:
Build quality: 9/10
Power output: 9/10
Light coverage: 8/10 (a diffuser might help in wide angle video)
Value for money: 7/10 (for the price i'd like to see the diffuser pack included)
Battery life: 7/10 (would have been great to get two dives out of one battery)
Would I recommend it to a friend: certainly
