Best dive light?

[Ben Prusinski]

I did some research and after my primary dive light flooded, I bought a new Sola 500 dive light at a good discount. So far from using different lights like Princeton Tec, the Sola blows all of them away. Just curious what your favorite dive lights are and why? I love night dives and did some in Bonaire and look forward to testing out the Sola dive light.

 

[rongoodman]

Light Monkey is very popular in the cave community--good lights and a great reputation for service. I've never owned a Halcyon primary, but I do like their backups, especially the current generation LEDs.

 

[Scott L]

Light Monkey is very popular in the cave community--good lights and a great reputation for service. I've never owned a Halcyon primary, but I do like their backups, especially the current generation LEDs.

Yes, I always hear of LM's great service. That's either is good or bad thing.

 

[Damselfish]

Best really depends on the kind of diving you are doing. Bright has it's place but is not always best. Most tropical places like Bonaire, bright may very well blow away the stuff you're trying to see. I prefer a wide softer beam for diving like that. I have a PT LED miniwave, and I usually keep it on low.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Yes, I always hear of LM's great service. That's either is good or bad thing.

In my experience it's a good thing. I've owned a few Salvo/LM products over the years, and they're generally pretty reliable. I own three of their can lights, and considering I let students use them they tend to take a beating. But they've held up well, although light cords and batteries wear out over time. Those guys have been very good about any work I've asked them to do over the years, and getting my light back to me in a very short time period. I've never had a problem with my LM Rat Jr. backup lights, but backups are supposed to be reliable.

All that said, my current favorite backup light is the DRIS 1000 lumen LED light ... can't beat it for the price.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Hatul]

XTAR makes some nice rechargeable dive lights for under $100.

 

[buddhasummer]

For clear tropical waters Mb-Sub X1-VB. Small, runs on AAs, beam angle variable from 3-25degrees, awesome quality, great for day or night diving.

 

[nimoh]

I have had a Sola 1200 for the past year or so that I like a lot, it doesn't focus as tight as I would like it to, but the compactness for rec diving more than makes up for it. I did modify the mount that I got with it, using surgical tubing to mount on my hand since I found the velcro strap difficult to use with dry gloves.

I am now looking to move into technical and cave diving, so the Sola 1200 with 70 minutes of burn time at full power just won't be sufficient for longer dives, and I am now looking at a canister light. So far, I am leaning towards the Light Monkey 35W HID, but will likely keep the Sola 1200 for rec dives, or travelling when baggage weight is a concern.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

As Damselfish said it all depends. For night ocean dives looking at marine life I use a Liquid Vision video light. It costs around 50$ shipped from Amazon and it won't blow away the marine life. for caves, I want as bright as possible. I've started to see much more marine life since I started using a smaller light, once your eyes adjust you can see just fine.

 

[soonerwink]

I just use lights for recreational diving and the best I have found so far is the DRIS 1000 Lumen LED light. It is also one of the least expensive.