Handheld vs. Canister question

[Kriet]

I am looking primarily for night dives, at two different torches. Orcatorch D611 and Volador DF60 (I have this one currently from Amazon with free returns).

I was hooked on the D611, except for the price. I do not do a lot of night dives, truthfully not my thing. But I'm {hopefully} going on a LOB in Dec that will have nightly night dives. I use an Orcatorch d550 for my daytime light and probably will not add either of the above to my daytime dives.

I got the DF60 on prime day with a good discount with free return...so I grabbed it. It is bright in my house....and heavy...and bulky clipped with a boltsnap under my left arm (where the backup light should go).

I'm close to returning because of the bulkyness and getting the D611 (it will cost another USD 100 to do this and keep in mind this is for night dives primarily - if not only).

I've never dove with a canister light and am looking for advice on this...(as additional info - if it matters; I do try to dive as close as I feel comfortable to a DIR setup...so basically just a plain jane BP/W setup).

 

[Zef]

My wife and I have a few OrcaTorch D550, and a D530 along with a few other handheld lights.

My impression/opinion is that a canister light is not really necessary unless it has a significant burn time and that burn time is necessary due to the length of the dives one plans on doing or it is super critical to have extended battery power such as deco dives coupled with wreck/cave penetration.

I can dive for over an hour with the D550/D530 without issue. I typically carry 2 as part of my standard configuration and definitively 2 on a night dive.

If you were asking me, I would recommend saving your money on the D611 or any other canister light unless the type of diving you do dictates the need. For your LOB trip, pick up a spare D550 and perhaps a couple of quality spare 18650 batteries so that you have a backup torch to carry on your night dives and plenty of charged batteries in case you use your torch at all during the day.

The D550 torches are compact, lightweight, and powerful.

I would think that the cord of a canister light is an entanglement hazard and should only be used if the type of diving absolutely requires it....the only thing, in my opinion, a canister light provides on a routine recreational dive is the power cord prevents the light head from falling into the abyss if one was to drop it.

I am not a fan of the soft goodman glove the D550 comes with. I wear my dive computer on a bungee mount on my right forearm/wrist. If I am concerned about dropping my torch I clip the boltsnap to the bungee loop closest to my wrist...the torch then sits comfortably in the crotch of my thumb with a couple of fingers lightly curled on top, kinda like in this picture:

But, the D611 does look like a nice canister torch...if that is what you want then go for it.

-Z

 

[Kriet]

Zef,
awesome answer.
I have the 550 and love it; I was concerned with having it as my primary during a night dive (I thought I'd want/need something "bigger") and planned on using the d550 as my backup light to whatever I got. I'll say the DF60 I have atm is bright...my wife said if I turn it on the highest setting I'll be ... irritating a lot of close neighbors to put it nicely. What I didn't like about the DF60, which uses the same batteries as the D611, similar burn time, etc. is the bulk and weight. My thought was to push the weight to my belt.

As to the $, I paid about the same for the DF60 on prime special the same as the D550.

I really appreciate the input,
Kriet.

 

[D_Fresh]

Agreed. Honestly, for recreational night dives, I only carry two handheld lights. Using fully charged batteries, I have never had an 18650 battery die during a night dive, but always carry a spare anyways.

Therefore, my suggestion is two handheld lights and four to six batteries to cycle through. (Pro tip: number/label your batteries, it's much easier to cycle through them in some logical order, helps prevent grabbing a dead or low battery.)

If you're intending to eventually do some serious wreck penetration and/or caves, then by all means invest in a canister light.

 

[tursiops]

I can't immediately find any specs on the lights you mention. For a night dive, you really don't want a big wide beam, a small narrow beam is better for the critters, your eyes, and your buddy. If you are going on a liveaboard with nighly night dives, I'm guessing it is nice, clear, tropical water. You don't need a super bright light! Canisters are a pain to deal with. Two 26650s is a lot of battery weight. Keep life simple: stick with 18650s only.

 

[Zef]

The OrcaTorch D611 seems to be currently sold out just about everywhere...it is not showing on Amazon at the moment. Here is a link to the product page on the OrcaTorch website:

OrcaTorch D611 Primary Canister Dive Light for Scuba Diving and Cave Diving

Here is a link to the Volodor DF60 product page on Amazon.com. It is a just a longer handheld torch as it uses two batteries instead of one. It uses a rotary magnet switch that I am not a fan of...I have a Magic Shine torch that has a similar switch and the magnet under the rotating ring corroded causing intermittent operation...very frustrating.

If beam angle is a concern and the diver in question is only going to be recreational diving then I can recommend based on my experience that OrcaTorch D530...it comes in two versions, the standard version (D530) with an 8° beam angle, and the phtography version (D530V) with a 140° beam angle. The D550 has an 8° central beam with a 70° cast around it.

I have no stake in OrcaTorch, I just happen to own a few of their torches...the first one was given to me as a gift and based on my experience with it, the overall quality of their product in my opinion, the cost, and my experience with the company's customer service, I decided to purchase few.

OrcaTorch is made in a factory in Shenzen China...the factory produces torches for other brands such as Odepro. Volador torches are possibly made there as well as some of their lineup look like rebadged Odepro torches, such as those found at these 2 links on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Odepro-Flash...=1&keywords=Odepro+WD43&qid=1603633925&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/VOLADOR-Flas...ble-Submersible/dp/B01LZLWZWT?ref_=ast_sto_dp

I am not a fan of spending gobs of money on torches as they are an item that is failure prone, and shelling out lots of money, from my observations over the years, does not seem to provide for less susceptibility to failure. I would much rather have an inexpensive torch fail and need to be replaced than a more expensive one. In fact the cheapest torches in my collection are the ones that have lasted the longest and have given us the least amount of issues.

Inexpensive torches make it affordable to own backups...I have only had two of my torches fail on a dive....one would not turn on because the magnet under the rotating ring was corroded, and the other was due to an issue with the circuit board (after being replaced under warranty, I opened and cleaned the circuit board with rubbing alcohol and it has worked fine ever since)...I have never had two torches die on the same dive.

-Z

 

[scubadada]

I do night dives with 2 of the DGX 600 lights. Two power levels and a strobe function. Burn time on high is over an hour. I have one of the older rear button models that is years old and goes on every day dive, works perfectly.

 

[Dark Wolf]

If you like the D611 except for the price, you might take a look at the Archon DH26. I have been diving one for a couple of years. For the kinds of dives you are talking about, I think it may work well for you.

DW

 

[D_Fresh]

I just received a pair of Xtar handhelds that I'm pretty impressed with so far. I recently had an OrcaTorch D500+ die on me and no response from OrcaTorch when I reached out.

Based on two other Dive Light forums, I decided to give the Xtar a try. Haven't dived with them yet, but looking forward to it. Xtar also participates posts occasionally here, so I'm hoping their support is better than OrcaTorch....

Will update in a few weeks once I get a chance to use 'em.

 

[Zef]

Orcatorch is based in China. I imagine they have been hit hard by Covid-19. I am not apologizing for them and have no concern for what you ultimately decide to do, but my experience with them from a customer service standpoint, albeit well before Covid-19 appeared on the world's stage, was very positive and responsive. Perhaps, given the pandemic/crisis, and how close they are to ground-zero, a little patience can be spared for them.

-Z