How to choose scuba lights

[chocolate]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy my first primary & secondary lights. While I'm still a novice diver, I have already fallen in love w/UW Photography. So I guess, I should be going for (at least for my primary) "white" lights instead, right?

What are the things that I need to look at when buying a lights. Should I go for one that will give me a wider beam instead of a focused one? And how many watts do I really need. Also, could someone just briefly explain what the difference between xenon, LED, halide, halogen ...

With that said, what are my options and what would you guys recommend to buy. Besides being a white light, pls also take things like maintanence cost into the consideration. And how much should I really be looking at to spend? To me, I wouldn't really want to spend more than US$130 on the primary. But again, I'm not sure whether I'm being realistic.

Cheers, Chocolate

 

[underwater daphne]

i don't know that much, but what i've picked up:

a light with rechargeable battery is only recommended if you dive a lot with light, say in a lake, etc. otherwise your battery will not last long. and also those lamps cost a lot more.

don't get a too powerful lamp for night dives, as you actually can wake fish that way and they won't find they're way back into safety before daytime, which means, they'll probably get eaten.

really good lamps with rechargeable bats cost from $400-$1000 (at least they do here).

personally i use uk lights for night dives with xenon lamps (led costs more) and am very happy with em. my secondary lamp can be attached to my mask, which might be useful.
but i do very little uw photography and don't use them for that, so ?

 

[OE2X]

Not knowing where you dive or the conditions that you dive in it is bit hard to give you any ideas.

Do you dive at night?
Are you shooting stills or video?
Will you be using strobes on your camera?

From my own experience this is what I can tell you.
I have gone through several different lights until I finally found the one that will last me for a while. With that said I'm now chaffing at the bit for an even more powerfull light to come on the market. I now own a 10 watt Terkel HID canister light. It cost around $500. I spent enough on other lights to be able to afford two of these lights.

I dive in NW where last nights dive vis. was about 15'. Having a strong narrow beam focusable light is very important in these conditions. When we dive on wrecks or want to peer into a crack where there is an octopus - having a narrow beam is very important. Diving in warm clear water I still would only use my HID light. Particularly at night. One of the things that I love about this light is that it is hands free. That and it bores through the soup. If it were more powerful then all the better!!!

This is what I use when I'm not taking pictures. I do carry it with me at all times. When I'm taking pictures, I use an Ikelite strobe with modeling light on. This allows me to position the strobe head where I need it. It also works as primary light with limited range. I shoot film, so I need a daylight balanced strobe. If you are shooting digital or video you may be able to get away with using an HID light and then color balancing in camera.

If I were you I would go with nothing less than a Light Cannon. It in no way compares though in brightness to an canister light. The beam is not focusable which means you won't get nearly the penetration of light. A buddy that I dive with keeps swearing at me after every dive we do using our respective lights. He has a Light Cannon and now hates it in comparison to my Terkel. $500 or more dollars is a huge amount to pay for a bloody flashlight, but if you do a lot of night diving, wreck diving or low vis. diving then you ultimately will find yourself wishing you had bought one these lights first and not waisting a bunch of money on cheaper, inferior substitutes.

 

[OE2X]

I forgot to address your question of a backup light. I would recommend that you get one that does not have a switch on it. Opt instead for one that turns on by twisting the lamp itself. Reason being so that you don't mistakenly turn on your light and drain your batteries. It is harder to do this with a light that twists on.
I own a Halcyon Scout as my backup light which I have had no problems with. There are others out there that will fill the bill and are a fair bit cheaper.

 

[MyDiveLog]

I'd like to politely disagree with Overexposed2x on the recommendation to get a light without a switch. Switches rarely turn on by themselves, but my experience has been that the "twist on" lights often do at depth. I think it's because these type of lights rely on the added pressure from the twisting. If the light is just "on the edge" of turning on at the surface, the added pressure of depth can be enough to turn the darn thing on.

My recommendations:
- Ikelite PC 7.5 Watts Halogen Light for an everyday light/backup light for night diving. It's bright enough to see most anything you want to see. It's small enough & light enough to easily keep attached to a retractable lanyard....and it has an easy to use switch (that's never turned on inadvertently on me in almost 300 dives). It costs about $25.

- UK Light cannon for night diving...it has a highly focused beam and may be a bit too bright without the diffuser, because it can scare the sea life and blind a buddy if you mistakenly shine it in their eyes. Having said that, if you simply point it slightly "off center" of the sea life, you'll be fine even without the diffuser. They now also have an LED version that allows you to select diffferent brightnesses under water, but I'v enever tried one. It costs about $170. I also got their rechargeable battery pack for another $90.

- I also carry a small Akona HID light in my BC pocket as a "backup to my backup" when doing any solo night dives ... it was so frustrating having to scap a dive when my UK Light Cannon battery died that I'm a bit anal about backup equipment. I got it for free in a dive club raffle, but think i'd cost about $15.

Good luck!

 

[RDP]

I got the UK Fathom Pack. It has an 8 C-cell pistol grip light, an SL-4 4C-cell, a Q40 4A-cell, and a Beacon for around $100.00.

The large light even has two bulbs that can be alternated on the switch. I love my set.

 

[eponym]

Soon after starting to dive (only been at this two years), I dove with two instructors who had UK light cannons. They made my old four-c-cell light look pathetic, so I bought the cannon. But it's too darn big and heavy, so I don't really use it all that much. Recently I dove with a tech diver who had a canister light and the ease and grace with which he could play that beam around (the light head is mounted on his hand) made me want to go that way.

Canister lights cost big bucks, but I'm in low viz all the time here in Oregon and want something I'll actually use.

If you want a very slightly used light cannon in great shape in spite of the above, send me a personal message through ScubaBoard.

Fin on,
Bryan

 

[underwater daphne]

I got the UK Fathom Pack. It has an 8 C-cell pistol grip light, an SL-4 4C-cell, a Q40 4A-cell, and a Beacon for around $100.00.

The large light even has two bulbs that can be alternated on the switch. I love my set.

i have a similar set, it's excellent.
10Q ScubaToys.

 

[Damselfish]

It depends some on where you are diving and what you plan on using the lights for, which you don't say - low or high vis waters, night diving or just peeking in holes during the day, wrecks, etc. Brighter isn't always better.

You don't use your average dive light to light a photo subject, they're not bright enough for that. Typically you would be using strobe(s). If you want a light for actually illuminating a photo you're talking HID and much more than $130.

If you're using a regular light at night to spot your subject or focus, you'd want to avoid a light with a hotspot and get something as even as possible or something that adjusts, a flash usually won't completely overcome the hotspot and that doesn't do much for your pictures. You might lean towards something smallish even for a primary that's easier to handle at the same time you're dealing with your camera, perhaps 4C size. Again, it all depends what you're doing and where you are. Sometimes people attach a light directly on the camera rig so they don't need 3 hands.

 

[OE2X]

I'd like to politely disagree with Overexposed2x on the recommendation to get a light without a switch. Switches rarely turn on by themselves, but my experience has been that the "twist on" lights often do at depth. I think it's because these type of lights rely on the added pressure from the twisting. If the light is just "on the edge" of turning on at the surface, the added pressure of depth can be enough to turn the darn thing on.

My recommendations:
- Ikelite PC 7.5 Watts Halogen Light for an everyday light/backup light for night diving. It's bright enough to see most anything you want to see. It's small enough & light enough to easily keep attached to a retractable lanyard....and it has an easy to use switch (that's never turned on inadvertently on me in almost 300 dives). It costs about $25.

- UK Light cannon for night diving...it has a highly focused beam and may be a bit too bright without the diffuser, because it can scare the sea life and blind a buddy if you mistakenly shine it in their eyes. Having said that, if you simply point it slightly "off center" of the sea life, you'll be fine even without the diffuser. They now also have an LED version that allows you to select diffferent brightnesses under water, but I'v enever tried one. It costs about $170. I also got their rechargeable battery pack for another $90.

- I also carry a small Akona HID light in my BC pocket as a "backup to my backup" when doing any solo night dives ... it was so frustrating having to scap a dive when my UK Light Cannon battery died that I'm a bit anal about backup equipment. I got it for free in a dive club raffle, but think i'd cost about $15.

Good luck!

Mydivelog - that was very polite. Thank you.

Good point about lights turning on. I've seen it happen to both types. The twist on kind is more of a pain to turn off at depth.

Politely - I can't agree with you about the UK Light Canon. I've owned one and it in no way compares to my can light. Also once I had used the hands free handle on a can light I didn't want to go back to the pistol grip. Another advantage for the can light is that you can clip it off to a D ring - leave it on and it won't spin out of control blinding your buddies or make them think you are OOA. I also never liked the wrist lanyard on the pistol style lights. If you don't use it and you drop it, then you may well be out a light. If you do use it, you have to let the light dangle spinning while you use that hand to do what ever task is at hand. Personally I like switching my light from left to right hand so that when I'm using my rear purge on my BCD with my left hand my right hand can still be shining my light where my buddy can see it. This you can't do if you are using your wrist lanyard.

Excellent advice about not shining any light in eyes of fish and other creatures. Pointing the light off to the side and letting it bounce back is the way to go. When we find an octo we shine our lights on the side of the den. Uncle Pug carries a very small light mounted to his Goodman handle that he turns on for that purpose. This way the octo doesn't have the 10 watt HID pointing anywhere near it. He is still very careful how he uses this light even though it really no more than a pen light. I need to reconfigure my set up this way.