My Light Cannon has served me well since 2000 or 2001, in a wide variety of situations:
- leading students on AOW night dives in low- and medium-viz quarries
- recreational night dives in quarries and on reefs
- as my primary cave and wreck light before I bought my 18 watt cannister, and as a "backup primary" afterward (I still carry small "backup lights," too)
- as the primary in zero-viz blackwater dives in the Cooper River.
My LC has a couple hundred dives on it. Still on the original bulb. I have a replacement bulb just in case. Hate how pricy it was.
I run the LC on 8 C cells, 5000 mah NiMHs. Usually get 4 - 6 hours on a charge. That's "nearly" a weekend of dives in the Cooper River or "nearly" a week of night reef dives on a trip. ("nearly" means I have to take along either a spare set of charged batteries or a charger)
I love the LC's high output white light inside clear water caves and in blackwater. BUT ...
Realistically, the LC is too much light for night reef dives. Prior to buying it, I used an Ikelite PCLite for reef dives, and it was fine. Remember, the point of night diving is to experience the environment at night, not turn it into pseudo-day. (a reef that looks like an over-lit parking lot hardly qualifies as a night dive) I recently bought a Shockwave eLED, 8 C cells, 3 LEDs. Its high power setting is about a third of the LC output. So far, have used it on low-viz night dives in the quarry -- adequate output. Used it on a dive trip to Utila -- adequate output for reef dives even on its low power setting. Don't know yet what kind of burn time I'll get on a set of batteries, because it hasn't run down yet. I like the notion of long battery life and virtually unlimited life on the LEDs. I like the idea that there's no bulb to break if you drop it.
If I were buying today -- knowing what I know now -- I'd probably buy the Shockwave eLED instead of the Light Cannon. And this is from a Light Cannon fan.
To quote someone else on SB, that's my 2psi.
