My first dive light was a pistol grip model, an old UW Kinetics C8. It worked well enough for daylight use, but I didn't like the pistol grip with the lanyard for night diving. Whenever I let go of the light to leave it hanging from its lanyard, it would rotate and swing back and forth, the beam horizontal. Pretty annoying for my buddy.
My next light was a
Sola from Light & Motion. A bit on the expensive side, and battery life was only around two rec dives before it needed charging. It's small and neat, though, and I like the soft Goodman-handle-like grip. It's still my primary light. You can get soft grips for mounting a normal "straight" type light on your hand for a cheaper option. My backup is one of
these, mounted on my harness, cavediver-style. Since it's sitting on my harness, I'm always carrying it. I almost always bring my primary, too, BTW. Even on daytime dives. I prefer carrying a light most of the time for seeing the colors properly, for looking into crevices and under rocks for critters and since I often dive in poor light and poor viz. Since you're in Scotland, I'd guess you'd benefit from carrying a light most of the time, too
If I'm recommending a first light for one of my clubmates, I'd probably tell them to buy something with a similar form factor as my backup light, and with a twist switch. Not too expensive, no annoying pistol grip and easily mounted on the harness as a backup if and when they decide to fork out for something more expensive. Just be aware that there are a lot of different options and a lot of different preferences when it comes to dive lights, so this can be an interesting discussion...
