Review of my new Sola 1200 LED video lights

[drbill]

Just a follow up. L&M did a fantastic job repairing the one faulty light and getting it back to me very quickly. It works great now.

 

[bb__n]

In the old days it was always a taboo to run a light outside of the water but LEDs produce no heat and I do not understand why you can't run them out of the water. What is their reasoning for that statement?
Steve

Uhhh...yes, LEDs do produce heat, especially in high-output lights. That's why they need to be cooled by the water. Where exactly are you getting your information?

 

[drbill]

Update: I had to send in my other light again for repairs. L&M customer support was, as always, fantastic. They suggested I send both lights in which I did. The second dive I did with them after they were returned, one of the lights shut down after 65 min on a 75 min night dive (using low power). They worked fine the first dive, and last night on the third dive. I'm beginning to wonder if I did something wrong in charging the lights for the second dive, but both were charged at the same time for the same length of time (but using two different chargers of course).

I love these lights for their compactness and uniform coverage with no hot spots. Just hope I can figure out what went wrong on the second night dive. Guess I'll just have to do LOTS of dives with them this month and record the results.

Again, L&M customer support has been great.

 

[globe-trotter]

Hello

I found this site from globediver.ch

http://www.globediver.ch/uploads/media/Sola_Dive_1200.pdf

There is described, how to open the Sola 1200 to change in flight-modus.
Unbelievable! No comments or description from Light & Motion.

globe-trotter

 

[drbill]

Sigh... the Sola 1200 has become a "nightmare" (and I usually sleep too soundly to remember my dreams). It came back from a factory repair (second time) that included replacing the switch, and by the second dive it stopped working. The switch no longer does anything. That was one of the problems when I sent the darned thing in the second time.

Again, I LOVE the Sola 1200's compactness and uniform light field, but if I can't trust them to function reliably when I'm on dive trips far from home, they do me no good. I've used L&M products for 12 years now and this is my first gripe with one of them.

 

[jmneill]

Thanks for the thread. What a trainwreck. Where are the Sola's made?

 

[fire_diver]

Thank you for this thread. My LDS is a L&M seller and I was playing with the owner's 1200 a few days ago. I was very impressed with it, but after your reports, I'm not dropping that amount of cash on something that isn't dependable.

 

[Superlyte27]

Guys, if you want to see what these lights will do, check out this video. This was two L&M 1200's and a Gopro Hero 2. This was shot in a cave, where lighting demands are at the highest. July Spring - YouTube

 

[fire_diver]

I don't think anyone is doubting the abilities of the lights, but it appears they may not be very dependable in that greatnes.

BTW - That was a GREAT video. Why do you have it set to private? You should be sharing that with the world.

 

[kkfok]

The contacts between the PCB inside the torch and the charging inputs in the plastic housing are very loose and they can lose contact very easily.
I really think the design is not really good. I have opened my torch many times in order to get it charged.