swapping HID for halogen??

[Gilldiver]

I wreck dive in the NE too, and I've had the opposite experience. There's no doubt that halogen is less maintenance and less expensive to repair, but to me they're worth every penny to be able to see, and on deep wrecks the only light is what you bring. For what I pay in gas, boat fees and time, I want to be able to see what I came there for, and the HIDs are simply that much brighter. I've never had that problem with backscatter either - I can see that if the light's mounted on the head, but in the hand?.

Most of my diving is in the Sound documenting the wrecks. Lots of measurments etc. where your night vision is a must. In the summer we are working with vis in inches at times. In warm August water anything above 2' is good and if I'm stretched out and can see my fins, its great.

I make my own battery packs from Sealed Lead acid cyclons and run a 30 watt @ 6 volts bulb. At less then $12 a pack I have two with me so if I do run a light long I just swap out the battery. But it has to be over 40 minutes as I get a good 55 minutes burn from each pack.

 

[ageddiver]

You've got me there - vis. measured in inches wouldn't keep me down for long. You're right that's probably a good application for a low-output lamp.

 

[Gilldiver]

Like I said, I tend to just hang the lighthead over my shoulder. I hitch it so it hangs a little lower the mid-chest and it will gives enough ligt to work with both hands, read a tape or scale, or write notes. The worst thing that a HID will do to me is while writing notes on white paper you get glare-ed out real bad. Then it takes a few minutes to get the night vision back.

 

[adstaa]

thanks for all the input and opinions everyone. i've decided to have the best of both worlds. my wife bought me a new Sartek HID for a fraction of what HID's cost out here in Australia and i've got my Nocturnal SL50 for general diving. now that i've been able to source HID bulbs for somewhat cheaper than i originally could i'm not so worried about the off-chance of breaking one.

different lights for different situations now so i'm happy all round.

cheers