Dive shop on a budget needs advice. Ambitech, Archon, or something else.

Hello: We have a recently opened dive shop and it seems we are need of more and better lights for our night dives. Of course budget is an issue, and when you add shipping, VAT and duties to Vietnam, which can easily double prices in the U.S.A. I am pretty much forced to buy from China. These two names seem to be the big players, offering warranties and very reasonable pricing. I have not been able to find any really complete reviews, please pardon me if they are here on this forum, I assure you I have looked, but with the internet on a remote island in the South China Sea, it takes about 5 minutes for a page to load, and I get ten time outs for every page that actually loads. Can anybody kindly point me in the direction of some reviews ? first hand experiences ? I am looking more towards the Ambitechs as they will ship here with batteries and chargers, where the Archons will require me to close my business for three to five days to go to Saigon to get batteries, if they are indeed available here, as it is I will have to fly to Saigon to get them out of customs ! Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated. I simply cannot justify $75 bulb replacements and $150 ballast replacements for our Ist HID lights ($350 new here) and Mares wants $150 for a battery pack for their Phos HID lights ($500 new here) when they can find them. Then add taxes, duty, shippping, find the parts....I give up ! Time for new lights ! Those 1000 lumen lights ($75) for the customers and 1800 to 2000 lumen lights ($150) for the guides look very appealing for the price. My head simply has no room nor time to learn a whole new technology ! I could really use some advise from people who know something about this stuff ! Thanks very much. Larry

for cheap Chinese lights look at dealextreme.com. Anything with an SSCP7, XML, SST-50 should be good for you.

350xfire said:

for cheap Chinese lights look at dealextreme.com. Anything with an SSCP7, XML, SST-50 should be good for you.

Click to expand...

Hi Flash:
I have contact direct with what appears to be the actual manufacturer of a lot of these lights. The name of the company is ambitech.

http://www.szambitech.com/home.asp

I can get them for cheap....
Model AT-878 SST 90 $150 2200 lumen
AT-876 SST 50 $120 1200 lumen
AT-850 SST 50 $90 1200 lumen
AT 852 Cree XP-E $40 200 lumen
AT 810 E Cree XM-L $60 1000 lumen

All with batteries and chargers.
These look just like the "Magic shines" and a bunch of others. I believe this is the OEM.
I understand all of the lumen numbers are grossly inflated.
Could you please have a look and let me know if you have any feelings about these lights ?
If they are good I will be ordering about $1000 or more in one go, and I have not been able to find a review of an Ambitech product anywhere.
$1,000 is a lot to gamble and the opinion of somebody in the know about these things would be most welcome.
Thanks again
Larry