Budget lights - alternatives & price

[ledsmoke]

Hi there fellow CPF divers.
I´ve been looking real hard at the LED dive lights from DX lately but I´m not that impressed with the build quality although Ive been lucky in the past.

So I was wondering where to turn my eyes to if I wanted higher quality control quality?

The lights in question that I´m looking so hard at are

sku.26498

I read that in real life this is brighter than the first one that initially caught my eye -

sku.29069

Which I thought looked sweet (I dont mind them "beam shots" they have on DX. Taken 2 feet away makes no sense to me anyhow) for the money.

Now I saw somewhere on here that I´ll need to open her up and take off 3/4 turn of a contact spring inside it. That is okay, but it just makes me wonder about the rest of the build quality.

Lately I´ve been dreaming (because that is so much more expensive so its really dreaming) about the SST 50 based light like this one

sku.44966

Now it looks so fine but there is no rewievs and no one seems to even know someone who has it. So I´m kind of inclined to keep my nose out of that. Also the 1 hr run time for this one seems low compared to the 3 hour runtime claimed by the first light. That makes me wonder if they have a poor efficiency either in the driver or elsewhere.

And one thing that I´m really in doubts about is if they are any good out of the water or if they go and let out the black smoke.

Now I realise that is a whole lot of if and but´s and questions for a guy who never posts but merely lurks in the forum trying to learn :thinking:. I hope you guys will be gentle :laughing:

For any help, at all. thank you

 

[Yavox]

Re: Budget DX lights - alternatives & price

I have asked for info on those two lights you have mentioned in this thread because I wanted to decide between MC-E and SSC P7.

Finally I have bought the MC-E version, because I was told it was brighter than the SSC-P7 by someone who compared them both.

I can take and post some beamshots if you like. No underwater beamshots, sorry.

The spring is in fact quite long, but the light was working well to 20 meters without any problems. I could not find out if it can go deeper because I had to finish my diving holiday and go back home.

The rest of the build quality is OK - after diving for 10 days the light looks like new (well, almost...). The modes are well spaced, just the strobe does not work - I have to try 10 times to turn it on to have one success - but this feature is useless for me anyway.

The MC-E version works well out of water too with no heating problems. The only issue for me is that I cannot run it on AW 18650 flat top cells.

 

[jspeybro]

Re: Budget DX lights - alternatives & price

I modified lights with P7's and MC-E leds and I prefer the MC-E.
If you want better quality, you'll have to skip DX I think, but prices will increase. In the end, you're paying for quality.

SST-50 is showing up here and there in dive lights, but is not yet mainstream as far as I can tell. MB-Sub and some other more technical dive lights are using them already (VB-50, ATON, ...) but they are quite different from the lights you mentioned.

if you want to build your own lamp or modify an existing, we can point you to some suppliers of parts, but from your questions I think I understand that that was not your intention.

Johan

 

[gav6280]

Re: Budget DX lights - alternatives & price

There all nice lights, and the latest batch off ugly lights has been fixed and needs no mods.

The SST is brand new to market and no one has one yet.......I know of 2 people on YD that have them on order and will most likely review them when they arrive.

 

[ledsmoke]

Re: Budget DX lights - alternatives & price

Thank you very much for your replies. They are all valued.

Johan, you say that

If you want better quality, you'll have to skip DX I think, but prices will increase. In the end, you're paying for quality.


Johan

Can you give me pointers to other makers that have similar products. I´m just trying to asses what the prices will then be.

 

[Yavox]

Re: Budget DX lights - alternatives & price

Typical diving lighting equipment for DIR divers:

http://www.halcyon.net/lights

Somebody from this forum:

http://www.barbolight.com/en/products/diving/

And something from EU, from my country:

http://www.ammonitesystem.eu/index.php?page=produkt_lista&kategoria_id=5#menu

 

[gcbryan]

Re: Budget DX lights - alternatives & price

Just to respond to your point regarding the newer SST50 light and the one hour burn time. Just looking at the numbers it has to be longer than that. I would guess it would be at least 2 hours.

Always take the numbers from DX with a grain of salt...both ways...good and bad. They simply don't know what they are doing.

 

[lucca brassi]

Re: Budget DX lights - alternatives & price

And something from EU, from my country:

http://www.ammonitesystem.eu/index.p...oria_id=5#menu

It is interesting with aggression starts east EU countries (special Poland ) to produce ''professional scuba equipmetnt'' Like yours , Yellow Diving , Light-for-me , in Czech DTD.....( which I think produce parts also for DIR Zone , DUX (just switching logo)
most copies of well known west producers with some ''accessories'', but sometimes starts its own design and construction....

 

[ledsmoke]

Those ammonite systems arent they a bit. ahem, heavy priced?
Or is that just because I spend too much time reading on CPF and have a good idea about what the component prices is

But surely they are mega cool. Lovely design, great specs and long runtime. Whats not to love.

The barbolights seem more my style though. Wish somebody made a zoom to throw divelight though. Apart from Zee German one. (dont remember the name right now)

 

[b-bassett]

Wish somebody made a zoom to throw divelight though. Apart from Zee German one. (dont remember the name right now)

i think its kowalski's new torch that can be focussed.
I seem to remember a freind being advised by a shop to get the cheaper fixed focuss version though.
looked quite a nice light on our last live-aboard.

 

[DM51]

MB-Sub make a focussing dive light, with an SST-50 LED and a fresnel lens. It is a very high-quality item (see review in that link).

 

[350xfire]

MB-Sub make a focussing dive light, with an SST-50 LED and a fresnel lens. It is a very high-quality item (see review in that link).

Only thing is that BUDGET and MB Sub don't really go together!

 

[DM51]

Only thing is that BUDGET and MB Sub don't really go together!

Agreed 100%... but there's no harm in spreading a little temptation around, is there?

 

[350xfire]

Haha... I see. :devil::devil::devil: