Dive Light Help

[cmassicotte]

My daughter in law thinks I am the "go to guy" for all kinds of flashlights, & she asked me to find a good dive light as a Christmas present for my son. - and I didn't have the courage to tell her the truth /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif-

I don't have a clue /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif After searching I found that dive lights by Underwater Kinetics and Princeton Tec seem very popular - but which one? I found lights from a couple of watts to over 30; LED or Incandescent; powered by AA cells to D & rechargeable.

He is a beginner - has done a fair amount of snorkeling, but has just started to take SCUBA lessons. I have the feeling I need to know more about what kind of diving my son will be doing - but as I said above, I don't have a clue so anything you guys can do to point me in the right direction will be great.

Thanks,

Chuck

 

[Roy]

I would see what his instructor recommends for a dive light!

 

[Mark2]

The new UK eLed C8 is a nice long-running and robust dive light at a good price. It uses a 5W Luxeon and offers 2 regulated brightness levels. But I'd recommend to test a few before buying if possible as there are quite some tint variations with this model.

 

[KevinL]

Barbolight U09?

 

[Gmount]

I can help. There are two kinds of dive lights- a pocket light for looking under ledges in the day time, and a bigger light for night diving or penetration diving (wrecks). Cave diving is another thing altogether, but that is not what you are looking for.

For everyday diving, a light like the UK SL6 or SL4 is perfect. It fits in a pocket, and is just what you need.

For night diving, you need something like a UK Sunlight C4 or D4-that size light. You also want the smaller SL6 or SL4 for a backup light.

Bigger lights are not better-they are bulky and for a beginner can be too much to handle underwater while fooling with other equipment. The D4 and C4 lights are also good on land, but the pistol grip makes them especially useful under water.

I have some experience in this area. I have taught scuba for years, have taught hundreds of instructors, and am an instructor certifier. Princeton Tec makes good lights too, I have used 'em all. The important thing is getting the right size,no matter which brand you choose. Stay away from the giant, high wattage things. If he progresses along the scuba path, he will make that sort of decision based on personal needs. Stick to what I have said and you can't go wrong. HTH

 

[theepdinker]

The right dive light is determined by where & when his diving takes place.

Daytime dives with no overhead obstructions is non-critical.
Night dives are a different story.

A beginning diver can do quite well with a 10 watt narrow beam dive light. If he advances his interests in diving the 10 watt will become a redundant backup for critical light needs.

My recommendation is an incandescent 8 to 12 watts.
Princeton tec or Underwater kinetics brands.

His equipment choices will be a very carefully considered if advancing beyond casual diving. By keeping gifts to basics they will be used & appreciated for a long time.

Theepdinker
24yrs diving & in training for Dive Master now.

Gmount posted while I was composing. Looks like supporting recommendations from experienced divers.

 

[will42]

Does anyone know if the Princeton Tec Attitude 3 LED light is too dim for use as a dive light? Thanks.

 

[Deanster]

Will - the Attitude, and most other LED's are vastly too dim for dive light use. Water absorbs light like you wouldn't believe, and even a fairly concentrated beam gets 'eaten up' in just a few feet. For this reason, and also to avoid backscatter from particles in the water, most dive light beams are super-narrow needle beams, with a slight corona to provide some orientation in confined spaces.

I dive the UK C8 as my primary light, and a Pelican Stealthlite 4AA as my secondary. If I'm doing anything at all serious, I'll add a Pelican SuperSaber light 3C as the secondary, and the Stealthlight goes in a pocket as the emergency light.

As noted above, a small or medium light like the SuperSaber or Stealthlight is fine as a gift for someone learning to dive who wants to light up a dark spot during a day dive.

The 4C or 8C lights, like the UK 8C or the Pelican Nemo are a good Primary for a new diver who will be doing night dives. If they get serious about night diving, or one of the disciplines like caving (only with extensive special training), they'll choose a more hard-core approach later.

If you're forced to make a choice without more info, I'd go with either the UK 8C, Pelican 4C Nemo, or Pelican SuperSaber - all in the $30 range. Pelican's a little more versatile for non-dive uses, the others are slightly better dive lights, but not so great for other uses.

 

[will42]

Thanks for the info. I bought several Attitudes for power outage duty, and was wondering if the Attitude might be suitable as a small gift for a friend that dives. I suspected it was too dim, but thought it might be useful as a marker beacon or some other function since it is waterproof and lasts a long time on a set of batteries.

 

[Brock]

I am also a diver. I never and I mean never dive without at least 2 lights, even during the day. I typically carry the UKE 2L's, one with a regular lamp and one with the eLED. I really like the eLED because it lights up things in color, where the regular lamp appears dull or flat. At night I just take more 2L's or 4AA's. I do have some larger 6v UKE's but really prefer the carry of the 2L. If I dove at night more often at night and needed the light I would get a UKE Light cannon 100, a 10w HID light. Very nice. But with the visibility of 10-15 feet the brighter the light the more it just lights up all the water and you can see anything, sort of like car brights in the fog.

 

[Mike Painter]

I've never had any great need for a powerful dive light.
In limited visibility water you will not be able to see very far with any light.
In all cases where I've used a light it has been to look at things close to a few feet away.

Spring time is when I do most of my night dives and most of the time the light is out. I find it far more fun to watch things glow than to light them up.

 

[thesurefire]

Brock, when under a fair bit of water at night (say 10 feet under) how far does the 2L throw?

 

[ebyron]

I am a SCUBA diver as well, and have done a bunch of night dives.

I love my PT Surge. It throws out a TON of light for its size, with a nice solid (ringless) beam that cuts through the water and has enough side spill to see everything around you. It also feels much beter in my hand than the pistol grip models i have used. It has a good 3-4 hour runtime, enough for a bunch of dives. It is not as large and heavy as the C and D cell pistol-grip lights, which is a plus when traveling. The Surge will also make a fantastic backup light if he ever graduates to a larger scale light. And the price can't be beat.

I carry a UK 2L as a backup light (sometimes two) clipped to my BC with my storm whistle. It also throws a ton of light for it's featherweight size, and cuts through the water well.

I have gotten into the habit of having my lights with me on my daylight dives too. They are great for peeking for critters under ledges, swimming through tunnels or caves, and to also bring back some of the color you lose at depth.

I use the PT Attitude for gearing up for a night dive on the boat, where the primary light is not desirable because of it's blinding brightness and the Attitude batteries last forever saving the dive light batteries for the dive. The Attitude is not really bright enough for the actual dive, perhaps as a 2nd backup.

I also have a PT Tec40, PT Blast and a couple of UK 2AAA which are all great small lights.

As others have said the type of diving will dictate what is the best light for his needs.

Let us know how it works out

eliot

 

[Barbarin]

It is sad to see that I'm almost the only one recomending theu U-09. Thank you Kevin!!!

U-09 is a diving light made to satisfy military specs on reliability. It uses C batteries, has 9 Watt LED optic group and is the highest power LED diving flashlight available

120 min runtime on high.

Overall output higher than a 35 Watt halogen, water penetration better than a 50 watt halogen.

6300ºK.

And everything on a less than 8 inch package, lighter than a pound.

And way better than any of the flashlights you have recommended previously.

And its only inconvenience is... No idea, but I'm sure there is a ,mistery silence agreement about it.

In Spain and France is being sold very very well with charger and battery pack over 350US$. And the reviews about it are amazing... One of this days will translate some

http://www.barbolight.com/english/englishtecnicau.htm

 

[ACMarina]

I think we need to find out if we're looking for a BC pocket sized light or a dedicated night dive multi-cell light. I always have my SuperSabrelite in my BC pocket, and I dive a PT Shockwave when I intend on being out after dark. My brother dives a PT Tec 40, and he had a UK HID for a while but somehow managed to break it.

I'd personally say for a beginning diver you should pick up something small, BC pocket sized. I've never brought an LED down yet, but I'd like to hear how they do. I'd think anything from PT/UK/Pelican would be okay, though. You can read some reviews about dive lights here.

Has anybody had a chance to dive the new Sabrelite LED?? I'd like to hear how it does. .

 

[theepdinker]

Barbarin,
No slight intended regarding your lights.
The question related to a beginning diver.

If the question related to an avid night or cave diver, I'm sure your lights would receive more recommendations.

Theepdinker