Looking for a dive light

Hi ppl

I am posting this on behalf of a friend.
He recently got into scuba diving and he is looking for a dive light in the region of 60 - $130.
I know this isn't a lot of money for a dive light but that's what he want's to spend.

Thanks in advance.

The whole line of Princeton Tec lights are purpose built for diving and they all fall within or significantly below your stated price points. They go from $10 for an old body style Tec 40 from campor to about $100 for the Shockwave.

You should definitely look into Princeton Tec for a cheap, dependable, dive light

For dive lights, I highly recommend Underwater Kinetics and Pelican lights. I have a few(not posted in my sigline due to lack of space): UK SL6, SL4, 4AA, 2L, 2AAA and Pelican KingLite, 3C. Both are very good. I personally love UK the best for dive lights above all others. Good price, VERY bright, great runtime, very good build quality. I consider them the Surefire of dive lights but without the high price tag. At a dive shop near my house, they have a UK kit that has(if I remember correctly) a 4D pistol grip main light, a SL4(for the BC pocket), a 4AA mask light, and a 2AAA marker light, all for about 110.00(I think). Very good deal!!!

I highly recommend Under Water kinetics myself. $130 is a good amount for a dive light, many can be found for under that cost, however the REALLY good ones cost more.

Being more of a Tech minded diver I always recomend canister lights, and pretty good ones can be found on Ebay for $100-150 I think I sold my MR16 Halogen on there for around $100 they offer about 1-2hours runtime but a LOT of light.

My next pick would be a UK light canon it's a 10W HID, they run in the neighborhood of about $200 retail, however you can often find them for less, I know wholesale on them from certain vendors is right around $150, cause I bought mine that way, I used 2 for video lights... I've been considering selling mine, but wanted to sell them with the video housing they were part of.


My next suggestion would be for like a UK Sunlight C8 etc.... If the light is getting used during day dives (like we do here in the Northwest, we use a light on ALL dives up here) then you want a pretty bright one, I had a C8 for a while, and I believe it's a 8-10W bulb or so, not really good during the day, but better than nothing. Haven't tried the new LED lights, but I personally feel something in the 20W range is whats needed, so an LED IMO needs to be about as bright as a 20W Incan... for day diving anyways...

When night falls, anything will work. If your friend is doing night diving, tell them to try and spend money for a backup light... the last thing you want is to be underwater in pitch black and have a light failure... a small $10-20 light is better than nothing when you have a primary light go out.


Hope that helps, most the underwater light manufacturers are pretty good, pelican, u/k, and Princeton tec... many are very similar lights as well just different brand/model name.

Thanks a lot ppl

I showed him all the options you offered here and he seemed pretty happy with the variety

Good advice from the guys above. You can't really go wrong with the Princeton Tec or Underwater Kinetics range of dive lights. Your friend should get the brightest he can afford, which means minimum C4, better D4 and better still C8 or D8, although D8 is quite heavy/bulky.

In the long run he will save money if he goes for rechargeable cells.

There aren't really any LED dive-lights to rival the incans yet, but a small LED light can make a good back-up light (as mentioned above, he should always carry a back-up light, especially on night-dives.)

The UK Light Cannon is spectacularly bright; however being HID it has a time lag of a few seconds before it comes up to fully lit, which can be annoying if you only want to illuminate something briefly.

I am late to this thread but wanted to toss out another option. Take a look at the Ikelites. I have the PCa 6xAA. Incan, and incredibly bright. Warning! Do NOT use this light out of the water for more than 30 minutes as it will over heat and damage the reflector. Good luck with your search.

DM51 said:

There aren't really any LED dive-lights to rival the incans yet, but a small LED light can make a good back-up light (as mentioned above, he should always carry a back-up light, especially on night-dives.)

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???

Are you telling me I should dump my Barbolight U-15 for an incan???

----------------

Back to the original question...
In that price range, I'd recommend a UK SL4 eLED version. It will fit in the diver's BC pocket comfortably so he will carry it ALWAYS (day or night). When comparing the UK SL4 version and incan version, the LED is dimmer over time when OUT OF WATER, but when underwater, the junction temperature will drop and output will be brighter. Make sure to check several LED versions. The luxeon led lottery is quite noticeable. FYI: the manufacturer is dramatically under-rating the lumens on this light.

I prefer a brighter light during the day and a dimmer light at night. Why? Your eyes are dark adapted at night and you don't need the lumens unless you have other divers w/ very bright lights. Also, at night there is a sense of adventure and excitement when it is darker. For daytime, a bright light is needed for looking into crevices and other dark cracks. Since your eyes are used to brighter light during the day, you really need the extra lumens.

Should your friend pursue technical diving... bright HIDs are the way to go down the road. But since he recently just got into diving, I highly recommend the UK SL4 eLED in that price range. The UK SL4 eLED will be a good backup light should brighter lights be in his budget down the road.

My dive rated lights include:
PT 40 (incan)
PT Surge (incan)
UK SL4 eLED
HD45 XX1T (not rated, but capable)
Barbolight U-04
Barbolight U-04 505nm
Barbolight U-15
Barbolight U-15 505nm
DiveRite 10w HID
Darkbuster 24w HID
Polarion Helios 40w HID (instant on)

NOTES:
I don't use the PT lights anymore. Since the bulbs blew this past year, I decided not to replace them. I've also taken a Ti-PD diving, but I wouldn't recommend it. I have a Chapman-Leonard 3w lens light, but it's output lacked and it flooded. I've also used and returned a Tektite SeaRay12 due to flooding issues.

blahblahblah said:

Are you telling me I should dump my Barbolight U-15 for an incan???

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The U15 is a nice light, but waaaay outside this guy's price range.

Another nod to Ikelite. I don't dive but I have one of their lights because they are not bank breakers and are insanely bright for being a factory light and for the size. One of about three incans that I still like and that's saying a whole bunch.

Nebula said:

I am late to this thread but wanted to toss out another option. Take a look at the Ikelites. I have the PCa 6xAA. Incan, and incredibly bright. Warning! Do NOT use this light out of the water for more than 30 minutes as it will over heat and damage the reflector. Good luck with your search.

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Sorry, I forgot to mention this amazing light from IkeLite. I second Nebula's vote for the Ikelite PCa. The PCa 6xAA is VERY nice and VERY bright and quite small in size.(looks like a 2xC cell side-by-side light from the outside) I have one in my van that I play with once in a while and it would make an outstanding backup light for one of your BC pockets. Five stars for this little pocket light cannon!!!

I haven't come across these Ikelites myself, but based on what you guys say I'm going to take a look at them. Thanks for the info.

I have to recommend the UK Q40 eLED Plus over the SL4 eLED since it is a little brighter and more compact. The construction of the UK's is a little better than the ikelites in my opinion-- simpler and less brittle. But as mentioned the PCa is VERY bright.

For diving I strictly use LED since there is little chance of failure, and smaller incans only have one bulb.

mbirds said:

I have to recommend the UK Q40 eLED Plus over the SL4 eLED since it is a little brighter and more compact. The construction of the UK's is a little better than the ikelites in my opinion-- simpler and less brittle. But as mentioned the PCa is VERY bright.

For diving I strictly use LED since there is little chance of failure, and smaller incans only have one bulb.

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Why not just buy both. Use the LED as a primary and the Incan in the backup role. IIRC I paid less than $40.00 for the Ikelite 6xAA. Secur1's friend could get the UK and the Ike and still be within his stated budget, albeit toward the top end. My two cents.

Agreed. But I would use incand as primary if it were brighter. Also, the batteries on the Ike will only last about an hour and a half and it has a pretty messy beam, in addition to the design concerns I mentioned. I have both lights and don't carry the PCa any more. As a primary with rechargeables it might make sense.

I'd rather have two q40 eLED pluses.

Another interesting dive light is the Tektite Expedition Star for about $75. Decent brightness, (30 lumens) and looong runtime off 3xC batteries (20 hrs to 50%). I'f I hadn't just sold my soul for a Barbolight U-09 I'd check it out.

Talk about the best dive light, make the Barbolight look like a Mini-M@g.
http://www.bersub.fr/

glockboy said:

Talk about the best dive light, make the Barbolight look like a Mini-M@g.
http://www.bersub.fr/

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glockboy, Have you got any experience with the Bersubs? I've just replaced my Green Force 10 watt HID with a Barbolight U-15 (Barbolight is a much smaller package). The output on the Barbolight is approx the same as on the 10 watt HID. But I'm always looking for something brighter in a small package.

Jan

I have not got any experience with the Bersubs, only read from a member here on CPF that he used his Barbolight go diving, when he go up, somebody go down with a light that make his light look like nothing but he runing out of air so he have to go up. He post here(CPF) ask if anybody know what light that guy used and another member post it's a JUPITER LED 800.
You can read the spec and compare.
The JUPITER LED 800 cost too much $$ for me.

Best bang for the buck is the Darkbuster. 21 watts with a big 4 inch reflector. You will have the brightest light on the dive boat I guarantee it. 90 plus minutes of burn time. I bought one last year for a dive trip in Maui. Only 35 night dives on it and it's in perfect condition. Comes in a nice hard case that's nice and soft on the inside and custom fitted for the light two chargers and other extras.

I just bought a Polarion X1 and that's my new dive light. I paid $399 for the Darkbuster a year ago. It's yours delivered for $275. Let me know [email protected]

Before you decide, look at Solus:
http://ssp.ie/products.htm
The site is clear and has been put together by someone who knows what he's talking about. Interesting reading.