Barbarin
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hello all,
As you probably now I'm into flashlight manufacturing, mainly dive lights. But I'm also a diver, a cavediver, so I hope my opinion will help you. Of course cave-diving is different, has its own needs, and this is my opinion based on my experience.
LED vs. Incan. vs. HID:
... you will see it is a waste of energy, therefore batteries, space and weight to have a emitter producing warm colours, as you need "double quantity of photons" to reach the same distance.
At the same time our eye sensitivity is not the same for any wavelenght, so according to our scotopic or dark adapted sensitivity, (see chart below) is more efficient too to produce cool lights, even at the cost of CRI.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/200066
On post #6 you can see some results.
But... is so important to have an thrower when your life depends on what is happening on a distance 0,2 - 3 m arround you? It pends a lot on the cave, and for big galleries or with incredible clear waters a really powerfull beam can be fantastic, but not on the average dive, in which you need just 10 m.
Hope it can help.
Javier
As you probably now I'm into flashlight manufacturing, mainly dive lights. But I'm also a diver, a cavediver, so I hope my opinion will help you. Of course cave-diving is different, has its own needs, and this is my opinion based on my experience.
LED vs. Incan. vs. HID:
- Colour: Unless you are into photography and video, I suggest to think about efficiency. If you take a look at this chart....
... you will see it is a waste of energy, therefore batteries, space and weight to have a emitter producing warm colours, as you need "double quantity of photons" to reach the same distance.
At the same time our eye sensitivity is not the same for any wavelenght, so according to our scotopic or dark adapted sensitivity, (see chart below) is more efficient too to produce cool lights, even at the cost of CRI.
- Reliability:From my experience darkness means death, so I'm for LEDs (there is nothing to discuss about it) and no less than three lights. yes, I know it can be expensive Sorry, but certain forms of diving are not cheap, and there is no other way. Saving money on equipment means saving money on safety. Even if you are into HIDs, please, put a good LED light in your LIFE as a back up.
- Focusing/throwing capability: At this point we know that we can get a very narrow beam from a LED light and a small diameter head. Please, take a look into any thread talking about aspheric lenses, or to this thread I started in my own sub-forum.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/200066
On post #6 you can see some results.
But... is so important to have an thrower when your life depends on what is happening on a distance 0,2 - 3 m arround you? It pends a lot on the cave, and for big galleries or with incredible clear waters a really powerfull beam can be fantastic, but not on the average dive, in which you need just 10 m.
Javier
