gcbryan
Flashlight Enthusiast
I made the switch from HID to led's for diving a while back. It was a gradual change. I had a 10 W HID and I had a chance to try an inexpensive led dive light and it was brighter and the color temp was much more natural looking.
There were other advantages as well but just the color difference was enough.
I still thought my HID was bright. I haven't used it in a while now so tonight after charging the Nicad battery pack just to keep it from dying (what a hassle) I decided to take it out in the back yard. While I was at it I took my XP-G 18650 powered non-diving flashlight with me.
Either my HID is getting dimmer or I'm completely in the led camp forever now but the $25 XP-G light was much brighter and brought out much more detail than the $300 10 W HID with it's narrow focus and bluish tint. Lumen-wise the HID should be 450 and the XP-G 325 but you wouldn't know it from actual use. (To be fair the HID does perform better in the water than on land due it's ability to cut through limited viz).
I haven't had the XP-G all that long but I think it's the perfect combination of medium throw, good sized (larger) hotspot and useful spill for most general purposes. This is the first light I've had (other than MC-E divelights) where on high it's more than I need most times and I just naturally bring it back down to medium.
With all of my other smaller led lights I either use high or low.
I can see that is a year or two I probably won't be actively interested in the latest and greatest led because more won't be better. I think I'm almost already there with general purpose lights and past a certain point dive lights don't need to get any brighter either.
I don't know why this is a surprise but since I hadn't used the 10 W HID in a while it really surprised me tonight at how far reasonably small and powerful led flashlights have come. It's also brought home how much of a pain taking care of HID bulbs is as well as Nicad battery packs. I think I've posted in the right forum as this really isn't about dive lights or budget lights but rather about led flashlights in general.
There were other advantages as well but just the color difference was enough.
I still thought my HID was bright. I haven't used it in a while now so tonight after charging the Nicad battery pack just to keep it from dying (what a hassle) I decided to take it out in the back yard. While I was at it I took my XP-G 18650 powered non-diving flashlight with me.
Either my HID is getting dimmer or I'm completely in the led camp forever now but the $25 XP-G light was much brighter and brought out much more detail than the $300 10 W HID with it's narrow focus and bluish tint. Lumen-wise the HID should be 450 and the XP-G 325 but you wouldn't know it from actual use. (To be fair the HID does perform better in the water than on land due it's ability to cut through limited viz).
I haven't had the XP-G all that long but I think it's the perfect combination of medium throw, good sized (larger) hotspot and useful spill for most general purposes. This is the first light I've had (other than MC-E divelights) where on high it's more than I need most times and I just naturally bring it back down to medium.
With all of my other smaller led lights I either use high or low.
I can see that is a year or two I probably won't be actively interested in the latest and greatest led because more won't be better. I think I'm almost already there with general purpose lights and past a certain point dive lights don't need to get any brighter either.
I don't know why this is a surprise but since I hadn't used the 10 W HID in a while it really surprised me tonight at how far reasonably small and powerful led flashlights have come. It's also brought home how much of a pain taking care of HID bulbs is as well as Nicad battery packs. I think I've posted in the right forum as this really isn't about dive lights or budget lights but rather about led flashlights in general.
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