Favorite Handheld Light Under ~$600

[OTF]

Nanight Sport 2. $350. 4000 lumen. Swappable optics. High quality made in Sweden by a small company with great customer service.

 

[Tracy]

Are you all mounting this on your left hand and using the QRM when you need to switch hands? Or are you sliding off the soft glove?

The first part, I don't remove the soft goodman from my dryglove, it is always on there unless I am using a canister light.

 

[TravelGas]

I have mine on my left hand and don’t switch hands.

 

[tbone1004]

Mine went on the right hand and stayed there. I don’t switch hands.

you do at least turn it off then when you're reeling lines in yes? When cave diving you will get all sorts of excitement and angst from other cave divers if you don't. I've come flying into the cavern area several times seeing lights dancing around like that because it mimics an emergency signal.

 

[boriss]

Nanight Sport 2. $350. 4000 lumen. Swappable optics. High quality made in Sweden by a small company with great customer service.

Is there independent testing, like with LX20? I'm not sure how much I trust that rating and for it to be constant output. The information is all over the place and I don't know what to trust.

For example, on their site: Nanight Dive Lights - made in Sweden

Max Depth is listed as 500m, burn time is listed as 2-hours. Their YouTube video says 500m and 1-hour. Then the picture of the actual box on their site shows 200m depth. Lastly, their reseller Salt Blue is showing a depth of 100m.

There's a burn chart which implies constant output, but no lumens and just looks like it was generated in Excel.

Went through the YouTube video's and not seeing anything decent about how it works, how you swap lenses, the switch seems to be a different design than I've seen anywhere else. The charging is exposed to the elements and so on.

Found some posts from @LandonL (2-years ago) that they carried it locally, but not on the site now.

I'd love to support a small business and get the light. It looks sleek, modular, etc. However, I'm not a light expert and wouldn't know if this is a good light or not. How do we trust its claims and which? Ty

 

[tbone1004]

@boriss
Third party testing of the LX20. They have not done the LX20+ but there is no reason to believe that they changed to where you would question their claims.

We Test Lights | LX20 Test and Review

wetestlights.com

Nanight
3350mah battery at 14.4v=48.24wh
History says that the burn time claims from the manufacturers are pretty accurate because that is what the customers can measure.
48.24wh/2hrs=24.12watts average consumption with an "ideal" efficacy of 136 lumen/watt. 24.12*136=3280 lumen at best. Reality says the batteries should have a cutoff and there are other efficiency losses that are at best around 80% so call it 2600lumens. Either of those numbers are a far cry from the claimed 4000 lumen.
It is going to be more comparable to the Dive Rite HP50 which is a great light, but it's beam is too wide at 10* for my use in most caves, but more especially when diving during the day where the wide lights really don't do much and you need the narrower hotspot to actually see anything from any distance.

Is it a good light, yeah probably, but the lumen claims are a bit optimistic so don't try to compare it to a true 4000 lumen light

 

[greeniguana]

I've been using a Tech2 for almost 2 years. No complaints. Specially since it was cheaper back when I bought it. I noticed several places quit carrying Nanight stuff, I'd be curious to know why.

Nanight states that their 4000 is *emitter* lumens. Disingenuous? Maybe, but at least they put the word emitter. I very rarely run it higher than setting 2, so lumens has never been an issue for me. It has lenses, and lenses are detrimental to any light efficiency. But at the same time it's nice to be able to take the lense out and instantly have a video light.

The original charge port sucked, but the new one is trouble free. I made my own 4s2p battery packs.

 

[tbone1004]

I've been using a Tech2 for almost 2 years. No complaints. Specially since it was cheaper back when I bought it. I noticed several places quit carrying Nanight stuff, I'd be curious to know why.

Nanight states that their 4000 is *emitter* lumens. Disingenuous? Maybe, but at least they put the word emitter. I very rarely run it higher than setting 2, so lumens has never been an issue for me. It has lenses, and lenses are detrimental to any light efficiency. But at the same time it's nice to be able to take the lense out and instantly have a video light.

The original charge port sucked, but the new one is trouble free. I made my own 4s2p battery packs.

It's not putting out 4000 lumens at the emitter. The emitter is capable of putting out 4000 lumens, but it's not being fed enough current to do it. The values that I calculated above are at the emitter. There will be efficiency losses through the optics, especially since the different lenses that it comes with while convenient are inherently quite inefficient. I would hazard a guess that it would compare very close to the Dive Rite HP50 at 2500 lumen.

If it was putting out 4000 lumen at the emitter it would be consuming no less than 30w to do it which would lead to ~1.5hr burn time, likely closer to 1hr given the amount of heat that it generates at that current draw.

 

[boriss]

@boriss
Third party testing of the LX20. They have not done the LX20+ but there is no reason to believe that they changed to where you would question their claims.

We Test Lights | LX20 Test and Review

wetestlights.com

Nanight
3350mah battery at 14.4v=48.24wh
History says that the burn time claims from the manufacturers are pretty accurate because that is what the customers can measure.
48.24wh/2hrs=24.12watts average consumption with an "ideal" efficacy of 136 lumen/watt. 24.12*136=3280 lumen at best. Reality says the batteries should have a cutoff and there are other efficiency losses that are at best around 80% so call it 2600lumens. Either of those numbers are a far cry from the claimed 4000 lumen.
It is going to be more comparable to the Dive Rite HP50 which is a great light, but it's beam is too wide at 10* for my use in most caves, but more especially when diving during the day where the wide lights really don't do much and you need the narrower hotspot to actually see anything from any distance.

Is it a good light, yeah probably, but the lumen claims are a bit optimistic so don't try to compare it to a true 4000 lumen light

Thanks, I'm not questioning the Dive Rite lights. Thinking the LX20+ might become my primary.

I'm not yet sure which features I need though, as far as beam angle. I don't do caves and my current wreck penetrations haven't lasted more than 30-minutes.

My tech instructors (ab)use BigBlue and those have a 10degree beam angle. Yes, I'm aware that they don't live up to stated claims and aren't constant burn.

 

[tbone1004]

Thanks, I'm not questioning the Dive Rite lights. Thinking the LX20+ might become my primary.

I'm not yet sure which features I need though, as far as beam angle. I don't do caves and my current wreck penetrations haven't lasted more than 30-minutes.

My tech instructors (ab)use BigBlue and those have a 10degree beam angle. Yes, I'm aware that they don't live up to stated claims and aren't constant burn.

Tighter is better in open water since it will appear brighter. Total lumens may be higher but the tighter beam angles will have a higher lux rating which is the intensity of the light *think laser pointer vs. a light bulb where the laser has a very intense beam but very low lumen output where the light has a very high lumen output but it is not concentrated*.

LX20+ is a beast in open water and while I love my UWLD LD40's, if you want something cheap and highly effective without the cable the LX20+ is great. There is a reason I own two of them.