Looking for Focus light.

[Tbar]

I have used two focus lights
1) Fisheye FIX NEO Mini 1000 SWR (Fisheye FIX NEO Mini 1000 SWR (Spot/Wide/Red) 1000 Lumens Underwater Focus Light)
2) Kraken Hydra 1000+ WSR (Kraken Hydra 1000+ WSR Underwater Video Light)

Key for me with a focus light are:
1) white and red light, red is great at night the critters do not see you and you can get very close and still focus
2) auto-off, without this there can be a hot spot in the photo either white or more often red (at night)
3) replaceable battery, on repetitive dives 4+ a day there is not time to recharge between dives so the battery needs to be changed.

Both the above have these features along with variable power and an indicator of battery level.

My Fisheye was bought in Australia about 4 years ago and has suffered some pin damage on the head, it still works but for a longer dive trip I wanted greater assurance...
The Kraken was bought this year from Backscatter, who provided great advice and fast delivery, it works well. Battery life is a little shorter than the Fisheye, I only turn it on when needed and can get two dives from on battery.

With regard to Bigblue lights, I have had a number (4) of there lights and all failed with electrical faults. They claimed flooding, there was no water inside. Never would I entertain a BigBlue products again.

 

[bvanant]

It is not clear to me that auto-off has any benefit at all. If you have a 1000 lumen light and a 1,000,000 lux strobe flash (at least 200,000 lumens but for only a millisecond or two. The focus light is only 1% of the total photons hitting the subject.

Cheers
Bill

 

[chris kippax]

Chris are you talking about Laluz or bigblue? Google is useless in finding what you want they give you what they want to sell! Where did you buy them from? I used Afterpay(APT) on the BB as I own some shares in the company. APT seem to be going well in the USA for an Aussie company....

I am speaking about the Laluz. I purchased them from the below website

http://www.laluzoptics.com/index.html

 

[Tbar]

It is not clear to me that auto-off has any benefit at all. If you have a 1000 lumen light and a 1,000,000 lux strobe flash (at least 200,000 lumens but for only a millisecond or two. The focus light is only 1% of the total photons hitting the subject.

The shutter speed is a lot slower than that "millisecond or two" of flash. At 1/60 there is 16.67 millisecond of shutter opening, many cameras the fastest shutter is 1/60 on flash. Also many times the flash will be quite low power, my Inons will go from 20 to 3 GN. I have no idea how to convert the GN to Lux or lumen.

In my experience, at night on wide angle I have often seen a hotter area of white light and with red light I have seen a red tinge when not using auto off.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

It is not clear to me that auto-off has any benefit at all. If you have a 1000 lumen light and a 1,000,000 lux strobe flash (at least 200,000 lumens but for only a millisecond or two. The focus light is only 1% of the total photons hitting the subject.

Cheers
Bill

YMMV?
A 1000ish lumen flood like my scubalamp wide-angle pv10 light is no issue as it has NO hotspot. It actually sucks as a night dive light since it is way too wide. But zero hotspot so great for video?

1000ish lumen from my dive buddies hog morph on high is a big issue as it has an extreme tight angle hotspot that shows up in any shot where the subject is more than a foot away...

I use an elcheapo low lumen Princeton as a focus light.

 

[Ardy]

I have 3 flashlights from DGX ranging from 30$-100$, each has around 50 Dives and never had any problems with them.

Good build quality and pretty bright.

The only complaint i would have is the operating time, on my Main flash light its only around 1 hour. (Which shouldn't be too much of a problem if you bring spare batteries and switch between dives.

INTERESTING reply from DGX which I think may be useful for others buying a DGX light:

"Is the light leaking water into the battery compartment? If so, it will have to be coming in through the where the light head attaches to the body. The Switch compartment is sealed and works with a magnetic switch. So, there should not be a way for water to come in via the switch compartment.
For the switch not activating (or turning off) we have seen where debris gets into the switch compartment and doesn't allow the switch magnet to get close enough to work. A lot of times this can be remedied by simply soaking the unit in fresh warm water for a few hours."

This is my problem and I thought water had got in as the contact at the back showed some discolouration which could have been normal. Bali has very fine silt in the water if the ocean is bouncy at all.
Will try soaking in warm water and if it works will let you all know.
Ardy

 

[Ardy]

I have 3 flashlights from DGX ranging from 30$-100$, each has around 50 Dives and never had any problems with them.

Good build quality and pretty bright.

The only complaint i would have is the operating time, on my Main flash light its only around 1 hour. (Which shouldn't be too much of a problem if you bring spare batteries and switch between dives.

Hi Jack, I just had an excellent discussion over email with DGX re the light I had bought from them. Turned out the magnetic switch was blocked up, after 18 months after buying they refunded my money. I suspect the problem was the very fine particles in the water in Bali. I soacked the light for 24hours in warm water trying to clean it with no joy EXCEPT! The torch was still running 24 hours later at full rate.
Amazing - but it must be a different model to the one you are running?

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

Hi Jack, I just had an excellent discussion over email with DGX re the light I had bought from them. Turned out the magnetic switch was blocked up, after 18 months after buying they refunded my money. I suspect the problem was the very fine particles in the water in Bali. I soacked the light for 24hours in warm water trying to clean it with no joy EXCEPT! The torch was still running 24 hours later at full rate.
Amazing - but it must be a different model to the one you are running?

Hi Ardy,

All of my flashlights are twist-on-off , no buttons.
After I've had several flashlights from various companies all fail on me specifically with the switch i decided to keep it minimal.

I have the DGX 800 ,600 and the 300, all with no buttons.

Its good to hear you've had a good experience with their customer service, makes me slightly calmer just in case i would ever have to approach them with something like this.

 

[Ardy]

Jack, your call re twist on/off could well be the answer. Maybe magnetic and all switches are a problem? All previous underwater torches I have had have been twist operated.
Might post this on the lights area see what they say.