Best backup light? Scout?

[aquaoren]

Holy crap those Heser lights are 159 euros = ~$200USD.

Yeah, but one of the diver on our local board tested them:

Mine burned for 7 hours in ice water before I took it out of the freezer. I kept it burning for another 7 hours in room temperature water. It's still bright. I have to go to Toronto today... I can't decide whether I should bring it with me in a tupperware container full of water to keep it burning, or if I should simply accept the fact that at 14+ hours burntime, I just don't really need to know how much farther it will go.

Going by your previous post about being back in the cave, how much would your life be worth? I certainly hope that it's more than the 159 Euro$.

 

[hank harris]

Oren (and anyone else who has seen the Heser in action), it sounds like you find the Heser to be the brightest and/or most focused of the various lights in this size range?

I ask because, outside of an occasional cenote foray, my diving is all OW and lugging around a camera and strobe rig, I am thinking a cannister light will complicate things (just a guess, since I have never tried using them both at the same time). So, if you don't count the camera light, this will be my primary.

 

[hank harris]

I saw a comment from Jagfish on the thread Vie linked me too where the Heser was also mentioned as a preference. Just trying to get all the info I can so I can get my light purchase right this time. I could open a light store with all the mediocre and/or too bulky lights I have purchased over the years :11doh:

 

[aquaoren]

Haven't seen them all but the Heser is very bright and burns long time...
And it's built very well, that thing is heavy

 

[SparticleBrane]

Going by your previous post about being back in the cave, how much would your life be worth? I certainly hope that it's more than the 159 Euro$.

It was just a hypothetical--I don't currently cave dive.
For right now on night dives and open water dives, my scout does just fine. Nice tight beam that cuts through a good amount of muck and is good for signaling.

 

[*Floater*]

How many lumens do the regular scouts put out? How tight (degrees) is the beam? Burn time?

I'm surprised to see people spend so much on backup lights. If you really intend to use them only as backups, then something equivalent to the scout should be enough and I see little point in spending any extra for DIR reasons.

I personally use the $25 UK mini q40 eled plus lights, which put out 40 lumens, use a 13 deg beam and last for 5+ hours. Not sure if they are DIR, but for my purposes they are good enough, and nice and small too so they don't add too much weight to travel or get in the way while clipped to the harness.

The DR hand-held 10W HID lights look cool though if money and weight wasn't an issue.

 

[nadwidny]

Oren (and anyone else who has seen the Heser in action), it sounds like you find the Heser to be the brightest and/or most focused of the various lights in this size range?

I ask because, outside of an occasional cenote foray, my diving is all OW and lugging around a camera and strobe rig, I am thinking a cannister light will complicate things (just a guess, since I have never tried using them both at the same time). So, if you don't count the camera light, this will be my primary.

I have a Heser (and a Scout and a Photon with Halcyon LED and a regular Photon, etc. etc.). If I was an OW diver looking for a primary light I would go with the Heser. During some trials we did in a cave it performed almost as well as a 10W HID canister light. Pretty impressive for such a small package.

 

[nadwidny]

I'm surprised to see people spend so much on backup lights. If you really intend to use them only as backups, then something equivalent to the scout should be enough and I see little point in spending any extra for DIR reasons.

Those with experience will instantly understand that the reason for spending the extra money is well justified. You don't have it and so you don't get it.

It's not about what is "DIR" (whatever the hell that is supposed to be), it's not about measuring lumens and it's not about measuring beam spread. It's not about numbers. It's about real life and what works the best.

 

[hank harris]

thanks Brian. and thanks to everyone for the valuable input. I have been poking around various sites and am coming to the conclusion this may be the best light for my situation. For me its not a matter of can vs handheld; its a matter of priorities: Photography comes first and other lighting has to work with that. But I still want the best light I can find.

Somewhere I read Dennis (Pez de Diablo, Diablo Divers) saying he has one, so as I will be doing some cenote diving with him next month I will maybe get to see it first hand.

 

[wunat]

What criteria is taken when a light is consider DIR or not?

What is it a light canister should have to be considered DIR? How about backups?