What dive lights have you used, and what were the best or worst things about them? Such as, brightness, beam angle, durability... And what’s one thing you wish could be better for the light? (Too bulky, not bright enough, short battery life...). If you've ever used a XTAR dive light before, also feel free to share your thoughts. We’re always looking to improve our dive lights based on real divers' feedback.
Best & Worst features on your dive lights?
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These are really personal, but lets try:
- Narrow angle of beam
- On/off is not switchable on accident (I prefer a twist-on design, where the whole lamp twists).
When shopping lights:
- Have good information about light: beam angle, dimensions, how many watts is the emitter led, constant or variable output
- Most manufacturers have lumen claims, but those tend to be bogus...
Small problems with some cheap lights:
- Rear of light has a small hole for attaching a lanyard, the hole is too small
- Spring inside the lamp (negative battery terminal) was bad causing the light to stop working till a conductive shim was added
- Narrow angle of beam
- On/off is not switchable on accident (I prefer a twist-on design, where the whole lamp twists).
When shopping lights:
- Have good information about light: beam angle, dimensions, how many watts is the emitter led, constant or variable output
- Most manufacturers have lumen claims, but those tend to be bogus...
Small problems with some cheap lights:
- Rear of light has a small hole for attaching a lanyard, the hole is too small
- Spring inside the lamp (negative battery terminal) was bad causing the light to stop working till a conductive shim was added
-Fraudulent lumen claims are a ubiquitous curse at the low end, you just have to pay your money and take your chances. Up to Amazon et all to police that but they can’t be arsed. Wish wetestlights.com by Light And Motion was still around.
-Standard Qi charging would be nice. Proprietary induction charging with some irreplaceable dongle is ********.
-A nice tight beam angle with a flat circular spot and just the right amount of spill is what makes a really good light. Quality optics are never cheap though.
-High-ish colour temperature please.
-Simple software. I’m not going to cycle through a dozen annoying strobe modes trying to turn it off already! Low and High are probably enough. Having it blink a few times before it quits entirely is nice. Voltage and temperature protection are necessary at the high end.
-Always wanted one of those fancy multi emitter ones with UV, green laser, flood, and spot. Bet I’d just use spot mode 99% of the time though, doubt it’s really worth the coin.
-Magnetic switch is a must. Pretty universal these days but I’ll never buy another mechanical switch with a dynamic seal.
-Standard Qi charging would be nice. Proprietary induction charging with some irreplaceable dongle is ********.
-A nice tight beam angle with a flat circular spot and just the right amount of spill is what makes a really good light. Quality optics are never cheap though.
-High-ish colour temperature please.
-Simple software. I’m not going to cycle through a dozen annoying strobe modes trying to turn it off already! Low and High are probably enough. Having it blink a few times before it quits entirely is nice. Voltage and temperature protection are necessary at the high end.
-Always wanted one of those fancy multi emitter ones with UV, green laser, flood, and spot. Bet I’d just use spot mode 99% of the time though, doubt it’s really worth the coin.
-Magnetic switch is a must. Pretty universal these days but I’ll never buy another mechanical switch with a dynamic seal.
I use an Xstar D26 as a backup. Only complaints are about the battery compartment not fitting 21700 very well and the switch is too easy to press, so I leave it slightly unscrewed. I'd like if it was a constant output.
The beam pattern is good and anodizing is durable.
The beam pattern is good and anodizing is durable.
My biggest complaint about most lights is the on and off switch. I often want to flip my light on, signal something, and turn it back off. Most of them won't do that. You have to go through a bunch of modes, or hold it down for x seconds. I just want on and off.
I don't mind long press off, so long as it's short press on. The worst is having to cycle modes.
Although since how I use most backup/cordless lights is to unscrew the light head until they cant accidentally turn on from a press it's less important.
Although since how I use most backup/cordless lights is to unscrew the light head until they cant accidentally turn on from a press it's less important.
DiveDiversions
Contributor
- As Sascha314 said "Important is the beam angle and brightness relation of spot and corona."
This is your Xtar D30 4000, the chromatic aberration is pretty bad especially for close up video/photography especially when you have two of them as the yellow corona lines overlap and is visible in photos and video, saying this though they are probably fine in a single torch setup with an action camera where you are not getting in close to the action.
Here is one of my Kraken video lights for comparison and with that torch next to it.
- Screw in ball mounts that have no way of being secured from being easily knocked and come loose.
Ball mounts should either have two points of fixing or have a recessed slot that they sit in to lock them in place and can’t come undone.
- The primary LED module with in the light should be centred to torch and lens with all secondary led modules around it.
This layout also creates an uneven chromatic aberration, it also stops you from making a basic/simple snoot
- Ideally not use a lens for a video light.
Then all the standard features that you see in torches now
- Double O-rings
- Colour temperature appropriate for use, for a torch it doesn’t matter so much but a video light should have a bit more red in it.
- Lanyard hole built into the metal housing (not a rubber ring)
- SOS function.
- Magnetic switches/controls
- Soft lockout controls (Push and hold power button for x seconds to prevent accidental power on)
One thing I would really like to see is a way of physically disconnecting the battery with something like a ¼ turn of the case or something, as nice as the soft lock out power switch is, it still draws a small amount of power that in turns flattens the battery. Having this means that the torch is usable over several days/weeks if you don’t actually use the torch that much as it’s not self-discharging.
On a side note to this, I used to do the ¼ turn thing with a torch as this would break the negative path through the case where it screwed together and the O-rings would isolate the negative thus disconnecting the battery. This turned out to be bad as the salt water being conductive would cause a slight electrolysis between the front and back of the case and would start to break down the anodization and the aluminium would then start to corrode. So, I don’t recommend doing this on a torch not designed to do it.
So, for the physical disconnecting option I mention above, the two halves of the torch case needs to maintain the same potential/stay connected.
This is your Xtar D30 4000, the chromatic aberration is pretty bad especially for close up video/photography especially when you have two of them as the yellow corona lines overlap and is visible in photos and video, saying this though they are probably fine in a single torch setup with an action camera where you are not getting in close to the action.
Here is one of my Kraken video lights for comparison and with that torch next to it.
- Screw in ball mounts that have no way of being secured from being easily knocked and come loose.
Ball mounts should either have two points of fixing or have a recessed slot that they sit in to lock them in place and can’t come undone.
- The primary LED module with in the light should be centred to torch and lens with all secondary led modules around it.
This layout also creates an uneven chromatic aberration, it also stops you from making a basic/simple snoot
- Ideally not use a lens for a video light.
Then all the standard features that you see in torches now
- Double O-rings
- Colour temperature appropriate for use, for a torch it doesn’t matter so much but a video light should have a bit more red in it.
- Lanyard hole built into the metal housing (not a rubber ring)
- SOS function.
- Magnetic switches/controls
- Soft lockout controls (Push and hold power button for x seconds to prevent accidental power on)
One thing I would really like to see is a way of physically disconnecting the battery with something like a ¼ turn of the case or something, as nice as the soft lock out power switch is, it still draws a small amount of power that in turns flattens the battery. Having this means that the torch is usable over several days/weeks if you don’t actually use the torch that much as it’s not self-discharging.
On a side note to this, I used to do the ¼ turn thing with a torch as this would break the negative path through the case where it screwed together and the O-rings would isolate the negative thus disconnecting the battery. This turned out to be bad as the salt water being conductive would cause a slight electrolysis between the front and back of the case and would start to break down the anodization and the aluminium would then start to corrode. So, I don’t recommend doing this on a torch not designed to do it.
So, for the physical disconnecting option I mention above, the two halves of the torch case needs to maintain the same potential/stay connected.
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