Bonaire night dive light suggestions?

[drrich2]

Hi:

I'm open water-certified & part of a group organized by my scuba instructor planning a week-long Bonaire trip in Spring '07. Wife & buddy are also OW Cert. & going, too.

I had no intention of night diving since I figured diving in the ocean in pitch black night with only a lamp beam for comfort sounded frighting and not fun. But I'm told in Bonaire you can often see the reef to some extent by moon light, so it's not so isolating/disorienting as I would've supposed, people get nitrox certified then dive a LOT when at Bonaire, and the night life on the reef is different. Bottom line: I might end up doing some night diving.

I need a light that'll be useful for that. I'd looked at the UNDERWATER KINETICS HID LIGHT CANNON 100 at Scuba.com; sounds very powerful, & has a rechargeable option (which I value, especially with a lot of diving). But I read somewhere lurking here or at BonaireTalk.com that with a very powerful light you scare off the inhabitants.

Anybody got some 'middle of the road' recommendations, that would provide good lighting for the purpose without scaring everything off?

Richard.

 

[spectrum]

We're bringing out Princeton TEC Shockwave LED as primaries. From what I have read that may even needlessly scare off the critters. We will not be dealiong with our New England Visibility so low power should be more than adequate. If that's too much we'll go to our back-ups, PT TEC 4000s. I look forward to the other rplies as well.



Pete

 

[miesemer]

Don't miss the night dives!

For a first light consider something a little cheaper like the UK C4 eLED and get yourself a backup light too. Many operations will also want you to have a marker light, so for what you'd save on the Light Cannon you could pick up one of them too. That being said, I do own a canister HID but prefer carrying a small 4AA light for spotting video subjects on night dives in clear water. Once I spot a subject the video lights get flicked on and the 4AA light gets clipped off.

When you're there, try something different like a dawn dive. Our our last trip, we did the Hilma Hooker as a shore dawn dive. The surface markers are easy to spot as they have reflective tape on them. Time the dive so the sun is rising as your hitting the shallows and watch the reef wake up.

 

[under water]

Hi.
I started that thread on Bonairetalk about whether to bring a big light or a small one.
A lot of recommendations to leave the big light at home on that thread, however, I'm bringing both (big & small). Too many local people (New England) that have been there have recommended bringing a big one to see big things and a small one to see small things. However, unless you really are planning to do more night dives elsewhere, I wouldn't invest in a $150 light cannon just yet.

 

[havnmonkey]

a sturdy Back-up LED light is great, I've got the Princeton Tech Impact XL, It will light enough but won't scare away the critters.

Pelican stealthlight recoil LED, My g/f uses this one and I've been impressed.

But also get a decent primary light, I wouldn't spend more than $100 on a light your're not going to use all the time.

The Shockwave LED is about right, or if you want cheaper the Pelican Nemo is pretty good for a Xenon bulb.

A Glo-Toob is also pretty cool, I haven't had problems with mine.

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for the input, guys. I'll have to look into it. The sheer range of accessory options is a bit overwhelming.

Richard.

 

[herman]

I have done quite a few night dives on Bonaire. For the most part I find a simple 4 "C" cell plenty for me but then again, I often do no light night dives (carried but not on). It's amazing what you can actually see with no lights at all. Reguardless of the light you carry, don't let the tarpons scare you. It's a little unnerving for a 6 to 8 ft fish to come gliding within arms length from the dark.

 

[CODMAN]

Last october, I did my first caribean night dive in Roatan. To my surprise, my UK SL4 eLED was more than enough!!!!!!! IT's small and very powerfull. I wouldn't recommend anything bigger/ more powerfull than this...

Just my 0.02$

 

[Biodiversity_guy]

I just got back from Bonaire where we did a few night (and dawn!) dives. We used a UK c8 eLED and a C8 eLED plus. Both were fine for the night diving. Neither was great for day diving (looking up under corals/into holes). They worked, but not really bright enough for daytime use. (Can be a challenge to see those whitestar cardinal fish without a light in the daytime).

As a previous poster suggested, start a dive in the dark before dawn, and time it so it will be light towards the end of your dive. It is really fun to watch the reef come to life.

The UK Cannon would be a better choice for daytime/night time use, imho--especially if you have the recharger battery. One of the downsides of the Lightcannon is that you should not turn it on and off a lot, so you will definitely use up batteries fast without the recharger option.

 

[laserdoc]

we did alot of night dives in Oct off Buddy dive. Had a star tek cave light in the group. We feed the tarpons with it. It was to cool to spot a fish suspended and shine it and watch the tarpon come in and NAIL it !!