Can light for recreational dives?

[nadwidny]

I would like to find a "backup" LED light that puts out 500 lumens like a 10W HID.

(Though even if such a LED light is available, I need the tight focus of the HID for signaling in my waters.)

I've done some dives in caves with 10W HIDs and I've owned most of the current high-end LED backups available. Most of the LEDs I've used work pretty much as good as a 10W HID. So much so that I couldn't tell when my partner (who was in the #2 postion) switched back and forth from an 10W to a Heiser LED

The Photon Torpedo puts out as focused of a beam as any HID I've encountered.

 

[Colliam7]

... does anyone consider having the full can light overkill for daytime, open water recreational dives? If so, do you leave the light at home or just bring it all the time because you've got your weighting/hose routing figured perfectly with the light in place?

Not overkill for quarries, or NC coastal dives (which are always below 60'). I attach it almost all the time because it is part of the usual configuration. If I dive shallow reefs in the FL Keys, as an alternate example, I don't take it.