Question Canister lights: 90degree SM attachment vs regular, and adjustable power levels

[jstotz]

Question 1:
a. If you were going to do an even combination of sidemount and backmount tech diving, and only wanted to purchase one canister light, would you buy a light made for sidemount with a 90 degree cord attachment, or one with a standard straight cord attachment at the canister?

b. Is it possible to do either type of dive with either style attachment?


Question 2:
a. How important a selling point is it to you for your light to have adjustable power levels?

b. For the purposes of wrecks and caves, what do you think about a light that has a 10W 6 degree(7hr burn time) and/or 30W 120degree(2.5hr burn time), (1.5hr in combo mode), without adjustable power levels?


Notes: We're not interested in handheld primaries for purposes of this thread.

 

[VikingDives]

A. I've been pretty happy with the orcatorch - it can do either 90 or straight angles. I'm pretty sure there are others out there as well. . . B. yes C. mandatory D. it's all about lumens and burn time. I wouldn't cave dive with the second one you list as a primary light.

Are you looking at buying used lights? These seem like pretty sub-par options for modern lights.

 

[jborg]

I'm going to skip question one as I don't do sidemount and don't know the requirements, other than to note that some canisters (e.g. the Orcatorch D630) are switchable between both.

For question two, I guess it depends. Are you in crystal clear water? Your caves may be, but you also mention wrecks. I mostly dive murky waters and a tight spot is the name of the game, a 120 degree light would be absolutely useless. I think adjustable power level is critical, because I do want maximum output under some circumstances while under other circumstances will prefer less light (night, fairly clear water) or compromise for longer runtime.

 

[OTF]

I find the lower power settings are very useful with modern bright LEDs. Sometimes these lights are just too bright. Or going down one click in power will drastically increase runtime.

 

[jstotz]

A. I've been pretty happy with the orcatorch - it can do either 90 or straight angles. I'm pretty sure there are others out there as well. . . B. yes C. mandatory D. it's all about lumens and burn time. I wouldn't cave dive with the second one you list as a primary light.

Are you looking at buying used lights? These seem like pretty sub-par options for modern lights.

Orcatorch seems to often get scoffed at in the cave diving and tech community as it's a chinese-owned, younger company, and half the price of the next cheapest option, not that $550 (for a D630) is a small amount of money to me.

Speaking broadly, I have personally had issues with another Chinese light manufacturer: Imalent, outright refusing to honor a clear warranty issue on a light of theirs. I don't believe this is an uncommon occurence across chinese manufacterers as there is little to no recourse: file a complaint at usa.gov? I did it; Imalent is still being sold in the US. Additionally, one of my dive buddies admitted to me that he had a deal with an Orcatorch supplier that promised him he would be given a full "rebate" in exchange for a positive review on the D630.

I will say that for the price, Orcatorch seems to be relatively high value. I have their headlight and am so far very pleased; but $120 won't make me shed so many tears if/when it fails.

In regards to those specific specs, I was looking at a lesser known European company: Tecline Teclight, about 3/4 average canister price. The primary selling point was ability to accept standardized Ammonite battery packs.

Tecline Teclight 3900 lumen Sidemount Scuba Diving Buy and Sales in Gidive Store

The Tecline Teclight is a powerful primary light, offering 30W / 3900 lumen. Sidemount version - with 90 degree angle connection. Multi-use main light with t...

www.gidivestore.com

 

[grantctobin]

Orcatorch seems to often get scoffed at in the cave diving and tech community as it's a chinese-owned, younger company, and half the price of the next cheapest option…Additionally, one of my dive buddies admitted to me that he had a deal with an Orcatorch supplier that promised him he would be given a full "rebate" in exchange for a positive review on the D630.

I will say that for the price, Orcatorch seems to be relatively high value. I have their headlight and am so far very pleased; but $120 won't make me shed so many tears if/when it fails.

Tecline Teclight 3900 lumen Sidemount Scuba Diving Buy and Sales in Gidive Store

The Tecline Teclight is a powerful primary light, offering 30W / 3900 lumen. Sidemount version - with 90 degree angle connection. Multi-use main light with t...

www.gidivestore.com

OT gets scoffed at because of both the second behavior you mentioned as well as the absolute ****wits they have sponsored and continue to sponsor. One remains famous for having closed one of the most unique caves in Florida. FDW.

That said, the biggest issue in trying to do both is the length of the cord. You can pipe a straight head off of your butt, up the left shoulder, and down the left arm. For most people, this leaves the cord slightly too long than ideal for having the light on your right waist in side mount. A big deal? Eh. Plenty of people using a LD35 or LD40 90° head behind their back and out their left shoulder. Ideal? Eh. I doubt most people are switching from BM to SM with much frequency. If they are, they’re likely diving enough that a pair of primaries makes sense, both for same-dive-carry-two or “I don’t want to miss dives if I bork my or my partner’s light so let’s have two.”

Variable brightness is convenient, esp if you’re rotating partners or have differing light brightnesses on the team. Variable focus is whatever. 4-6° and you’re good.

 

[ChrisMBC]

FWIW, I have a Tecline Teclight and use it with either the small canister, or an Ammonite battery that I also use for suit heat. I think it’s a very underrated light, the ergonomics of the light head are excellent and the combo spot/flood is a good combination. It makes for a surprisingly good video light for use with a GoPro.

 

[chthonicly]

Question 1:
a. If you were going to do an even combination of sidemount and backmount tech diving, and only wanted to purchase one canister light, would you buy a light made for sidemount with a 90 degree cord attachment, or one with a standard straight cord attachment at the canister?

b. Is it possible to do either type of dive with either style attachment?


Question 2:
a. How important a selling point is it to you for your light to have adjustable power levels?

b. For the purposes of wrecks and caves, what do you think about a light that has a 10W 6 degree(7hr burn time) and/or 30W 120degree(2.5hr burn time), (1.5hr in combo mode), without adjustable power levels?


Notes: We're not interested in handheld primaries for purposes of this thread.

I have the halcyon focus 2. I do both back mount and side mount with it and I switch frequently, sometimes in the same day. I use it for ocean (usually cold & bad viz) and cave (usually warm & good viz).

I have the straight attachment cord attachment for my canister. In side mount, I mount it on the left spine of my xdeep harness and run the cord up over the left shoulder and then down my arm. In sidemount, the standard cord length works well for me on the goodman handle and also works when I switch the light over to the razor mount and helmet. In back mount, I put the canister on my waist-belt, right side, DIR position. I'm pretty sure the 90 would be annoying in back mount.

If I were to put the canister on the back of the crotch strap in side mount I'd want the 90, but I haven't seen a reason to do that yet. So, I guess at this point, my impression is that the straight cords are more flexible between dive configs. The 90 really does seem to be a sidemount-only thing.

I use both power modes -- lower power diving with someone with a softer light or in a bright white small cave, higher power in a dark cave and with other bright lights or in a crowded cave section. I have also come to rely on the ability to crank down the beam to super narrow (great in low viz conditions or when signaling) as well as widen it out (nice for seeing the whole cave in good viz).

I'm no longer buying orcatorch products as primaries as I've had failures and poor vendor support. All lights will fail, that's not what my issue is. It's how the company deals with the failures and if the light is engineered to be repairable or if it's just ewaste when it blows a capacitor or something which is more important to me. Being able to get it repaired mid cave trip is a huge bonus compared to a refund or RMA which leaves me without the item when I need it.

 

[rjack321]

Question 1:
a. If you were going to do an even combination of sidemount and backmount tech diving, and only wanted to purchase one canister light, would you buy a light made for sidemount with a 90 degree cord attachment, or one with a standard straight cord attachment at the canister?

b. Is it possible to do either type of dive with either style attachment?

The 90deg head will almost for sure have a longer cord. The shorter cord of the backmount lid will be more of a problem than the angle of that cord.

Question 2:
a. How important a selling point is it to you for your light to have adjustable power levels?

It's great to be able to turn down the power (when it's not needed) and really stretch out the burntime

b. For the purposes of wrecks and caves, what do you think about a light that has a 10W 6 degree(7hr burn time) and/or 30W 120degree(2.5hr burn time), (1.5hr in combo mode), without adjustable power levels?

120degrees? That is like a video light. There is no way the optics could possibly be optimized or ideal for both 6deg and 120deg in one light head. I would not consider a manufacturer who made claims about a light like this whatsoever.

 

[jstotz]

The 90deg head will almost for sure have a longer cord. The shorter cord of the backmount lid will be more of a problem than the angle of that cord.


It's great to be able to turn down the power (when it's not needed) and really stretch out the burntime


120degrees? That is like a video light. There is no way the optics could possibly be optimized or ideal for both 6deg and 120deg in one light head. I would not consider a manufacturer who made claims about a light like this whatsoever.

A couple manufacturers are trying out a dual purpose light head that contains a central, high-output, spot LED surrounded by several smaller perimeter LED's for the flood. This makes it possible to project both a spot and flood at the same. The cost of using both at the same time is, of course, drastically reduced battery life. I'm not sure if this has any real-world advantage over variable focus light heads which maintain the same power usage as they narrow and widen their beams.

I suppose one could argue that there is one less failure point as the variable focus designs likely use an additional large seal. Also, some have reported Light Monkey's variable focus ring to be difficult to turn and adjust.

Considering what others have stated in the above replies, what really turns me off about the Tecline teclight is the inability to adjust brightness/power level; seems like a standard feature on most canister lights.

TECLINE TECLIGHT - Teclinediving