cheap chinese video light review

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Things I never trusted or seen on aliexpress until now.
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Nice to see some of these lights getting features that were mostly exclusive to branded lights.
Biggest change for me are the switches - I sure hope they have upped the quality on those from ~100 dive endurance to ~1000 dive endurance. Also, they're still with only one female bolt port instead of two, which makes it harder to keep tight without drastically torquing stuff with loctite. And you can bet your money that the built-in battery is gonna be cheap garbage quality.
 
It's been a while since I checked this thread, but I can give a little update and some thoughts about these & logistics:
I had purchased another 4 of the QH18 after my original purchase (I had sold my original lamps).
QH18, having 10 white LEDs kept the same light-level for longer due to drawing a little less.
Another interesting discovery I made was that not all battery compartments play with each lamp-head.
This video is 1000 words:
I tried to buy 2 more of a different and more powerful model, but that seller tried to scam me, and sent me 2 QH18 of a newer design, with a shorter battery compartment. Long story short, I got to keep those 2 for free!

As a simple observation, 4 of those QH28 + 1 QH27 simply dwarfed anything else that anyone I met during my 2 visits to Egypt last year had to show. It literally changed everything. So much more to see, so much nicer dives!
I'm now trying to figure how I can get beyond these ~20-30K lumens.

Anyway, I actually wanted to buy more, and have 6-8 underwater (yes, all on, at the same time), but the newer air travel rules and the logistics of it all is making this wish impossible right now.
Having 40 Li-ion cells on a plane is raising eyebrows (dooh); I tried to counter that by putting 16 of them inside 2 DIY powerbanks with 8 places, (https://www.amazon.com/LHIABNN-Battery-Charger-Plastic-Display/dp/B087ZX3GJF), but the airport people have to check the total W/h for the powerbank and obviously the stupid Chinese manufacturer of those adaptable powerbanks wrote up to 300 W/h on the plastic... which is prohibited on planes :) (max 100 W/h, and apparently max 2)

40 batteries and two 8-way chargers was barely enough to keep me going on a liveaboard with 4-5 lamps "always-on" (almost). Unscrewing + changing 4 batteries at a time + making sure everything's dry + screwing back on times 4 or 5, + putting all those used batteries on charging is a pain + applying grease every 6th dive is a huge pain. It can be done easily if you plan for it, but it's still a pain. Takes time.
Underwater, using 4-5 lamps means touching a lot of buttons, and having a good plate + arms to be able to point them is gold. But for this pain, you also light up quite a lot.

I like corals, and don't care much about big fish, and basically wanted to illuminate an as big as possible area underwater on my last trip. With 2 QH18 on each side, I got a lot of coverage. The extra QH27 for the center clearly added more, but it became way too much for my Gopro 7 Black. Still not enough for my eyes, but the Gopro algorithm for the sensor has a very clear limit (my settings could have been off as well). I try to film my dives just for fun, and to be able to remember what I saw, and how some specific dive site was, so I don't spend much time on editing (I know I can make the videos look better),

If anyone's interested and cares to watch, use half speed in youtube, and 4K. Everything's unedited, straight from Gopro 7 Black. I apologize if I'm spamming, I give these links only as examples of what can be achieved:

Big Brother Numidia Wreck: , and view of the reef: , Elphinstone: , than some play with/without the SRP Cyan filter 2020.11.27 - Egypt - Elphinstone Reef North Plateau D1

Little Brother: 2020.11.21 - Egypt - Brothers Islands -Little Brother D3 , (and 2020.11.21 - Egypt - Brothers Islands -Little Brother D3 and 2020.11.21 - Egypt - Brothers Islands -Little Brother D3 if you want to see what a 5th QH27 as center can add)

Anyway, back to the lamps :) . Those 2 I got to keep are dead, they looked better, but the switches got corroded. PCB appears to be working, My 2 old QH18, and my QH27 lamps have been through ~100 dives using only silicone grease, and much love, and are still alive!

Prices now on Amazon have gone up. Before they were ~30 EUR as cheapest, now the Chinese govt or whoever owns those 1-2000 stores on Amazon selling exactly the same stuff only sells them for 50 EUR & above. 2 Times I've found them near the Chinese prices of closer to 20 EUR, pulled the trigger and tried to buy 10, and lo-and-behold, the orders got canceled. 1st excuse was Manufacturer went broke, now the second excuse was it got returned back to chinese seller after 7 days of transit, and they "hope I understand" :)

I'm still trying to find a way to buy them from China with the chinese prices. Even with their flaws, at ~20 EUR they would be unbeatable. If anyone cares to buy them at the 50-70 EUR they cost now, just forget it!
Buy something more longer lasting. Anything @40 and below is OK imo. Aliexpress has them below 40 USD.
The canister versions look nice, but are definitely not worth the premium imo:

Has anyone had the canister version(s)?
I have 3 on the 27 lamps, been using them for over 3 years no issues, they are 6K lumens ( over 1 square meter) There about 6500K colour temp. I have soldered steel discs to where the batteries scrap, so last a lot longer!
 
Have a look at Nitescuba NSV-60 I have 3 of them. 6k lumens ( confirmed) and they are 5000K colour temp, you can buy blue filters for them too! So far great lamps.
 
I think I finnaly managed to find a serious "China agent" who could buy them from the Chinese shops and send them to me.
If they actually keep their word, I'll get the QH27 and QH14-4 for ~25 EUR/piece which is good enough for me :)

Regarding those newer lamps on the Brett store, I can see that they mention 25000 lumen. They're not 25k lumen...
 
Anyone tried the XHP90? Thinking of trying two of the type 3 or 4, though my knowledge of the LEDs they are using isn't great.

41.36€ 45% OFF|XHP90 Video Füllen Licht Tauchen tiefe 80M Taschenlampe Unterwasser XM L2 Blau Weiß Rot Fotografie Video Kamera Taschenlampe beleuchtung|LED Underwater Lights| - AliExpress

Listed as:

TYPE 3
Lamp beads
4 XPE white beads red (1200 Lumens)
4 XPE white beads blue (1200 Lumens)
6 9090 white beads (19200 Lumens)
Diving depth:50M-100M
Lighting distance:300-500W
wattage:126W
1643584322751.png


Type 4
Lamp beads
4 XPE white beads blu-ray (120 Lumens)
6 9090 white beads (19200 Lumens)
4 XPE RED Light beads red (120 Lumens)
Diving depth:80M
Lighting distance:300-500W
wattage:300W
1643584408724.png

1643584491386.png
 
Anyone tried the XHP90? Thinking of trying two of the type 3 or 4, though my knowledge of the LEDs they are using isn't great.

41.36€ 45% OFF|XHP90 Video Füllen Licht Tauchen tiefe 80M Taschenlampe Unterwasser XM L2 Blau Weiß Rot Fotografie Video Kamera Taschenlampe beleuchtung|LED Underwater Lights| - AliExpress

Listed as:

TYPE 3
Lamp beads
4 XPE white beads red (1200 Lumens)
4 XPE white beads blue (1200 Lumens)
6 9090 white beads (19200 Lumens)
Diving depth:50M-100M
Lighting distance:300-500W
wattage:126W
View attachment 704244

Type 4
Lamp beads
4 XPE white beads blu-ray (120 Lumens)
6 9090 white beads (19200 Lumens)
4 XPE RED Light beads red (120 Lumens)
Diving depth:80M
Lighting distance:300-500W
wattage:300W
View attachment 704245
View attachment 704247
I bought the type 4 from the same seller. I used it on 2 trips for cenotes and some night dives and would recommend it.
It is extremely bright and the blue live diving at night was fun.
The only downside is that the battery only lasts about 1 dive, so get spare batteries if you keep the light on all the time.
 
I bought the type 4 from the same seller. I used it on 2 trips for cenotes and some night dives and would recommend it.
It is extremely bright and the blue live diving at night was fun.
The only downside is that the battery only lasts about 1 dive, so get spare batteries if you keep the light on all the time.
Thanks for the quick reply.

Would you say it outputs the advertised Lumens? Also which batteries did you end up purchasing for yours?

SL
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

Would you say it outputs the advertised Lumens? Also which batteries did you end up purchasing for yours?

SL
I cannot measure the lumens, but it is definitely very bright wide angel beam and excellent for photos in the cenotes without strobes. I bought the bundle from the seller with those green 18600 batteries.
 
I've tried several of the 4x18650 lights. The big photo lights seem to rock, but with the same flaws as with most chinese lights, specifically with the switches. They might be a tenth of the price, but probably last about a tenth of the time (I think a 100 saltwater dives is about right for longevity). Which for me, makes sense. Less stuff to worry about losing, getting stolen, etc.
 
I've tried several of the 4x18650 lights. The big photo lights seem to rock, but with the same flaws as with most chinese lights, specifically with the switches. They might be a tenth of the price, but probably last about a tenth of the time (I think a 100 saltwater dives is about right for longevity). Which for me, makes sense. Less stuff to worry about losing, getting stolen, etc.
Is the problem with the switches something we can rectify, DIY style? I think there was talk somewhere earlier in this thread about swapping the switches for different ones and using potting compound to seal the hole
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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