CaveSloth
Contributor
Considering buying one. Any reasons not to or to buy a different can light?
Dive Rite EX35 - Awesome?
- Thread starter CaveSloth
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 20,561
- Reaction score
- 14,944
- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
many reasons to buy a UWLD over the EX35, but it is a really nice light
The EX35 only runs at 100% for 1 hour, then starts tapering down to 1% over the next 5 hours.
So, if you do 2 dives in a day, you're going to start the 2nd dive with a light that won't even start at 100% brightness.
I was really looking at that light myself, but I decided it only makes sense (for me) to get a light that puts out constant brightness all the way until it's almost out.
The UWLD lights have constant output. I haven't bought anything yet, but I'm thinking UWLD is the way to go. More expensive, but looks like it's worth it (to me, anyway).
Plus, the UWLD lights are modular, so you can do things like buy the light with a light head on it. Then later, you could decide you want to run a heated vest, so you could just buy the UWLD heat controller with a stacked cap gland on the end and add it to run off the same battery canister - i.e. run your light and the heated vest off the same battery canister at the same time. Later, if you start doing dives where the one can won't run both for long enough, you can just get a second battery canister and move one over, so you have one can running your light and the other running your heat.
The ability to mix and match spot light, video lights, and heat, all off one can or use more than one can and have different items on different cans seems really nice, to me.
So, if you do 2 dives in a day, you're going to start the 2nd dive with a light that won't even start at 100% brightness.
I was really looking at that light myself, but I decided it only makes sense (for me) to get a light that puts out constant brightness all the way until it's almost out.
The UWLD lights have constant output. I haven't bought anything yet, but I'm thinking UWLD is the way to go. More expensive, but looks like it's worth it (to me, anyway).
Plus, the UWLD lights are modular, so you can do things like buy the light with a light head on it. Then later, you could decide you want to run a heated vest, so you could just buy the UWLD heat controller with a stacked cap gland on the end and add it to run off the same battery canister - i.e. run your light and the heated vest off the same battery canister at the same time. Later, if you start doing dives where the one can won't run both for long enough, you can just get a second battery canister and move one over, so you have one can running your light and the other running your heat.
The ability to mix and match spot light, video lights, and heat, all off one can or use more than one can and have different items on different cans seems really nice, to me.
Dsix36
Contributor
- Messages
- 1,657
- Reaction score
- 1,405
Caveeagle
Contributor
I like my EX35. I haven’t noticed any significant drop off after the first hr.
*Note: Burn time on 100% power mode is: 1 hour @ peak output + 5 hours of gradual taper. At 6 hours, the light flashes 3 times to indicate low battery and steps down to 1% power mode to conserve power for up to an additional 16 hours before shutting off.
From this page: EX35 Primary Canister Light | Dive Rite
I also confirmed by trading emails with the engineer, Jefferson Marchand, at Dive Rite.
I emailed him this:
His response was this:
The specs you gave don't make any sense whatsoever. I don't know where DGX got them.
Right. Like I said in the first place. It is full output for 1 hour and then starts tapering down. So, you SHOULDN'T see any drop after the first hour. It SHOULD still be full output at the 1 hour mark.
Caveeagle
Contributor
I love the DR lights from the past few years, ever since the LX20, they have been making extremely good lights at a really good price. That's not to say UWLD or LM are bad at all, I really think you can't go wrong with any of the lights from the cave country manufacturers.
The EX35 is a hell of a light. I like the sexy head design with the red fins and the black outer casing, and the physical switch which is a little more affirmative than a piezo. It's not fair to state that it "tapes to 1% over 5 hours," better to say "Tapers to 20% over 6 hours then remains an emergency light source for an additional 16 hours."
Assuming the UWLD are truly a consistent 3500 lumens over the burn time, you have the option of
-1.5 hours for $1,545
-3.3 hours for $1,745
-5 hours for $1,945
The EX35 starts at 4300 lumens, 22% more than the UWLD, and stays above 3,500 lumens until hour 3, making it essentially the same as an UWLD with a Short battery, but at $1,200 instead of $1,745, so not only it is 31% cheaper but it continues to function for an additional 3 hours after the UWLD would have shut off.
I think most of us have an older light body which could be repurposed for suit heating, which is beyond most of us as well, so I don't think the stacking caps should be high on your list of must haves. I'm sure you'll be happy with both lights, but the EX35 will not disappoint. Don't read into the "tapers down," all LED's have some degree of tapering as they heat up and limit the current, and I've never been in a situation where I noticed the EX35 tapering down to a point where it doesn't feel like the brightest MF'er in the room. That said, I love my HP50 but for dives over an hour, the EX35 has significant gains on burn time and my original HP50 batteries are slowing down a bit, so if you have the money for an EX35 I would not second guess or waste a moment, order it!
The EX35 is a hell of a light. I like the sexy head design with the red fins and the black outer casing, and the physical switch which is a little more affirmative than a piezo. It's not fair to state that it "tapes to 1% over 5 hours," better to say "Tapers to 20% over 6 hours then remains an emergency light source for an additional 16 hours."
Assuming the UWLD are truly a consistent 3500 lumens over the burn time, you have the option of
-1.5 hours for $1,545
-3.3 hours for $1,745
-5 hours for $1,945
The EX35 starts at 4300 lumens, 22% more than the UWLD, and stays above 3,500 lumens until hour 3, making it essentially the same as an UWLD with a Short battery, but at $1,200 instead of $1,745, so not only it is 31% cheaper but it continues to function for an additional 3 hours after the UWLD would have shut off.
I think most of us have an older light body which could be repurposed for suit heating, which is beyond most of us as well, so I don't think the stacking caps should be high on your list of must haves. I'm sure you'll be happy with both lights, but the EX35 will not disappoint. Don't read into the "tapers down," all LED's have some degree of tapering as they heat up and limit the current, and I've never been in a situation where I noticed the EX35 tapering down to a point where it doesn't feel like the brightest MF'er in the room. That said, I love my HP50 but for dives over an hour, the EX35 has significant gains on burn time and my original HP50 batteries are slowing down a bit, so if you have the money for an EX35 I would not second guess or waste a moment, order it!
Basing it on a Dive Rite’s web page for the EX35 (see the link I posted previously) and emails from Dive Rite’s engineer.
Similar threads
