Dive Rite LX25

[PfcAJ]

EOS isnt close to a flare.

 

[tbone1004]

EOS isnt close to a flare.

painfully aware as my buddy dives with a Focus 2.0, but it's still more than enough to get out of a cave and a heckuva lot better than a backup light when you have a long exit on the way out. Getting replaced with a focus handheld here in the next couple weeks.

 

[PfcAJ]

If something happened to my primary I'd simply continue the dive with a backup primary. That's the point of a backup primary.

It needs to be as capable as your primary, otherwise it isn't a primary.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

None of those lights are bright enough or burn long enough for me to be even a little interested in. The focus 2 handheld has a 3hr burntime. Thats not great for cave diving.

I had a Titan Hydro Light that could be used as a hand held or connected to a cannister. As a hand held it had 3.5 hours of light and that was just not adequate, so I agree with you that hand helds have to provide sufficient burn time to be useful in cave diving. Consequently, I added a can and had 10 hours of light - plus I still had a functional light if the cord was cut or disconnected due to the separate battery in the light head.

However, I have since switched to a hand held and have not regretted it. We went with the LX 20s, in large part because DEMA pricing and key man pricing was very attractive and made the jump very low risk. We're also getting more than advertised with our LX 20s - 6 hours of burn time on "high" (20,000 lux at 1 meter using a 6 degree beam). I've found it is plenty of light, and on medium (13,000 lux) it is still an acceptable amount of light. I'd have no problem paying $500 retail for the LX 20 based on the performance we are getting.

Plus with the 18650 battery format, if you are doing 2 dives per day, you can quickly switch batteries between dives and be right back at full available burn time for dive 2. In addition at around $500 each, you can buy a pair of LX 20s and get 8-12 hours of burn time for less cost and less bulk than a comparable can light, and then use one as a primary and pocket the other one as a second primary if needed on dives longer than 6 hours.

Given the constant improvement in battery technology, hand helds are going to become even more popular, and I suspect in another 5-10 years can lights are going to be something used only by the die hards who are unwilling to accept change.

 

[tbone1004]

Given the constant improvement in battery technology, hand helds are going to become even more popular, and I suspect in another 5-10 years can lights are going to be something used only by the die hards who are unwilling to accept change.

or those of us that prefer the tiny light heads....
though I do agree with you it's definitely going to be the exception rather than the rule