Focus lamp. Has anybody tried this?

[terson]

, though the $30 freight from Hong Kong is a bit steep.

That's what I thought too, BUT when it arrived with a free spare battery worth $45 i wasn't so worried!!!

 

[John Gulliver]

Hi John,
$175 is a great price and I guarantee that you won't be disappointed with it's build or performance. I also bought mine through ebay and got the spare battery supplied with my unit for NO extra charge. Can't beat that. The spare battery of mine hasn't been used yet because I can easily do two long shore dives down here in very cold southern Australia, and still have plenty of charge left for more dives. Video use would shorten the times but you did say that you were buying as a focus light.
Bruce

Hi Bruce,
Yes, I got the spare battery free too, so it was a great price - $205 plus shipping for the lamp, spare battery, red filter and diffuser. I expect Swedish Customs will charge me 25% tax and the Swedish Post Office will add about $15 handling charge though. I think the shipping charge is reasonable. It would have cost more to send it the other way, from Sweden to Hong Kong.

 

[jd950]

Hi Bruce,
Yes, I got the spare battery free too, so it was a great price - $200 plus shipping for the lamp, spare battery, red filter and diffuser. I expect Swedish Customs will charge me 25% tax and the Swedish Post Office will add about $15 handling charge though. I think the shipping charge is reasonable. It would have cost more to send it the other way, from Sweden to Hong Kong.

Well, this is confusing. I was going to get one of these for my son, figuring $200.00 was a good deal, but on ebay, it is $200.00 plus $30.00 shipping plus $20.00 for a red filter and no mention of a free spare battery. So, $250.00 with one battery only.

On the LaLuz website, its also $199 for the light, plus $10.00 for the filter, plus $25.00 for the battery (so I don't know why someone referred to it as a $45.00 battery) plus $30.00 shipping . They then refer buyers to ebay where the prices are as I stated in the paragraph above, including $20.00 and not $10.00 for the filter.

So, bottom line, light with red filter, spare battery and shipping, it is $280.00 plus potential import duty.. I'm not sure that is such a great bargain anymore, especially since if there is any warranty issue, I would have to ship it to Hong Kong. An I-Torch Pro Mini costs $295.00 including shipping. It offers similar output, features and size and comes with 2 batteries, a filter and a diffuser and if there was a warranty issue I could return it to a U.S. dealer. On the other hand, I gather the La Luz uses a push button switch and I generally think that would be preferable.

Is there some other ebay seller I should know about or has the price increased?

 

[John Gulliver]

The e-bay listing offers a buy-it now price ($199.99) and a best-offer option, at least it did when I bought mine. I submitted an offer of $185 for the lamp, which was accepted. I then committed to buy a spare battery and a red filter and diffuser and requested the total price including shipping. I received an invoice for $235 and a message from the seller saying he had given me the spare battery for free and had added $5 to the postage. Clear now? By the way, the website makes no mention of a diffuser, unlike the e-bay listing.

 

[terson]

I just paid the $199 plus freight to the ebay seller and everything turned up, filter, spare battery, were included. I had full intention of buying a spare battery at another time if/when it was needed.

 

[jd950]

Thanks for the information. Perhaps there is just some communications issues. I might send a question to the ebay seller. Thanks again.

By the way, have any of you used the light on deeper dives? I have from time to time experienced push-button lights that won't function properly below the 60-80' foot range.

 

[Jak Crow]

I picked up two of these lights for my SoCal Channel Islands trip and they worked great. Bright, wide beams, and great battery life. They were lasting about 120 minutes of varying power levels, mostly on med and high. I would swap the batteries out after 3 dives just to be safe. While one isn't as bright or as wide as my Sola 1200, the battery life appears much better under the same usage. I'm going to be using them as my main video/focus lights from now on and my Sola 1200 is going to be my dive light now.

 

[jcclink]

Always buy spare battery. You never know when you might have to make a quick change. Charge time is about 6 hrs, so you need a spare ready to go just in case.
Just bought the LaLuz light. It appears to be a quality product - well engineered & fabricated. Haven't dove it yet thou. I bought red & diffuser attachments, then changed diffuser disk for clear one to protect front element. Simple DIY project - cut & sand to fit from small piece of clear acrylic.

 

[alien]

Just got back from 10 days at Komodo. I used the SOLA 1200 Photo light with 3 settings for white and red light. Was superb. Works well with and without the 2 strobes

 

[diver 85]

Have a question...Will this lite work (as a video lite) on my setup----here's my S95 & FIX housing with WA lens attached...BTW, LOVE shooting video thru the UWL-04....TIA .....Joe.. PS reason I ask, that lite looks fairly short?????....

EDIT: that's the Inon 550W on top that I'm currently using...