The Light & Motion lights are made here, so are Dive Rite's. The issue is getting flood and spot in the same light, most people don't do that for a reason....
HP50 vs LX20 is a beam angle thing. LX is 6*, HP50 is 10. 10 is a pretty useless beam angle IMO for most of the Florida cave systems. Too wide with the amount of particulate in the water but not wide enough for video.
Also, regarding lumens, and I'm talking real lumens like those quoted by companies like UWLD, Dive Rite, Light and Motion etc. with constant output drivers vs. bullsh!t claims about theoretical lumens like BB, Orcatorch, etc. I grew up in cave diving right as LED's were coming out where 10w HID's were the norm, those were about 700-800 lumen.
@Capt Jim Wyatt grew up in the dark ages, almost literally where 200-300 lumens were a lot in the incandescent days so while I may own a pair of UWLD LD-40's and very much enjoy that amount of light, it is not unheard of for me when teaching to use backup lights on a goodman sock and even when diving with newer divers to just grab a backup light in the 700-800 lumen range or use my LX20+ on low or medium which is truly more than enough light for what you need. It gives you a completely different perspective on the cave
L&M is out. I won't buy lights with built-in batteries. And they don't make anything really bright anyway.
Dive Rite doesn't make any kind of video light, at all. They just have a "video diffuser" you can put over their light heads. I don't want a canister video light, so the EX35 is out. And, I would want a video light to be brighter than the HP50. So, Dive Rite is out, too.
So, what IS the reason people don't use lights that can do a fixed flood setting and a fixed spot setting in the same light? And, to be clear, I am NOT asking why photo/video pros don't. I'm not asking why serious borderline-pro level amateurs (aka prosumers) don't. That entire group does not come anywhere near comprising "most" of the divers that use dive lights.
My theory is that "most people" don't because, to "most people", a <$200 dive light is all they are likely to buy. Then, they'll get a GoPro and add a <$200 "video" light to that and now they have 2 lights for night dives, and they're good to go. So, they don't have combo lights because of budget and circumstances. For people in between - want better than a $200 video light, but don't want to spend $2000 on a single video light - why is a combo light a bad idea?
Also, for those inexpensive lights, they don't have much in the way of battery, so the light body is skinny and the light head is also skinny. Making a light like that with spot and flood ability would be a problem. Not enough room in the light head for all the LEDs and optics. But, when you start spending for a light with a higher capacity battery pack (like 4 x 18650 or 4 x 21700), then the light body gets fat. THEN, a fat light head that can do a spot out of a small-ish reflector in the center, and flood from an array of LED emitters around the perimeter becomes totally feasible. They're not High-CRI emitters, but for the use-case and price point, that shouldn't be expected. And is not really required.
Jim mentioned using his LX20+ on High in really huge passageways, and on Medium the rest of the time.
That makes perfect sense, to me. And the same logic seems to apply to a combo light - even in a cave. Swimming along in most passages, a "normal" spot light is fine. But, when I come into a big room, I might want to switch to a really bright flood light, just for the time I'm in there, so I see it (mostly) all at once. Being able to do that without pulling out a second light would be pretty convenient.... Only spending for one battery pack that can drive both use cases is also nice.
Having specific tools for specific jobs is great. Those tools do a better job than a multi-tool. But, Leatherman's do have a place in the world...
