Handheld Primary Light Options (Cave)

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

This is what I use and the MAP is $499.00.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

What are people's thoughts on using a Dive Rite CX2 light as a hand mounted primary for those getting started?

I have used it as a primary a few times and it worked fine for me. MAP is $159.00.

CX2

 

[Jaaron82]

I used the dive rite lx20 and liked it a lot , then I got the dive rite hp50 hand held it and when I started to do longer diving I order the canister for the hp50. So far no complaints about any of the systems I’ve used.

 

[tbone1004]

What are people's thoughts on using a Dive Rite CX2 light as a hand mounted primary for those getting started? Looks like a pretty sweet light, 1700 lumens at an 8degree beam with a 2.75 hour run time. I've never used one of course.

It's not a constant output light which irritates me as I can certainly tell the difference in the beginning and the end. It's a great backup light, but I don't like them as primaries.

One of the cave instructors posted in a thread on the CX2 that he used it during shorter dives with students and it worked fine. The CX2 are my backup lights. Never tried it in a cave yet. Keep meaning to.

I would certainly say it worked "fine" but it wouldn't be one that I chose to use in a cave because of the beam angle. I actually prefer lights like the BX2 when teaching to have that "laser pointer" for signaling students. Weird because I don't like that sharp/tight hotspot for normal diving, but for teaching it's not bad to have at all.
Backup lights are perfectly adequate when teaching a cave course once you get to the point where you are acting as a guardian angel/devil for the students and aren't demonstrating skills that would dictate a canister light and frankly you can dive with your light off for most of their dive while you're observing since you aren't supposed to be part of the team that they are paying attention to. Light goes on when you need their attention and that's about it for me, you can use their lights to move around quite easily. The only caveat to that statement is if the team is full of powerful lights like a UWLD LD-40 you may not be able to signal them with a backup light and that's just something you have to pay attention to as an instructor and comes with experience. Doesn't matter how tight of a spot it has, 4000 lumen is a bright bloody light and while you can signal into it with experienced divers that aren't hyper focused on what's going on that would notice it, with new divers and especially students you often have to make some pretty exaggerated movements to get them to pay attention, even when you have the big boy light.

 

[Marie13]

It's not a constant output light which irritates me as I can certainly tell the difference in the beginning and the end. It's a great backup light, but I don't like them as primaries.



I would certainly say it worked "fine" but it wouldn't be one that I chose to use in a cave because of the beam angle. I actually prefer lights like the BX2 when teaching to have that "laser pointer" for signaling students. Weird because I don't like that sharp/tight hotspot for normal diving, but for teaching it's not bad to have at all.
Backup lights are perfectly adequate when teaching a cave course once you get to the point where you are acting as a guardian angel/devil for the students and aren't demonstrating skills that would dictate a canister light and frankly you can dive with your light off for most of their dive while you're observing since you aren't supposed to be part of the team that they are paying attention to. Light goes on when you need their attention and that's about it for me, you can use their lights to move around quite easily. The only caveat to that statement is if the team is full of powerful lights like a UWLD LD-40 you may not be able to signal them with a backup light and that's just something you have to pay attention to as an instructor and comes with experience. Doesn't matter how tight of a spot it has, 4000 lumen is a bright bloody light and while you can signal into it with experienced divers that aren't hyper focused on what's going on that would notice it, with new divers and especially students you often have to make some pretty exaggerated movements to get them to pay attention, even when you have the big boy light.

The FL instructor I did “intro to flow” with was interested in the CX2 as a possible option for cavern/intro students who are on a tight budget. I pulled it out in the cavern at Devil’s Eye and it did all right. I don’t know how it would work for an actual cave dive.

 

[tbone1004]

The FL instructor I did “intro to flow” with was interested in the CX2 as a possible option for cavern/intro students who are on a tight budget. I pulled it out in the cavern at Devil’s Eye and it did all right. I don’t know how it would work for an actual cave dive.

We are spoiled in 2022 with light options. I'm still a kid in the cave diving community, especially when compared to guys like @Bobby, @kensuf , and @Capt Jim Wyatt but when I learned over 10 years ago, HID was still king.
I actually learned on a 10w HID that has similar output to the single 18650 backup lights like the Dive Rite BX2. The CX2 is more comparable to an 18w HID in terms of total light output and would have been considered wicked bright back then. Lights that output like the LD-40 were unheard of. Diving with backup lights now is actually a cool experience and the caves appear very different when you go back to old school level of light output. There is a level of spookiness that they gain when you can't see from wall to wall and it certainly adds to the experience of the dive. While I love my LD-40 and wouldn't trade it for the world *at least until Bobby makes a better one*, I will do a lot of passages with it on low *comparable to a fresh battery in the CX2*, or even an entire dive on just backup lights, especially in caves like Peacock III and the Nicholson/Cisteen tunnels in Peacock which are just super cool when you aren't turning the cave to daylight.

 

[Marie13]

I did cavern/intro at a location with dark walls and a lot of particulate in the water. 20ft viz is the usual and it’s common to not see the other side of the large tunnels. I was having issues with my used LX20 the first day so I used a CX1. It was quite dim in the conditions I was diving in. I suspect it would have been much better in FL caves with light colored walls.

 

[Marie13]

We are spoiled in 2022 with light options. I'm still a kid in the cave diving community, especially when compared to guys like @Bobby, @kensuf , and @Capt Jim Wyatt but when I learned over 10 years ago, HID was still king.
I actually learned on a 10w HID that has similar output to the single 18650 backup lights like the Dive Rite BX2. The CX2 is more comparable to an 18w HID in terms of total light output and would have been considered wicked bright back then. Lights that output like the LD-40 were unheard of. Diving with backup lights now is actually a cool experience and the caves appear very different when you go back to old school level of light output. There is a level of spookiness that they gain when you can't see from wall to wall and it certainly adds to the experience of the dive. While I love my LD-40 and wouldn't trade it for the world *at least until Bobby makes a better one*, I will do a lot of passages with it on low *comparable to a fresh battery in the CX2*, or even an entire dive on just backup lights, especially in caves like Peacock III and the Nicholson/Cisteen tunnels in Peacock which are just super cool when you aren't turning the cave to daylight.

Great post, thanks!

@tbone1004

Just curious - and what were you paying for lights 10 years ago?

 

[tbone1004]

Great post, thanks!

of course. It's very easy when you haven't been around to see the changes in technology to have a skewed perspective based on only what is available today. @Bobby and I have actually had a lot of discussions about that with regards to rebreathers over the years and how easy it is to forget where we came from when you weren't there.

Try it next time you're in Florida, do an entire dive just on backup lights for the whole team. It's a really cool shift in perspective. I was diving with a former student over Christmas and he was taking a gopro in the cave for the first time. He used an LX20 in his cave course which is a fairly powerful light in its own right but had purchased an 18w HID and was wanting to dive with that. I left my LD40 on low and during a couple sections of big cave on the way to Olsen I turned it up to high and his mind was a bit blown. The next dive he was wanting to get some decent video to show his parents so I took both my LD-40 and my LD-60V and had a true 10,000 lumen blowing up that portion of the cave to truly look like daylight *and the LD-60 isn't even that powerful compared to some of Bobby's other big boy video lights* and then I turned them both off and went back to backup lights. It is a wild experience and it took about 2 minutes for my eyes to readjust.

 

[Caveeagle]

What are people's thoughts on using a Dive Rite CX2 light as a hand mounted primary for those getting started? Looks like a pretty sweet light, 1700 lumens at an 8degree beam with a 2.75 hour run time. I've never used one of course.

I have been carrying both CX1 and CX2 lights for a couple years. they serve very well as a backup primary on shorter dives. The Dive Rite QCD fitting attaches cleanly, so if you are using a DR hand mount, you can clip it right in if you or a buddy has a primary malfunction.

I think the CX2 is a great choice for a new cavern, or even Intro to cave divers who are not quite ready to make the $500-$1000 commitment to a dedicated cave primary. I would remind folks that a UK1200 was at one point the "go to" primary for Cavern/Intro students. ..And the CX2 easily outperforms that old technology.