Handheld Primary Light Options (Cave)

[Manatee Diver]

Separate lights, shouldn't be used together for proper video work and your buddy is essentially acting as a support diver and has to assume that you are essentially blind which means any signals from him would come in the form of touch contact *I usually grab a fin tip and move it back and forth a bit*

I think you aren't understanding what I am trying to do.

I often give the leader/buddy a video light that they use to light up the tunnel ahead. When that light is on, the EX35 can't punch through it to signal them. If I am signalling and often the signal is "I'm done doing video for now," I am hoping that the Focus 2.0 might have enough power to punch through the video light so I don't have to dash forward and do the fin pull.

 

[tbone1004]

I think you aren't understanding what I am trying to do.

I often give the leader/buddy a video light that they use to light up the tunnel ahead. When that light is on, the EX35 can't punch through it to signal them. If I am signalling and often the signal is "I'm done doing video for now," I am hoping that the Focus 2.0 might have enough power to punch through the video light so I don't have to dash forward and do the fin pull.

ahh
for that I'd honestly be tempted to try one of these

OrcaTorch D570 2-in-1 Laser Dive Light for Recreational Diving and Commercial Diving

OrcaTorch D570 is a 1000 lumens dive light specially designed for recreational diving and commercial diving. Besides regular white beam, it offers quick access to the green laser light. The two light sources can be controlled independently.

www.orcatorch.com

 

[Manatee Diver]

ahh
for that I'd honestly be tempted to try one of these

OrcaTorch D570 2-in-1 Laser Dive Light for Recreational Diving and Commercial Diving

OrcaTorch D570 is a 1000 lumens dive light specially designed for recreational diving and commercial diving. Besides regular white beam, it offers quick access to the green laser light. The two light sources can be controlled independently.

www.orcatorch.com

I actually have Ocratorch laser in my OW "Please find me" kit. I might bring that along next time to see how well it works.

 

[packman]

I have the Big Blue 3500 as my primary light. I can't say what the actual lumen output is but it is brighter than my old HID canister that, frankly, worked fine until it quit working. The light has four settings and I typically run it on one of the lower settings. The lowest setting is comparable to my old HID. The documentation that comes with the light does indicate the light output and run time for each setting.

My primary dive buddy was diving a 1st gen LED canister and I was having trouble seeing her light so I bought her a Big Blue last year for Christmas.

Would this light work on a 6+ hour exploration dive? Don't know but it is working for me so far.

 

[tbone1004]

I have the Big Blue 3500 as my primary light. I can't say what the actual lumen output is but it is brighter than my old HID canister that, frankly, worked fine until it quit working. The light has four settings and I typically run it on one of the lower settings. The lowest setting is comparable to my old HID. The documentation that comes with the light does indicate the light output and run time for each setting.

My primary dive buddy was diving a 1st gen LED canister and I was having trouble seeing her light so I bought her a Big Blue last year for Christmas.

Would this light work on a 6+ hour exploration dive? Don't know but it is working for me so far.

output on high is somewhat similar to the 4000 below.

first gen LED's would have been around 500-800 lumen, similar to a 10w HID.

I refuse to use them and try to push people to actively avoid them after they almost killed a buddy of mine after violating UN laws regarding pressure relief in the canister *which is why they no longer sell canister lights*. Prior to that I was just opposed to them for lying to their customers about output, but when they then lied about a serious safety mechanism in their lights it was too much for me.

Also, GO PACK! and slight fun fact about UWLD, both of the owners are tied to the NCSU dive program if you learned to dive there.

 

[packman]

Honestly, I knew nothing about Big Blue until I saw them at Amigos while I happened to be looking for a replacement to my old canister light that was dead. The Big Blue intrigued me because it was LED, bright, and I wouldn't have to worry where the light cord was when clipping in my sidemount. It was also cheap enough that I was willing to buy it and try it out with the understanding that I may end up buying a canister light down the road. So far, it's been banged around, traveled, been in salt water, fresh water and has been rock solid. The only thing I've done with it is replace the handle because I like the newer one better than the one that came with my light.

Much like the mpg listed on a new car, I take the advertised lumen output with a grain of salt.

 

[Degenerate]

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet I'll throw the Halcyon Flare EXP into the ring.
It might not be the very brightest light there is but it is still a very nice piece of kit, and it does not dim down like the Bigblue lights do.
2,5h burn time on high and twice that on low but in caves you can easily get by on the low setting, I pretty much only run mine on high in murky quarries and the like.
Pricey, but well worth it IMO.

 

[tbone1004]

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet I'll throw the Halcyon Flare EXP into the ring.
It might not be the very brightest light there is but it is still a very nice piece of kit, and it does not dim down like the Bigblue lights do.
2,5h burn time on high and twice that on low but in caves you can easily get by on the low setting, I pretty much only run mine on high in murky quarries and the like.
Pricey, but well worth it IMO.

but is it worth 2x the LX20+? The stowable handle is admittedly really nice for putting in a pocket for a backup primary, but it's an awfully long light

 

[tmassey]

10* is also very wide for a cave primary and I would recommend staying around 6-8 if you can.
The only light that is somewhat close is the Dive Rite HP50 which is handheld, 10* beam, and they claim 3500 lumen but it only burns for about 90mins on high and it's not a constant 3500 lumen.

I have an HP 50 myself. I have a love/hate relationship with it. It certainly lights up the cave around you, but that makes it difficult to see your buddies spot. It also means that you can’t see more than about 50 feet down the cave, whereas narrower spots can look much farther.

I just did a bunch of diving with other divers, and paid attention to what lights they had and how they looked. I am seriously considering breaking down and asking Dive Rite how much it would cost to buy an EX35 head for my expedition canister. I think I would, on balance, prefer something with more spot than the HP 50.

And that is one of those things that you will only determine after using it for a while. The first couple of dives are amazing: everything around you is lit up beautifully! But a couple of times of wondering where your body is because your light washes out everything, or not being able to see to the end of the tunnel, or what’s going on in a room next to you… And you might wish for a tighter spot.

As for 3500 lm: I have actually turned my light down to medium more than once, just so I could better stay in touch with people behind me. Like others have said: your eye adjusts, and our eyes are nonlinear anyway. 3500 lm is not almost twice as bright perceptually as 2000 lm anyway. In other words, sacrificing your handheld just to get the extra 1500 lm might not be a smart trade-off.

Now, I personally will take the canister, because of its long life. It’s amazing how fast you start doing 2 hour dives. Or, back to back 90 minute dives. And it’s nice to know your light will keep up.

ETA: backscatter is also a problem with the HP50. Even in a relatively clear cave I still end up having to hold the light as far away from me as possible in order to be able to see more clearly. I haven’t personally used a tighter spot light to know if that problem would be reduced or not: it might just be a result of trying to punch multiple thousands of lumens of light through the water within a foot of your eyeball.

i’m just going to have to borrow someone’s EX35 at this point… should have done that while I was down. Next time…

 

[halocline]

I borrowed a big blue TL4800 on a dive and liked the way it looks so I bought one. It was almost exactly 1/3 the price of my light monkey 20W canister light, which was their latest and greatest. That light head is very powerful but it has lots of back scatter and I just did not really enjoy diving with it. I don't care how many lumens its rated at, or how the circuitry works, all I care about is what does the light look like in the dives that I'm doing, and will it be reliable. We'll see about that last part, but I do have lots of friends using those lights in Mexico and they seem to be holding up ok. It's a $500 light that looks terrific in the Mexican caves. I bought an extra battery so I can do two 2 hour dives on full power, which I don't end up using that often anyways. Maybe this light will fall apart and I'll get pissed off about it, but until then, I'm liking it.