wetman
Contributor
We just had one of these delivered last night and so far I'm quite impressed with it. No dives yet, but heres a first impression:
The light head is small, simple and seems quite well made. I've dove an older diverite mr11 head before and this head seems slightly smaller and slightly lighter (although it was over a year ago on the diverite so that may not be correct). It is an aluminum head with HAWES stamped in it. Very simple, and very nice. It isnt focusable as you'd expect with the mr11 bulb design. The one thing i remember from the diverite was how nice and even the beam was - didnt seem to have hotspots etc. I know the halcyon 10 watt does have hotspots but it is adjustable. I remember quite liking the even light from the diverite and expect this one to be similar. The halcyon 10 watt head is larger than this head.
The canister on this light surprised me a bit - it was smaller than i was anticipating. The halcyon helios 4.5 can is very small and almost completely forgotten when its on your rig. This canister is actually not a whole lot bigger - it is maybe an inch diameter larger but the length is quite similar to the helios. I believe it will be quite out of the way as well. I think why i expected it to be larger is that I assumed the light heads between the halcyon and this light were similar in size and just extrapolated that to the picture of the hawes light. The construction doesn't have as "finished" an appearance as the halcyon but i believe thats more a material choice than a construction choice for the canister - it seems as robust as you'd expect from a pvc style canister. The delrin on the halcyon canister is one solid chunk of delrin and this canister is pvc or similar plastic topped with ends of similar material. It also looks to have some extra coating - seems to be a leak sealant or something.
Batteries are typical SLA and dont have the burn time of nimh. 120 minutes as opposed to the 4 hours. However, price on the battery is very cheap compared nimh and we got an extra one as well for not too much.
Pricewise this light is far far cheaper than any other HID canister light out there. We got it for one of the guys i dive with who's basically a student on a budget. But, i have to say, having seen this light so far i'd have second thoughts on paying the extra for the halcyon - you can buy almost 3 of these lights for the same price as the halcyon. I'll reseve final judgement for after some diving with it. I realise we're dealing with different materials - plastic vs delrin, capabilities - focusable vs. non focus and battery tech - nimh vs sla. BUT i guess after all that, if its a robust enough light that serves its purpose, why pay more. I'm going to switch back and forth between this light and my helios a bit and see just what the benefits are.
The goodman handle on the halcyon is a solid metal handle and the handle on the hawes is a strap connected to a plastic light holder. The strap seems easy enough to tighten and remove. That will have to wait for some dives before i can see which is better there - however, i do know my halcyon handle seems a bit too small with thick gloves on and this strap is adjustable so that issue would be gone - the only thing i'm thinking that may be an issue with the strap is floppy factor.
Shipping was quick and Daryl was a nice guy to deal with.
So thats the preliminary assessment. I'll keep you posted. And post some pictures beside the helios for size comparisons.
steve
The light head is small, simple and seems quite well made. I've dove an older diverite mr11 head before and this head seems slightly smaller and slightly lighter (although it was over a year ago on the diverite so that may not be correct). It is an aluminum head with HAWES stamped in it. Very simple, and very nice. It isnt focusable as you'd expect with the mr11 bulb design. The one thing i remember from the diverite was how nice and even the beam was - didnt seem to have hotspots etc. I know the halcyon 10 watt does have hotspots but it is adjustable. I remember quite liking the even light from the diverite and expect this one to be similar. The halcyon 10 watt head is larger than this head.
The canister on this light surprised me a bit - it was smaller than i was anticipating. The halcyon helios 4.5 can is very small and almost completely forgotten when its on your rig. This canister is actually not a whole lot bigger - it is maybe an inch diameter larger but the length is quite similar to the helios. I believe it will be quite out of the way as well. I think why i expected it to be larger is that I assumed the light heads between the halcyon and this light were similar in size and just extrapolated that to the picture of the hawes light. The construction doesn't have as "finished" an appearance as the halcyon but i believe thats more a material choice than a construction choice for the canister - it seems as robust as you'd expect from a pvc style canister. The delrin on the halcyon canister is one solid chunk of delrin and this canister is pvc or similar plastic topped with ends of similar material. It also looks to have some extra coating - seems to be a leak sealant or something.
Batteries are typical SLA and dont have the burn time of nimh. 120 minutes as opposed to the 4 hours. However, price on the battery is very cheap compared nimh and we got an extra one as well for not too much.
Pricewise this light is far far cheaper than any other HID canister light out there. We got it for one of the guys i dive with who's basically a student on a budget. But, i have to say, having seen this light so far i'd have second thoughts on paying the extra for the halcyon - you can buy almost 3 of these lights for the same price as the halcyon. I'll reseve final judgement for after some diving with it. I realise we're dealing with different materials - plastic vs delrin, capabilities - focusable vs. non focus and battery tech - nimh vs sla. BUT i guess after all that, if its a robust enough light that serves its purpose, why pay more. I'm going to switch back and forth between this light and my helios a bit and see just what the benefits are.
The goodman handle on the halcyon is a solid metal handle and the handle on the hawes is a strap connected to a plastic light holder. The strap seems easy enough to tighten and remove. That will have to wait for some dives before i can see which is better there - however, i do know my halcyon handle seems a bit too small with thick gloves on and this strap is adjustable so that issue would be gone - the only thing i'm thinking that may be an issue with the strap is floppy factor.
Shipping was quick and Daryl was a nice guy to deal with.
So thats the preliminary assessment. I'll keep you posted. And post some pictures beside the helios for size comparisons.
steve
