Help choosing first canister light

[rivers]

I second the LM 12w LED. I bought mine from Super back in November. It's an excellent torch for the money. I dive it in the murky waters of the UK and it holds up well against my buddies' torches.

 

[feitr]

I ended up going with the vb-50 cave. It is an 18 watt led but seems to compare pretty favourably with 21 watt HID from what i can gather for signalling and has power/beam options (i'd like to be able to use it for night diving which should work on low setting + wide beam). I got it for about 400$ cheaper than i could get the LM 21 watt HID and 300$ cheaper than the LED. I could probably try to use it with video also (the widest beam doesn't really go wide enough at 36degrees but I only have a gopro and don't take very good video anyways)

 

[lucca brassi]

Good choice ! Where did you get it and for how much ?

I have both a GreenForce Tristar LED and a Halcyon 10W HID. The HID, as others have said, has more "punch" in murky waters. However, the GreenForce is extremely versatile and built like a freggin tank. Service is an issue with them though. I recently flooded my Halcyon, so it is going to have to be repaired. I am debating now whether to send it back to Halcyon, or simply have it "upgraded" to an LED by the underwater light dude. I want to have both an LED and an HID though.

Green Force fails on its connector because of twisting cable , picture looks inside normaly like that . GF is good only for modding

 

[JamesK]

Green Force fails on its connector because of twisting cable , picture looks inside normaly like that . GF is good only for modding

Interesting. I have not seen that before. However, I would venture a guess and say that comes from people abusing the cable. You don't twist a cable or it's connection to turn it in, you twist the light head while holding the cable still. You don't twist the cable and connector to screw in the battery, you twist the battery.

 

[nimoh]

I am also looking for a canister light, and thought I would add to this thread rather than starting a new one

Currently looking at:
Halcyon Explorer 13.5 21W
- 1450 lumens
- 7000K color temp
- 6 hour burn time
- 7.75 lbs (dry)
- NIMH battery

Light Monkey 21W/20ah
- 1500 lumens
- 6500K color temp
- 10 hour burn time
- 7lbs (dry)
- Li-PO battery

Yellow Diving Perch 2421 24W/21ah
- 1600 lumens
- 6500K color temp
- 9.3 hour burn time
- 6.4lbs (dry)
- Li-ion battery

I think from the specs I have pulled, I think these lights are very similar (aside from burn time, and battery type). So my questions are:

What is the best battery in terms of longevity and performance?

Are there other differences such as durability that shouldn't be overlooked?