Help in Light Selection

[wolflegresley]

Good Afternoon SB!

I'm currently getting prepared to purchase both a primary and backup light. Mostly the lights will be used for diving in Canadian waters (dark/murkey/silty), wreck penetrations and a little bit to help with my gopro footage. Ideally I would like it to come with a quality rechargeable batter. I'm looking to keep the budget under $500 Cdn Dollars and was hoping you could advise on what light you would select from the following website (I like to support LDS, and this one has some of the best customer service in my area):


Primary - Scuba Diving Lights | Halcyon Scout Lights | Halcyon Canister Lights
I am currently looking between the HOG Edge Morph 1000 Light Core System or a Light and Motion Sola 800.

Backup - Halcyon Scout Light | Salvo Rat Light | Rat Junior Light | Backup Dive Lights Halcyon, Salvo, Underwater Kinetics and more

I am currently looking at a UK SL4 eLED for a backup (I used one down in the Caribbean and was thoroughly impressed with its ability to even perform as a main diving light and from what I can tell offers a great bang/buck ration.

Can you more experienced night/deep divers share your opinions/experiences please?

 

[tbone1004]

you would be very disappointed with the Halcyon scout unfortunately, they are way behind the curve there, hell all of their lights are way behind on the technology curve. They're all high quality, just dated.

Dark murky silty means you have some very tight restrictions on what types of lights you can use. Some LED's will have too much backscatter especially at high outputs. Under $500 cad is going to be next to impossible for a good primary and backup that is effective at that light level.

Your best bet right now is to look at the HOG lights and be mindful of your dive times. Based on your experience level posted I'm going to assume you're not out doing multi hour dives, so the Hog Morph backup light is probably your best bet. Get 3 of them, two spot, one video. Three of those and a full set of backup batteries *for multi dives since they only last about 80 minutes on high*, should run you around $600cad plus whatever tax you have to pay. A bit more than your $500, but that way you get a full set of spare batteries and you also get three lights so you have primary spot, primary for your gopro and a backup.

The Morph has an 8* head instead of the 12 on the Sola 800, and also has twice the lumen output which matters quite a bit in dark murky water. The Sola is rated for 800 lumen in spot mode, but in silty conditions that just creates backscatter which is disorienting. Also has much less burn time, so for the dollar it just doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell.

If you need extra burn time, the Morph 1000 core system may work, especially since you can put two spot heads on it, but then you're at $550cad for one light and still need a backup light behind it. Advantage is it is modular so for an extra $200 you can add a second head and you get much more burn time, so it is a balance.

Make sure you get at least one soft goodman handle *should be around $13cad* so you can signal with stuff in your hands.

FWIW DiveRightinScuba has free international shipping, so no tax no shipping.... I'm all for supporting the LDS when it works, but money is money...

 

[00wabbit]

For your primary I would recommend one of Dusty's Lights : Dustys Lights | Veteran Made in the USA

This guy makes them himself and has been doing it for a while now. They are popular in the Puget Sound area. It is made fomr a modified maglight with a very bright 3 led head. The battery pack is from an RC car so you can easily buy additional batteries. It has a built in circuit that allows high,medium, low, strobe and sos function. His prices are really good because there are no middle men.

I have one of his lights and the photo on his website is of me.

Dustys Lights | Veteran Made in the USA

You can also connect to dustys lights on facebook and talk with him directly.


For a back up light the Dive Righ in Scuba DRIS1000 is great. Its rock solid, and bright enough to be a primary light. I like the larger version that runs on 3c batteries. If you use it as a back up you wont have to change batteries very often.