Impact XL or others for daytime crevice use??

[Offroad]

I'm looking for fairly small and inexpensive light, mostly for day use in spotting critters under ledges in clear water. It could also eventually end up being as a backup for a more powerful light.

I'm looking at the following models:

Princeton Tec

Impact XL - small and cheap at about $28, LED for great battery life. (1 watt LED, 17 lumens, 50hrs). Does this have enough power for daytime crevices and holes while spotting critters?

Surge - bigger, lots of power, Xenon. just out of production but I've found a new one for $23. (7.5 watt Xenon, 115 lumens, 5hrs.)

Torrent LED - also bigger, more power than the Impact XL, and LED but costs about $55. (3 watt LED, 47 lumens, 4.5hrs reg'd - 30hrs total)
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I was also looking at the following models from Underwater Kinetics but at least some of their prices seem to have jumped alot recently which I find upsetting.

Mini Q40 eLED Plus - small and LED. just went from $25 to $35. (2 watt, 40 lumens, 4-5hrs)

SL4 eLED - bigger, LED. just went from about $45 to $62 and takes "C" Cells. (3-5 watt, 33-38 lumens, 10-12hrs)

Whatever I buy will probably mostly see intermittent use during the day. The LED's are nice because of shock resistance and better battery life. The AA's seem to be a bit better for my purposes as I can get a 32pack of AA's at Sam's for $12.99 which makes replacing even a set of 8 only about $3.25.

I'm leaning towards either the Impact XL or the Surge. My only reservation about the Impact XL is whether or not its got enough power for my intended purpose. The Surge will no doubt have plenty of power (115 lumens) but the Xenon bulb won't be as durable if knocked around so looses a bit as a potential backup.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Charlie99]

The most powerful AA powered light I've seen is the Ikelite PcA. 6AA cells, 7.2watt bulb. In clear tropical water, the UK Q40 (halogen version) wasn't bright enough. The PcA is.

I carry the PcA in my BCD pocket on all dives. It works pretty good as a primary light for night dives in good viz areas also.



Luckily, the lighting conditions at a dive shop during a sunny day aren't all that different than during a daytime dive. It is best to get hold of a bunch of lights and check them out.

One thing to watch out for ---- "lumens" is a meaure of total light power, and is not the same as "peak candlepower" which is a measure of the brightness at the center of the spot. For looking into crevices, you want good candlepower.

 

[Offroad]

The most powerful AA powered light I've seen is the Ikelite PcA. 6AA cells, 7.2watt bulb. For looking into crevices, you want good candlepower.

That model does look small and powerful enough but the run time is pretty short at 2.5hrs. Re: Candlepower, would a model with a smaller beam be better for crevices as well?

Thanks.

 

[Charlie99]

That model does look small and powerful enough but the run time is pretty short at 2.5hrs. Re: Candlepower, would a model with a smaller beam be better for crevices as well?

Thanks.

For a given amount of lumens, a tighter beam is better for daylight use. The problem is that your eyes adjust to the bright surroundings and it is difficult to see anything tucked back up under ledges and in crevices. While both bright and broad beam is ideal, for a given amount of lumens, the smaller the spot, the brighter the center spot will be. For daytime use in clear water, you'll want a really bright spot, so you either need to get a very power light such as a HID, or the light needs to be fairly narrow beam.

Unfortunately, most manufacturers don't provide much info on light output and beam patterns, so what you will probably have to do is simply see if you can see the spot on the floor of the diveshop, and compare several different lights. Since there isn't much in the way of hard specs, all I can tell you is that the halogen Q40 was OK, but a bit wimpy, and that the PcA light was good in most circumstances. The halogen Q40 is available at a lot of dive shops and you could use that as the "comparison standard" when looking at various other lights.

The short runtime is what you get when you suck 7.2watts out of 6 AA cells. I just use a set of NiMH batteries and recharge them after 4 or 5 daytime dives.

Don't sweat the decision too much, though. If you get an LED light that doesn't have enough oomph for daytime use, it just becomes your backup light for night dives.

 

[Rev. Blade]

Charlie99 is giving you great information. I use an XL LED as a backup. It's bright enough for night diving, that if I have a small "bailout" light... I wouldn't abort an open water dive if my primary failed, and the XL became my active light.

For daytime diving, all the LED lights I've tried are useless. (I have several.) The PCa is a very useful light, even for daytime dives. The bright beam is very focused. The divemasters at B&B SCUBA in Maui use them on guided dives. (A great dive operation, by the way, if you end up in Maui.) I used a Underwater Kinetics SL4, which is not as bright, but still quite useful. You noticed a weak point for the PCa. It eats batteries in a hurry. My brother has had poor luck with Ikelight flashlights, I haven't owned one. My UK SL4 has never failed (yet), and I know sove resorts use them as the rental light. That seems to speak well for the quality (or their warranty.) I normally bring a Light Cannon on daytime dives. It's bulky, but a 10 watt HID can be seen even after your eyes have adjusted to sunlight.