Led light help?

[Scubapro Marcus]

I am a new diver and on the search for a good led light and a back-up. I will be diving a lot of quarry's and wreck dives also some lake diving. What suggestions do you guys have?

Thanks for your help

 

[Dave616]

You should probably edit your post to add your price range for both lights.

 

[TecDiveGear]

Hi Marcus,
I'm glad to see another diver, let me suggest you two solutions:
as a back up light / hand held primary light (which might be enough at your experience and goals level) I would consider model 3XPG - compact design, durable hand held back up / recreational light which gives you 1000 lumen light output (if you're are not familiar with that term - its comparable to some of the smaller 10W HID's). Powered by 3 x "C" batteries giving you up to 6 hours of constant burn at 100% power, after that light is still bright but light output is slowly fading out. If you ever will switch to DIR configuration you may use that model as a one of the two back up's so it never stops to be used.

If it comes to the bigger, brighter, rechargeable canister light I would consider models:
7XPG - 1.5h of burn - sold here: addwaterscuba.com/7-XPG-REC.html

4TEC - 3h of burn or more, sold here: addwaterscuba.com/4-TEC-Technical-Light.html

You should be very happy with those,
to see live comparison of Light-For-Me lights vs other well known lights visit YouTube channel:
youtube.com/user/LightForMeUSA?feature=mhum


Good luck,
dive safe !

TecDiveGear

 

[Scubapro Marcus]

Thanks for your help

 

[lovles2274]

TecDiveGear,

OMG, you recommended a $700 light for someone that started his post with "I am a new diver..." That seems a bit excessive don't you think. I think that with all the expenses we incur to get into this sport/activity/lifestyle, a new diver probably should wait a little before dropping that kind of money on a light. Purchasing the basics that we need, BCD, Regs, computer, wetsuit, etc..., really puts a dent into your bank account (unless you're very wealthy). Personally, I would (and I am) get an inexpensive backup light to start with. This way you can look in holes and under ledges as you "get your feet wet" with open water diving. If you plan on furthering your diving into the technical side you should talk to everyone and see what they use and make your decisions then. I don't think there is any reason to rush on making a choice until you decide to dive deep, cavern/cave or wreck (yes I understand that there might be other reasons but, probably not for a beginning diver).

 

[arkstorm]

I am a new diver and on the search for a good led light and a back-up. I will be diving a lot of quarry's and wreck dives also some lake diving. What suggestions do you guys have?

Thanks for your help

If you are staying on the recreational side of things and need a light for night dives, looking into holes or under ledges, etc. then something like the Princeton Tec Shockwave LED as a primary and a Princeton Tec Torrent LED back-up would more than suit your purposes for around $120 and $60 respectively.

 

[Scubapro Marcus]

Thanks everyone,

I am planning a trip to Bonaire in Sept and would like to do a night dive or two. Will the basic light that you just recommend work for that?

 

[arkstorm]

Thanks everyone,

I am planning a trip to Bonaire in Sept and would like to do a night dive or two. Will the basic light that you just recommend work for that?

This is exactly the light set I used in Bonaire in June. I did at least one night dive every night for two weeks, sometimes two night dives per night. The batteries lasted me the entire trip.

My only other recommendation would be to also add an eco-flare or something similar for night diving because light sticks are frowned upon.

 

[TecDiveGear]

TecDiveGear,

OMG, you recommended a $700 light for someone that started his post with "I am a new diver..." That seems a bit excessive don't you think.

Yes, thats right. I did it with few good reasons based mainly on my personal experience.
So ... first of all Marcus didn't really picked his price range so I've chosen the mid-shelve light, from there you can move towards more expensive or even less.
Why canister light and not the plastic cheaper temporary one ? There we go ...
When you start diving you don't really know how much, how often and what kind of diving you will do, right ? So here is the solution, led canister light that I've proposed to Marcus will be used from dive # 1 to dive # 1000000000 regardless type of dive.

With every dive we want more of it and mostly deeper, longer etc which very often brings us to the point of crossover to the mixed type or pure technical diving and what light we use then ? Still exact same light you purchased by your let's say 10-th dive ! If it comes to these lights they cost more but hold its value a LOT longer then any other light (especially cheap plastic one produced in billions of pieces flooding eBay etc). So Marcus, I did it ... it mean I was buying cheaper, good ones but plastic ones, without any plan and in result I was selling what I just bought (sometimes after 1-2 months) for not even half price because the things I was buying served only one type of diving. In conclusion, buying cheaper doesn't mean smarter and really cheaper in longer run, especially in sport like diving when every dive is so different. Not every piece of equipment will serve accordingly but light for sure !

If you don't wanna spend more then $200 and still have the light that once (right now at the beginning of your dives) will be your primary and soon on your more serious dives still will be used as well by secondary or back up consider this one: 3XPG LED Dive Back Up Light by Light For Me More light then 3 LED Princeton Tech's etc. you gain durable (not plastic) housing, compact size and when you go tech it becomes one of your back up light !

Dive safe on your trip !

 

[HowardE]

For night dives a Princeton Tec for $90 would serve you just fine. HID's or high powered LED's are way more light that you even want for a night dive. If your lights are too bright, you scare away a lot of fish and make the corals behave like it's daytime.