Light Cannon 100 brightness, not what it should be

[bnajdrovsky]

I have the Underwater Kinetics Light Cannon 100 HID light. Despite the fact that it broke down on me once already (ballast went bad, had to send it back to UK), I like it a lot. There's one thing that bothers me however, so I'm hoping that someone here might have some ideas what might be going on. For some reason, my light just isn't as bright as it should be. I suspected this for a while just from using it on numerous dives, however last year I spent a week diving at Bonaire where my dive buddy had the exact same model, so I was able to compare them side by side, and his Light Cannon was noticeably brighter. I use the UK rechargeable battery pack in my light, so I wondered if it may be due to the battery charge, so I swapped out the lamp assemblies between the two lights, and after trying my buddy's lamp in my light, it was brighter than his light with my lamp in it, so it's definitely not due to low battery charge. Is it possible that that the actual xenon bulb in my light just doesn't get as bright as it should, and if so, is it possible to swap it out for a brighter one?

 

[Packhorse]

Its a 10w HID. My guess a Welch Allen unit like the trailtech, and Dive Rite and many others.
There are 2 parts that would dictate the brightness. Ballast and bulb. Swap each over and see which gives the better result. Then buy a replacement.
The 10w HID WA bulb comes in 6 and 13 degree versions.

It may be a Brightstar HID though. Same rules apply.

 

[deepstops]

It sounds as though you've already done an excellent job and isolated the issue to be the bulb itself.
Here's the least expensive place I've seen to get one:
UK Light Cannon Replacement Lamp

 

[bnajdrovsky]

Yaiks! I hadn't realized that the bulb is that expensive.... sheesh, it costs more than a whole new LED light. I wish I could experiment like Packhorse suggests, alas I don't have the spare parts to experiment with. I'd hate to spend a hundred bucks just to find out it didn't help at all, especially considering that the light currently works, just not optimally. Thanks for your suggestions.