Light Canon

[JDostal]

That would be why my Light Cannon always is sitting on the floor of my house/boat/vehicle wherever it is. I make it be on the lowest possible surface wherever I may be...that way I can't drop the thing.

I have no desire to spend that much money on a bulb because of my stupidity.

 

[SteveKL]

Where do you guys go to do Open Water? Drive to Valdez? Here in Anchorage it's 90% Whittier and 10% Seward unless we can score a boat trip somewhere.

BTW, if your LDS is sitting on a return for 2 weeks before even SENDING IT OUT, you might want to look for an alternative venue.

 

[Divegurl20]

That's the problem with little lights. Their not durable. Ever heard the expression.... You get what you pay for>>>> Sorry Spend the money for good stuff, shop around, and make your own opinion, don't have a sheep mentality and buy what everyone else buys. Figure out what's best for you!!

 

[JDostal]

It's not about being sheep or being a cheapskate...yeah, a canister would be awesome. But is a $400 canister light really worth it for the five or six openwater night dives that I do every year?

Not a chance in hell.

And, although I love wreck diving, it is not the majority of the diving that I do. I only get to make a couple of week end trips to do it.

Somewhere down the line when I'm making a lot more trips to do wreck diving I'll look at investing in one...but for now...eh....not worth it.

 

[Divegurl20]

I don't just use my battery and light for night dives. I bring it with me all the time. I use it to check under ledges or in holes. When I went to the caymans for vacation i brought it with me to bring out the colors of the reef. In Ocean City Maryland i need it to look under ledges. And I don't use a canister. I use PATCO's Aqua Lite. It's half the price of a canister, and it's 50 thousand times brighter then any hand held. Diving is a visual sport. If i'm gonna spend the money and time to dive. You better believe that i want to see everything!

This is the light I'm talking about

 

[john_a]

Divegurl20 once bubbled...
I don't just use my battery and light for night dives. I bring it with me all the time. I use it to check under ledges or in holes. When I went to the caymans for vacation i brought it with me to bring out the colors of the reef. In Ocean City Maryland i need it to look under ledges. And I don't use a canister. I use PATCO's Aqua Lite. It's half the price of a canister, and it's 50 thousand times brighter then any hand held. Diving is a visual sport. If i'm gonna spend the money and time to dive. You better believe that i want to see everything!

This is the light I'm talking about

. . . do you Divegurl?

 

[JDostal]

50,000 times brighter.

That's got to be one bright light...heh. Is that the official technical measure of it's brightness?

 

[erichK]

Divegurl20 once bubbled...
I use PATCO's Aqua Lite. It's half the price of a canister

I spent hours searching for a reliable source or independent review of this product. There are opnly a few stores listed on PATCO's website, and almost every one of those I Emailed bounced back.

This does not inspire confidence in the company or its products.

 

[RichLockyer]

One thing I discovered about the LC, and UK in general, is to avoid Energizer cells. They have some kind of plastic coating the causes problems with the UK battery holder design.
The really strange thing is that I've sanded the cells, loaded the light, and had it work on the boat, only to have it fail soon after.

Attempted restarts reveal the "ignition noise" (buzz) from the ballast, but no light.

After buying a new lamp and the same thing happening, I went to Duracels... both lamps work fine.

 

[JDostal]

Hey Rich,

That's kind of odd that you mention that now. Thursday night, I did a night dive and my LC's batteries were almost dead. I bought a new set of Energizers to throw into it Friday afternoon as i was leaving for a wreck diving trip that afternoon. Tested the light, and was dead!! I was pretty nervous, I figured the thing got dropped around or something like that.

I brought it to my LDS and we put another ballast/bulb in mine and it worked...then put my ballast/bulb in another light and it worked...

Turned out it was the energizer batteries. My LDS owner said that he's had a history of problems with those in the ligh cannon's.