Light Suggestion For New Light User?

[Mikey03438]

Hi everyone.
Settling up soon for few months with diving access every day, I'm looking for a decent dive light.
The only concern for a novice like me who never own my own light is finding the right one amongst all the ones available.
I will have a quite versatile use of the light. It's mostly for night diving and picture shooting. But something decent for deep day dive, scouting holes for shrimps/lobster and day pictures would be a bonus.
I have found a few that seem good but the lack of reviews or information doesn't allow me to know if they will be right for my use.
I found the i torch pro6+ for $240, with its 110º wide beam and 2800 lumens, 4 level of white, 2 red and the UV light. Rechargeable battery of 1hour burn time, but comes with a spare.
Or the x-adventurer M2800 for $290 (which I found no information at all on internet) 2800 lumens wide beam, 1000 lumens narrow beam, red light, and UV light. The light includes a dimmer which allows you to chose between 10 levels of brightness each time. Burn time 1 hour but no spare battery (cost super expensive!).
Has anyone ever heard about those lights?
Does it seem adequate for my use or I'm looking in the wrong direction?

I also thought maybe to couple the i torch pro6+ with a secondary fish lite D7 for the narrow beam. But again, no review or info about it online.

Any information or other lights suggestion is more than welcome. But the X-adventurer is really the maximum of my budget, ideally I'm looking for something cheaper.
Thank you

 

[eelnoraa]

The very wide beam angle means mostly intended for video shooter. For normal usage, say peek under rocks, look into holes for lobster, what you need is a very tight angle light, something on the order of 6-8degree. For reasonably good photo at night, what you need is a strobe, a handheld hot light is unlikely to be bright enough for good picture.

Don't trust the manufacture lumen quote. Most quote theoretical max output from the LED, in reality, the light doesn't produce nearly as much. Take I-touch Lite D7 for example, a Cree LED with 1x 18650, a more realistic output is 350-400lumen.

I would say start with something like DGX600 as a general purpose light. Get a dedicated strobe for photo. Unless you shoot video, don't get those wide angle ligghts

 

[Mikey03438]

Thank you for your reply.
As far as strobes go, I did consider it. But as I travel a lot around and don't take professional pictures (just something good enough for Christmas calendar and blog purpose) I don't think it worth it for me to buy it. It would have a very limited use of it, and space in a backpack is very valuable.
That why I'm looking for a more versatile light. Is wide angle lights would not allow me to focus nor take the shot at all? If the concern is my pictures would be a bit darker, for practicality I can make it work with a little bit of Photoshop. Better a darker shot with a little noise than no shot at all. I thought that wide angle would at least give me a reasonably good light repartition all over the picture compared to a narrow beam (not a brighter spot in the middle with dark edges). But I can be completely wrong.

Video wise, I love to shoot video as well. I have a gopro that I only use for this purpose. Again, nothing professional and not the main purpose of the light, but nice to think that I would not be limited.

For night dive itself, I've be told that wide beam are better and the red light will allow me to observe shy marine life easier. How true is that? Because overall that is my main purpose for the light.
Having a light not powerful enough for amazing day shot isn't a deal breaker either, I shot with no light at the moment so it can't be worse.

I did look for the DGX600 and the reviews are really good. I will definitely enquire about it thank you.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Hi, Mikey.

I'm a new light user as well and just picked my first one up last month. I'm sure some veteran board members would scoff at my selection but I wanted something that was good value. I went poking around at a few LDS around me and ended up with the Big Blue AL1100NP. It has 4 levels of brightness at 1100 lumens max which would run for 2 hours. The other options are 110 lumens (20 hours), 275 lumens (10 hours), 550 (5 hours). There is a battery level indicator built into the on/off switch (blue, green, red, flashing red) as well as a rechargeable lithium ion battery. It has a 10 degree narrow beam. I really like the size of it and find that the on/off button is really easy to use, even when diving cold water with gloves. I think I paid about $150 for it. It's a solid first light for me and I'm happy with it given the features and the price. I haven't tried night diving with it yet, though.

 

[Jax]

I just bought a pair of these for myself. Cave Adventurers - Explorer back-up lights - Marianna, Florida USA - Never Undersold!

I am also very partial to the Intova brand for open water diving - it also has a strobe light.
Cave Adventurers - Backup Lights - Lights - Marianna, Florida USA - Never Undersold!

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

I just got back from a night dive in Cozumel. Two weeks ago, I bought a Dgx800 and 600. Our night dive was a last minute planned dive and I did not have a chance to charge the batteries before hand. I had easily the brightest lights on the dive out of 6 of us including the dive master. The 800 is almost too bright. The 600 is just about perfect. Unless you are right on the reef, the beam is plenty wide enough. I got 55 minutes out of the 800 and you have full brightness until it flashes off. Then you can cycle the switch and it will give You maybe 15 to 30 seconds more light. I did this a few times and pulled the 600 out. I wish they had actual switches instead of the un screw the bezel type but the switch seems to be fine and both are triple oring sealed. The best part....I got lights absolutely comparable to lights costing at least twice as much, with batteries and a chargers for a great deal. No regrets about them, and saved some money too. Good luck.
Jay