Lights

[Mo2vation]

Heres the key - don't tell her.

But you can get creative - like eBay. Got my Halcyon 10W HID for $675, sold my light canon for $159 and my two back up princetons for about $20 a piece. Sold my HP80 for another $160 - my net was $315. A lot for a light, but a complete steal for THIS light.

There is a AUL on there now for dirt cheap - like under $100 and a lot of people here dive those lights - reliable and perfectly fine. There are also a couple of DiveRite HIDs for a couple of hundred dollars. The Hawes are up there all the time for a few hundy, same with the Terkels - all are fine lights.

If you want one, be realistic, eBay some crap you have laying around and find a way to get one. Reach for it. There is no reason at all to pay $1300 for your first can light - or any can light for that matter.

K

 

[large_diver]

IMHO -- the DIR light is one that fits the situation. Canister lights are kind of overkill for daytime relatively shallow recreational diving.

Would they be nice to have -- yes. But if you are starting to follow the DIR path, a canister light would be among the last things I would even look at...and even then, weigh the cost-benefit.

You do not need any lights for DIRF.

 

[reubencahn]

But you can get creative - like eBay. Got my Halcyon 10W HID for $675, sold my light canon for $159 and my two back up princetons for about $20 a piece. Sold my HP80 for another $160 - my net was $315. A lot for a light, but a complete steal for THIS light.

There is a AUL on there now for dirt cheap - like under $100 and a lot of people here dive those lights - reliable and perfectly fine. There are also a couple of DiveRite HIDs for a couple of hundred dollars. The Hawes are up there all the time for a few hundy, same with the Terkels - all are fine lights.

If you want one, be realistic, eBay some crap you have laying around and find a way to get one. Reach for it. There is no reason at all to pay $1300 for your first can light - or any can light for that matter.

K

Actually, that's what I'm planning to do. I was waiting til spring to start ebaying all my old non-DIR gear--and my wife and son's non-DIR gear. This conversion is an expensive process.

 

[jbb]

Hey i'm looking for a good cannister light. I'm keeping an eye on ebay and the gear exchanges.

Is there much difference between the Halcyon and Diverite cannisters? the H's are so much more expensive and i don't know enough about them nore is there enough spec info to tell the difference. Also Techtite (got one of their leds flashlights as a backup) has a nice cannister which has the feature of a twist-on head switch. Less likely to be switch on or off and not ather way for water to come in but haven't heard much about them.

I have been able to use a friend's diverite 10w hid and it was just fantastic light as far as light level and ease of use. Although i found with it mounted on my wrist i was bending my wrist too much and water was seeping in my dry suit wrist seals.

Any more opinions and advice?

thanks Jason.

 

[Mo2vation]

Any more opinions and advice?
thanks Jason.

I'm a musician - and we have a saying: Tone = $$

That said, you may want to consider a few things in your Can light thoughts:

I'm DIR - but I'm a single tank Rec weenie. So all my stuff is open water, mostly daylight, and usually above 130 fsw. No penetration, etc. And IMO, a can light has increased my diving safety and enjoyment a zillion percent.

Safety: No brainer - buddy knows I'm there, I can get his/her attention, etc.

Enjoyment: Its just fun looking into stuff, under stuff, etc. It makes the dive more fun.

That said, you gotta take it with you. I just don't think that I would take along a giant canister all the time. I like my small Halcyon 10w. But there are many, many other small HID canisters out there for much less. My Halcyon is reliable, tough, has a focusable beam, is bright and compact - all the things I was looking for.

The smaller NiMH lights are simply more expensive than their bigger, heavier Lead Acid brothers. There are other benefits to the smaller lights aside from their size.

You can get a lot of light for $400 these days. There are several small HID alternatives in the $350 - $450 range.

Do what you need to to acquire one. You will not regret it.

K

 

[reubencahn]

Mo2vation, do you carry your light when you are taking photos?

 

[crab]

I've been considering a can light for a while now and noticed that the list price for a Terkel is ~$750, which seems very close to what the Helios 4.5 runs for. Does anyone have a good idea of the street price for the Terkel-- exlcuding Ebay, as they don't seem to appear for auction on a very regular basis.

 

[kalvyn]

I've been considering a can light for a while now and noticed that the list price for a Terkel is ~$750, which seems very close to what the Helios 4.5 runs for. Does anyone have a good idea of the street price for the Terkel-- exlcuding Ebay, as they don't seem to appear for auction on a very regular basis.

The street price for a Terkel here in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area is right around $550. You might give Chris at Northwest Sports Divers a call, he can give you an exact quote. I've had a Terkel for almost a year now, and I am very happy with it.

Jimmie

 

[Mo2vation]

Mo2vation, do you carry your light when you are taking photos?

Yes.

Its a parlor game - its the ol' lets-see-how-much-crapola-I-can-hold-and-clip trick.

I spend most of my time diving (as opposed to shooting) so the light is on my left hand. The camera is in my right (in dive mode.) Its sort of like this:

Dive Dive Dive - zot under that rock, zot into that hole with the light...

LOOKIE - there's something cool to shoot...

Light head gets clipped to right D-Ring (I have the clip on the cord, not the handle, so the beam points downward when clipped off.) Of course, I'm right handed, and the camera is in my right hand (you see where this is going.) So I take my right hand (full of cam) and pull the light head off the back of my left hand, grab the light head (cord) clip with my left hand, reach across my chest and clip off to the right D-Ring - as I watch my buddy (who didn't see my light flailing around) swim off... I went to the left handed cross chest overlapping lacross grip method after about the second or third time I punched myself in the grill with the strobe when clipping off the light head with right hand (same hand holding the cam) to right D-Ring. Why not clip the light head with the left hand to left D-Ring and avoid the self clubbing? Because I'm a spaz. The overrated Scout light is on that one, and its tough to clip to cuz its sort of pulled down pretty tightly with the inner-tube holding the overrated Scout to the webbing.

If by some miracle the subject is still in the same zip code after all of this (see how most of my pics of slow moving stuff?!) I now put cam in left hand, while turning on the LCD display, the strobe and the modeling light and try to compose the shot - The good news is by this time my buddy has noticed my abscence, and has returned to administer UW first aid to my throbbing dome.

This gets more complicated if its been a slow photo day, and I've clipped off the cam to the right D-Ring (I have a large stainless split ring on the tray with a SS bolt snap). Insert into the melee above unclipping the cam and you get the idea.

So as you can imagine, being pretty new to this shooting UW thing, that its still Columbo-esque as I am patting myself down, clipping and unclipping things, crossing arms and moving stuff around. If fish could laugh, I'd have some great pics, I'm sure.

I'm going to try the Uncle Pug thumb through the goodman handle trick next dive. Could make for one handed stowing of the light, and if I can swing the light out of the camera's FOV, I may not have to stow the light at all. I've given this the dry run after my last trip - it sort of worked. I'm gonna give it a run this weekend.

Long answer to your short question - Yes, I carry the light, yes its fly-swatting exhibition, yes I'm working on streamling the operation.

K

 

[Warren_L]

I've been considering a can light for a while now and noticed that the list price for a Terkel is ~$750, which seems very close to what the Helios 4.5 runs for. Does anyone have a good idea of the street price for the Terkel-- exlcuding Ebay, as they don't seem to appear for auction on a very regular basis.

I bought my Terkel recently here in Canada for about the equivalent of $500 US. Fantastic can light - I would highly recommend it.