Low Lumen night light suggestions

[buddhasummer]

Clear water tropical night diving and bright lights are not a good match in my opinion, less is more. I use a 250 lumen light on its widest setting which is around 36 degrees. The company is no longer operating (MB-Sub), Shame as it's a great little light. I often don't even use my light. On a clear moonlit night in a shallow reef I can see well enough.

Makes me laugh (and slightly annoyed) when guys/gals get into the water with light cannons and in an instant the reef is turned into a desert.

 

[Damselfish]

Clear water tropical diving I much prefer a wide beam at night (usually run on it's lowest setting.) Low to not scare stuff, wide to find more stuff. Narrow can be useful during the day, I carry that as a backup at night but don't generally use then. Adjustable beam width is a sort of handy idea, but the couple I've had tend not to do a great job over much of their range, and are sometimes hard to change underwater. Don't recall models at the moment.

My favorite is a Big Blue AL2600 video light that I got a deal on. I bought it thinking I was going to take up video, and haven't gotten around to that. But I love wide angle lights and this is 120 degrees. 2600 lumens max, but the lowest setting is 260. Also has built in red for night. They have a good selection of nice lights. Well made stuff.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Ok, got back from Grand Cayman last week, time for an update. I took my Deep6gear light (which is an Archon V10) that I purchased around 3 years ago, the Evolva and the Mako 630 (which is an OrcaTorch D560).

My D6g died on me after about 3 dives. Feels like the switch. I tried out the Evolva on a couple of day dives, as well as on the Kittiwake, but it was really to wide of a beam angle. Couldn’t really get anywhere close to the color of the coral that I had been getting with the D6g.

Of course, I had really gotten the Evolva for night dives, so was looking forward to using it, especially the red light. The night finally came, and, as I put the freshly changed battery in the light, it started cycling through the modes. The only way to stop it was to remove the battery.

This left me with just the Mako, which was a trooper. With AAs it puts out a decent amount of light, even for the day dives. With the 14500, it was a good little dive light for any occasion. For the night dive, it did quite well. I only had the 14500 available by that time, and I did notice that some, thought not most, fish reacted to the brightness of it. The AAs might have worked better, but I had gone through the AAs pretty quickly, and I only brought 3. (I wasn’t expecting to be using it as my main light.) The Mako is a twist on light, which the manufacturer advises (as in “do this”) to turn on before the dive and leave on throughout. This really burns through the batteries. After the first dive of the morning the light really didn’t provide much for the second. (We would do 2 dives before going back to the resort.) I finally challenged the torch gods and started turning it off during dives, being very careful not to twist the head too far. Worked well.

I did put a bolt snap on it, which was pretty funny since the snap is as long as the light. I discovered that the attachment holes are pretty rough and need to be filed. They cut through my cave line, but I realized early enough and backed it up with a zip tie.

So, I need to contact Evolva to see what can be done. I don’t know when I’ll be back in the Caribbean, so I don’t really need it. If they replace it I may sell it. As for the D6g light, I have a comparable Cave Adventures light that does me well. The Mako Is truely a great light for clear water tropics diving, both daytime and night. Plus, Mako seems to be a great company with some great customer service.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

Thanks for the positive feedback on the MAKO products and a review of the light. The MAKO Mini 630 really is a very small light, I'm happy that you found it "big" enough for even night diving. It is only 3.5 inches and uses a single AA or a rechargeable battery. We are continuing to receive good reviews of this light.

There is no need to avoid turning the light either on or off while diving and at depth.

If you need a back up or emergency light, this light should easily fit in the bottom of a BC pocket, and as described in the review, it may be sufficient as your main light in some situations.

Thanks!
Dano

https://www.makospearguns.com/Mini-630-Lumen-Dive-Light-p/mm630dl.htm

 

[peterak]

Consider a light with a red light mode for use down near the reef.

Can you suggest one, preferably inexpensive?