Tampico_ED:
My 2c,
I have used my Halcyon 18w HID for a while now. And can tell....at a short distance with a wide beam.....have no problem bringing up my dive buddy's attention, even if he is backwards..just cross the beam on front of him. But, I have been in situations where I have to adjust my beam if the diver is far and poor visibility. Always a good thing to have adjustable head !!
Ed
Metalsub HID lights get a great review from the British dive magazine "DIVER"
Please note that US retail prices are much cheaper than the UK's do to the fact that 17.5% Sales Tax is included in the UK £ prices.
I have also fixed some false information in the article.
(my added text shows up in green)
http://www.divernet.com/equipment/1005divertests.shtml
MetalSub HID125
METALSUB LIGHTING IS NOT CHEAP. £758 is a lot of anyone's money to spend on an underwater lamp. That's what the HID125 with ni-cad battery pack and charger will set you back, and there are more expensive options. However, like most things designed for the military, it is built to meet a specification, not down to a price.
I suspect that many of you will enjoy reading about it as something to drool over, just as we read about expensive cameras, cars, and consumer electronics.
First of all, let's forget about everything else and look at how you mount the battery-pack onto your tank. There's a tasty-looking bit of machining that can be threaded through a BC tank camband or used with stainless-steel bands. Nicely inset rubber strips provide a grippy interface.
The rectangular battery pack is made using hexagonal-ended bolts throughout, and it mates with the tank-mount with a satisfying "clunk". It is held in place by a sprung lock.
The cable for the lamphead is connected by a watertight bayonet connection with its own sealing O-ring. Disconnect the lamphead and substitute the lead for the charger.
Well thought-out
The 50W HID lamphead is as big as some complete torches. It is very well thought-out, and even has its own little stainless-steel shackle. You switch it on by sliding a large detent back, and then rotating the large collar at the cable-end of the lamphead clockwise. It is rotated a small amount until the detent clicks back into a locked position. You then allow the HID to warm up to full power.
We don't recommend switching an HID light on and off, especially under water. Its life depends on how often it is fired up rather than on how long it burns, which is why it is locked "on".
(Switch on and off many times on a dive does NOT significantly reduce bulb life.)
A set of coloured LEDs at the back of the lamphead give information about the state of charge of the battery. Green lights up when more than 50% of burntime remains. An orange LED indicates that 50-20% of burntime remains. Red shows when there is only 20-10% of battery charge remaining, and the
(LED)light blinks when the battery is down to 10% or less.
The battery-pack itself is finished in the same Teflon-coated anodising as the rest of the kit. It looks as if it should come with an M16 rifle with night-sights attached. It looks strong enough to entrust to a nervous teenage squaddie who might not see nursing his equipment through arduous conditions as very high on his list of priorities.
Shrivelling stars
The battery substituted for 4kg
(the battery pack and lamp only wiegh 2kg underwater) of lead on my belt, and this proved very comfortable, but only after I decided to mount it centrally on my tank to stop myself being trimmed roundto one side. Under water at night the HID125 proved to be a veritable light-sabre. In fact it turned a night dive into day dive.
Featherstars and basketstars shrivelled up long before I came anywhere near them. Other divers tended to shrivel up too, because the beams of their own lights became puny by comparison. It was shock and awe all round, and the light is a cool 6000K, so it penetrates water well.
I lent the Metalsub lamp to a couple of other divers for different night dives, and both came back afterwards with big grins. One said he'd never been able to light up a whole reef during a night dive before.
All this, and I only ever charged it the once! I believed it when I was told that it was good for more than four and a half hours' burn-time on one battery charge.
Of course, this made it very useful during day dives, too. It was so bright, you could actually see it light up red soft corals and sponges, even when they were bathed in daylight filtered blue through the water.
If the HID125 is too dim for you, there is also the bigger HID 200. It's switchable between 25W and 50W,
(The HID200 has 3 power levels, 28W, 35W, and 50W) wattequivalent to 200W of conventional light, for £512, Raybans not included.
Switched on the same way as its slightly smaller brother, after sufficient time (around five seconds) you have the option of sliding the detent back again and of rotating the collar by 90¡. This will deliver reduced power that extends burntime dramatically. You have to rotate the collar back all the way to turn the lamp off. Alas, this is a two-handed job.
The HID125 24W (equivalent to conventional 100W lamp-head) costs £411. Battery-packs with the Quick-Release system are available from £255. A charger costs £92.
+ Military spec
+ 'Shock and awe' performance
- Military price
