New UK SL4 eLED L1 Reviews

[okiedown]

Has anyone tried and or tested this new light. I have SL6 w/ 201 Lumens, the this new SL4 boast 400 lumens. Looking at the documetation it appears the 400 lumen is short lived 15 to 30min's and it drops to 200 lumen for the rest of the battery life.
Just wonder if It woul really be any better than my SL6, It appears to have a better battery life, probaby because of the LED

thanks

 

[dbulmer]

I have a UK SL4 eLED but without the L1 designation so I'm not sure if it's exactly the same thing.
I suspect they are very similar. The point you make about the output appears to tally with the instructions.

Now my thoughts on the light itself.

It is marketted as a light suitable for travel and tropical night diving.
I think it delivers on that by and large.
The beam is bright and focused and is very nice for a tropical night dive. Would I buy another? For that kind of diving yes and I did in Bonaire.

Downsides?
Yes a couple.
Firstly it's squarish so it's a less comfortable to tie to BP/W or BC. It's not bad but rounded would have been neater.

The main issue is switching the light on. You can use an on/off switch or a twist. Personally I always prefer a twist on light - the on/off switch makes the light more likely to fail in my opinion.

It's easy to switch the light on BTW it's just I think the longevity of the product will suffer and for that reason I would not want to use this light for dives where I would really need a backup ie UK diving. For me personally a backup torch has to be simple and reliable.

I don't have an SL6 so take what I say with a pinch of salt. From looking at the UK website I'd choose the Sl4 over the SL6 - the Sl4 light is very white and tight plus easy to carry and requires fewer batteries with a longer burn time.

Having said all that, if you need a light to act as a real backup torch I think there are better LED torches on the market.

 

[havnmonkey]

I bought the cree R5 LED module from blomquist for my SL4 and it works great...

I've done my fair share of light modding and I don't know what emitter UK put in the LED L1, but I'm not familiar with any that puts out 400lm. I'd assume it is an R5 which usually maxes out at 300-350lm (the new TML-6 goes up to 800lm) so the advertised rating is exaggerated.

If you already have a SL4, I'd go for the LED upgrade module.

And yes, I do worry about that little switch UK still seems to be fond of using.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Given that the "real" output of this light seems to be about 250 lumen (the 400 lasts about 10 minutes according to UK's own chart), what are recommendations for a backup light in a price range of up to $200?

 

[beanojones]

It's much brighter than the previous version of the SL4 eLED, at least in the shop. As noted, the after market CREE jblomquist is nice. But a warranty is nice too.

 

[geoff w]

I bought a few of these at the Long Beach Scuba show in June, and dove with them for 23 dives in Fiji on vacation. Previously I had the UK SL-4 and UK SL-4 eLED. I upgraded one of my SL-4s (non-LED) with jblomquist's most excellent LED retrofit. At the Scuba show I also bought two of the new UK LED Light Cannons for my wife and me.

The form factor of the new L1 SL-4 is exactly the same as the old versions. It puts out a lot more light than anything else I saw at the show that's anywhere close as far as price. I don't have any way to measure how many lumens it actually puts out, but I estimated it to be easily twice as bright as the previous generation UK SL-4 eLED lights. Battery life is about the same. It's amazingly bright for the size and cost, and I've been very pleased with it as a bright light. jblomquist's LED head is brighter than the previous generation UK eLED SL-4, but nowhere as bright as UK's L1 version.

I didn't use it on my night dive, but did use the new LED version Light Cannon, and it is impressively bright compared to the old HID version of the Light Cannon

 

[BennyM]

Are old SL-4's (non eLED) upgradable to this new SL-4 L1 version easily?

 

[geoff w]

Are old SL-4's (non eLED) upgradable to this new SL-4 L1 version easily?

I asked the UK expert at the scuba show when I bought mine. Yes, it's easily upgradeable, but not economically feasible. Most of the cost is in the light head. I don't think they sell a retrofit light head for the old SL-4 lights to bring it up to the new, higher light output like they did with the old LED light heads (and those didn't make economic sense, either). You might want to look at jblomquist's most excellent LED retrofit option if you don't want to spring for a fancy new SL-4; it won't be quite as bright nor as expensive. It's nice to have options