illumiGeek
Registered
I also don't think your poll is worded fairly. There are "quirks" associated with owning any HID light. It's just the nature of the beast.
I've had mine for over a year and I like it a lot. Mine is an older model with a metal reflector (newer ones have a plastic reflector that has a little tighter focus).
When I first got mine I heard all the stories about how fragile the $80 lamp is and treated it like it was filled with Nitro Glycerine. But eventually it got dropped, and it survived. Then it got dropped a bit harder, and it survived. After that I got a bit less paranoid and started treating it more like a dive light. Since then it has been dropped or banged around quite a bit (once it took a really nasty fall) and it has survived all, and is still on its original lamp.
So what problems have I had? Long start up times are irritating (nature of the beast). Battery life is so so. If you just turn it on and let it run you will get the advertised battery life, but if you use it intermittantly like most lights (say, and hour or so per dive) you'll get maybe 2 dives. It takes a lot more current to "strike" the lamp than to just keep it running. So once your batteries start to get weak it is reluctant to start. Rechargeable batteries work much better in this respect. They can deliver more current when weak, so you actually get more useable run time.
Due to the battery contact design, the LC doesn't work well with Energizer brand batteries. Duracells are included with the light and seem to work best if you use Alkalines. I now use rechargeables in mine.
Bumping the light in the wrong direction will cause it to go out; then you have to turn it off, wait 5 or 10 seconds before turning it back on; then wait another 10-20 seconds for it to warm up (could have been fixed if UK had used some kind of battery carrier instead of just stacking them loosely).
Beam is not focusable. With the older metal reflector is it a medium flood. With the newer plastic reflector it is a narrow flood.
For the price, though, it is a really great light. And its ability to run off of either rechargeable or disposable (Alkaline) batteries can be a real dive saver. I used some PVC and Duct Tape to make battery adapters so I can run mine from AA rechargeables. With 2300mA cells I get over 2 hours of run time. It's also much lighter weight (almost neutral in salt water). Note that this is actually more capacity than the over-priced UK rechargeable pack for the LC (which is 2200mA).
Aloha, iG
I've had mine for over a year and I like it a lot. Mine is an older model with a metal reflector (newer ones have a plastic reflector that has a little tighter focus).
When I first got mine I heard all the stories about how fragile the $80 lamp is and treated it like it was filled with Nitro Glycerine. But eventually it got dropped, and it survived. Then it got dropped a bit harder, and it survived. After that I got a bit less paranoid and started treating it more like a dive light. Since then it has been dropped or banged around quite a bit (once it took a really nasty fall) and it has survived all, and is still on its original lamp.
So what problems have I had? Long start up times are irritating (nature of the beast). Battery life is so so. If you just turn it on and let it run you will get the advertised battery life, but if you use it intermittantly like most lights (say, and hour or so per dive) you'll get maybe 2 dives. It takes a lot more current to "strike" the lamp than to just keep it running. So once your batteries start to get weak it is reluctant to start. Rechargeable batteries work much better in this respect. They can deliver more current when weak, so you actually get more useable run time.
Due to the battery contact design, the LC doesn't work well with Energizer brand batteries. Duracells are included with the light and seem to work best if you use Alkalines. I now use rechargeables in mine.
Bumping the light in the wrong direction will cause it to go out; then you have to turn it off, wait 5 or 10 seconds before turning it back on; then wait another 10-20 seconds for it to warm up (could have been fixed if UK had used some kind of battery carrier instead of just stacking them loosely).
Beam is not focusable. With the older metal reflector is it a medium flood. With the newer plastic reflector it is a narrow flood.
For the price, though, it is a really great light. And its ability to run off of either rechargeable or disposable (Alkaline) batteries can be a real dive saver. I used some PVC and Duct Tape to make battery adapters so I can run mine from AA rechargeables. With 2300mA cells I get over 2 hours of run time. It's also much lighter weight (almost neutral in salt water). Note that this is actually more capacity than the over-priced UK rechargeable pack for the LC (which is 2200mA).
Aloha, iG
