Primary Night Dive Light: 85 or 125 Degree Angle Better?

[AshleyAshna]

Hello all!

Thank you to anyone who can offer some advice to a new diver!

I am about to purchase a primary dive light and had planned on buying one with a 10 degree angle for day diving but also wanted to purchase an interchangeable head for night diving. The two heads I am looking at are both equipped with 1000 luminous and one has an 85 degree angle and is considered a wide beam. The other has a 125 degree angle and is considered an extra wide beam.

My my initial thought was that the 85 degree angle would be better because the 125 may just get washed out but since I'm new to all this, I thought it would be best to pose the question to more experienced divers.

Any my additional advice you all may have is greatly welcomed. Thanks in advance and have a great weekend.

 

[eelnoraa]

It really depends on your water condition. For low viz water, I think even 10 degrees is too wide for both day and night usage. If water is clear, then wider is OK. Why not just try out your 10 first, and see if you need wider beam.

 

[tbone1004]

what he said, stay with the narrow beam and unless you're doing a lot of reef diving or video etc, you won't need the wider angle. 10* is pretty wide, for reference, most primary lights are between 6-8*.

 

[Freewillow]

I have a 90° angle for video and a 10° angle for night dives ans inspections of crevasses or overhangs during daylight. The 90% 1200 lumen is not good during nightdives. Just my experience

 

[AshleyAshna]

I have a 90° angle for video and a 10° angle for night dives ans inspections of crevasses or overhangs during daylight. The 90% 1200 lumen is not good during nightdives. Just my experience

thanks for your help everyone! Freewillow, how come your experiences haven't been good? Is there something specific about the angle that doesn't work well for you?

i was planning on getting an underwater video/still camera so it sounds like the 85 attachment head may be good for that purpose? Is the 125 just overkill?

 

[tbone1004]

can't signal with a 90* light and most aren't powerful enough penetration wise to go more than 5-10ft away if there is ambient light around

Remember, you can never have too much light for videography, and you really need a minimum of 2 to have it come out mostly decent especially if it is anything farther away than about 10 feet.

 

[dmoore19]

I tried using one of my gobe 700 Wide (60 degree light head) lights on a night dive. The beam is scattered too wide to really see anything. I bought the spot head which is 20 degrees. The 20 degree light works fairly well. I don't think you will be happy with an 85 degree beam for night diving.

 

[Freewillow]

thanks for your help everyone! Freewillow, how come your experiences haven't been good? Is there something specific about the angle that doesn't work well for you?

i was planning on getting an underwater video/still camera so it sounds like the 85 attachment head may be good for that purpose? Is the 125 just overkill?

Hi I hope that the answers that followed mine gave you an explanation. If this is not the case, do not hesitate to come back . A 90° beam is WAY too much for a night dive, except if you make muck dives

I believe that you need to look at the angle of your camera and take a lamp that id bigger than you camera angle. Otherwise, you will have darker area at the edge of your video. In my case, I am taking video with an SONY RX 100. No wide angle there. So anything around 90° is more that enough. I do hope, I am clear

 

[exposure]

As said, 85° or 125° is only for video use but 1000 Lumens will be useless and no communication signal will be possible
Take a small beam like 8° even a small one that you can put in a pocket for night dive or looking into small holes. And for the video be ready to use 2 times 125° with at least 4000 lumens and a arms system to have them far from the lense.

 

[tbone1004]

thanks for confirmation on that. It's not the beam angle that is the problem on these lights, an 85* or 125* or whatever video light works wonderfully for night diving IF it is powerful enough. None of these in discussion are going to be powerful enough to do anything meaningful. Proper video lights will work very well, but they're going to cost you
Video Lights | Product Categories | Underwater Light Dude

These are 120/125* and they work brilliantly as primary lights for night diving, BUT the smaller one is 6000lumen, the bigger one is 13,000 lumen, significantly more powerful. The issue with the narrow beams is you can damage the wildlife if you aren't careful and the hotspot hits them in the eye, so be careful with that.