"Primary" vs "Secondary" light?

[tep]

What is the difference, really? (In a recreational context, not technical diving.)

(I'm going to use mostly examples from UK, just as they seem to be popular and have a wide product range.)

Is it brightness? I see some "secondary" lights that are listed as brighter than some that claim to be "primaries".

Is it physical size or shape? I see the gun-handle style lights such as the UK c8 (and canister/goodman) lights listed as primary more often than not, and "straight" lights tend to be listed as secondary. Then I've seen a few that are shaped like the c4 but are listed as a secondary. I've seen some straight lights listed as primaries.

Is it run time? Number of batteries? Width or narrowness of the beam?

I already own older UK c4 and c8 lights, and a few others. I'm going to be buying one or more new LED lights and I want to see what the current thinking is.

 

[Nwcid]

Primary is the light you use all the time, as the name implies it is your primary light. Usually these are high power, long run time, rechargeable and often canister lights.

Backup is just as the name implies. If you are doing a dive that requires a light having at least 1 back up, if not 2 is required. Usually these are smaller, lighter, non-rechargeable, and are relatively inexpensive. They will put out a reasonable amount of light to "make it back".

I dive the same set up for 99% of the diving I do. My canister light and back up light are always on me. We just did 10 days of diving in Maui, all day dives. Originally I had thought about not brining our back up lights, but there was no reason not to have it.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Hi,

@Nwcid pretty much summer it up. I don't do much or any night diving at all (only when traveling, LOB, special circumstances) so I didn't spend much on a backup light.

 

[tbone1004]

what they said.

Primary light can be anything but it is the light you intend to use throughout your dive.
Secondary light is the one you don't intend to use, but have to because your primary shat the bed.

In technical diving that is almost always a canister light as primary because it is brighter with more burn time, and smaller "normal" looking flashlights for secondaries because they are small enough to not be in the way. In recreational diving, that primary doesn't have to be a canister, though I recommend that whatever you use for your primary be on a goodman handle of some sort for convenience

 

[tep]

Thanks for all the info. I'm now leaning more towards something like this

Impact Stubby Dive Light - Dive Right in Scuba

plus the goodman style handle

But this will all have to wait until after vacation. Kauai here I come (in 17 days, but who's counting?)

 

[diversteve]

Possibly buy a less expensive secondary light b4 you go - or rent one anytime you're diving the lava tubes - we found all sorts of interesting things on the underside of them in Kauai that you'll miss unless you light them up. Octopus mostly but other things moved when we hit them with the light.

I personally like the Dorcy's from Piranha, $40 and bright enough to use as a primary on night dives in clear water. At least I have in Utila, Turks/Caicos - not HI since I haven't been there recently but it would throw enough light to work there. Piranha calls them Penetrator but Dorcy is stamped into the handle. Nice eLed Cree-based light - 6AAA batteries lasted me a week of night dives and still seemed bright after. $42. Penetrater-220

 

[tbone1004]

https://www.amazon.com/XTAR-VP2-Sel...=UTF8&qid=1467486498&sr=8-1&keywords=xtar+vp2
Amazon.com: 2pcs KeepPower 3400mAh li ion protected 18650 battery Panasonic NCR18650B Cell Built In: Home Audio & Theater
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S8Z7PZC/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1467486417&sr=1&keywords=securitying

About the same price as the one from DRiS, same light output, but has the multi level button switch on the back. Same price gets you two lights, two much better batteries, and a much better charger. I use these as my backups in cave diving but they throw more light than a 10w HID primary and are more than sufficient for most diving. Gets about an hour burn time on high, quite a bit more on medium.

 

[tep]

Possibly buy a less expensive secondary light b4 you go - or rent one anytime you're diving the lava tubes - we found all sorts of interesting things on the underside of them in Kauai that you'll miss unless you light them up. Octopus mostly but other things moved when we hit them with the light.

I personally like the Dorcy's from Piranha, $40 and bright enough to use as a primary on night dives in clear water. At least I have in Utila, Turks/Caicos - not HI since I haven't been there recently but it would throw enough light to work there. Piranha calls them Penetrator but Dorcy is stamped into the handle. Nice eLed Cree-based light - 6AAA batteries lasted me a week of night dives and still seemed bright after. $42. Penetrater-220

These are great options that I hadn't found before. Now *this* one is looking interesting, too

NEW-Piranha-Dive-Black-Star-1000-Lumen-Dive-Light-with-Battery--Charging-Kit

 

[tbone1004]

still way too expensive for what they are though. For $130 with the ones I linked above you get two lights with the same emitter....

 

[tep]

https://www.amazon.com/XTAR-VP2-Sel...=UTF8&qid=1467486498&sr=8-1&keywords=xtar+vp2
Amazon.com: 2pcs KeepPower 3400mAh li ion protected 18650 battery Panasonic NCR18650B Cell Built In: Home Audio & Theater
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S8Z7PZC/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1467486417&sr=1&keywords=securitying

About the same price as the one from DRiS, same light output, but has the multi level button switch on the back. Same price gets you two lights, two much better batteries, and a much better charger. I use these as my backups in cave diving but they throw more light than a 10w HID primary and are more than sufficient for most diving. Gets about an hour burn time on high, quite a bit more on medium.

Also interesting, and since I'm "just" doing day and night dives in San Diego, and no overheads or wreck, this would be a OK primary. I see that I'd have to add the rechargeable battery and charger, tho.