Small lamp sufficient for night dives

[Ed Hatfield]

I bought the Intova, described above by D_M, last December and I have used it on two night dives as my main light. I lent it to a buddy for a 3rd night dive. On my night dives it was one of the smallest and brightest lights in the group - a dozen or so divers. My buddy was also impressed and plans to get one himself. The housing is metal with a magnetic on/off switch. It seems to be built to last. The two 3V lithium batteries are the original with no perceived diminishing of the beam intensity after three dives. I paid $50.00 Canadian from my LDS. The on-line price once shipping gets tacked on will likely be more but still a bargain for the quality. This light has a brighter beam than my C8 at a fraction of the size.

 

[cmburch]

We use UK lights. My Wife has a 6 C cell and a larger 4D cell and I have the 4 C cell and 4 AA cell. The 4 AA cell is strapped to my speargun. At a minimum for night diving I would have the 4C with the 4AA as backup. I am upgrading all my bulb lamps to the new eLED. I don't know now. Check the UK site for comparison of Xenon vs eLED Lumens.

 

[RonFrank]

Hi!
Looking for a small lamp strong enough for night dives, reliable, max. tme of functioning about 60 Min., suitable for travelling, i. e. rechargeable or using normal batteries.
All advice will be appreciated, particullarly about the necessary strength of the light.
Yours, Liberty

You did not say what you budget is, or what you consider "small".

For the $$$ I think the Intova has more bang for the buck than any light out there. The only down side is that it uses CR123 batteries. Online they are a buck each, but I've seen them in Safeway sell for $15 EACH.. OUCH! You can do rechargeable in this, and I do use rechargeable for home use. Unfortunately the Li-Ion rechargable will only provide about 50 minutes of burn time, and then they go out, it's full power or nothing with these. With the CR123 non-rechargable this light burns at full power for about an hour, and then slowly looses power over maybe two hours. I paid a whopping $25+ shipping for mine at AntOnlie, but they have gone up a few bucks since then. Still the highest quality LED out there for around $34 shipped. A no brainier IMO if it meets your needs.

I have an OMS Vega, and it is smaller than the Intova, and has a screw down switch. Very similar power consumption, smaller light, a bit brighter than the Intova at about 90 lumens, and a bit more focused.

I've been looking at the Dive Rite 500 lumens light. That maybe too big and pricey for your pocketbook, but that looks like the cat's meow in current LED technology for UW use.

 

[redrover]

Without going to the specialty lights, the brightest lamp I have found that uses AA rechargeable batteries is the Ikelite PCa LED. It uses 6 batteries and will run for many hours.

I’ll second that one is good enough, inexpensive and easy to carry. Was anyway for me first night dive. My only experience is tropical but I was surprised it was. BTW, I’d carry two and have a UK mini-LED that is also light bright and small. Both are small and what I'd travel with for limited use in tropical clear water.

 

[LowVizWiz]

I rarely see ppl mention them but I've been a big fan of my little UK Q40 led's,

I'm a big fan of the Q40 eLED too, I carry one on my BC pocket day or night.
It's bright enough for looking into holes, etc. during the day and perfect for night diving specially in bigger groups where most people tend to carry bigger lights.

I find that less is more during night dives, specially in the clear warm waters I usually dive.

Wys.

 

[buddhasummer]

I own the Solus/oxy backup its a great light at over 200 lumens and small 2x CR123, but its not cheap at $299 and due to manafacturing costs they have stopped producing it so Id imagine it will become unavailable withing the next little while..it is a great travel light and easily meets primary light in terms of brightness...I have some friends who own the OMS vega and its a nice light and in clear waters it would be fine as a primary light...

 

[Nocturnal Lights]

We have a SLX for $260 ($210 demo) and a new M2 Mini LED light. Both are listed under "dive lights" on our website. If you have any questions about them feel free to let me know.

 

[Liberty01]

Thank you for your numerous and helpful replies.
I decided to buy a locally manufactured light called Schulz GS35, very bright, quite small and cheap (<150US $).
Cheers,
Liberty

 

[fletcher]

Yep, NLI.

I'm curious with the new backup led lights. For the moment, the best backup have a power of 240 lumens (barbolight U-04, Tillytec W30 and solus backup)

So, how many lumens for yours, burntime, how deep are they rated, usable with rechargeable batteries?

Thanks

 

[Nocturnal Lights]

Hi Fletcher,

Ours is rated at around 80 lumens, not the brightest out there. If you're looking for something brighter, you can use our SLX LEDs (~300 lumens). They're both rated at 328ft and the M2 uses three AAA batteries while the SLX uses six AA batteries. Both can use alkaline or rechargeable batteries. While the SLX is considered a primary light, a lot of our customers bring it along with another light because it's still really compact. The size of the light is smaller than a can of 12oz soda and it has a handle that hooks onto your BC.

Tim