Scubaroo
Contributor
Hi,
Just got back from two afternoon dives on the Cypress Sea in Monterey - great boat. Had a fantastic afternoon's diving - saw 5 sun fish or mola-mola (counting the one on the surface that a sea lion had caught and was ripping to pieces in front of us - very impressive nature display), bunches of metridiums, sea lemons, a couple of other nudibranchs, decorator crabs, scallops, squid eggs, massive anemones, harbour seals underwater chasing fish, tube anemones, the list goes on. Anyway I got to try out my new Stealth light from Dan.
The light is a Halcyon 10W HID, with Dan's own Stealth Light canister, which holds a 4500mah battery pack, which is enough for 4 hours of continuous use. Dan was kind enough to do a burn test and recharge before shipping the light, so it was ready to go out of the box. The canister is tiny, about the same size as a Halycon Helios canister, but around 2/3 the price. The canister is solid - something like 1/4" delrin tubing, stainless steel latches, and a robust on/off switch that I could easily operate using 5mm gloves. I bought the light with a goodman handle, which makes using it a breeze.
The light from this sucker has to be seen to be believed - my buddy had a 12W halogen Shockwave handheld (which is the same light I had been using up until now) - the HID just blows it out of the water in terms of penetration of the water column and the color it puts out - halogens looked white to me until I saw this - the HID puts out a genuine white light which leaves the halogen looking a pasty yellow. The head is adjustable for narrow spotlight or widebeam (but not a true flood) - a feature I didn't really think I would use, but the widebeam is great for closeups when you want to illuminate a wider area without an annoying hotspot, and the spotlight was more suited to looking down crevices and for signalling.
The canister has a webbing loop for attaching to the waist harness. I thought I was going to have to dump my beloved right hand side ACB+ pocket to mount the light - but no! The canister is that small (2.5" diameter) I was able to mount the light on the webbing flap of the ACB+ pocket that has the grommet through it for attaching to the backplate, and still be able to attach the flap to the backplate! A very "out-of-the-way" mounting - I did not even notice the canister was there during the dive, and it did not affect my trim at all. The small size of it means it can no longer really be considered ditchable weight anyway. So no extra belt buckle or anything to hold it in place - just remove the bolt holding the ACB+ pocket to the backplate, slide the canister onto the webbing flap, and ziptie the flap back onto the backplate. At the end of the day just cut the ziptie (which came home with me into the trash, not over the side of the boat!), slide the canister off, and put it back into it's padded bag for the trip home.
The quality of Dan's work has to be seen - the canister is very professional looking - people on the boat were suprised to hear it wasn't a "name-brand" light canister. And the price just can't be beat. It's upstaged my Vytec as "purchase of the year" (which incidently, did not experience any problems with the AI transmitter, even though I was holding the lighthead on my right hand, with the ballast only an inch or two from the computer. No interference at all).
So check out www.stealthdive.com - they rock.
5 stars
Ben
Just got back from two afternoon dives on the Cypress Sea in Monterey - great boat. Had a fantastic afternoon's diving - saw 5 sun fish or mola-mola (counting the one on the surface that a sea lion had caught and was ripping to pieces in front of us - very impressive nature display), bunches of metridiums, sea lemons, a couple of other nudibranchs, decorator crabs, scallops, squid eggs, massive anemones, harbour seals underwater chasing fish, tube anemones, the list goes on. Anyway I got to try out my new Stealth light from Dan.
The light is a Halcyon 10W HID, with Dan's own Stealth Light canister, which holds a 4500mah battery pack, which is enough for 4 hours of continuous use. Dan was kind enough to do a burn test and recharge before shipping the light, so it was ready to go out of the box. The canister is tiny, about the same size as a Halycon Helios canister, but around 2/3 the price. The canister is solid - something like 1/4" delrin tubing, stainless steel latches, and a robust on/off switch that I could easily operate using 5mm gloves. I bought the light with a goodman handle, which makes using it a breeze.
The light from this sucker has to be seen to be believed - my buddy had a 12W halogen Shockwave handheld (which is the same light I had been using up until now) - the HID just blows it out of the water in terms of penetration of the water column and the color it puts out - halogens looked white to me until I saw this - the HID puts out a genuine white light which leaves the halogen looking a pasty yellow. The head is adjustable for narrow spotlight or widebeam (but not a true flood) - a feature I didn't really think I would use, but the widebeam is great for closeups when you want to illuminate a wider area without an annoying hotspot, and the spotlight was more suited to looking down crevices and for signalling.
The canister has a webbing loop for attaching to the waist harness. I thought I was going to have to dump my beloved right hand side ACB+ pocket to mount the light - but no! The canister is that small (2.5" diameter) I was able to mount the light on the webbing flap of the ACB+ pocket that has the grommet through it for attaching to the backplate, and still be able to attach the flap to the backplate! A very "out-of-the-way" mounting - I did not even notice the canister was there during the dive, and it did not affect my trim at all. The small size of it means it can no longer really be considered ditchable weight anyway. So no extra belt buckle or anything to hold it in place - just remove the bolt holding the ACB+ pocket to the backplate, slide the canister onto the webbing flap, and ziptie the flap back onto the backplate. At the end of the day just cut the ziptie (which came home with me into the trash, not over the side of the boat!), slide the canister off, and put it back into it's padded bag for the trip home.
The quality of Dan's work has to be seen - the canister is very professional looking - people on the boat were suprised to hear it wasn't a "name-brand" light canister. And the price just can't be beat. It's upstaged my Vytec as "purchase of the year" (which incidently, did not experience any problems with the AI transmitter, even though I was holding the lighthead on my right hand, with the ballast only an inch or two from the computer. No interference at all).
So check out www.stealthdive.com - they rock.
5 stars
Ben
But in a cave with hundreds of feet of vis, you might want the bigger light? Dunno.
