Gilldiver
Contributor
Most of my diving is in the Sound documenting the wrecks. Lots of measurments etc. where your night vision is a must. In the summer we are working with vis in inches at times. In warm August water anything above 2' is good and if I'm stretched out and can see my fins, its great.ageddiver:I wreck dive in the NE too, and I've had the opposite experience. There's no doubt that halogen is less maintenance and less expensive to repair, but to me they're worth every penny to be able to see, and on deep wrecks the only light is what you bring. For what I pay in gas, boat fees and time, I want to be able to see what I came there for, and the HIDs are simply that much brighter. I've never had that problem with backscatter either - I can see that if the light's mounted on the head, but in the hand?.
I make my own battery packs from Sealed Lead acid cyclons and run a 30 watt @ 6 volts bulb. At less then $12 a pack I have two with me so if I do run a light long I just swap out the battery. But it has to be over 40 minutes as I get a good 55 minutes burn from each pack.