swapping HID for halogen??

[adstaa]

i'm thinking of selling my hartenberger HID light and getting a nocturnal lights TL 50 extreme halogen light. i've got an SL50 by nocturnal and it's a great light.

has anyone done this? were you happy that you did it this way? what made u decide to do it this way?

my main thing is the cost of replacing a HID bulb combined with how fragile they are vs. the robustness and low cost of the halogen set-up. the plus for the HID is obviously the good burn time with a small canister......

any thoughts or comments would be appreciated, even tho obviously i still have to make up my own mind in the end....

cheers

ads

i should also say that i will be using it for wrecks/caves......

 

[Manta]

i'm thinking of selling my hartenberger HID light and getting a nocturnal lights TL 50 extreme halogen light. i've got an SL50 by nocturnal and it's a great light.

has anyone done this? were you happy that you did it this way? what made u decide to do it this way?

my main thing is the cost of replacing a HID bulb combined with how fragile they are vs. the robustness and low cost of the halogen set-up. the plus for the HID is obviously the good burn time with a small canister......

any thoughts or comments would be appreciated, even tho obviously i still have to make up my own mind in the end....

cheers

ads

i should also say that i will be using it for wrecks/caves......

Hi Adstaa,

You should take a look at our systems, Green Force. It is completly upgradable and interchangable. You can start out with a halogen system and if you ever wanted to upgrade or swap out light heads you can; HID or LED. go to www.mantaindustries.com.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Thanks - Greg

 

[Nocturnal Lights]

Hi Adstaa,

Check out our TL50 system or the SLX system, it'll be great for wrcks and caves. We just released our new hand mount so you'll be able to use attach the light head on the back of your hand. If you need something really bright you should get the TL50 + hand mount, which is $480 before the scuba board discount. If you want something that is "plenty bright" you should consider our SLX LED which can be mounted on your hand with an enclosed battery canister, so you won't have any battery canisters to worry about. The SLX package will only be $280 including the hand mount and you can purchase it directly through our site.

 

[micbu]

Hi adstaa,

Belive me, you will not be happy by going back to halogen. Just buy a more robust HID light.

Michael

 

[Gilldiver]

Hi adstaa,

Belive me, you will not be happy by going back to halogen. Just buy a more robust HID light.

Michael

I have tried many HID lights and have stayed with a 33 watt 6 volt halogen, Why?

1) To bright for my diving: I do almost 100% of my diving in the Northeast where there is a lot of particulate in the water. The back scatter from the HID can be blinding to the point I start putting fingers over the light to damp down the light or hold it well off to the side to cut the scatter.The little 33 watt works great in these conditions. It also works well if I hang it off my shoulder to use both hands. You get just enough light to see what you are doing or to write on a slate or wet notes. If you flash yourself you don't kill your night vision or your buddies.

2) I don't do caves only wrecks: Burn time is not an issue. On a normal day of diving I will do 2 dives of 25 to 30 minute bottom time. Total burn time on a wreck for the day is maybe 40-50 minutes. So a light with 2-8 hours of burn time is not required.

3) Robustness: As you said, halogens just take a bigger beating

4) Repairs: I can repair a halogen from a full flood in a day from parts sourced localy at little costs. A battery pack can be run up for less then $20 and bulbs can be got just about anywhere. I keep an extra cord around in the repair box. The only thing that takes a while to get is a test tube.

5) Costs: I can not justify the $$'s for a 10/18/21 watt light for what I do day in and day out.

Get a HID if you have clear water that needs to be lit up or if you need long burn times. Otherwise stay with halogen.

 

[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?

Anyway, each to his/her own for sure, but it would frustrate me no end to go back to halogen.

 

[bcsean]

I'm using the Greenforce HID100, and couldn't imagine going back to halogen for anything. It's not cheap, but when I dive with friends with 10W HID's, I have to hunt for their light beam, and if they have halogens, it's pointless even looking for it. Some of them just turn their lights off and follow me. No such thing as too much light as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Nocturnal Lights]

I'll try to give my .02 here. Basically there are different HIDs and different halogens so its' really difficult to genearalize. HIDs advantages are basically its' efficiency, which would yield higher output at a lower wattage/energy consuption. Halogens are generally more stable and durable, but using the same wattage the output may not be as bright. A good estimate of the comparason between a 10w hid and a 10w halogen is estimated to about 2-3x the output, but variables in the battery configuration will also affect the output. There are several companies that advertise their 10w hids being the equivalent as a 50w halogen but that's somewhat misleading. There is also a tendency to generalize all halogen dive lights as if they're all $30-50 plastic dive lights that support 10-12w bulbs. Our halogen lights let's you choose between 20, 35, and 50w bulbs and they're up to 40% brighter than the actaul wattage rating because we use 14.4v battery packs instead of 12v battery packs. Many of our customers have told us how our SL and TL series lights have completely covered the 10w hids that other divers are using so it's important not to generalize.

LEDs have come along way too. Most people still have the perception of them being the small cluster LEDs that are only bright enough for backup lights while our SLX is comparable to a 20-25w halogen dive light. It's a good candidate for technical and sport divers who wants to dive hands free too since we have a new hand mount for it.

I think being on scuba board is a good way to research products. In this post a lot of people are happy with their 10w HIDs, which serves them well for their purpose and I'm glad that people are not buyin products that's not suitable for them.

If you guys have any questions feel free to ask me, I'll do what I can to help

 

[hunter991]

There are some really rugged HID lights. The salvo line of lights comes with a full one year warranty. I treat my personal light pretty rough trying to break it and have never had it fail. They have some great new lights out that are pretty great.

If I can ever help anyone with any Salvo questions let me know.

Brent

 

[CompuDude]

Using it for wrecks and caves I would think the advantages of a good HID can will outweigh their few disadvantages. Especially if you get one with the more durable brightstar bulbs... the older ones that used to be more common were extremely fragile, but the new ones are quite robust. Yes, they're expensive, but so is gearing up for caves and wrecks. And with very basic care in handling (nothing remotely excessive) you should get a LONG service time out of the current batch.