Mark Vlahos
Contributor
Since you have admitted that you are willing to spend around $500, you are probably looking at a 10 watt HID. As others have mentioned, in a cave where the only light is what you bring with you a 10 watt is fine as your eyes will adjust. I would reccommend that it is worth spending some extra for an adjustable light for general use, but in a cave the light will usually stay on "spot". If your diving is general recreational diving in moderate vis waters, like Southern California with 25 foot vis being about normal then the 10 watt in the daytime will come up short. The problem is that even with the moderate visibility you are still competing with the sun and the only lights that can really cut through in the day time are the 21 watt units. Warning, these are almost certainly out of your price range, but I have noticed that prices on HID lights in general have been dropping, if you wait perhaps they will be "affordable" enough to get one.
On a night dive the key is to get all of the divers who will be together to dive with comperable lights. I was on a dive last Monday night and there were 4 of us in the water, three of us had 10 watt lights and Mo2vation had his 21 watt light sabre, he completely blew us away. In my opinion his light was too bright for a night dive, it tends to be too much light for the creatures that come out at night. There are things that a diver can do to mitigate this problem such as setting your light to a "flood" beam spread and taking care not to shine it directly at the creatures. Ken is pretty good with his light, but there is still the relative brightness issue. When his light was in my field of vision it did make the others difficult to keep track of.
One of the uses of these high intensity lights is for signaling, and one of the things divers do is to simply see their buddys light to check on him / her. If I see the light I know they are fine.
I have a 10 watt Sartek adjustable beam light, and I am quite happy with it. The beam of light is of adequate quality, although the relatively small reflector makes for a lesser quality beam than some of the others I tested. The quality of the light head and battery cannister however was the highest of those I considered. The light is extremely rugged, and well thought out. I figured that a light with slightly better optics would not do me any good if it was broken in my bag on the way to the dive. I have not had any issues with my charger, it just works.
There are several good lights for you to consider, so take it slow and consider all of the options. Small overall size of the battery cannister is worth considering. Pick a light with a good reputation for after sale service, in this area Sartek, Salvo, and DiveRite are all highly regarded, as well as others.
Have fun,
Mark Vlahos
On a night dive the key is to get all of the divers who will be together to dive with comperable lights. I was on a dive last Monday night and there were 4 of us in the water, three of us had 10 watt lights and Mo2vation had his 21 watt light sabre, he completely blew us away. In my opinion his light was too bright for a night dive, it tends to be too much light for the creatures that come out at night. There are things that a diver can do to mitigate this problem such as setting your light to a "flood" beam spread and taking care not to shine it directly at the creatures. Ken is pretty good with his light, but there is still the relative brightness issue. When his light was in my field of vision it did make the others difficult to keep track of.
One of the uses of these high intensity lights is for signaling, and one of the things divers do is to simply see their buddys light to check on him / her. If I see the light I know they are fine.
I have a 10 watt Sartek adjustable beam light, and I am quite happy with it. The beam of light is of adequate quality, although the relatively small reflector makes for a lesser quality beam than some of the others I tested. The quality of the light head and battery cannister however was the highest of those I considered. The light is extremely rugged, and well thought out. I figured that a light with slightly better optics would not do me any good if it was broken in my bag on the way to the dive. I have not had any issues with my charger, it just works.
There are several good lights for you to consider, so take it slow and consider all of the options. Small overall size of the battery cannister is worth considering. Pick a light with a good reputation for after sale service, in this area Sartek, Salvo, and DiveRite are all highly regarded, as well as others.
Have fun,
Mark Vlahos
