UK Light Canon Vs. C8 LED

[scubatoys]

Hey ShakaZulu, did you look at them UW or just in a shop?... Underwater it appears to me they get closer - and the white brilliance of the eLed makes it seem better to me... but might just be my eyes. I don't have any fancy test equipment for light brightness - just trying them side by side and seeing what I like best... In order... Light Cannon HID, eLed, then standard C8... but that's me.

 

[ShakaZulu]

Hey ShakaZulu, did you look at them UW or just in a shop?... Underwater it appears to me they get closer - and the white brilliance of the eLed makes it seem better to me... but might just be my eyes. I don't have any fancy test equipment for light brightness - just trying them side by side and seeing what I like best... In order... Light Cannon HID, eLed, then standard C8... but that's me.

Just in the shop........thanks for the feedback, E8 it will be then.

 

[ChrisA]

Am thinking about getting my first dive torch, and was thinking about buying a uk C4 led torch, but after all of this thread is the C8 alot better value for money wise. Need it for UK diving.

Yes. Both lightsd are wired in series. The the C4 has 6 volts
the C8 has 12 volts. and with lamps, volts matter. The C8 has
twice the power.

But... your eyes work on a logarithic scale. You have to almost double
the brightness to make a noticable diffrence. So "twice as bright
sounds like more than it is. The eye percives it as being just a bit
brighter.

It kind of like if you have to lamps in you living room. It's dark
you you turn on one lamp. It's bright. Much, much brigher than the dark room has a second ago. Now you turn on the second lamp and
technically the room is now twice as bright, but you notice the first lamp more.

 

[ChrisA]

Hey ShakaZulu, did you look at them UW or just in a shop?... Underwater it appears to me they get closer - and the white brilliance of the eLed makes it seem better to me... but might just be my eyes. I don't have any fancy test equipment for light brightness - just trying them side by side and seeing what I like best... In order... Light Cannon HID, eLed, then standard C8... but that's me.

I own both lights. Lary's right. the LED appears whiter and iif the vis. is decent apears to project farther. Part of this is the color I'm sure but some could be because the LED has a sharper foced beam

But the reason I bought the eLed is because of battery usage. The C8 will dimm as the batterys are used but the eLed is voltage regulated. So after a few dives the eLed realy is brighter. The C8 dims a lot after only 6 dives whiile the eLed just keeps going

So on an averge dive where each light is filled with half used batteries the eLed would be brighter.

 

[tangfish]

I just fried my module and its a whopping 80 bucks to replace, I can buy an eLED for that much (almost).

to their credit, UK just sent back the module fixed for only the shipping charges (13 bucks), so I guess they're pretty good on warranty. I still might go and get an eLed though for the battery factor while traveling. Does anyone have the c4 eLed? how does it compare to the 8 cell version?

 

[scubatoys]

to their credit, UK just sent back the module fixed for only the shipping charges (13 bucks), so I guess they're pretty good on warranty. I still might go and get an eLed though for the battery factor while traveling. Does anyone have the c4 eLed? how does it compare to the 8 cell version?

Funny thing... unlike the standard lights in C8 and C4, the eLed C8 and C4 are just as bright as each other. It's just a cut in burn time. down to about 3-4 hours instead of 7-8.

 

[Daryl Morse]

Funny thing... unlike the standard lights in C8 and C4, the eLed C8 and C4 are just as bright as each other. It's just a cut in burn time. down to about 3-4 hours instead of 7-8.

That's because of the way the batteries are organized. In the C8, the voltage is double what it is in the C4, so the bulbs are different. In the eLED lights, the batteries are the same, but they use the same LED, which has to regulate the voltage downward as was pointed out previously.

I just bought a D4, which comes with two 5.8 watt bulbs. The D4R comes with one 5.8 and one 18 watt bulb. The bulbs in the D8 are both different due to the double voltage.

Comparing the D4 light to a C8 eLED, the D4 is more wide-beam and "warmer". The C8 eLED has a very narrow light beam and the light is more blue "cold". The C8 eLED is perhaps a bit brighter, but it's that's subjective.

When I get around to ordering NiMH batteries, I'll plug in the 18 watt bulb and it will be much brighter.

 

[underwater daphne]

the poor fish, try not to blind them or wake them with your light. they'll probably get confused, leave their sleeping/hiding place for the night and get eaten, coz they won't be able to find a new hiding until morning.

 

[FIXXERVI6]

I dive a light cannon and one of my buddies bought a C4 LED, I made fun of it and above water it was very wimpy, the watt raiting was not impressive, I thought he was going to be diving blind.

Once under the water it was a different story, his LED was right up there with my light cannon, not as bright, but for the difference in price I was VERY impressed, LED over standard C8 light ANY DAY, as far as bang for your buck, I can't see anything out there being better then the C4 LED.

 

[slingshot]

Since I'm a bit late to this discussion, I'll try to be brief.
There's a downloadable pdf from UK (I have no affiliation with them) at http://www.uwkinetics.com/D_C8eLED.htm with a graph of the difference in relative power and longevity of the eC4 and eC8 that helped me to clarify some of the previous comments. Yes, both use a 6watt LED. But, the 8 cell light does have higher light output, though perhaps this isn't that perceptable in the water.