What qualifies as a primary light?
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He prolly is referring to this model..
new Brinyte DIV10 Magnetic Switch LED Diving 150m Flashlight 3000LM N8YL | eBay
And we have a thread here on our very own board about them..
Brinyte DIV10 "3000 Lumen" Canister light Review
I have seriously contemplated getting one to get me through Intro.
Lights are life support, and I'd try to avoid buying junk.
On the canister vs handheld, there are some decent handhelds out there these days so it'll really come down to personal preference. One advantage of a canister is that the battery weight is on your hip rather than your hand, but one advantage of the handheld is that it's a smaller more compact package without the cord (a potential failure point).
Watch out for advertising that talks about Lux and advertising that talks about Lumens. They're different beasts with wildly different numbers (700 lumens, 10,000 lux). Making sense of those things and the various manufacturer numbers would require a PhD in optical physics, or at least it feels that way sometimes, but the simple answer is "lumens" is the total amount of light output, and "lux" is a number that gives the light output at a fixed location a set distance away. So make sure when you're comparing "lux" numbers you also are comparing the distance from the head.
More information on Lumens vs Lux can be found at this link:
Evaluating LED Technology - Halcyon Dive Systems
The things I find more meaningful and useful once you get beyond ~700 lumens are the kelvin ("temperature") of the light and the beam angle. Note, a tighter beam will increase the lux numbers at greater distances.
Kelvin wise, the higher the number, the whiter the light. Once you start going above 6000 kelvin you'll see the deep blues in the water and the colors of the formations will really "pop".
Beam wise, look for something with a tight focus for signaling. A "bright light" that does not have a decent spot, while pretty, is also pretty useless when trying to signal someone. 5-6° with spill is a good starting point, less spill is better.
Primary lights should be rechargeable. You're going to use them every time you go cave diving, there's no need to fill up the landfills or recycling centers with disposable batteries.
The competing battery technologies have pro's and cons. While most Lithium Ion and NiMH batteries are OK, you'll want to avoid LiPO. If you find a used light using Lead Acid (yes, they're still out there) be aware that they're going to be heavy as hell, but it's cheap to replace those batteries.
Burn-time wise, 3 hours is a minimum. While you may not be doing dives of that duration anytime in the immediate future, you will likely be doing multiple dives a day and the total time may add up to ~2 hours. An extra 50% burn time is never a bad thing.
If you're buying used, there's a wide selection of really good lights that as AJ said, could be found on ebay or forums.
I personally prefer lights made by Light Monkey, Dive Rite, and Halcyon. My bias is because they're all within a 30 minute drive from my house and have great customer service; if I have a problem I can drop the light off at the company, go grab lunch, and pick it up after lunch.
My current go to is a 21W HID, which is old technology but packs a decent punch. I think the 12w-5.2amp LED lights are pretty decent starting points and will serve someone just getting into this well. I'd love it if someone were to give me a Halcyon Focus, that's a pretty light and in clear water is excellent.
Bobby's lights (uwlight dude) seem OK, but I've only used one once and he's in another state so I don't have the quick lunch turnaround with him and that's the only reason he's not on my list.
As I said in the first sentence, in cave diving lights are life support. Avoid the cheap crap.
On the canister vs handheld, there are some decent handhelds out there these days so it'll really come down to personal preference. One advantage of a canister is that the battery weight is on your hip rather than your hand, but one advantage of the handheld is that it's a smaller more compact package without the cord (a potential failure point).
Watch out for advertising that talks about Lux and advertising that talks about Lumens. They're different beasts with wildly different numbers (700 lumens, 10,000 lux). Making sense of those things and the various manufacturer numbers would require a PhD in optical physics, or at least it feels that way sometimes, but the simple answer is "lumens" is the total amount of light output, and "lux" is a number that gives the light output at a fixed location a set distance away. So make sure when you're comparing "lux" numbers you also are comparing the distance from the head.
More information on Lumens vs Lux can be found at this link:
Evaluating LED Technology - Halcyon Dive Systems
The things I find more meaningful and useful once you get beyond ~700 lumens are the kelvin ("temperature") of the light and the beam angle. Note, a tighter beam will increase the lux numbers at greater distances.
Kelvin wise, the higher the number, the whiter the light. Once you start going above 6000 kelvin you'll see the deep blues in the water and the colors of the formations will really "pop".
Beam wise, look for something with a tight focus for signaling. A "bright light" that does not have a decent spot, while pretty, is also pretty useless when trying to signal someone. 5-6° with spill is a good starting point, less spill is better.
Primary lights should be rechargeable. You're going to use them every time you go cave diving, there's no need to fill up the landfills or recycling centers with disposable batteries.
The competing battery technologies have pro's and cons. While most Lithium Ion and NiMH batteries are OK, you'll want to avoid LiPO. If you find a used light using Lead Acid (yes, they're still out there) be aware that they're going to be heavy as hell, but it's cheap to replace those batteries.
Burn-time wise, 3 hours is a minimum. While you may not be doing dives of that duration anytime in the immediate future, you will likely be doing multiple dives a day and the total time may add up to ~2 hours. An extra 50% burn time is never a bad thing.
If you're buying used, there's a wide selection of really good lights that as AJ said, could be found on ebay or forums.
I personally prefer lights made by Light Monkey, Dive Rite, and Halcyon. My bias is because they're all within a 30 minute drive from my house and have great customer service; if I have a problem I can drop the light off at the company, go grab lunch, and pick it up after lunch.
My current go to is a 21W HID, which is old technology but packs a decent punch. I think the 12w-5.2amp LED lights are pretty decent starting points and will serve someone just getting into this well. I'd love it if someone were to give me a Halcyon Focus, that's a pretty light and in clear water is excellent.
Bobby's lights (uwlight dude) seem OK, but I've only used one once and he's in another state so I don't have the quick lunch turnaround with him and that's the only reason he's not on my list.
As I said in the first sentence, in cave diving lights are life support. Avoid the cheap crap.
I dislike lipo's because of the risk of fire. Lipos are essentially the battery electrolyte inside of a bag, and there have been enough incidents of fire that I would rather just avoid them. Think about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones.
I've had a number of discussions with a light manufacturer regarding various battery technologies, at one point he used to use lipo's now he's at the point that if any lipo light comes in for repair he disposes of the battery and replaces it with a lion.
victorzamora
Contributor
I don't think so. There's plenty of good handhelds out, and even cheap "backup" lights put out as much light as the relatively standard 10W HIDs of the not-too-distant past. There's nothing magical about canisters, they work the same as handhelds but put the light head and battery in different spots. If you want a long burn with a lot of light, you need a big battery pack. To get that big battery pack, you either go clunky on your hand or deal with the potentially clunky cord. How much light for how long do you need? That's up to your diving. I like canisters better than handhelds, but that's me. I like having my 3500 lumens with more burn time than any dive I'm currently doing.
So, a few answers:
"1000LM" lights are common because the Cree XML emitters claim approximately 1000lm. That's before losses of the glass and whatnot, so it's pretty common to consider XMLs ~750lm out the front of the light. One XML can put out ~750lm, and that's what a lot of these "1000lm" (and 1600lm and 1800lm) lights are using.
As for light quantity vs battery life, lumens describes the amount of light and wattage describes the draw on the battery pack. The relationship of lumens to wattage isn't linear. At very low (below intended ranges) wattages, the efficiency is bad. At very high (above intended ranges) wattages, efficiency gets worse. There's a sweet spot in the middle where it's slightly better. However, for simplicity, it's pretty safe to assume that most lights out there produce ~100lm/W. The cheaper chinese stuff usually produces slightly less and the better brands produce slightly more, depending on the driver quality and emitter binning. 1000lm lights are common because that's a very common emitters size, but they don't usually get much bigger than that because multiple emitters can pose a problem regarding both optics and circuitry (properly driving a bunch of emitters can be messy), plus the power requirements. A 20,000lm light will kill a battery more than 20x faster than a 1000lm light (batteries get less efficient as you draw them harder)....so that's certainly another reason.
Then, of course, there's cost. Mfgs are going to charge more for their brighter lights, so buying a 20,000lm light may not be worth the increase in price if you're never using more than 1000lm.
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