Which light should I choose..?

[Diver0001]

<snip>
I like the SL-4 for general use

I have one of these that I use as a backup light. It throws a really narrow beam, which I don't find very useful for general use. One of my regular buddies calls my SL-4 "the burning nail" because of the beam it throws.

and at times I have had a 250 watt halogen bolted to my helmet.

I bet you like words like "bigger" "faster" "higher" "heavier" "more" ....

LOL. Doesn't it boil the water in front of the face plate?

If you dive regularly with the same people you will probably want a light that matches what they use.

This is a good point.

R..

 

[JPBECK]

What save up the money you would spend on that hand held HID light and get a canister HID light... Once you dive at night you will never want to dive during the day...

 

[ifukuda]

I like the SL-4 for general use and at times I have had a 250 watt halogen bolted to my helmet.

250 watts?! I'm getting mental images of sunburned fish.

 

[Scuba-Quebec]

I was thinking about the cannon HID light, but I don't know if its gonna be too bright...I have an UW digital camera wich I need a strobe so maybe I could fix the cannon on the arm of the camera, I know there's an adaptor to do it...

Is it worth it ?

 

[illumiGeek]

I have a UK LC100 Light Cannon and I like it a lot. It's not really all that bulky, and it puts out a very nice beam. There are some horror stories floating around about poor durability, but mine has been banged around quite a bit and has never given me any trouble. I usually run mine off of rechargeables, but the ability to run it from Alkalines can be a dive saver.

I like to take "non diving" friends night snorkeling from time to time, and I loan out my older incandescent (halogen/xenon) diving lights for them to use. But after a while they usually turn off their lights and hover around me because the light from 4 or 5 incandescent lights combined can't equal the LC output.

I actually modded mine to run with AA size NiMh batteries (made an internal adapter) and it works very well. UK's own rechargeable pack is NiCad instead of NiMh, and it only has 2200mA capacity, so I'm getting a bit more run time with the 2300mA batteries I already owned (and the lighter weight is nice).

I have a digital camera with housing, but haven't had much opportunity to try the LC as a photo light. Should work well. I just need to get off the 60 hour schedule at work so I can get back in the water.