Wife is taking advanced class...what is the go to primary dive light?

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gqllc007

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Location
Albany NY
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Wondering what everyone recommends for a primary dive light for night diving. It will be fresh water.
 
If the purpose of the light is for night diving, it does not have to be all that great. In fact, flooding the night environment with dazzling light is not a good idea. When doing night dives, in fact, I prefer to go without a light for at least some of the time.
 
Wondering what everyone recommends for a primary dive light for night diving. It will be fresh water.
A small night-diving light is also nice to carry in the daytime, for looking in holes and under ledges.
Something in the range of a few hundred lumen to not more than a thousand, perhaps an 18650 battery.
Biggest decisions are (1) the switch (button or side or end-cap, or twist on-off), and (2) narrow-beam or wide-angle. Lots of personal choice there, and it depends in part or the kind of diving you do, for example is the water murky or clear, are you looking at a reef or a wreck, are you close or far, are you carrying a camera or not.
 
You want reliability more so than power. As a few have said, too strong of a light will blow out the environment. I prefer the reliability of the Big Blue narrow beam lights with rechargeable 18650 Li-Ion batteries. I have two, one that is 1000 lumen and one that is 1200. I use them for daytime dives as well to look under ledges, inside wrecks, etc. On night dives I carry them both. You want a primary and a backup.

This is the latest version of the light. It is now 1300 lumens. My two are just older versions of this same light. These are fantastic lights. Very reliable and I love the side push button switch. These are crazy durable. I beat the crap out of them and have never broken either one. These aren't the cheapest around but they just work and keep working. That is important to me.

1300-Lumen Narrow Beam | Best Seller | Bigblue Dive Lights
 
It is my understanding that you will want at least 2 lights for night diving. One should be a back up.

This light makes an excellent primary light. Very reliable and rechargeable and 1000 lumens.

1000 Lumen Dive Light

We offer an inexpensive hand mount for this light as well.

This light is very small and is incredibly powerful if you select the rechargeable battery option.

Mini 630 Lumen Dive Light

Thanks
Dano
 
If your (or your wife's) fresh water diving is mostly wrecks, there really isn't such a thing as "too bright." (If the water is turbid, though, consider a bright light with a narrower beam spread.) However, if you are mostly interested in fish and such, then as others have said, even inexpensive ($50-70) lights can be too bright--the critters don't like it. The DGX 600, a house-branded light from Dive Gear Express, is already slightly brighter (rated at 600 lumens) than I'd like when doing a coral reef night dive. My wife and I each have two DGX 600s. There is also a brighter (rated at 800 lumens) DGX 800, as someone mentioned above. The same lights are sold under other brand names, by the way--they all come from the same factory in China. That's also true of other dive lights in this price range.

Consider getting two identical lights, which is quite practical in the price range I mentioned. The one is in the diver's hand is the "primary," and the one in the diver's pocket (or otherwise stowed away) is the "backup." Even the inexpensive lights are pretty reliable, but if one happens to fail on a dive, switching to the identical backup will feel seamless. Another advantage of the inexpensive lights is that if you lose or break it, you can just replace it without breaking the bank, too.
 
On night dives I bring my camera and video lights but turn the lights power to lowest level as it is enough for night dives.
My dive torch is very powerful and good for distance searches and signaling but I need to make sure I do not point it at any critters. Especially other divers ...

TG6 HERO4 SETUP.jpg
 
(less than great advice given here from the saltwater divers... freshwater/green water is a different beast)

For Northeast fresh water (Lake George, Lake Champlain, etc.) a bright pinpoint 1,000 lumen is the basic go to light.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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