i would like to buy 2 new diving lights for underwater video.
I found one light at ali express wich comes in different versions.
I know about the possible problems wich will occur with this kind of lights.
The most common failure is the use of poor quality o-rings and / or often the lights are not mounted in a proper way, some threads are just not
really tightened enough. So there is a bad quality check and you self have to do it before diving.
Sometimes electronics will fail or switch buttons will not work any longer.
I also saw pictures of a light (i think somewhere here) wich had problems with corrosion by electrical current.
But i and many others have lights wich work very well. This is why i would like to give them a go.
I found this light wich seems to be very often sold, but i can’t find any review about it.
There are just the ratings in AliExpress and they are quite good, especially regarding the newer version.
The first version seems to have 10 XM-L LEDs (or fake :-)):
This is the newer version, it is advertised with 6 XHP90-LEDs
Are there XHP90 on the market? So, does anybody know at least which kind of LEDs these are?
I would really like to know, if somebody has one of these or did some test with them already?
Which version is the better one ? Which has more lumens? Maybe the newest?
I would be interested about runtime and app. lumens. They are running on 4 x 18650.
Of course they are advertised with 1 Gigalumen and three hours of runtime…
Not familiar with the ones you link to. Sounds like you’ve done some homework. Not many divers in this group so finding someone with actual dive experience with that light here is not great. You might get better results on Scubaboard. Likely you will have to do your own experiment.
They are OK for a focus light, pretty much inadequate for a video light. I’d call them a good buy, for the price, but not that great in results. The light works OK, the red is useless. The switch uses low quality carbon springs and WILL totally rust out with saltwater use. Then the rusty junk start jamming the switch. You CAN take it apart, and you SHOULD before you ever use it and pack it with silicone grease, and lube the screw threads so they don’t corrode in. None ever flooded.
I bought a light from the same company with a similar looking build but designed for looking around (more focused beam). I thought it might be OK with a switch overhaul. Complete surprise, made of plastic (not metal), assembled poorly, with crappy electronics. It would be OK for a hand held surface light but never survive underwater. Waste of money and time working on it.
There is no XHP90. Even if there would - six of those would cost more than the complete light. One XHP70.2 is about $10.
So the main component is blatantly falsly advertised.
Maybe the rest, the body and the driver, is great. I would love to see that but I would not bet any money on that.
