Dive Lights - Choices & Suggestions

OK, so never buy cheap lights for cave diving, yes “dumb beyond words”, no? I was fishing for info, trolling to speak 0:)

I was a habitat ET for Taylor Diving based in New Orleans during the 80’s. So, the lights used during that time frame, were all primary based with both plastic and metal housing. In the commercial environment, they all flooded. Today, in a commercial environment, I dive ROV’s to 3k meters. We use 40 led 110vac modular lights. These and just about every 1 atmosphere and oil filled can or cable has flooded on these subs. Point fingers and critique all you want but any equipment in rough daily year round use floods by human error or act of the gods.

By the tone of the posts, most of you would not leave the boat without LiIo lights and that all can still type is a very good sign and a vote of confidence. I would think that, advertising dollars aside, the dive magazines would publish warnings if people were regularly injured with these lights.

Looking at the lights I would feel better if the lights had end caps, secure by 0-ring grooves, that would allow end cap to vent if flooding and gassing were to occur. I have had issues with cans that flood at depth and are under great pressure on the deck. Our halogen lights have glass globes that allow pressure to vent from their sealing O-rings when coming to surface.

cheers

yeah Illuminaria, I knew from your first post when you mentioned "commercial" that I couldn't recommend or give advise for that application, that is just wayyy too deep.

Hopefully if I helped in any way I want recreational and technical divers to see that there are some inexpensive alternatives. Because many, especially tech. divers think that they need to spend $75-$300 for a good backup dive light. And $400-$2,000 for a quality canister light.

I'm just trying to find an alternative, even if means modding a light. Like for example the Ultrafire W200, which I have a simple & inexpensive way to mod that light making it more dependable, plus a little GITD.

stock the W200 is crap - many reports of flickering. So this is only a light to buy if you intend to mod it.

Are there guys out there that currently own this light and it flickers? See my mod here.

with GITD (glow-in-the-dark) o-rings added. Glow lasts about 7 mins. Whenever the light is turned on the o-rings are re-charged

Those are large O-rings. What’s your source? I’ve been looking for some replacements for some of the standard lights. Some of them aren’t made very well with seams and bits hanging off. I even went to an O-ring local store and they had little that would fit properly.

Link to GITD Orings

Hi,

im looking for a good diving light(under 40:money_mouth_face: with magnetic switch without parasitic drain. Does it exist ? ( except those yellow cheap flashlights )

There's a couple lights with magnetic switches here (see bottom two), but the DIV04 is a little over budget.

Why don’t more multi emitter dive lights exist? Like a TK75 for diving would be a good example.

Xtar D35 exists but wow is it expensive.

They can easily be overdriven too if they are used primarily as dive lights too because thermal lag isn’t as much of an issue underwater.

At about 3A per emitter, the D35 doesnt need to be over driven. The only problem (and a potentially huge one) is that the bezel seals are roughly 1.5mm clear flimsy twin silicon orings. Of the two D35’s I own, both lights had damaged bezel orings that were botched at the factory and had to be replaced with better orings that I painstakingly had to special ordered through a local camera shop. Because of the tight tolerances, its a serious challenge to unscrew/screw the bezel back together without pinching, nicking or rolling an oring. Thin viscosity high quality silicon lube (not the shit xtar used), a massive 6 foot home-made strap wrench for leverage, a special cut holding jig for the vice and the several hands of friends (with a lot of patients) were required for a proper reassembly. I also upgraded the emitters to XM-L2 2B tint while they were apart for more output and far better color rendition. The stock 1A’s are crap for underwater viewing and bleach out the fishies. :Sp

Its amazing that so much time, effort and expense went into producing a nearly perfect light (which is likely the very best engineered and executed LED dive light available today) yet they completely screwed up with the ridiculously thin cheap bezel o-rings and improper selection of oring materials & lube. Other than that, they are amazing fantastic lights, both in the water and out. If you get one, rip it apart (if you’re able) and replace the orings before you submerge it or you’ll risk a flood. After that, you will be rewarded with something you’ll always be proud to own.

While I appreciate that the D35 would be a good dive light, I’m not spending close to $400 on one!! And I know you get what you pay for, but why doesn’t a double O-ring’d SRK or TK75 or something like that exist?!?

Double Orings arent always necessary and many things get by underwater without them. Maintenance, cleaning, re-lubing and inspection are key to a good oring seal. A converted Supfire m6 with a water proof momentary switch sealed with JB Weld or aquaseal from the inside of the head and aftermarket properly lubed oring at the lens and battery tube might actually work quite well, but I wouldnt count on it as a primary. But then, we all carry backups… dont we? :wink: IMO, the SRK threads are pretty weak when it comes to exerting clamping forces. Ive worn out the threads on my SRK bike light from opening and closing it. But then its a cheap light and I got my moneys worth out of it. The M6 blows away an SRK in every single aspect and its still mega cheap considering what you get for the price.

Check this thread for a simple mag switch solution. Pop out the stock M6 switch, pop in a mag switch and fill the hole with JB Weld. Im sure there are probably other solutions if you go digging. I was taught that SCUBA equipment is life support equipment, so I try to save up for things that have proven reliable in the dive community.

Unless you are a cave diver or regular night diver, most divers wouldn’t need a dive torch, more of a luxury than a piece of life supporting equipment.

SRK is more of a base of what I’d imagine a good dive light should be ie: bright, small, overdriven, with long run times. A few small changes would make the SRK a decent dive light.

I am looking at what to get as my primary dive light. I prefer it to be powered by 2*26650 and so far, the following have made my short list (in order):

- Supbeam D06V

- Supbeam D10V

- Archon DH26

Any thoughts/experiences on the above?

The D06V gets preferential treatment as you can use your own 26650s, whereas the D10V uses its proprietary, non-removable battery pack. Yes, the former only does 60 meters in depth compared to the latter’s 100 meters, but I don’t think I will be diving in greater than 60m depths any time soon. The issue for me though, is availability, and it is very difficult to find a D06V.

edit: Spoke to Supbeam. I can buy the light directly from them. Question is though, how much will shipping be? Also, their website says “Different Color Temperature of LED can be choosen”. I am hoping I can specifically ask them to get me one that is 5000-5500K range or simply neutral.

For the emergency/back-up light, I intend to get the DIV05.

I don't think Supbeam is keen on what a dive light should be. They have crenelated bezels and sharp points which I despise on a dive light.

Why? because I've cut my drysuit wrist seal with a light like that before.

A good two 26650 dive light is hard to find. one HERE - turns on by twisting tailcap - I don't like. Or the triple XM-L HERE.

I think the best would be the OrcaTorch D510 I don't know where to buy one though.

(some literature says it runs on 1 x 26650 (cf. PDF), but I think it may mean 2 x 26650s. I could be wrong.

Consider also 2 x 18650 lights. The batteries are more popular and the same length as 26650s (~65mm long).

There are Brinyte DIV01 lights which run on 2 x 18650s. you'll have to search for them (try This) And the Brinyte DIV04 (see HERE)

The DIV09 is a primary canister light. Though it runs on 3 x 26650s - but that would likely be mounted on your side (out of the way). Brinyte site

see they make a Goodman glove for the DIV05 (DGE).

Have you ever dealt with Brinyte direct on the website? PayPal is a hotmail address, depsite the other emails all having addresses using @brinyte.

I contacted them direct and had email correspondence with a lady and decided on some items and when they invoiced me it got a tad dodgey. The paypal address is @hotmail. I contacted them via Alibaba as all original correspondence went via the Brinyte site and I was assured the hotmail address is legit and the wife of the person I was dealing with on Alibaba. Like I said though, I got the PayPal by contacting them directly via their official site so it should be legit?!?…

I've dealt with Brinyte via Alibaba (for example) and Aliexpress. My first experience was with Mary and she was very nice. It seemed sketchy the way I dealt with them via Alibaba and sending money - but it worked out. I mention the experience at the end of the DIV05 review.

Now I know a little of the management personnel. Recently they've ask me to review a dive light for them. But so far I've declined. In a way that's good because I don't have to feel inclined to give a positive review.

I thought you liked their dive lights. Im not looking at dive lights, but as youre the only one that seems to use this brand at all, I was kind of basing my decisions on your review of the Div01 or 5 I cant recall which? (for given price point)

Well there was alsoa review of the ED30, but I couldnt find much on the brand… so far the few I have seem to like it.

And cheers for the reassurance, Ill take the punt on it, its only $60.

The D510 does state its operating voltage is 3-4.5V. This would suggest that it does use 3 “C” sized cells at 1.5V each. Also, this means that it can use only 1*26650. That is a bit odd though as it suggests that, if you were to use a 26650, you would need some kind of spacer, unless you are keen to fry the driver by using two of them.

The reason I went with the 26650 form factor is it feels a bit more “right” in the hand compared to a 18650, especially when there is two of them. Not to mention, a 26650 does offer higher capacity compared to its 18650 brethren.

The SupBeam appealed to me because you can increase burn time by using a different mode. Most other dive lights I have seen are either single mode only or, if they have multiple modes, a disco mode is included as well - a mode that I don’t feel necessary for a dive light.

I did forget about the DIV01 and DIV04. Looking through their alibaba store piqued my interest on some of their other lights. I’ll email them about pricing and we’ll go on from there. More than likely, I’ll take up your advice and get a light without a crenelated bezel.

is there any guys have good video light recommendation? i know some brands like TDL,Dive Supply,INTOVA,Wolfbeam have video light,i think i need test all of them if nobody give me good suggestion.

Hey Rod,

Yeah I guess your probably right about the D510. a max 4.5V would mean only a single Li-ion cell. This site only says it runs on (3) C batteries. (OrcaTorch D510).

Possibility (1): Maybe there's also a shorter version of the D510. The product catalog (PDF) mentioned (1) 26650.

Possibility (2): IIRC (2) 26650s is close in length to (3) C cells in series. Maybe they use one 26650 and a dummy 26650 cell to run it. (1) real 26650 + (1) dummy cell.

So I came across another interesting diving light while surfing on the net . This one may meet your requirements. Of course I have no experience with this light though.

It's 2 x 26650 and has Hi/Low for modes.

ePathChina, Aliexpress, eBay - from Ali I seen that it says (2) modes. But ePathChina doesn't mention how many modes.

I really don't know video lights. Sorry. But you might consider the Impact Stubby or Impact Stretch with the VIDEO head.

DRIS (dive right in scuba) has excellent customer service record. I've never heard anything negative about them. Just people praising them.

BTW the Impact dive light is made by OrcaTorch (sister company of Brinyte).

Ugh all the edit’s with “new” comments are doing my head in…