Hello friends at BLF!
Im looking for a budget diving flashlight. What would you recommend?
My budget is $20.00, more or less. I wont be diving into deep waters, 5 meters is the maximum.
Thanks!!
Most decent quality twisties should be OK at that depth - clickies quite quickly get depressed by water pressure and either can't be turned on or off.
Since heat won't be much of an issue you can go wild as regards output.
You may try a solarforce P60 L2 body and dropin of choice. Someone did try recently a dive test and was actually good for up to 10m if i recall correctly. Afterwards the tail switch became stuck by the pressure.
Anyway, you did not tell what battery type, runtime and luminosity you need?
Thanks for the tips Don!
Budgeteer, i have a p60 L2 body here, i didnt know it resist to dives. Battery type can be 14500, 18650, AA or AAA, no problem. Runtime of 30 minutes would be nice. Luminosity of 100 lumen or a bit less is okay for me.
I'd stick with an 18650.
Water tends to eat light so the more the merrier. I'd use the brightest possible dropin - making sure that it is wrapped with foil so that the dropin is a tight fit in the throat of the light - that way the heat gets from the LED and driver to the body faster.
Check that the O rings are in position and not chewed. I'd test the light in a sink or a bath first to make sure there are no leaks anywhere.
Better to find out in the sink than 5 metres under water.
DX will sell you just about any size of O ring. You can probably buy them somewhere near you in any imaginable size or shape.
Thanks for the tips, i guess i will spend only a few dollars with orings. Thats the budget idea!!
I'll try a MCE dropin wrapped as you said, and try it into a sink first.