Northwest Dive Club

I'm looking at handheld a light for searching some tight spots for octopus and other entertaining life in the sound. What lights are you using and opinions on power?

I currently own three handhelds which I use for backup lights, but that are plenty bright for overall general use ...

https://www.diverightinscuba.com/1000-l ... 18965.html - uses three C-cell batteries. Benefit is that on typical rechargeables you've got plenty of power for two or even three dives (depending on battery choice). Drawback is that it's reasonably large compared to the other two. On the other hand, that makes it easier to manage with heavy gloves on.

https://www.diverightinscuba.com/1k-sho ... 17054.html - smaller, lighterweight, uses three AA batteries. Drawback is it only gets about 60-80 minutes of burn time on a set of batteries. Also, it's $20 more than the larger light shown above.

https://www.divegearexpress.com/catalog ... tegory/66/ - smallest and least expensive of the three. Uses a single 18650 rechargeable battery (included, with charger). Only gets about an hour of burn time. Somewhat less bright than the other two, but a better focused beam and still plenty bright for use in PNW waters.

Any of these lights are brighter and overall better than the larger, pistol-grip lights commonly sold at local area dive shops for far more money. Their biggest drawback is, generally, lack of burn time. You can solve that problem by using rechargeable batteries and changing them out between dives.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I have two of the DGX 600 handheld lights that Bob mentioned. (https://www.divegearexpress.com/catalog ... tegory/66/)

They're great for your typical daytime leisure dive in the PNW. Solid, bright, and cheap.

Maybe I should get another and strap them all together for a super light!

Like most of us, I use a can light as primary, and recommend that to you as well. However, I have the DGX 600 light as well for my backup. It works well, bright enough, good hour burn time, nice beam.

dusty's lights is great for the pnw waters!

I'll second that on Dusty lights.

Dusty light for the price is tough to beat, but not nearly as good as my Light Monkey 35w HID.

Jeff Pack wrote:Dusty light for the price is tough to beat, but not nearly as good as my Light Monkey 35w HID.

... but if all you want to do is look at stuff you don't need a light powerful enough to boil water. I once had a DM with one of those ... I wouldn't let him use it during class dives, because it was too bright.

Something to consider if you're diving with people who are used to using their lights for signaling ... there's such a thing as "too bright". Ultra powerful lights are great, as long as everyone in the team has one ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Great point Bob

And when you get in crappy vis, like we so often have here, that fish broiler is well worth it. That pen light wont even signal anyone 10ft away.

Light management is an entirely different issue. An idiot with any light is bad.

Light management has nothing to do with the brightness of the light ... it has everything to do with discipline, and with considering the resources of the team ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Thanks for the feedback guys, great points on the blinding nature of a light. We have all seen the poor use of bright lights on the highway while driving. No different under water.

I had a light years ago that was two power levels. One mild and easy on the eyes with great battery life. The other power level was searing and brutal if flashed into your eyes. However was great for it's specific use when needed.

I still like the idea of a dual power selection, especially with the new LED lights that last 4-5 times as long on a set of batteries!

Grateful Diver wrote:Light management has nothing to do with the brightness of the light ... it has everything to do with discipline, and with considering the resources of the team ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

light management absolutely is a factor. You shine any light in someones face, they arent happy. Fish broiler or not.

People that dive and drop those pistol lights, that dangle underneath them like a disco ball drive me crazy

... and the point I'm making is that when one diver has a much brighter light than his dive buddy, the buddy's light is useless for signaling ... you won't even be able to see it over the cone of your much brighter beam.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with shining in your eyes ... even if used properly, you won't see it.

Agree about the pistol grip lights ... but all of the handhelds I recommended above will shine downward if dropped while on a wrist lanyard. That's one reason why I recommended them ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

To make the point succinctly ... fish broilers are fine as long as everyone on the team has one. Mismatching lights ... with one buddy's light being much brighter than the other's ... isn't a good idea if you are interested in using lights for signaling and for passively keeping track of your dive buddy ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I just cant agree with that logic, unless both beams are crossing, in which case i still argue light management as they shouldnt be if you are maintaining proper buddy position and proximity. The cone of my light is at least 1.5ft past my head. Light doesnt go backwards unless reflected. Now I might agree, if the argument was my eyes adjust for the higher wattage beam, and a lower one may not register. That I could theoretically agree to. Or in the case where I'm lighting a specific area, in which case then the whole area is greatly illuminated (and probably reflected), perhaps more than a weak light attempting to signal can overcome.

a div team with weak lights, unless they maintain very religious buddy principles and proximity, is gonna be in the situation of not being able to signal each other.

I still believe that in our crappy vis toilet bowl of puget sound, a weak light is not only a poor investment, but a safety issue unless you maintain very strict buddy principles and proximity. A higher wattage light gives you a wider signaling distance margin if there is diver separation.

In addition, if you have aspirations to technical diving someday, a weak light is about useless, especially when you get into that Stygian darkness of Lake washington at several hundred feet.

So with all that said, a Dusty light is damned hard to beat. Its not a fish broiler, but is "useable" for tech diving. And because its not a fish broiler, its not bad for recreational users with perhaps less light management skills. I think its around 1500 lumens(but a larger spill), which while is greater than a DRIS 1k light, it'll give you hours of runtime, good signalling and light in more conditions.

So with that said, peace out, and we'll just have to agree to disagree

I think the OP should be able to gather the info he was looking for from the above posts, especially the ones before the topic rabbit trailed off. Enuff said here.

Dusty lights are a great investment for the recreational diver ... but they're really not designed for tech diving. Nor has Dusty ever suggested that they are. They're less expensive than tech diving can lights for a reason.

Right tool for the right job ... there's more to consider than just brightness. And brighter isn't always necessarily better. As with all equipment purchases, consider what you plan to use it for, and generally how you plan to use it. All gear comes with benefits and drawbacks that should be weighed against that criteria to reduce the likelihood that you'll end up wishing you'd gotten something else, or repurchasing a different product once you discover that the gear you bought doesn't fit your needs as well as you thought it would.

It's OK to disagree with me ... we all base our decisions on what's most important to us ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Well I have had Dustys light to 220 and it did fabulous, so ymmv.

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Norris wrote:Well I have had Dustys light to 220 and it did fabulous, so ymmv.

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Dusty's light also works fabulous at 1 ATM in the back yard spotting raccoons.

curious, besides several hundreds of dollars, how is a "tech" light diff from dusty's?
besides luminosity/focus..

mpspringer wrote:curious, besides several hundreds of dollars, how is a "tech" light diff from dusty's?
besides luminosity/focus..

My Dusty light went into "SOS" mode towards the end of a long cave dive...battery got low.

Nothing like cave diving with your light spazzing out for everyone's enjoyment! So I bought a Focus. My Dusty light got destroyed in some blind exit drills in cave class...though he was able to get it all fixed up good as new when I got back. Put it up for sale for something like $250 and it sold in one day.

That said, I happily dove my Dusty light for 4+ years without issue. Great lights! And Dusty himself is a cool guy who is always happy to help you out if need anything tweeked on your light.

JJHACK wrote:I'm looking at handheld a light for searching some tight spots for octopus and other entertaining life in the sound. What lights are you using and opinions on power?

Brighter the better bro. Never heard anyone come out of the water yet complaining their light was just too darn bright...lol

Bright tight beam and sweet long battery life is the bomb

I have come up from a night dive in Coz with our Dris 1000's and other people were complaining that they might as well not have brought their lights.

mpspringer wrote:curious, besides several hundreds of dollars, how is a "tech" light diff from dusty's?
besides luminosity/focus..

Luminosity focus is the difference. And a good grand or more, not several hundreds. They are awesome, but stupid expensive.

But then so is a scooter. And a high end dry suit.

Ya got the bucks get the "best" you can afford!

If not, there are still other options.

Dusty's lights, as has been mentioned are more than adequate for 90% of the diving you will do in the sound and they are pretty bulletproof, and if something goes wrong he takes care of it. His new battery packs have close to 4 hours burn time and I haven't yet run one into spaz mode. I do have one of his older lights with an updated battery pack, and I like it a bit better than the new ones because it has a tighter beam. The diffuser is nice if I want to use it for photography.

Plus it attracts tarpon like nobody's business in Bonaire!

But yeah, the DRIS light that uses 3 C-Cells is a great, inexpensive light that will work in the sound if all you have to spend is a hundred bucks.

Lots of options - get the best you can afford!