Awesome tips! Thank you! Can you put up some names and model numbers of the LED's and that light hood. That's a great idea. Except when you are looking directly at your buddy! LOL
+Kevin Heuman Thanks for your comments Kevin. The lights and accessories I've shown and that I have found to be the best in quality and price are from Big Blue Lights. You can find them on-line or your local dive store can get them. Alec
great video (as always). I saw another one on youtube that warned that there is no good standard to compare by. It should be the number of lumens and wide/narrow beam and it seems like they, well, exaggerate a bit. So it was suggested to go by others experience with the dive light ( a dive shop pro like you is perfect person to ask).
+Mavis Road Animal Clinic There are problems when trying to compare lights. Some companies use Lumens, some use candlepower, some use watts and so on. There is no way to convert and compare these different ways of measuring light output. Also, there is no standard method to measuring the light. Is the measuring instrument 3' or 10' from the light, etc. So, try some lights in a dark room. Realize that as the light beam gets wider the intensity of the light on the subject gets lower so the narrowest beam that shows what you want to see is the best. Thanks for commenting on my tip. Alec
Hello Alec, I know this is coming a little late but I thought I give my thoughts on this. Before I bought my dive light this was precisely my problem. Most manufacturers used watts as a comparison unit. That was ok for incandescent bulbs because usually more watts meant also more light. For LED's however this no longer true. The only honest measure is lumen which is the amount of light(photons) emitted at 360 degrees. Some manufacturers talk also in terms of lux which means amount of lumen per m2 at a distance of 1m. To be really precise AND honest, manufacturers should be talking in terms of efficiency,i.e. lumen per watts consumed. 100 watts of power to produce 180 lumen or 10 watts to produce the same amount of lumen is a big difference. The latter LED is more efficient and the batteries will last longer. Today's LED are getting more and more efficient. You get more light for less power. Depending on the type of dive, you may need a lot less lumen. The less environmental light there is, the less light you need. Sounds contradictory but makes sense. Diving in sunlight with a strong dive light is like trying to over shine the sun:-) and during night dives you want to see all the creatures that are naturally shy at daylight and they don't have eye lids!!! So one should not be surprised if the creatures hide away when shined at with a "mega power" dive light that looks more like darth vaders laser sword. And another important point is, the amount of light should have some control that allows to go from let's say 100% down to 25% of "power". It makes it a "one size fits all situations" light. As for the make I strongly recommend not to use plastic dive lights as your main dive light. I had 2 bad experiences with them. The first light went out at 12m (36ft) precisely! Deeper than that and I was in the dark! I went up again and at 36ft fiat lux! What happened was that the light body got deformed by the water pressure to a point where connection to the batteries was lost !!! At least I knew when I was at 36ft just in case my depth meter would fail. My second bad experience was the scariest. Going deep often, over time micro fissures appeared. During a night dive all of a sudden I heard a loud bang, the lights went out and it felt like shooting a mini bazooka. Water had infiltrated and the electrolysis gases expanded such that the light littererly exploded in my hand, leaving me just with the empty cylinder in the dark. The light head, battery cap and the batteries themselves had been ejected by the explosion. Luckily those where the weakest points in the dive light design which eventually saved my hand. Since then I always go for aluminum both for a main and spare dive light and ALWAYS carry a spare dive light. In both incidents I was left in the dark floating in the middle of nowhere because I didn't have a spare one( yea dumb a.... ). Hope this helps future readers to choose a dive light.
The TUSA LED Dive Light (I think it's the UL300) is excellent. I used one for a long time and sold hundreds. It uses two 123 batteries. The Big Blue 1100 use the 18650 rechargeable batteries. It's equally as good if not better. That's what I'm using now. Most dive lights are rated for 300 meters or more. That's 1000 feet so ought to meet most of your diving needs. Alec
Alec, what is the larger light at the end of the video with the 4 LEDs that replaces the old canister lights? Who makes it and what model? I just found your channel, and I'm addicted! I'm watching every video right now :-) thanks a bunch for all you do! Also, do you still repair vintage gear? I saw in an article you retired from the shop. I have some vintage single hose regs I'd love to put back into service!
Man Alec, the lights they have today are just amazing.
Such a pro. Thanks Alec!
Candle light in a pickle jar! I like your sense of humor. Thanks for all you do for the rest of us. 😀
Hey, it could work!!
Some of the dive lights we had then were about that bright!
Take care.
Alec
thanks ..
keep the good work . cant wait to see your next video ..
Thanks again!
Awesome tips! Thank you! Can you put up some names and model numbers of the LED's and that light hood. That's a great idea. Except when you are looking directly at your buddy! LOL
+Kevin Heuman
Thanks for your comments Kevin.
The lights and accessories I've shown and that I have found to be the best in quality and price are from Big Blue Lights. You can find them on-line or your local dive store can get them.
Alec
thanks a million
great video (as always). I saw another one on youtube that warned that there is no good standard to compare by. It should be the number of lumens and wide/narrow beam and it seems like they, well, exaggerate a bit. So it was suggested to go by others experience with the dive light ( a dive shop pro like you is perfect person to ask).
+Mavis Road Animal Clinic
There are problems when trying to compare lights.
Some companies use Lumens, some use candlepower, some use watts and so on. There is no way to convert and compare these different ways of measuring light output.
Also, there is no standard method to measuring the light. Is the measuring instrument 3' or 10' from the light, etc.
So, try some lights in a dark room. Realize that as the light beam gets wider the intensity of the light on the subject gets lower so the narrowest beam that shows what you want to see is the best.
Thanks for commenting on my tip.
Alec
Hello Alec, I know this is coming a little late but I thought I give my thoughts on this.
Before I bought my dive light this was precisely my problem. Most manufacturers used watts as a comparison unit. That was ok for incandescent bulbs because usually more watts meant also more light.
For LED's however this no longer true.
The only honest measure is lumen which is the amount of light(photons) emitted at 360 degrees. Some manufacturers talk also in terms of lux which means amount of lumen per m2 at a distance of 1m.
To be really precise AND honest, manufacturers should be talking in terms of efficiency,i.e. lumen per watts consumed. 100 watts of power to produce 180 lumen or 10 watts to produce the same amount of lumen is a big difference. The latter LED is more efficient and the batteries will last longer. Today's LED are getting more and more efficient. You get more light for less power.
Depending on the type of dive, you may need a lot less lumen. The less environmental light there is, the less light you need. Sounds contradictory but makes sense. Diving in sunlight with a strong dive light is like trying to over shine the sun:-) and during night dives you want to see all the creatures that are naturally shy at daylight and they don't have eye lids!!!
So one should not be surprised if the creatures hide away when shined at with a "mega power" dive light that looks more like darth vaders laser sword. And another important point is, the amount of light should have some control that allows to go from let's say 100% down to 25% of "power". It makes it a "one size fits all situations" light.
As for the make I strongly recommend not to use plastic dive lights as your main dive light. I had 2 bad experiences with them.
The first light went out at 12m (36ft) precisely! Deeper than that and I was in the dark! I went up again and at 36ft fiat lux! What happened was that the light body got deformed by the water pressure to a point where connection to the batteries was lost !!! At least I knew when I was at 36ft just in case my depth meter would fail.
My second bad experience was the scariest. Going deep often, over time micro fissures appeared. During a night dive all of a sudden I heard a loud bang, the lights went out and it felt like shooting a mini bazooka.
Water had infiltrated and the electrolysis gases expanded such that the light littererly exploded in my hand, leaving me just with the empty cylinder in the dark. The light head, battery cap and the batteries themselves had been ejected by the explosion. Luckily those where the weakest points in the dive light design which eventually saved my hand. Since then I always go for aluminum both for a main and spare dive light and ALWAYS carry a spare dive light. In both incidents I was left in the dark floating in the middle of nowhere because I didn't have a spare one( yea dumb a.... ).
Hope this helps future readers to choose a dive light.
@@bigm9190 great information!!
Any LED flashlight that uses two CR123 or one 18650 batteries ? How deep should the light be able to go (400 ', 600' or 1,000 feet) ? tjl
The TUSA LED Dive Light (I think it's the UL300) is excellent. I used one for a long time and sold hundreds. It uses two 123 batteries.
The Big Blue 1100 use the 18650 rechargeable batteries. It's equally as good if not better. That's what I'm using now.
Most dive lights are rated for 300 meters or more. That's 1000 feet so ought to meet most of your diving needs.
Alec
Alec, what is the larger light at the end of the video with the 4 LEDs that replaces the old canister lights? Who makes it and what model?
I just found your channel, and I'm addicted! I'm watching every video right now :-) thanks a bunch for all you do!
Also, do you still repair vintage gear? I saw in an article you retired from the shop. I have some vintage single hose regs I'd love to put back into service!