Dive Torches?

blender · Dive Torches?

Looking at torches, a bit confused...
LED, filament, etc? what is it all about? what's best?
Had a quick look on conger alley, but light cannons are a tad expensive for me... Better to save up? or buy a cheaper one?

charlie

You get what you pay for: the more you spend the better the light beam Smile

If I could afford one, a light cannon would be very nice (they cast a very bright light underwater).

Gus has a UK D8R which is very bright.

Sarah & I have UK D4Rs which we find to be very impressive (probably best torch I know for <£100).

Both of the UK torches are rechargeable with 2 xenon bulbs of different wattages that can be switched during the dive.

I also admire the Greeforce torch system which is fully modular, i.e. you can buy a cheap(ish) torch at first and then upgrade it sequentially to end up with an all-dancing umbilical (which would be very sweet).

As far as bulb types go:
- filaments: e.g. UK torches mentioned above offer a yellowish beam. Bulbs are quite cheap to replace
- LED: very white beam, can be very bright. Shouldn't ever burn out.
- HID: another very white beam, e.g. light cannon. Very expensive to replace bulbs (~£80). The life of the bulb is shortened by each time the torch is switched on and off, so keep it on for the whole dive!

What I would recommend as a secondary torch is the Lenser Frogman LED. It gets very good reviews. I've bought 2 as our back-ups. They're going for half price at http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/p...turers_id=&products_id=101459

Edd

Ok well on my behalf, i had a beaver torch (wet of course!!!) it had a real good rechargeable battery pack, burn time was good. the great thing was th possibility to change bulbs easily and buy them in any hardware store, standard halogen bulbs!!! (i think if i rember well) so u could easily pick wide/narrow beam, beam strength...
Good but not great if u ran out of battery as u coudn't replace it with ordinary batteries.

But i have to say having used Gus and i think possibly charlies torch they are real good!!! and i think a good deal!!!

But as charlie said the best is green force, one day Wink

ur call froggy but think hard before a buy!!!!

Shug

Scotty Boy

i have one the same style, though not as bright, as edds and i liked it very much, until it flooded. has a nice wide beam rather than the UK style (ala charlie's yellow bad boy) torches that have a narrower beam but are brighter, i think. just depends on what suits you though. if the nice people at aquatron can't fix mine i think one of the UK series could be on my shopping list though!

joe

Buy this months dive magazine has a good review of plenty of good torchs and explains all the relevent stuff you need to know

Edd

Ding · The frogman

The frogman LED is a great backup torch connect a piston clip with a couple of cable ties and hang it from a d ring and at £20 including postage from 7day shop dot com its a bargain