Scuba Dive Lights

Purpose

• Illuminate night, diving at dusk
• Enhance colors during daytime or in swim-through
• Underwater Videography
  • Usually camera mounted on adjustable arms to direct light. These include many types of canister lights by Dive Rite, Light and Motion, Sea & Sea and more.
  • HID is quickly becoming the standard due to its 5600 kelvin plus degree color temperature, which has much to do with how well the colors come out in your photography. The "whiter" the better. Sunlight has a much brighter and higher wave lengths than we can recently replicate with xenon or halogen bulbs.
• Underwater Digital Photography
  • Lights are used for targeting or lighting a subject for digital photography because many modern camera rely on light to focus since their infrared is usually useless underwater. They can also be used for exposure if the lights are bright enough. Most targeting lights turn off as the shutter button is depressed so that your strobes can give you the proper exposure and light without hot-spots.

• Primary
  • Handheld are the most common lights because they are much less expensive to produce, purchase and maintain. They usually have one or two openings, one for the head and batteries and one for the switch. Princeton Tec, Underwater Kinetics and Pelican all make similar competing models in pretty much the same price range if you look at the types of batteries and bulbs they are using. However some do a better job than others. These are designed to 'flood' the area with light and last a long time. These are primarily used at night and always supplemented with a back-up or secondary dive light.
    • Examples of scuba lights include:
      • Princeton Tec Wave II LED
      • Princeton Tec Mini Wave
      • Underwater Kinetics C8 eLED
      • UK C4 eLED
  • Canister are the most powerful of all dive lights simply because they can be much larger. Canister lights have a separate battery pack and light head connected with a power cable. This makes them more complicated and more expensive to make. Applications include cave and wreck diving where they need to be tough, long lasting and bright. Recently 20 and 30 watt HID as well as 20 watt LED light heads are not uncommon to find, but price can be up near $1000. The battery packs are designed to last usually 4-8, even 12 hours. Nickel-Metal hydride is the most recent technology, faster charging, longer lasting and no "memory" build up like Enid batteries. Alkaline's are just not economic to use since so many would be required and when cutting down on travel weight, a charger is lighter than 24 'D' size batteries, also new travel restrictions don't allow too many spare batteries.
    • Examples of Cave and Wreck Canister Lights
      • Dive Rite H10, H20 HID Head
      • Green Force
• Secondary, Back Up Lights
  • Secondary or back up lights are usually small and hand-held. Most are small enought to put in your BCD pocket or clip to a retractor. Small, yet powerful is the best like Princeton Tec's Torrent LED or UK's SL4 eLED are the new standard for divers since they have bright, long lasting bulbs and increased battery life over traditional xenon or halogen lights. These new breed of lights are brighter than primary lights a decade ago. The initial cost is more, but the battery savings is better. Most of these run on 4-8 'AA' or 'AAA' batteries, even 4-6 'C' batteries like UK's SL4 eLED.
    • Examples of back up dive lights are:
      • UK SL4 eLED
      • UK mini Q40
      • Princeton Tec Torrent LED
      • Princeton Tec Impact XL
• Tank Light
  • These are small lights that run on watch batteries or a couple 'AA' or 'AAA' batteries. Purpose of tank lights are like a 'brake light' for divers. They're really not for the diver, but for their buddies, so they can be seen from behind. As you get further from your buddy at night, its almost impossible to see their light beam, or tell which beam is your buddies. Divers use tank lights or groups of them to personalize their night lights. Tank lights clip to your tank or regulator 1st stage yoke and hang, usually floating over the diver.
    • Examples of tank lights include:
      • Innovative Scuba Yoke Light
      • innovative Scuba Lazer Stick
      • Priceton Tec Aqua Flare
• Strobes
  • These are bright lights that discharge a burst of light, usually a couple times a second or once a second. They're used to mark anchors, docks, or in emergency situations. Strobes are not typically used for tank lights because they're too bright and will blind divers around them or cause underwater photographers to have improperly exposed photos.
    • Examples of underwater strobes include:
      • Priceton Tec Aqua Strobe