35W Salvo

[miniman]

Well the long awaited run out came to fruition yesterday at Stoney with a couple of dives to the stangarth.
Performance wise I was amazed. I had a few nagging doubts that it might be to bright for British waters, but hell no it just cut through the particulates like a hot knife through butter. Focused and at an angle it can easily cut through a fair few metres of crap and still light an area on the bottom or what you are looking at. We went into the hold of the stangarth and changed the focus to spread the beam more; the lamp then just lit the whole of the hold with ease.
I was using a 10w hid Sartek and I may as well left it on dry land as Vic just lit the way for me.
Needless to say Vic is over the moon and has banned me from ever touching the torch let alone using it.
Ultimately would I buy one myself? Well to be honest yes (may have to sell a kidney) would a 21w salvo be good enough? Also a resounding yes.
I know these lamps are at the high end of the torch market and I know not everyone can afford or indeed wants to spend this amount on a torch, but if you are in the market for a torch that really is the business, I cannot recommend them enough and with the service you get from Phil at DivingNikNaks, it makes (imvho) the salvo a no brainer when it comes to buy an excellent torch.
P.s Cheers Phil I will be seeing you soon if I get an offer for my kidney :-) or when Vic decides I’m worth one.

[W Wilberforce]

I expect we'll be seeing alot of half-blind fish bumbling around Stoney with their sunglasses on! I thought mine was bright.
Perhaps you could get an extra-narrow focus to burn holes in the wrecks with that monster.

[Chriz]

Better than the GF F3 + 100w impact? am I going to have to change my lamp again?

Chris/z

[miniman]

A few friends have seen it in action and have now ordered new torches. One has bought a GF F11 with both a hid100 and the 250 heads and another has bought a new sartek 21w.
We have decided to do a comparison of the 3 torches along with my 10w sartek(before it goes on e-bay) and my friends 10w pro 3.

[Rob Dobson]

I regularly dive with my Salvo 21W 9ah alongside a 35W 15.6ah. They are both superb bits of kit and I really can't fault either of them in anyway - simply better than anything else I have ever seen out there.

Would I do a straight swap for my 21W for the more expensive 35W? Actually no I don't think I would. The 35W uses a Li-ion charger there's not too many of those about whereas most of my buddies have Ni-mh chargers for the 9ah - so forgetting or busting a charger isn't going to spoil the dive trip.

The Ni-Mh battery is cheaper to replace and the bulb spares are cheaper too (not that you really need a spare with these hard ass bulbs that Barry uses).

The 35W has a smaller head with the ballast in the light canister and that is a nice touch but not enough to swing it IMO. The 35W looks to be a whiter light in the water (the 21W appears to have a blue tinge to it - useful for telling team members apart) and it may go a smidgin further... For my money the 21W is pretty damn perfect - the 35W just has that little cherry on top.