HiD Vs LED - Where are we today?

[Scuby]

Originally Posted by Rob Dobson

Barry at Salvo has posted some rather compelling photo's demonstrating head to head performance which I thought I'd post on here and let people make up their own minds:

While I don't necessarily think he's showing anything "wrong", its not exactly the most impartial of sources - i'm fairly sure i've seen the Solus people show similar pictures or have similar numbers or something which show theirs to be better (not that I believe theirs either).

David

[duc996bp]

Originally Posted by Scuby

While I don't necessarily think he's showing anything "wrong", its not exactly the most impartial of sources - i'm fairly sure i've seen the Solus people show similar pictures or have similar numbers or something which show theirs to be better (not that I believe theirs either).

David

Exactly, that test is complete nonsence. It depends if you want a pencil beam or something with a bit more even spread.

It's also interesting to note that the test never included the SU-2500

I have a SU-1250 and can tell you it's excellent product in every respect with customer service to match.

[Rob Dobson]

Originally Posted by duc996bp

Exactly, that test is complete nonsence. It depends if you want a pencil beam or something with a bit more even spread.

It's also interesting to note that the test never included the SU-2500

I have a SU-1250 and can tell you it's excellent product in every respect with customer service to match.

Just to put this test into context (and to save you from registering with a different site and reading through several hundred posts), Oxycheq claim on their website that the SU-1250 is the equivalent of a 35W HiD (something which appears to have come from the Solus site). Barry at Salvo disputes that claim and after trying to arrange a head to head for some time he went out and bought a 1250 and tested it.

He found that actually the SU-1250 had a light output less than a 10W Salvo and less than 1/10th of the 35W that it was claiming to be the equal of.

No one has said that the SU-1250 is a bad product or that the customer service is bad in anyway, the discussion has simply been around the claim that the SU-1250 is comparable with a 35W HiD.

I personally want a tightly focused beam that will penetrate through the water to be used as a signaling device so for me that aspect is very important. If I wanted a weaker beam over a wider area I'd defocus the reflector on my Salvo but I have never found that to be useful. The issue is that you can't do the opposite and focus an LED array hence the light is not projected as far and hence the beam is weaker - which is what Barry is demonstrating with these pictures.

I hope that helps...

[DIVE BUDDHA]

i tell ya what rob again uve shown a really good comparison with the beams and can honestly say both dont look that bad!

regards leigh

[Salvo]

Originally Posted by Martin Owen

Interesting photo's

Am i the only one who can see a difference with all the Solus images? considering its meant to be the same in each photo?

FWIW i have a SU-1000 and I'm VERY pleased with its performance.

Martin,
Please be assured I made every attempt in being fair. I chose the 20'(6m) distance because the Solus was best at that distance. If I wanted to be nasty, I would have backed away to 40'(13m) where the beam of the Solus was the size of one of those double decker buses you guys have over there and the lumen output was similar to a match. As for the different look in each picture, that had to do with the increased output of the higher wattage HID. As the HID wattage went up it would wash out the Solus light. The camera had a hard time with focusing given that the HID's were so much more intense. I have a good chart at Salvo Diving Equipment - Light Output Chart were you can read about how bulbs are rated and a comparison of different HID's and their total output on a surface.
Rob put it nicely that my whole issue was the false and misleading claims made by Solus as to the output of their product. At no time did I say it was a bad product or that LED's do not make good dive lights.


Any way, how are all you guys and gals doing over there? Is Phill at niknaks keeping everybody happy? I know he sure keeps us busy. I am just happy every day that Amanda is there to keep him strait.

Barry

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by Salvo

Any way, how are all you guys and gals doing over there? Is Phill at niknaks keeping everybody happy? I know he sure keeps us busy. I am just happy every day that Amanda is there to keep him strait.

Hiya Barry - glad to see you back on YD!

[Martin Owen]

Barry,

Don't you think a better comparison would of been to have the camera fixed on a tripod, with the focus set manually, then turn one light on & photo it, turn off, then turn another on & so on.
The conditions would then be identical & it would be just the lights you were comparing.

B.S. claims (by whoever) are just misleading and only the only person they fool in the end is the one making the false claim.

There IS a huge difference between HID & LED, but the biggest seems to be whether you want either a spot light on a very tight area (for signaling etc) or a good wide usable beam, i for one would be really interested in seeing photo's of HID's in a wide beam to see a true comparison, as i would hazard a guess that this is where Solus are making there claims?? (it would be foolish otherwise as an LED cant as yet be focused tightly to give a small but bright spot)

So HID's are great at a very bright narrow beam, ideal if you need it for signaling and LED's are great at a 'normal use' wide spread light, with bulbs that are almost indestructible.

The biggest single factor when i bought my light was that it must be as indestructible as possible, which left only an LED light.

[KiwiMagic]

I've read the articles here, and have to confess - I really just want someone to say - "this is the best torch for the price you want to pay". At the end of the day, cost is a factor £300-£400 but (even though for some this might be the minimum £'s for a torch) it still seems a heck of a lot of money to pay for a torch. I also want it to have a reasonable burn time (lets face it, assuming 2 dives a day, I would need at least a 90 minute burn time)

Can someone suggest from experience the best HID and the best LED for that price range. Is an umbilical out of the question for this price range? Second hand I would happily go with.

[Justin Owen]

What is the actual power consumption (watts) of the Solus LED's? (Not the 'equivalent' power...

Reason for askling is that - from talking to a number of manufacturers - is that they are now at the point where the light output of the LED's requires as much, if not more, power than 'conventional' technologies - so battery time etc, which was one of their main selling points, is no longer a consideration...

Domestic applications for LED's should be the next big thing... Isn't it funny how with the cost of energy, and all the climate change issues - that none of the manufacturers have come up with a domestic style bulb that uses a single LED light source, would use about 5w of energy, and last for 10 years...

Maybe I'm just cynical...?

[Martin Owen]

according to SOLUS Submersible Products - Homepage they use 22 watts