HiD Vs LED - Where are we today?

[Woz]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

Wow ! Such insight. Attention Grabbing as well.
Are you one of those new fangled "Marketing Executives" Woz ?

Yes and very persuasive. I went into an egyptian tatt shop, picked up some tatt, said "I'll pay you 20 Egyptian pounds", the shopkeeper said "no my friend I give you good discount but that is too little". I then ran around the shop waving the 20 pound note like a fish towards his till making the shopkeeper chase me in a Benny Hill stylee laughing like a schoolgirl.

And what did I pay? 20 pounds. Marvellous. You see? Don't bargain. Amuse. It gets you a better discount.

Perhaps if you offer Barry a light sabre fight with a load of divers watching holding up scorecards that would be a far better way of settling it.

I'm grandstanding again, aren't I? And blathering. It's not as if I don't have a million things to do.

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by Woz

Perhaps if you offer Barry a light sabre fight with a load of divers watching holding up scorecards that would be a far better way of settling it.

Will they have to wear speedos?

[Woz]

Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe

Will they have to wear speedos?

Mankinis.

[Salvo]

Kevin,
You are hopeless. The beam angle has nothing to do with the bulb manufacturers rating of the output. 1250 is not the same as 3000, unless you are using some sort of new math. As I try to explain all this to you, this is what comes to mind...

Originally Posted by KevinJ

In terms of total light output the SU-1250 produces aproximately the same amount of light as a 35 Watt HID lamp.
As the two lights have completely different beam profiles, it's not simply a case of making a direct comparison. You have to chose the type of beam that suits your diving. If you're GUE/DIR then buy Halcyon or Salvo - easy.

[GLOC]

Barry, this has been a quite light-hearted and the banter has been flying and I am sure you both have lots of technical experience in this field, but please keep it civil.

I don't know enough about this field to make judgements but the areas under the curves look similar and therefore the total amount of light output looks similar, however the HIDs are more focussed and the LEDs have a broader beam, therefore one looks brighter than the other.

Kevin has agreed the above statement, would you say that statement is correct assuming a level playing field of being underwater (to cool the heads down) where the torches will be used.

[Garf]

Originally Posted by Salvo

The things people do to avoid bending down in the shower eh.

[KevinJ]

Never let it be said that Barry can't be flexible

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Clare Gledhill

I think you need to revisit that quote after you have done some cave diving Mark - a loose beam like that would drive me nuts in a cave.

I require a light to be able to signal position as far forward as possible and, especially when using scooters, this needs a beam which will remain focused over 10 - 20 metres or more.

I've dived with people using video lights - twin 50 watt HIDs kick out more light than the sun - and are utterly useless for signalling position or communicating. For this reason it is quite effective to carry another light for signalling when doing video.

And yet the DIR lot are all switching to LED for back up lights????? Dont you need signaling ability when you switch to a back up then?


I personally was referring to the fact its unlikely to fail. Many many times less likely than a HID.

Having actually tried the torch in the water the Solus is no where near as loose as the photos suggest. The video gives a better representation. The new 1200 solus has the option of a much tighter beam which i think would make it more usable still in the arena of signaling.

The Salvo has the edge on light saber for sure, but I found the beam of the Souls very nice to dive with. It didn't hot spot burn the middle and leave a corona of usable light around the outside so much.

What i keep repeating is they are both excellent torches.

I wont be selling my 21W Salvo to get a Solus but if my torch failed or got stolen then Id give the Solus serious thought. What i can say is i am getting rid of my totally pathetic Photon Torpedo and replacing it with a powerful LED torch. My Salvo failed on two dives last week and i was forced to use the back up torch which was totally inadequate to the task. Fortunately viz was fantastic so a torch was not essential but it was annoying not to be able to light up the dark bits.

I am thinking about the Barbet as a back up but ill have a look around first as its about £400.

Salvo failed twice because the new jack plugs don't lock together well and the connection slipped apart during the two dives. Fixed by gaffa taping the connector together.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Rob Dobson]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

And yet the DIR lot are all switching to LED for back up lights????? Dont you need signaling ability when you switch to a back up then?

Mark, LEDs make good backups - I have never heard anyone say otherwise. A single LED source as opposed to an array is easy to focus and therefore makes an effective beam. A backup is an emergency light, not the light of choice. You are typically calling your dive the moment you lose your primary and your backups are there to get you out of the water. The burn time offered by 3C cell LEDs makes them a good choice for backups over the previous choice of Xenon bulbs.

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

I personally was referring to the fact its unlikely to fail. Many many times less likely than a HID.

I don't follow this line of thought... If a light consisted purely of a bulb then I would agree with you: an LED bulb has a longer MTBF than a HiD bulb. Unfortunately a light has significantly more components than just the bulb and this is where I think you logic may be flawed. I think an LED light may require some additional components in terms of electronics and heat dissipation that HiDs do not require and therefore an LED could potentially have more to fail than a HiD. I certainly wouldn't assume that just because a light used an LED bulb it could not fail or that it was significantly less likely to fail than a HiD.

[ardhill]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

What i can say is i am getting rid of my totally pathetic Photon Torpedo and replacing it with a powerful LED torch.

You can get LED upgrades for the PT Mark. Just replace the bulb/reflector unit.