Torches

[Glynn&Yvonne]

Hi all,
you've properly seen this question dozens of times, but here goes. The wife and I are AOW with about 20 UK dives logged. We are looking for a decent torch. At present we only have 2 little Northern Diver torches ( the ones with the strobe ) that we use for safety reasons. We're looking for something a little more powerful to show up the colours and looking in holes, etc. We have no intention of night diving and will only be going down to 30 m for forseenable furture. Our buget is around £200 to £300.
What we were thinking was that if I invested in a larger one and the wife had a small hand held that could be stowed in her BC pocket so she can work her camera and would be avilable as back up. Would this be acceptable from a safety point of view or should we both have a main and backup.

Cheers,

Glynn & Yvonne

[Prometheus]

Personally I would kit out for worst case scenario, this means that your budget has just doubled.And just 'cos your limit is 30mts doesn't mean it can't be as black as a black thing that's very black.

[Woz]

I think the concensus of opinion is:

Handheld: LED (lots and lots or manufacturers)
Lantern: Light Cannon, Darkbuster
Umbilical: Greenforce, Salvo, Solus

LED light start at £50 (or even less) for a Tektite Expedition Star (I've got one and it's brilliant) and go up to £150 for a Photon Torpedo machined from solid Delrin (nice bit of kit).
Lanterns start at £170 for a non-rechargeable light cannon or about £230 for a rechargable Darkbuster
Umbilicals start at about £350 for a 10W HID to £1000 for a 35W Salvo. £600 seems to get you a 21W Salvo or the equivalent Solus. Bloody bright.

Phil at divingniknaks.com seems to be very good at releasing money from wallets, as does Sweary Wally and Rob at Lumb Bros (Greenforce and Tektite).

You'll get lots of different opinions on here, mainly people shouting the praises of the one they bought. But IMHO and after seeing loads and loads of them underwater, I'd go with:
LED: Tektite Exped Star. Most bang for your money.
Lantern: Darkbuster. 21W HID. Annoyingly brighter than my 21W Salvo umbilical.
Umbilical: tricky. There's not alot in it. I would say HID has the edge at the moment until LED pulls its pants up and focuses the beams properly. So Salvo or Greenforce. Only buy ones with Brightstar bulbs in, not Welch Allen. The WA ones break.

[macstinator]

I have a 250 watt HID from Greenforce which i got for a steal from fleabay. faultless and the guys i dive with just swim behind me, their torches off. Its like a WWII searchlight. fish hate me though, as do low flying aircraft.

Greenforce's are modular, and bloody well made, so why not spunk the budget on them. means you can upgrade in the future.

remember, buy cheap, buy twice. I would go umbilical too. lanterns are a pain.

[alistairb]

Hi....Iv Just recently bought a 20 watt JMD torch from Yorkshire diving serv in Whitby....Colin ......looks like the beaver type.....20 watts gives an hour of use very powerfull clear beam...good torch......

Alistair

[Davwardo]

Hi there. You'll get lots of opinions back but my 2p.....

If you are not going to go umbilical, get a darkbuster. I do club type diving up to 35m and its perfect. Its much better than the light cannon in my opinion ( I have one of them as well ).

I would definately get a backup torch. I have been on a number of dives with REALLY dark vis where a primary light failure would have been squeeky bum time.

I have a backup torch from Niknaks ( 3 watt Salvo for £45 ) but there are lots out there that will do the job for you.

Good luck - its worth the money for a decent torch.