Solus SU-1250 LED On test

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your opinion on the SOLUS SU-1250. It's good to see an unbiased review. It's also good to see someone put that level of effort into a product review. Particularly the "Spot the Heron" competition

There are a few points I'd like to make.

1. The SU-1250 that was sent to Mark for testing was an early Gen2 test unit. This was set up for burn times of 2.5 hours at 100% and 5 hours at 50%.
All production Gen2 lights (SU-1250 and SU-2500) for the UK and European market are programmed with burntimes of 2.5 hours at 100% and 10 hours at 25% as standard. The performance at the 25% setting is still better than a 10 Watt HID.
The Gen2 lights sold on the American market have 100% and 50% settings at the request of the US distributors Oxycheq.
These settings can be reprogrammed during assembly for custom builds.

2. Sorry but the goodman handle is still optional - last year we dropped the price by half from 100 Euro (£75) to 50 Euro (£38) to make it less painful.
We include the battery pouch in the price for sales direct from SSP.

3. We have frozen production of the SOLUS Backup light. This was mainly due to an unexpected hike in the component costs. We're re-evaluating the Backup as a product, but for the moment we're concentrating on our primary lights.
My apologies to anyone who was considering buying one.

Regards,

Kevin Jury
SOLUS Submersible Products

Sorry for the errors Kevin ill amend the write up.


ATB

Mark

[daveb0000]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

Ill do a pic when it gets dark tonight.


ATB

Mark

cheers mark i appreciate you taking the time

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by Andy the Coastie

I suppose the main comment made about signalling was from a DIR type safety query rather than a good light for the general type diver that needs a good light source for shining in holes to see whats inside a wreck and scanning for good entry & exit points ....... ie useful rather than fashion.

I had a discussion at DEMA with a senior cave instructor from Florida who's used the SOLUS SU-2500 in a few caves. He outlined a few scenarios where the SOLUS was better than the HID offerings and vice-versa.

In a large cavern or reasonable sized passage the SOLUS won out because the beam illuminated enough area to give a realistic view of the environment. He prefered this against the narrow field of view offered by the other lights in his collection.

In a tight passage he found the beam of the SU-2500 put too much light on the walls immediately around him, this made it very hard to see further down the passage to see jumps or any sign of current.

Keep in mind that both of these are in the crystal clear (read 60 metre vis) of the Florida cave systems. In the second scenario the light sabre effect is more about function than fashion.

Unfortunately most of us aren't lucky enough to exclusively do our diving in crystal clear cave water.
In the 3 - 5 metre vis where I usually end up diving , (if I'm lucky) signalling is no problem with the beam of the SOLUS lights. I also find it more comforting to have a wider field of view. It makes it easier to keep track of where you are and as Mark pointed out, spidge hunting is made easier
In this environment the light sabre effect probably is more about fashion than function.

Most divers don't need a SOLUS or Halcyon or Salvo dive light. They can get by with something small for poking into holes. But if you're in low - mid visibility and things are getting a bit dark then a good quality light can make a world of difference to your comfort level and safety.

Mark, be careful about comparing the SOLUS against a de-focussed Salvo. You'll be accused of cheating, crimes against humanity - the works.

Kevin

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by daveb0000

cheers mark i appreciate you taking the time

If you watch this vid there is a shot of a John Dory taken using the Salvo on a wide angle setting in good ambient light. You can see how the power of the Salvo is washed out.

You can also see the HID fail half way through the shot




Ill still attempt the pics but I thought you might be interested.


Also the open circuit diver Nigel is using a Green force Tristar head so you can see that against the Salvos we (The dude and I) are using.

ATB

Mark

[Andy the Coastie]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

I had a discussion at DEMA with a senior cave instructor from Florida who's used the SOLUS SU-2500 in a few caves. He outlined a few scenarios where the SOLUS was better than the HID offerings and vice-versa.

In a large cavern or reasonable sized passage the SOLUS won out because the beam illuminated enough area to give a realistic view of the environment. He prefered this against the narrow field of view offered by the other lights in his collection.

In a tight passage he found the beam of the SU-2500 put too much light on the walls immediately around him, this made it very hard to see further down the passage to see jumps or any sign of current.

Keep in mind that both of these are in the crystal clear (read 60 metre vis) of the Florida cave systems. In the second scenario the light sabre effect is more about function than fashion.

Unfortunately most of us aren't lucky enough to exclusively do our diving in crystal clear cave water.
In the 3 - 5 metre vis where I usually end up diving , (if I'm lucky) signalling is no problem with the beam of the SOLUS lights. I also find it more comforting to have a wider field of view. It makes it easier to keep track of where you are and as Mark pointed out, spidge hunting is made easier
In this environment the light sabre effect probably is more about fashion than function.

Most divers don't need a SOLUS or Halcyon or Salvo dive light. They can get by with something small for poking into holes. But if you're in low - mid visibility and things are getting a bit dark then a good quality light can make a world of difference to your comfort level and safety.

Mark, be careful about comparing the SOLUS against a de-focussed Salvo. You'll be accused of cheating, crimes against humanity - the works.

Kevin

Cheers for that Kevin.

I'm thinking that my trusty old home made umbilical torch is past it's sell by date and on the lines of upgrading.

What are the pro's and con's with LED & Bulb ( thinking along the lines that my bulbs cost £ 2.99 for 2 from B & Q - spot lights ) ?

I want a light that doesn't give the highbeam effect in fog , like most i have seen . I like a spot light rather than a fog light.... if you get my drift.

The light is for my use , not lighting up the area annoying others or blinding them.

Cost is not an issue , but weight is .

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by Andy the Coastie

Cheers for that Kevin.

I'm thinking that my trusty old home made umbilical torch is past it's sell by date and on the lines of upgrading.

What are the pro's and con's with LED & Bulb ( thinking along the lines that my bulbs cost £ 2.99 for 2 from B & Q - spot lights ) ?

I want a light that doesn't give the highbeam effect in fog , like most i have seen . I like a spot light rather than a fog light.... if you get my drift.

The light is for my use , not lighting up the area annoying others or blinding them.

Cost is not an issue , but weight is .

Andy,

Halogen is cheap and easy to build.
For low power LEDs you can lash something together with some basic electronics (a few series resistors) and get a working lamp. It might be interesting to build but it definitely won't annoy any other divers
High power LEDs are a different story. There is a lot more work in the design of the control systems, thermal pathways and optics. The road to a robust dive lamp using high power LEDs is paved with money spent on fried LEDs and control electronics.

If it's DIY then I'd say get some Xenophot Halogen lamps. These pump out plenty of light - They're much better than the standard halogen MR16 lamps and the colour temperature is about 4500 K (whiter than standard halogens)
For a DIY project there are too many issues to resolve with LED unless you go for quick and dirty.

If it's not DIY then you could still justify a dive lamp using Halogen bulbs by looking at the cost. I wouldn't buy an expensive Halogen lamp, but if I were skint I might be able to justify a cheap one. I'd still have issues with the robustness and reliability of halogen bulbs.

If cost isn't an issue and you want something thats compact, gives excellent penetration (in water) and knocks the spots off anything in this size range then look at SOLUS Submersible Products - SOLUS SU-1250 Handheld
The first production units of the SH-500 and SH-1250 are now shipping to those on our pre-order list. I'm hopeing to get through the list by the end of the month. If the manufacturing demons leave me alone
Price 800 Euro (about £595 GBP at todays rates).
Same light output as the SU-1250, in a handheld package. Four power settings. 75 minutes at 100% and more than 12 hours on the lowest power setting.

Regards,

Kevin

[Mark Chase]

OK hear is a pic of the defused (ever so slightly) salvo and the Solus side by side. I tried very hard to get the light paterns to match. End result is a very very small movement back on the Salvo lense.




OH and for those that missed the heron the first time




Now I was quite perplexed as to why the Salvo looks so good in the above pics but the air shots explain it.

Salvo




Solus



Now you see the dead spot in the middle of the Salvo beam... Well on an actual dive that is far more pronounced. I thought the Salvo in wide mode was naff but the pond pics don't pick it up. The spot pics are better but ultimately if you actually dive the two side by side you can see the Solus is better in this range.


ATB

Mark

[daveb0000]

curiosity satisfied...... cheers Mark

[KevinJ]

Thanks Mark,

Those spot pics say it all.

In the official Salvo tests the SOLUS SU-1250 was likened to a "$1000 candle"
Maybe they had it on the 25% setting.

Regards,

Kevin

[steve6690]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

Andy,

Halogen is cheap and easy to build.
For low power LEDs you can lash something together with some basic electronics (a few series resistors) and get a working lamp. It might be interesting to build but it definitely won't annoy any other divers
High power LEDs are a different story. There is a lot more work in the design of the control systems, thermal pathways and optics. The road to a robust dive lamp using high power LEDs is paved with money spent on fried LEDs and control electronics......

Kevin

I'm just starting a project to design and build my own. It's not as easy as I first thought...