Dive Rite 500 Lumen LED - review

[NeilB]

Hi Folks,

A review of the Dive Rite LED light.....

First impressions on opening the package was that it was quite chunky. It is 1.8 inches in diameter and 8 inches long giving it a 'large' feel in the hand - maybe because I have a slimmer 3 D cell Maglite?
Anyway with batteries in, it does not weigh much (1.8lb out of water, 0.8lb in fresh water) and feels well built. The light head is aluminium and the battery body is some sort of composite. Whether it is delrin, polycarbonate or even carbonite I could not say - it's black!
The light head has two pre-tapped screw holes for a Goodman handle. This would probably work better if you ordered the separate, unbilical, battery pack option as I believe the light would be too heavy and too long to wear on the back of the hand otherwise.
It turns on with a twist of the light head - screw in for on, out for off. Sealed by two O rings. The 'in for on' is good as it stops you unscrewing the light head and flooding the torch if for some reason it does not come on and you are not paying attention to how many times you have turned it.

I have no 10watt HID to compare it against as it is claimed by the manufactures to be as bright, so I have to use my 'big' torch - a 251 lumen Pelican King light.

See the pics below.

Pic 1 is the light compared to a 3 D cell Maglite to give you an idea of the size.

Pic 2 is the light from my Pelican on a wall 15m away.

Pic 3 is the Dive Rite light on the same wall.

Pic 4 is the light from my Pelican on a wall 3m away.

Pic 5 is the Dive Rite on the same wall.

Pic 6 is the light from my Pelican shone on the ground infront of me.

Pic 7 is the light from the Dive Rite on the ground.

The pics came from my phone camera to keep the size small. It also stopped all the clever white ballance and colour tweeking that digital cameras do. What it did do was to make the Pelican look whiter than it really was. To my eye the Pelicans light was yellow. The Dive Rite was white. That's the difference between Krypton bulbs at 3500k and LED at 6500K.

Comparing the light output, the Dive Rite wipes the Pelican off the map....but I would expect it to with twice the output! The Dive Rite was a solid white spot, quite well focused at 3/4m. The Pelican had voids in the light at that distance that got worse the further away the beam was. Even at 15m the spot from the Dive Rite was bright and round. At that distance the Pelican had lost it and the centre was quite dull.
On the floor infront of me the Pelican was bright and round but yellow. The Dive Rite was brighter and round.

The Dive Rite is not focasable so for the DIR crowd that may be a drawback as the bright spot is quite large at 10m onwards. However underwater the beam should be tighter, as the water acts like a lens, and over 10m in the UK you have lost sight of your buddy anyway!

In conclusion - It's a bright, well built light with a good defined bright spot. For diving in blue water, like what I do, I am sure it will be more than adequate. For diving in murky waters it is probably still good but you will have to test that yourselves.
At the end of the day the light output for the cost of the light is so good that I will probably end up buying my two sons one each as well. With $2 to the £1 they are quite good value.

I will be taking it on a night dive next week - unfortunately it is too windy to dive this week - so I will edit this post with some underwater pics after.

[jimny14]

Cheers for that neil, looks like it might be a decent torch, should be brilliant in your lovely blue water over there, hopefully someone over here will be getting one soon too. Hope you get diving soon. Thanks again. James

[Chris Lewis]

Well I just ordered one Im in the USA on business and thought it would be a nice present for the company to buy me

I am a complete novice diver tho and it will be my first real torch so i will only be able to compare it to other torches as the year goes on.

[NJT]

Has anyone got them in the UK yet .........Price ?

Regards
Nick

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by NJT

Has anyone got them in the UK yet .........Price ?

Regards
Nick

Not sure if they UK importer has then yet but as soon as they do, you'll be able to purchase one through any LDS that has an account with Sea&Sea UK...