I got my Scurion through last week which meant I could start going underground again, anyhow tonight was my first chance to test it out and so we did a little trip around Box and I was really impressed with not only the brightness but the quality, throw and spread of the light too. I am not a light buff but I know I like to see my feet while I am in a mine or a cave and this thing not only let me do that but it lit up everyone elses feet too. The light quality is amazing, so much so that I may bring my camcorders under and start doing some filiming again, there are no objects or discernable rings. We did a comparison Vs a Stenlight  (One of the top lights on the market at the moment) and then even Vs TWO more and here are a couple of photos that Clunk kindly took.

One Stenlight on turbo (full power)


Two Stenlights on turbo;


The Scurion on full power;


Now throw/spread and brightness aren't everything, I really like how solid the casing is, all machined out of aircraft aluminium and after running it for 5 hours on full last night it wasn't even warm. All in all it is well made and there are very few parts that can go wrong, the optics are extremely well placed and the whole thing looks like it might survive a bomb blast. I have yet to give it a water test and real endurance test but I will do soon and I really don't doubt that it will outperform my expectations on those fronts too.

Anyhow, I know a few wanted a review and this is just my humble opinion and observations. I will test it in caves soon, very pleased with this though and in my eyes it is a
worthy investment (Just have to make sure i don't leave it by the side of the road or on top of my car again).

I'll do a battery test soon when I have some time, as I want to see how long it can handle full power. The only downside I have seen to it so far is that it it brand new and untested, but i'll throw what I can at it and see how it does.

Looks fantastic and absolutely great for solo underground but.... what's it like to be in a group where someone else has the powerful lamp and you get half blinded every time they turn to talk to you? - put simply, does it adversely affect other people by its power?

cap 'n chris said:

Looks fantastic and absolutely great for solo underground but.... what's it like to be in a group where someone else has the powerful lamp and you get half blinded every time they turn to talk to you? - put simply, does it adversely affect other people by its power?

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I've got mine now too - havent tried it underground yet, but i did wonder if i am about to end up doing solo caving cos nobody else will put up with being permanently blind.  Because of this I think i'll spend most of my time running it quite low.

Something the above pictures illustrates well is the wide angle LED - it's very very good.  However, the fact that its wide angle means that you dont even need to be looking directly at someone for the light to get in their eyes.

I had my Scurion now for several days underground, but there were no complains of the rest of the group. The only annoying thing is that I was always asked to illuminate that chimney or another shaft so that others could also see what is there

I'm pleased with my Scurion and don't regret that investment.

Wolfgang

Your excellent pictures have convinced me to but one. I am ordering it today. Thanks for the review.

Orderd mine a while ago so should be here soon.

I will do a full battery test over the next few days and get some stats put together, I am a little biased after splashing out on it, but I really will list any negatives I find. So far the only niggle that I have noted is that someone mentioned the battery pack might be a bit large, personally it feels quite balanced to me, but the battery certainly is larger than the Sten, the same person who noticed this is currently selling his Stenlight to buy a Scurion, so it can't be that bad. You know who you are!

The true test of a good light is measured in the frequency of swearing in relation to lumens whilst caving with Les, as far as I know though it isn't too bright to be deemed as annoying and I will only be caving with it on low settings, the higher powered settings will be reserved for Caverns of unusual size, like GB (largest chamber in Britain).

cap 'n chris said:

what's it like to be in a group where someone else has the powerful lamp and you get half blinded every time they turn to talk to you?

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As it illuminates a wide area around you the comments are usually positive (others can see with your light).
Just look away while talking. Yes, the bright spot is annoying.

mountaingoat said:

cap 'n chris said:

what's it like to be in a group where someone else has the powerful lamp and you get half blinded every time they turn to talk to you?

Click to expand...

As it illuminates a wide area around you the comments are usually positive (others can see with your light).
Just look away while talking. Yes, the bright spot is annoying.

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One's ability to adjust from bright light to darkness, by contracting and dilating the pupils reduces with age. Young people can cope very well, but as you age, you will find that when blinded by a bright light, you will be almost temporarily blinded momentarily when the darkness returns. The time taken to adjust to the darkness becomes increasingly longer with age. Conversely, I suspect, a bright light will appear much brighter to an older person when dazzled than for a younger person. This is becoming an increasingly nasty hazard on unlit roads, with modern cars having very bright headlamps, certainly much brighter than they were 10 or 15 years ago. Even modern bike lamps can dazzle! Once the car has passed, the dazzled driver finds it very difficult to see the road for a second. Just don't be surprised if some burly aged caver literally tries to punch your lights out as he stumbles into you, tripping over the rock he didn't see.

And another thing, when I took deaf people caving many years ago, one the pieces of advice they gave us was not to shine lamps into their faces as they found it impossible to lip read. Not that all of us are going deaf with age of course.

mountaingoat said:

cap 'n chris said:

what's it like to be in a group where someone else has the powerful lamp and you get half blinded every time they turn to talk to you?

Click to expand...

As it illuminates a wide area around you the comments are usually positive (others can see with your light).
Just look away while talking. Yes, the bright spot is annoying.

Click to expand...

I remember people saying the same thing about the Nova; funny, but few people mention the overpowering brightness any more.

Peter Burgess said:

And another thing, when I took deaf people caving many years ago, one the pieces of advice they gave us was not to shine lamps into their faces as they found it impossible to lip read. Not that all of us are going deaf with age of course.

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Pardon? Speak up young man!

Peter Burgess said:

mountaingoat said:

cap 'n chris said:

what's it like to be in a group where someone else has the powerful lamp and you get half blinded every time they turn to talk to you?

Click to expand...

As it illuminates a wide area around you the comments are usually positive (others can see with your light).
Just look away while talking. Yes, the bright spot is annoying.

Click to expand...

One's ability to adjust from bright light to darkness, by contracting and dilating the pupils reduces with age. Young people can cope very well, but as you age, you will find that when blinded by a bright light, you will be almost temporarily blinded momentarily when the darkness returns. The time taken to adjust to the darkness becomes increasingly longer with age. Conversely, I suspect, a bright light will appear much brighter to an older person when dazzled than for a younger person. This is becoming an increasingly nasty hazard on unlit roads, with modern cars having very bright headlamps, certainly much brighter than they were 10 or 15 years ago. Even modern bike lamps can dazzle! Once the car has passed, the dazzled driver finds it very difficult to see the road for a second. Just don't be surprised if some burly aged caver literally tries to punch your lights out as he stumbles into you, tripping over the rock he didn't see.

And another thing, when I took deaf people caving many years ago, one the pieces of advice they gave us was not to shine lamps into their faces as they found it impossible to lip read. Not that all of us are going deaf with age of course.

Click to expand...

So if this is the case then we can adapt that all too popular young persons saying to "If it's too bright you're too old!".  
In all seriousness though, I don't think i'll be caving with a supernova strapped to my lid, I'll be using the more comfortable settings with the big stuff for avens and caverns. I actually like the dark, which is why I go caving.. however I am glad of being able to see the floor without having to aim at it now.

Known by None said:

however I am glad of being able to see the floor without having to aim at it now.

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Have you lost some weight then? 

This one of places were you have to break social eticate of not looking at the person your talking to. Like drivers who still insist on looking at the passenger next to them while driving. 'keep looking at the road numbnuts!'...

In my personal view the Nova3 is the best lamp released and after owning a sten, I beleave it beats the sten because the sten makers decided not to drive the LEDs as hard.

The Scunrian's proper wide angle LED and amazingly clear optics are winners even before the rock melting bright modes for long tunnels, big caverns and light sucking rock like slate and lead.

Peter Burgess said:

Known by None said:

however I am glad of being able to see the floor without having to aim at it now.

Click to expand...

Have you lost some weight then? 

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No I just like missing the bowl!

Was down TITAN on saturday with Henry who has one and i have to say that i DEFINATELY want one!!! I have seen TITAN lit up with stupidly big lights with the BBC, but they do not compare with the focused beam of the Scurion to give the scale of the place!

For example, i was about 30m shy of the breakthrough window, Katie was about 20m shy of Event Horizon, and Henry was on the floor, waiting his turn. With his beam on full power, shining it at Katie, i could see a perfect silhouette of the Event Horizon on the roof (about 140m away from Henry) and could see Katie's shadow prussiking, catching me up! I could even see her rope, all in shadow on the roof. Amazing!

As for the blindingness of the thing, the spot is very dangerous and even from 130m away is too bright to look directly at, but this should not be a problem as people are well trained at not shining directly in people's faces. The problem with the Scurion is that the "normal" beam is extremely wide (~180 deg) so even if your looking at somone's feet, they can still see your light very strongly. However, if people use the different power settings sensibly for different needs, this should not be too much of a problem.

Just don't give one to a newbee with it set on full spot!

The threat of violence was a good training aid to improve my sympathetic lighting technique!
In regards to the Scurion it was mentioned to me recently that someone lost the lid to their battery case the first time they took it out, I can relate to this as whilst doing a crawl to Aldermaston chamber on Saturday I hit my helmet on a rock and the lid came out of mine also, luckily a rather eagle eyed caver behind me spotted it.
I remember the lid was on so tightly when I got it that it was hard to undo, which is the way it is meant to be I think and so while I will be keeping it super tight in future I think that some elastic or string wouldn't go amiss, just to keep it all together!
Other than this slight niggle everything else has been great so far, now the initial light greed has subsided a bit I am testing out lower settings and hoping to find a perfect medium between brightness and spread along with not blinding everyone else.
Owners of this light should be prepared for neckache as there are a lot of requests for peering up Avens and illuminating chamber roofs!

Brilliant - I love it - the foibles are appearing already.


God - Im going into the light industury.

Huge queue of people all desperatly wanting to part with hundreds of pounds, and nobody really knows if its up to the job. its not even been around a couple of months. If Im parting with that kind of cash - I want to know if its still going to work in a year or ten.

So - first up - the battery lid falls of if you knock it on the roof. Beeerrrilliant.

oh - and doesnt it have a scratchy plastic lens.  (I may be wrong on that one).

I'm the person who lost my battery lid - to be fair I dont think i followed the instructions 100%.  I didnt check that it was properly seated before rushing out to go caving.

I think that a snoopy round the battery case will easily sort that problem - so i'm not too worried.

Apart from that one little niggle I have to say I'm REALLY impressed with it - nothing else I've seen comes close in terms of brightness, flexibility (adjustment of wide angle and spot separately), and run time.

As you say - being one of the first buyers is a little bit of a risk, but at this stage I couldnt be more happy with my purchase.

The "lens" is polycarbonate i think (so yes, plastic).  But it has a scratch resistant coating, probably DLC or something like that, but i dont know.

In anticipation of the many replies I am about to get - the Stenlight is probably the most worthy opponent to Scurion, it's in the same "league" for sure.  And I certain wouldnt blame someone for buying one of those, being a more established/tried and tested light.

But I cant really think of others...