• CSCC Newsletter - May 2024

    Available now. Includes details of upcoming CSCC Annual General Meeting 10th May 2024

    Click here for more info

Yet Another Lamp Thread

J

jeskynar

New member
I was just catching up on new lamp technologies (having not looked since I bought my FX2 16 years ago) and discovered there's some exciting stuff out there!

Not just exciting technology but exciting price  ;)

Good caving lamp = ?300
Good scuba torch = ?500
Ouch!

If I was to buy just a single, very good lamp for both regular caving and regular scuba diving which would it be?

(I thought I'd ask cave divers because you know about properly waterproof torches...)
 
MDS

MDS

Member
jeskynar said:
If I was to buy just a single, very good lamp for both regular caving and regular scuba diving which would it be?.......
Click to expand...

Recent popular choices have been:

UK Mini Q40 eLED
UK SL4 eLED
Princeton Tec Impact XL (LED)
Tektite Luxeon Star (LED)

Halogen/Xenon lamp modules are still useful in tannic water/open water but the future is most probably LED which is not best in daylit open water unless in the darkness of a wreck

spending approx ?500 on a scuba torch to take down a UK cave perhaps implies you could be interested in HID Technology, my own personal view is this wouldn't be a prudent expense for UK caves alone......

I don't think there is a single lamp best suited to both activities but the above 4 are a good starting place.

Others mileage may vary!

Regards, Matt S
 
M

MSD

Guest
Many high-power diving torches are not suitable for dry caving because they will overheat and burn out if used in air. Many are also rather delicate, particularly HID lamps.

Mark
 
J

jeskynar

New member
they will overheat and burn out if used in air. Many are also rather delicate
Click to expand...
Two very good points, thanks!

LED is not best in daylit open water unless in the darkness of a wreck
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I understand - why?

spending approx ?500 on a scuba torch to take down a UK cave
Click to expand...
I wasn't suggesting I would consider spending anything like that amount!  I just discovered the Scurion which might go down to -20m so could be suitable for caving/diving/ocean - anything else like that?
 
Leclused

Leclused

Active member
In a few weeks the following site goes live http://www.serv-light.com/

This about a new cave-lamp which is currently tested by cavers and cave-divers. One diver did a dive with it to -130. But the maker of the lamp does guarantee that. The maker is an Belgian caver.

I'm waiting for the price to decide to buy or a sten or a servlight.

Br

Dagobert
 
Leclused

Leclused

Active member
Site has been updated and says Release end of October.

So by end of next week ..... come back and see.
 
M

MatthiasM

New member
Now it is updated. Looks interesting, but still lamp only, no batteries available, they recommend highly NiMh (and plan later to sell NiMh only). Seems that they had some bad experiences with LiIon? :-\
And currently no price informations at all.
Maybe that this lamp together with good batteries (yes, I would prefer 1s LiIon far over 3s NiXx...) in a still to be defined watertight battery box will be the first real competitor against scurion (as both claim to be nonmagnetic).
 
Cave_Troll

Cave_Troll

Active member
rated to 5m depth but we've tested it to 130m depth...

ermmmmm

they seem quite proud of 130m but not proud enough to rate it to 40m
 
Leclused

Leclused

Active member
Price : please ask them

About the waterproof depth I was only speaking for myself. (I have nothing to do whith the manufacturer of the lamp, I'm only thinking of bying one  ;))

I heard from first hand that the lamp was tested to that depth. But the producer is not whiling the guarantee that. But is stating the same diving trip as I was speaking about.

As far as I know there is only ONE lamp (not battery) that is guaranted for diving depths and that is the Nova.

BR

Dagobert

 
Leclused

Leclused

Active member
Some price reference for this lamp can be found in the comment of the following post (french blog of some friends).

2nd post on this link http://exploscm.canalblog.com/archives/2008/10/index.html

http://exploscm.canalblog.com/archives/2008/10/27/11128779.html#comments

The prices were quoted by a lady I know and I'm sure that the prices indicated are a good reference.

shipping: 26 euro
Two SSC P4 leds+one CreeP4 (standard C01 website): 179,00 euro VAT incl.
One SSC P4, one P7+one CreeP4: 215,29 euro VAT incl.
Two SSC P7 + one CreeP4: 251,59 euro VAT incl.

IMHO opinion the 3rd configuration is a bit overkill for caving unless you are doing a lot of deep pitches. I would go for configuration 1 or 2.

BR

Dagobert
 
D

devilgas

Guest
to continue with matt's LED suggestions, the torches i helmet mount are:
mini Q40 eLED (only 1w LED but still sufficient)
aqua star 3W LED (not particularly bright and has a twist on twist off action)
northern diver 3W LED (good brightness, relatively narrow beam, slide switch but a little bulky)
lenser frogman 3W LED (tight beam, best brightness of these 4, good burn time, decent switch [the older ones are twist on / twist off so avoid them!!!] and fairly compact)

all are easily helmet mounted, with my personal preference being the frogman. at  c?30 a pop they are excellent value as either a primary or backup lamp.
 
Cave_Troll

Cave_Troll

Active member
this is odd as i've found the frogman to be not as good as the Q40. I'm also not a fan of the switch as have seen more than one break off.
Twist-on/off are not a problem as long as you don't turn them off underwater. with LEDS when Diving, i tend to not turn my torch off.
 
D

devilgas

Guest
Cave_Troll said:
this is odd as i've found the frogman to be not as good as the Q40. I'm also not a fan of the switch as have seen more than one break off.
Twist-on/off are not a problem as long as you don't turn them off underwater. with LEDS when Diving, i tend to not turn my torch off.
Click to expand...

re-did the test of the q40 using the same batteries as are in the frogman and got identical results. so, i stand by the q40 being the least powerful of those i tested.  have got some luminance figures etc on the page now, although dunno if my methodology is how it's supposed to be done  :-\
horses for courses with switches. OP was after a dual purpose lamp and mine also get used on open water dives so the ability to easily switch them on and off without increasing the risk of the lamp flooding is a plus for me. will change my tune if i manage to break the switch though  :eek:
 
P

potholer

New member
Unless you're trying to get figures comparable with someone else's tests, as far as the brightness goes, I guess you could lose the second table ("Luminance / Illuminance Results") since the luminance figures are basically the same as in the first table, just divided by ~70.

Do any of the manufacturers quoting long burn times give any indication of the dimming over time?

Regarding the serv-light, unless the P7 version is driven harder, I wonder if the difference between P4 and P7 configurations is even noticeable, let alone worth paying the extra for?
 
footleg

footleg

New member
I'm looking into the options of using LEDs for video lighting. What is the cheapest product I can get to try out a P7 or P4 LED for this purpose? Doesn't need to be cave proof as this is just to test the camera with at this stage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top