Baltic sea diver here. Nice vid. Back here we use lights basically on all dives and over the years I´ve spent too much money on ... well, crap lights. The tip about spending as much as you can afford on a good light is really useful. Since 10+ years I use a caister and I love it, but if you consider the price it´s not something you tell your wife or want to think about.
Maybe a canister is not necessary for you, but something I try to recommend my friends is that if they buy a divetorch, to consider the plan for the future. If the plan is to go tech or to get a "better light" in the future, it´s good to get a torch that is still useful, as a backup or a travel light, after you upgrade. For example, the pistol grip is one may be good for some conditions, but as a backup or a travel light, not so much. A simple, robust torch is always a good choise.
Yeah, after years of going cheap on discount lights I got a Sola which I love. Live in Hawaii so it’s more than adequate. Baltic seems dark, cold and murky but if you love diving there you can probably do it anywhere.
Love my Sola. Yes, you need two lights on night dives. Preferably one with fresh standard batteries which last much longer than rechargeable. Everything he says is spot on. Been night diving 40 years. PS: If you do GoPro videos/similar at night you ought to use a wide-angle light ( just for video) or your videos will be overexposed in a ‘hot spot’ and under exposed elsewhere. Sola lights allows this as do several others.
Awesome video. Thanks for all the great info. We live in the Caribbean and could not agree more that at night every diver needs their own primary and backup light (5:06).
I'll say that Light & Motion make great lights and they back their product too. I had a Sola 500 that I purchased in 2010 and the battery finally died at the beginning of 2020. I called up Light and Motion to ask about getting it serviced and they gave me a 50% discount on a new light. Can't beat that with a stick!
Excellent explaination - I'm in the market for a replacement torch although this is 2022! - your info is still valuable and relevant info 2 years on Buddy 👍 👌
always check the battery type when shopping for lights, to see how much extra or replacements are for those lights. and length or burn for the light, so you can get the right light for your dives.
Awesome video, but you did miss one important aspect of underwater lights: beam angle! You want to choose a beam angle that is useful to the kind of diving that you're doing. Narrow beams are great for spotting, illuminating specific areas, signalling and have better penetration in low vis waters. They are generally terrible for underwater video though. Wider beams illuminate larger areas, and are often more useful for underwater video. Wide angle beams suffer of bad backscatter in low vis water.
Thanks for watching! I recorded a whole piece on beam Vs spot for this video, but it got cut in editing, because the whole film would have been over 10 minutes, and I'm trying (and failing!) to keep these videos around 5 minutes long! Beam angle, Beam Vs Spot, will get it's own video I decided!
Good topic. I made the mistake of getting a light that is toooo bright(for my video camera). It has a dimmer slider, but... it really is one of those that is either on or off. I'm gonna look into the hands-free wrist light. Here in the Philippines, we go down to 30m all the time for wreck dives(all recreational of course). Ready to start going deeper and got the course set up for when all this friggin quarantine stuff is done with- just at the rescue diver level currently. Appreciate your vids, James, thanks.
I would like to contribute that lumen selection should be driven by the type of dive you plan to do most. I have many lights and started small. What looks bright in a dive shop goes away very quickly underwater. I've made videos showing these comparisons. Generally, 500 lumens or more is a great place to start. Lights with multiple options are also good because super bright 3000 lumen lights can actually wash the color right off things you plan to look at up close. I've found 1000 lumen flash light style lights to be the most versatile.
I’m getting my advanced certification sometime in March, and I need 2 dive lights. I just want a light that’s bright enough for me to see a lot, but not bright enough to blind everyone in my group. I was wondering if you had any recommendations on good dive lights for beginners?
Always educational and thank you for this. I try to always carry two light sources on all night dives (Tovatec 530 and my UK Light Cannon pistol grip.) On other dives I generally just keep my tovatec attached to my top left D ring on my BCD.
Let me offer a suggestion. I have a canister and for a long time I struggled with the fact I could not reach the On-Off switch. I was wearing it on my side on the waist strap. One day I came up with the idea of putting two worm clamps on it with two bolt snaps and attaching it UPSIDE down on the mounting holes on my back plate. Perfect! Now I can reach it and it is even more protected sine it is behind my upper arm.
Be cool to see a video on cold water diving destinations. My experience on Vancouver island was incredible but feels like cold water diving doesn't get the attention it deserves.
Divers Ready just listened to you on the Scuba travel podcast, great to hear how you got to where you are. The road trip with Matthias Lebo and Bryan from Lake Hickory sounds awesome. Let’s hope it happens!!
I always bring two lights. But seeing as I'm getting more into technical diving, I'm in the market for a third. Currently considering either an Orcatorch D550, or something cheap from Tonelife.
I guess those one time light sticks are just useful in a truly emergency if you dive lights all are empty and you lost your dive buddy on a night dive. (Which means a emergency where everything possible went wrong.) This is the only situation were I would use them, because single use is just trash.
for some reason i keep forgetting to charge my wife's dive lights but somehow she makes it back to the boat. think i am going to talk her in to spearfishing :p
"As many lumens as you can afford", is good advice, but IMO somewhat incomplete. I would add that you can't cheap out on the torch too much, because weak torches are just useless both for seeing and for signalling. Better save up a bit more. And if you do go for loads of lumens, be sure to choose a model that includes reduced-brightness modes. 1000 lumens is my personal lower bound for moderate to low visibility. 500 probably ok if you only ever dive in clear waters and calm seas.
In my personal experience pre-pandemic regs often received little if any sanitisation between uses. Your best way to find out what/if centers are doing about it now, would be to directly ask the center you want to rent from.
Did you happen to give us any names of the specific flashlights you're using cuz I think I missed that. Like what brand ( name ) flashlight are they ? Unless I'm just slow as hell and missed it
Hi James, nice video like always with essential information. But I have as well a different request and question for the day after, the corona. What do you thing about social distancing and diving lessons, how would you accomplish with your student a alternative air ascent or rescue diver course, toe an unconscious diver an show how to give rescue breaths. All this without getting in contact with body fluids, or expose yourself and your students to any risk from exhaling and getting droplet infection. I thing we have to get over some training practice exercises, regardless training agency's. Especially as we have a lot of people outside that they dont know if there are infected as they have no symptoms. Appreciate your opinion about it. Best regards sends Lucky from Crete, Greece
You could use your snorkel to administer CPR. But today the general rule is to keep blood pressure up. That means 30-beats a minute and 1 or 2 breaths between.
Yeah rub it in. In these parts it's going to be as dark as a night dive below 15 meters with if your lucky 6 meters of visibility. With a 1000 lumen light i can see about 5 meters in front of me in good conditions. A light like that is pretty much mandatory for dives beyond open water level.
I kind of disagree with one point... *Lights should always be on.* Unless you're stowing it to work on something, you should always have it on your hand. It's a communication device!
Wow I fell asleep drunk six hours ago with nine different lights saved to my cart and then woke up to this vid on my home screen. Thanks
Why is this a mood
Baltic sea diver here. Nice vid.
Back here we use lights basically on all dives and over the years I´ve spent too much money on ... well, crap lights.
The tip about spending as much as you can afford on a good light is really useful.
Since 10+ years I use a caister and I love it, but if you consider the price it´s not something you tell your wife or want to think about.
Maybe a canister is not necessary for you, but something I try to recommend my friends is that if they buy a divetorch, to consider the plan for the future.
If the plan is to go tech or to get a "better light" in the future, it´s good to get a torch that is still useful, as a backup or a travel light, after you upgrade.
For example, the pistol grip is one may be good for some conditions, but as a backup or a travel light, not so much.
A simple, robust torch is always a good choise.
Yeah, after years of going cheap on discount lights I got a Sola which I love. Live in Hawaii so it’s more than adequate. Baltic seems dark, cold and murky but if you love diving there you can probably do it anywhere.
Love my Sola. Yes, you need two lights on night dives. Preferably one with fresh standard batteries which last much longer than rechargeable.
Everything he says is spot on. Been night diving 40 years.
PS: If you do GoPro videos/similar at night you ought to use a wide-angle light ( just for video) or your videos will be overexposed in a ‘hot spot’ and under exposed elsewhere. Sola lights allows this as do several others.
Awesome video. Thanks for all the great info. We live in the Caribbean and could not agree more that at night every diver needs their own primary and backup light (5:06).
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
I'll say that Light & Motion make great lights and they back their product too. I had a Sola 500 that I purchased in 2010 and the battery finally died at the beginning of 2020. I called up Light and Motion to ask about getting it serviced and they gave me a 50% discount on a new light. Can't beat that with a stick!
Excellent explaination - I'm in the market for a replacement torch although this is 2022! - your info is still valuable and relevant info 2 years on Buddy 👍 👌
always check the battery type when shopping for lights, to see how much extra or replacements are for those lights. and length or burn for the light, so you can get the right light for your dives.
Yep, good tip and reminder, thanks.
Awesome video, but you did miss one important aspect of underwater lights: beam angle! You want to choose a beam angle that is useful to the kind of diving that you're doing. Narrow beams are great for spotting, illuminating specific areas, signalling and have better penetration in low vis waters. They are generally terrible for underwater video though. Wider beams illuminate larger areas, and are often more useful for underwater video. Wide angle beams suffer of bad backscatter in low vis water.
Thanks for watching! I recorded a whole piece on beam Vs spot for this video, but it got cut in editing, because the whole film would have been over 10 minutes, and I'm trying (and failing!) to keep these videos around 5 minutes long! Beam angle, Beam Vs Spot, will get it's own video I decided!
Great video as usual. I have been using Big Blue lights recently. They very bright reliable and great for both video and everyday diving.
I think I missed the link for the glow tube. Did you post that?
Seems to literally be GLO-TOOB, for those still wondering
Good topic. I made the mistake of getting a light that is toooo bright(for my video camera). It has a dimmer slider, but... it really is one of those that is either on or off. I'm gonna look into the hands-free wrist light. Here in the Philippines, we go down to 30m all the time for wreck dives(all recreational of course). Ready to start going deeper and got the course set up for when all this friggin quarantine stuff is done with- just at the rescue diver level currently. Appreciate your vids, James, thanks.
DivePro clb200
@@lewislawson5461 thank you.
I would like to contribute that lumen selection should be driven by the type of dive you plan to do most. I have many lights and started small. What looks bright in a dive shop goes away very quickly underwater. I've made videos showing these comparisons. Generally, 500 lumens or more is a great place to start. Lights with multiple options are also good because super bright 3000 lumen lights can actually wash the color right off things you plan to look at up close. I've found 1000 lumen flash light style lights to be the most versatile.
I’m getting my advanced certification sometime in March, and I need 2 dive lights. I just want a light that’s bright enough for me to see a lot, but not bright enough to blind everyone in my group. I was wondering if you had any recommendations on good dive lights for beginners?
Always educational and thank you for this. I try to always carry two light sources on all night dives (Tovatec 530 and my UK Light Cannon pistol grip.) On other dives I generally just keep my tovatec attached to my top left D ring on my BCD.
Let me offer a suggestion. I have a canister and for a long time I struggled with the fact I could not reach the On-Off switch. I was wearing it on my side on the waist strap. One day I came up with the idea of putting two worm clamps on it with two bolt snaps and attaching it UPSIDE down on the mounting holes on my back plate. Perfect! Now I can reach it and it is even more protected sine it is behind my upper arm.
Thanks for the suggestion. Dive Safe!
Great info as always. Keep up the great work.
Be cool to see a video on cold water diving destinations. My experience on Vancouver island was incredible but feels like cold water diving doesn't get the attention it deserves.
I'm a cold water diver. Warm water is all snorkelling - a few wrecks is all that need scuba.
Great video. Love the detail
Thank you! Cheers!
First! As usual a fantastic review!
Thanks again!
Divers Ready just listened to you on the Scuba travel podcast, great to hear how you got to where you are. The road trip with Matthias Lebo and Bryan from Lake Hickory sounds awesome. Let’s hope it happens!!
Thank you very much!!!!
Thanks James!
Pelican all the way for me, 2 sabres on shoulders, 1 emergency, an old Aquasun for wrecks and caves.
Great video, as usual.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Where are the links to the mini light and your main emergency light? Good stuff
Joshua, right here! www.diversready.com/selections.html
I always bring two lights. But seeing as I'm getting more into technical diving, I'm in the market for a third. Currently considering either an Orcatorch D550, or something cheap from Tonelife.
Thanks for sharing! Dive safe.
Why do you carry on the left side? Would not be better on the right, away from low pressure inflator hose? [2:53]
I guess those one time light sticks are just useful in a truly emergency if you dive lights all are empty and you lost your dive buddy on a night dive. (Which means a emergency where everything possible went wrong.)
This is the only situation were I would use them, because single use is just trash.
for some reason i keep forgetting to charge my wife's dive lights but somehow she makes it back to the boat. think i am going to talk her in to spearfishing :p
James, just curious as to which tovatec light you use (lumens) I saw it was a fusion, but which one
Did you manage to find out which model it is? Thank you!
"As many lumens as you can afford", is good advice, but IMO somewhat incomplete. I would add that you can't cheap out on the torch too much, because weak torches are just useless both for seeing and for signalling. Better save up a bit more. And if you do go for loads of lumens, be sure to choose a model that includes reduced-brightness modes.
1000 lumens is my personal lower bound for moderate to low visibility. 500 probably ok if you only ever dive in clear waters and calm seas.
Good video , great format. Any info on covid 19 and rental gear ( regulator ) ? Thanks , keep it up !
What do you need to know? This is a shop to shop thing. I use Steramine Quaternary Sanitizing (used on rebreathers) to clean my students regs.
In my personal experience pre-pandemic regs often received little if any sanitisation between uses. Your best way to find out what/if centers are doing about it now, would be to directly ask the center you want to rent from.
Good info , would you consider a suptig light that attaches to a GoPro as a suitable back up?
Maybe i didnt see it yet but can you do one on fins?
ian tetreault I’ve got one in the pipeline!
Did you happen to give us any names of the specific flashlights you're using cuz I think I missed that. Like what brand ( name ) flashlight are they ? Unless I'm just slow as hell and missed it
If you plan to dive in Östersjö (Sweden), you need at least 3000 lumen.
I need a Pacific life though to go underwater or not
Hi James, nice video like always with essential information. But I have as well a different request and question for the day after, the corona. What do you thing about social distancing and diving lessons, how would you accomplish with your student a alternative air ascent or rescue diver course, toe an unconscious diver an show how to give rescue breaths. All this without getting in contact with body fluids, or expose yourself and your students to any risk from exhaling and getting droplet infection. I thing we have to get over some training practice exercises, regardless training agency's. Especially as we have a lot of people outside that they dont know if there are infected as they have no symptoms.
Appreciate your opinion about it. Best regards sends Lucky from Crete, Greece
You could use your snorkel to administer CPR. But today the general rule is to keep blood pressure up. That means 30-beats a minute and 1 or 2 breaths between.
Can you give me some advice on what to do with old dive gear?
send me
Not sure if you're still monitoring the comments a year later but do you have any thoughts to headlamp style lights?
Hi Dean... yes, they tend not to be too good because of your bubbles getting in the way and causing light refraction as opposed to a steady beam.
Yeah rub it in. In these parts it's going to be as dark as a night dive below 15 meters with if your lucky 6 meters of visibility. With a 1000 lumen light i can see about 5 meters in front of me in good conditions. A light like that is pretty much mandatory for dives beyond open water level.
Excuse my question. Why do I need a torch? In other words, if I am not doing night or cave dives, do I still need a torch?
It's not a mandatory accessory but you will see a lot more with a light (colors, inside caverns) etc
What's a good uk store to look for dive equipment?
Simply Scuba
what color gloves toob do you recommend??
Blue!
Lets do a video about lights oh my cannister light is in the shop
These videos are meant for recreational divers, while cannister lights are much rather a tool for techies. Any further questions?
I don't see the link for the glow light for your wife or stage bottle
how moch
Prices range, check online for best offers.
I kind of disagree with one point...
*Lights should always be on.*
Unless you're stowing it to work on something, you should always have it on your hand. It's a communication device!