Rob Andrews (Online)

I'm looking at getting my first backup light/s and wondered what others thought.

With a budget of around £95ish would you get:

a) a pair of photons
b) a single photon with LED upgrade
c) something else

If it makes a difference whatever I get will be a primary for a while as funds don't permit a primary light yet.

Cheers

Tricky(Offline)

I bought two Photons because I was able to afford two when I bought them. I usually only dive with one though as my buddy has the other. Still, I'd say get two and get the LED upgrades at a later date when you can afford them too.

__________________
"I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant."

"Make me one with everything" said the Mystic to the Hamburger vendor.

UK Diving Forum

Sryth: A Free Online Text RPG
Join the Adventure!

Fallen Sword: Free online RPG

ericfine50 (Online)

Get two back up lights (Photons) and go with LED later. It is better to have two back ups that one or none.

jluttichau(Offline)

My advise is based on my assumtion that a photon will give you the same result as a Halcyon scout (non-led).

If you're not doing any overhead diving i think that one normal backup light (non-led) would be more then enough. If you are going into overhead diving the normal backup lights will do as long as you're not beyond cave 1 penetration. When doing longer cave divers you would probably wan't the LED backups as they seem to give more light and that will ease communication during a long exit.

I don't think the benefit of the LED lights outweigh the cost. Save your money for that HID primary light, backup lights suck as primary.

Cheers
Jonas

StSomewhere(Offline)

You can do fundies with a primary light. They'll make you use it if you bring it, so make sure you've had a little practice with it first.

__________________
I gotta go where its warm...

Rob Dobson(Offline)

If you had a primary and were on a tight budget for the b/ups I'd say go for a pair of Photons or Scouts and then upgrade to LED later when funds permitted.

The normal (non-LED upgraded) Scouts and Photons I have seen have been utterly pathetic and unless you were in the depths of a cave somewhere (i.e in total darkness) I really don't see what use they would be to anyone.

I don't see how a normal Scout or Photon could be used for team communication or tracking a team member in anything other than total darkness.

You might be better off putting the money towards the primary or going for a single LED based B/up and an understanding and well equipped team.

ericfine50 (Online)

Rob,

The idea of the back up, is just that a back up. The primary goes and you call the dive. Diving in the Northeast and New England, we have viz is the 2 ft (totally crappy) to 30 foot. Sometimes very dark water. If your primary light goes, you pull out the back up, fire it up and your team can end the dive if it is agreed upon. You would put the OOL (out of light) diver in between the two divers with functioning primarys and continue the dive or abort.

The back up is not meant to be a replacment for the primary, but to give you some light. LEDs are really cool - they are something that are going to make the BU lights better, but if cash is tight, two BU first and the LED down the road. LEDs are more of a "want" than a "need".

Just my two cents.

Alastair(Offline)

I've actually been on a dive where my buddy lost his primary light and switched to a scout. We were on a 30m wreck and the vis was 3m odd. We re-ordered and carried on and I could see his light so it worked fine.

The LED's do look quite good but I'm quite happy with a pair of photon torpedo's (similiar to scouts) with the standard bulb.

Cheers
Al

__________________
Helium is our friend - GI3

Joe Hesketh (Online)

To slightly buck the overall trend here, I'd say spend all your cash at this point on one LED "backup" (scout or clone with LED or a Heser, etc.).

As you said, you plan on using this as your primary for now due to funds. That being the case, you want the best output you can. I've seen the Heser against a regular scout and there is no comparison. Also, if you're using this as a primary, the LED version will significantly improve your burntime.

I don't see the point in you getting two low powered lights at the moment. I am assuming that you are unlikely, for now, to be doing any diving (ie OH) where you actually "need" a backup. If you later buy a higher powered can light, then the small LED will make a very good true backup if your diving moves in that direction. You could then later add a second backup, or get a halogen scout/photon as a single backup to the LED (before buying a can light) if your diving progresses to where it would be merely "nice" to be carrying a spare light.

That said, I have two regular halogen scouts and don't plan to upgrade, but that's different as they only ever get used as backups where they do the job just fine and don't necessarily "need" to be incrementally brighter.

Joe

Rick(Offline)

Get a Heser now then buy a scout or similar later on if you plan on doing pen of any kind or whenever you have a spare £50!

Plenty of people get by on the standard scouts tho!:D

__________________
Forget Everything And Remember
http://phreaticzone.thedeepstop.com/
http://www.dublinbaydiving.com/