eled vs hid

[Lucky(AR)]

I was just wandering peoples opinion i just bought a uk hid light but now im hearing the new uk eled is the way to go ? only experience i have with leds is the q 40plus and its great for a backup small light.... just wandering how the eled will compare to the hid though?

[BSea]

That's a good question. I'm thinking of getting a can light in the near future, but I may wait a little longer to see what is on the horizon for LED technology. I have a salvo rat light for a backup. It's LED, and has really impressed me. It penetrates better than any LED light I've seen. It's not as bright as a 10w HID, but then it isn't advertised as a primary light.

What I would like to see is a side by side comparison of both the handheld dive rite HID & their new LED handheld. They retail for the same price & look identical. But how do they perform?

[ScubaToys Larry]

HID's are much brighter... Led's are more indestructible. Me... I have a UK Hid, and it's amazing. And for some reason, theirs blows away a lot of the cannister HID lights that cost 3 times as much.

In the beginning they had some bulb issues where they didn't last very long, and at $75 a bulb... that was not too good. But I have over 100 dives on mine now with no problems.

[BSea]

I will say, if you are looking at the UK light cannon, that it really does put out some light. Last year at the flower gardens, a diver had 1 of those. It looked like a search light underwater.

[TxHockeyGuy]

Originally Posted by BSea

I will say, if you are looking at the UK light cannon, that it really does put out some light. Last year at the flower gardens, a diver had 1 of those. It looked like a search light underwater.

Yikes, I don't think you should be taking that powerful of a light into blue water. I plan to use my eLED on low power in blue water.

[ScubaToys Larry]

Originally Posted by TxHockeyGuy

Yikes, I don't think you should be taking that powerful of a light into blue water. I plan to use my eLED on low power in blue water.

You'll think that... that will last for about a minute, then you'll be on High beam for about a minute... then you'll follow a guy with a HID the rest of the dive! Ahhh .. Errrr ... Aaarrrrggg.. More Power!

[thesmoothdome]

I've got a UK Light Cannon HID and a PT Shockwave LED. I've had both lights in the water at the same time and can definitively say that both are good lights and I'd be comfortable with either light. The LC is downright amazing though. It's a huge, powerful beam. The updside of the LED is that the batteries last upwards of 12 hours compared to 3 to 4 for the HID.

[Lucky(AR)]

thats great input i dove for the first time with the uk hid light cannon and it blew all the other guys using the princton shockwave 2 lights out of the water ...no comparison i guess since i have i will stick with it just didnt want my fellow divers to out do me...lol

[BSea]

Originally Posted by TxHockeyGuy

Yikes, I don't think you should be taking that powerful of a light into blue water. I plan to use my eLED on low power in blue water.

I'm with larry. The more power the better. Besides, the LED I had (Shockwave LED) was good, but it didn't penetrate very well. Give me the power, then I can decide how much to use.

[JahJahwarrior]

I asked about the lights recently at my LDS, and they showed me a Salvo handheld HID that they reccomended. It uses a different bulb (Brightstar?), is lighter and shorter than the DR, and comes standard with a rechargeable battery and charger, which'll give you about 2.5 hours run time.

They also reccomended that you go with the Rat as a backup, or as a "baby primary," but that if you did plan to use it as a primary, the Rat Jr. had a much more focused beam and they would actually advise using it.