Daylight?

[crandf]

Hi, I'm new!

I'm looking for a light that will let me see better colours underwater during the day. Because after I went Bali, I was amazed at how the videos shot by a friend showed such vibrant colors compared to the overwhelmingly blue tones I saw.

I prefer LED for its battery life and whiteness. Not too concerned with how far its shine can reach because I plan to use it mostly to color up the things in front of me.
So far I've narrowed down to either the Princeton Miniwave LED with its 337lumens or the Shockwave LED with 400lumens. Any comments on those 2, or any other reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.

[BubblesMcCoy]

I've been really pleased with the miniwave. Great light for the price. Granted, I'm sure I'd love a more expensive UK, but I've got nothing bad to say about the princeton tech.

[rayaa3]

I have the older shockwave led (175 lumens)...

Here's my issue with daytime lights...

When I dive during the day, I carry a camera with strobe, which means my hands are usually busy...

I would want a smaller light which is easily stowed in a bc pocket or clipped away. My shockwave LED is a bit too big for daytime use, while carrying a camera and strobe.

These days you can get small lights that are very bright, the batteries just drain faster....

just something to think about in terms of any future plans to multitask with your hands.

Ray

[Daved]

If you are only looking to improve daytime light conditions--there use to be a mask which came "tinted". Not sure if they still make them? Larry?

[crandf]

Thx for the feedback.

Won't tinted masks make it very dim? Because the mask will filter out predominantly the blue spectrum, yet 20-30m underwater, light in the remaining spectrum is barely there anymore, so everything ends up being dark?

Rayaa3, I'm still keen on the miniwave though, but I might diy something to attach the miniwave to my forearm. BTW, which small lights are you referring to?

[CompuDude]

The problem is, daylight washes out lights. It's hard to compete with the sun. The brighter the ambient light, the more serious horsepower you need in your light.

Smaller lights will work fine for peering under dark ledges, but frankly in clear water and good conditions, a $2k 21w HID canister light gets pretty washed out.

If you're diving clear warm water and you want to light up the deeper sections of the reef, you'd best be looking at HID. LED will get there at some point, but they just don't have the raw oomph of HID at this point. I'd consider the UK Light Cannon (a 10w HID) to be a good starting point.