EXTRA
March 2000
LAMP STANDARDS
HOW DO THEY PERFORM?
Lamps are described in ascending price order, and the beams thrown in the test are inset:
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Technisub Lumen 4 The cheapest lamp in our selection, it gave an intense hot-spot and a little halo effect. We liked its anatomical shape and were impressed by its three-position switch. We found the batteries rather fiddly to install. Useful as a general torch, it makes a good back-up light to have in your BC pocket. £16. |  |
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Princeton Tec 40 Although this was the least bright light in our selection, it has a fairly broad halo around its centre hot-spot, which makes it better than just a back-up light for use as a last resort. We certainly did not like the fact that it has to be switched on by screwing the front rubber-covered shroud down on to the water-sealing O-ring because, besides affecting the shape of the beam, it is also at risk of flooding in the hands of all but the most nimble-fingered. £17, including batteries. |  |
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Technisub Lumen 6 More batteries than the Lumen 4 means that this is a bigger torch than its marginally cheaper brother. The differences in hot-spot size and brightness were surprisingly less than we expected, nor is the burn-time claimed to be much longer. Again, the batteries were fiddly to insert. £17. |  |
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UK Mini Q40 Supplied with a mask-strap mounting, this is really nothing more than a lamp to be used in an emergency to read gauges during an ascent after your main light has failed. Then again, we didn't trust the method of switching it on and off by screwing the front rubber-covered shroud down on to its O-ring and felt that you might find it had flooded when you came to use it in earnest. It gave good brightness in a tight cone of light. £17, including batteries. |  |
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UK SL4 This gave good brightness in its class, in a very tight cone of light. This is a useful size to have as a stand-by and could be used as a primary diving light for a night dive if you are happy to dispense with peripheral vision. A through-body switch is positive to use and the reflector assembly has a rubber shroud. £24, including batteries. |  |
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Ikelite PCa This little lamp might produce only a small centre-spot of light but this comes with a relatively massive peripheral halo which makes it eminently suitable as a primary diving light. Not terribly bright, though bright enough, I would prefer to have two of these than many single lamps of twice the price. The latest models have a safety lock on the on/off switch. We liked the push-in and clamp-down system for sealing it after fitting its six AA batteries. Apparently no lanyard is supplied as standard. £26, including batteries. |  |
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Cressi-Sub Lucciola 3 Very similar to the Mares Lucilla in name and by nature, this more ordinary-looking torch distinguishes itself with a magnetic switch which means no through-body connection and almost neutral buoyancy in sea water. Three C-cells are easily installed and two O-rings keep them dry. Not a particularly bright lamp, it is still very usable as a primary diving light. £26. |  |
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Technisub Quartz MkII This lamp can be used with either four or eight AA batteries in an easy-to-load carriage. It was one of the first diving torches I ever owned and its small output reveals the age of its design. However, its magnetic on-off switch with no through-body connection is probably the most sophisticated among all those lights listed here, and its transparent material allows you to check for leaks without disassembling it. £28. |  |
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UK SL6 Providing a useful output with a cone of light as big as some lanterns, this torch has justifiably been a favourite with many divers for years. Like the Lumen 6, it is rather big to stow in a pocket as a back-up light, so in some ways it is less useful than the smaller but otherwise similar UK SL4, and has been superseded by later Underwater Kinetics performers that cost little more. Still effective as a primary diving light, its compact dimensions and lack of air-space make it unusually heavy in the water. £29, including batteries. |  |
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Mares Lucilla A sexy little torch which gives a bigger cone of light than most rivals, at the expenses of overall brightness. Batteries are easily inserted and the Lucilla is double-O-ring protected. It's fine to use as a primary diving light to which your eyes will become accustomed, provided that you are not diving with someone using something much brighter. The novel rubber lanyard doubles as a safety peg in the on/off switch. £30. |  |
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Pelican Super SabreLite A disappointing light that gave a very tight, intense yet messy hot-spot of light and nothing else. We felt that the "screw-down-on-to-the-O-ring" on/off switch might easily precipitate a leak in the hands of someone who was less than careful. As with other lamps that use the same system, this is nothing more than a cheap solution to a manufacturing problem. There is a useful clip for attaching the light to an epaulet of your BC. This is not really a primary diving light. £30. |  |
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Princeton Tec 400 This little torch gives a tight yet even beam with excellent brightness. The front reflector assembly proved hard to reposition in the dark in a hurry but the transparent plastic shroud allows you to check for minor leaks without taking it apart. The on/off switch is easily operated but there is no safety catch. The reflector assembly carries a spare (lower wattage) bulb. The Tec 400 is also available with a wide beam reflector as an option. £30, including batteries. |  |
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Ikelite PC Like its smaller sibling PCa, this is a very useful light. Rated among the higher outputs of light among other torches here, its hot-spot was not very neat, but it made up for that with a large peripheral halo. The four C batteries were easily installed and we liked the Ikelite "squeeze shut and clamp closed" system. Like the PCa, the latest models have a safety lock on the on/off switch, but we wondered why no lanyard was supplied. £31, including batteries. | |
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Princeton Tec 600 We got exactly the same performance from this lamp as with the cheaper and smaller Tec 400, proving that more batteries and a bigger bulb do not automatically add up to a greater amount of light output. So, excellent though this torch is, why pay more than the cost of its little brother? Again, as with the Tec 400, a wide beam reflector is an option. £35, including batteries. |
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Technisub Mini Vega This is among the cheapest of the pistol-grip style "lanterns" reviewed here. It gave a relatively high output but in a cone of light more usually found from a smaller torch. A nice-looking Italian design, we were denied appreciation of the trigger-style on/off switch because the example sent for test was faulty (though luckily we could use the "on" position to facilitate testing). £40.. |
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UK C4N/R This is one of the attractive new mini-lantern designs which are beginning to make their presence felt in dive stores. We expected a lot from this new Underwater Kinetics product but were disappointed to find that the output was more puny than we would have liked, and although it gave a large spread of light, it was rather patchy. It does have the advantage of a switch that moves either of two bulbs into the firing line, thereby protecting you from the danger of having a bulb blow under water. It has a good safety-catch and the bezel has a rubber shroud. In the water the C4N/R weighed very little. £40, including batteries. |  |
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Princeton Tec Mini Wave Another of the new generation of mini-lanterns, this one has a nice even spread of light but a puny brightness that proved to be among the least powerful in our line-up. However, its light was much more even than that of the superficially similar UK C4N/R and the torch less buoyant. The on/off switch has a good safety catch and the bezel has a rubber shroud. Our advice? If you want one, go for a rechargeable model if you can afford it. £44, including batteries. |  |
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Ikelite RCD Long established as a favourite with dive centres and liveaboards which hire out lamps for night dives, the Ikelite RCD is a full-size pistol-grip lantern that has the unique press shut and clamp tight feature on its battery compartment that avoids crinkled O-rings and consequential leaks. It also has an efficient safety catch on its on/off switch. It gave a much tighter cone of light than we expected but the light was commensurately brighter. The front reflector assembly comes with a rubber shroud - but why no lanyard? £46, including batteries. |  |
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UK D4 Replacing the popular UK 400, this new lamp from Underwater Kinetics has the two-bulb feature now included in most of its newest designs, overcoming the problem of blown bulbs during a dive as the replacement is easily substituted by flicking the switch. Early versions were very stiff to operate but that problem seems to have been cured and there is an efficient safety catch. A useful light output over a large even spread distinguished this lantern as one of our favourites among those that use ordinary batteries. £46. |  |
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Technisub Vega 2 This avant garde design from Italy comes with an exceptionally long burn-time (16 hours) at the expense of a reduced light output, and it has a more fragmented hot-spot than some rivals. It felt a little front-buoyant at first but this was balanced by the position of the handle at the rear. It has a cleverly designed lockable switch which also has a "pulse" position. We suggest that if you want to use this (or other) lamps to flash a signal, block it with your hand rather than switching it on and off. That way, the bulb is less likely to blow. £58. |  |
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Princeton Tec Shockwave Another of our favourite lanterns, this is an over-sized mini. It was not very bright overall but the cone of light it emitted was very wide and extremely even, with an enormous additional halo. We liked the small size of the torch, the balance of it in the hand under water, and the positive action of its switch. Its eight C batteries were installed with no problems. Altogether this proved to be a very agreeable lamp. £60, including batteries. |  |
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Pelican Brite Lite Its dual O-ring protected with an easy-to-use switch (with safety catch), this lantern has been around in this form for some time and indicates just how far other designs have come. It is big and front-buoyant, because there is so much air in its 10cm reflector. Without the optional lump of lead in place in the battery compartment it was better balanced but tended to float. Its dual-element bulb gives redundancy at the expense of a particularly patchy cone of light that was neither circular nor easy to measure. The brightness reading we made belies the fact that it was only a tiny area of the patchy beam which gave us the maximum reading. Choose the stippled wide-angle reflector option. £72, flood or spot. |  |
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NiteRider Sea Torch This lamp evolved from a battery-pack designed to take a lamphead on an umbilical lead. The manufacturers have replaced the belt fitting with a clip-on handle and the female screw-in connector with a torch-sized reflector and tiny lamp. Remarkably, it proved one of our favourites in use. It gave a good maximum brightness in a very even form over a large, perfectly formed disc of light, accompanied by a wide halo. The on/off switch could have been improved with a safety catch and installing the five D batteries was a little fiddly. The compact size and small amount of air-space in the Sea Torch is reflected in a relatively heavy in-water weight (370g). No lanyard was supplied. £74. |  |
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Birchley SL British-made by a small independent manufacturer, this lamp is very dinky in size and was found to be almost perfectly neutrally buoyant in sea water. It was by far the brightest light tested here but it produced that light in a very tight cone, with quite a messy peripheral halo. We thought it more useful as a long-range signalling lamp on the surface than for diving but if you want an intense but tight light, look no further. Its on/off switch proved a little difficult to use under water. £84, including charger. |  |
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UK C4R These new mini-lanterns are more acceptable in rechargeable form because they need that brightness of output to be really effective. This one has two bulbs, either of which can be easily selected under water. One is very bright and the other is similar to that of the model which uses ordinary batteries, giving a choice of burn-times - it proved to be bright and gave a useful-sized cone of light. The C4R has a switch with a good safety catch. £90, including charger. |  |
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Princeton Tec Mini Wave R This was one of the best torches we tested. Without the dual-lamp redundancy of the very similar UK C4R, it nevertheless gave a much more even and acceptable cone of light with no trace of the patchiness of its immediate rival. A pleasure to use, in common with other mini-lanterns, it was well balanced, if a little toy-like. It has a switch with a good safety catch, and takes up no space in the dive bag. £91, including charger. |  |
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Pelican King Pelilite This is the "super-trouper" among all the lamps in this sub-£100 line-up. Eight D-cells will run it for up to 12 hours, so one set of batteries will certainly see you through a week's worth of night dives. The handle can be set one of two ways, whichever is more comfortable, but unfortunately neither is particularly comfortable because of the enormous frontal buoyancy of the unit. This is reflected in the fact that out of the water it weighs 2135g but in the water only 250g (the same as a UK SL6 torch), even with the optional lump of lead in place in the battery compartment. This lamp has a twin-element bulb to give redundancy under water, though at the expense of a very messy beam of light. We suggest that you go for the optional stippled reflector rather than using the spot-reflector we tested. £92, flood or spot. |  |
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Birchley YL This lamp squeezes in under the £100 barrier only if you buy it with a 12v charger (for use with a car or on a boat) rather than a 220/240v mains unit. It gave one of the brightest centre spots but with little or no peripheral halo. Its positive buoyancy was a positive nuisance and it felt rather cheap and brittle compared to most of the other lights reviewed here. The switch felt a little imprecise too. We thought the Birchley SL proved a much better choice than this older design. £94, including charger. |  |
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Mares Arturo 6 Italian-made and typically over-designed, this lamp is normally supplied with either a 6v or 12v ni-cad battery pack and as such breaks our £100 price barrier. However, fit the 6v power booster with 5D cells (there's a tool concealed in its handle to facilitate this) and it's only £99. The power booster is quickly fitted by a bayonet, presumably so that you can have other replacements standing by. Physically one of the biggest lamps in the review and one of the heaviest in the water, its output was average for a lantern, although it gave a nice soft glow from its car-headlamp-sized 10cm reflector. It was well-balanced in the water, despite a very large air-space at the front. The on-off switch is lockable and it has a bulb-blowing "pulse" position too. £99. |  |
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UK D4R The replacement for the long-time favourite UK 400R, the UK D4R gave one of the most satisfying and pleasant performances of all. Then again, it is the most expensive! A switch, which moves either of two bulbs into contact with the electrical current from its rechargeable ni-cad, gives the option of two light outputs (and burn-times). We tested it at the brightest setting. It gave a lovely even light, with such a gentle softening to the edge that it proved difficult to measure. This merged nicely with a massive halo. Ikelite, Princeton Tec and others produce worthy rivals to this lamp but break the £100 price barrier. £99, including charger. |  |
CONCLUSIONS
The disparate shapes and sizes of the beams thrown out in our test is just one indicator of how varied these 30 torches are. But brightness, burn-time, weight in the water, design and price also have to be weighed in the balance - water resistance too.
If it's sheer brightness you want, for instance, the Princeton Tec 400 and 600 models in the lower price range and the more expensive Birchleys will fit the bill, but consider the other factors.
My overall favourites were not necessarily the more expensive models, because a number of cheaper lights such as the UK 4, UK SL4 and Princeton Tec 400 emerge with great credit from our test. But you won't go far wrong if you splash out on the likes of the Nite Rider Sea Torch, Princeton Tec Shock Wave and Mini Wave R, or the UK D4R.
