Your journey to explore the underwater world will need you to carry a few basic equipments. One key item you must bring along is a diving flashlight. Not just any flashlight; you will want to have the best scuba diving flashlight on your dives.
A good choice of diving flashlight will automatically enhance your experience underwater. You see, colors appear a little bit different underwater than they look above ground. For instance, when you are past 3 feet; it becomes quite impossible for you to see color red. The same happens to color yellow when you are past 9 feet.
By the time you get 30 feet deep, practically all colors disappear and everything you see will either appear as blue or grey in color. The underwater world is inhabited by multiple fish species plus many different mammals and some rare creatures that you haven’t seen before. These animals usually have brilliant colors but since the deeper you go the less color your naked eye will be able to see, it’s easy to miss out on a lot of sea beauty.
Additionally, there are countless spots in the inner depths of the water that are ideal for taking photos. Nonetheless, proper illumination is often necessary for one to take good pictures underwater because good lighting will enable you to relish the full spectrum of colors of different forms of life underwater. Diving with the best scuba flashlight is also important for safety reasons especially when you are going for night dives. As you dive deeper and deeper, the more and more need there’ll be of having a flashlight for clear deep sea vision.
There are quite a number of different brands and types of dive lights that can give you good value for your money. What you must realize though is that there’s no specific scuba flashlight that is universally the best. Of course there are some cool options you should check out on Amazon like the UK SL3 eLED Dive Light, UK Mini Q40 eLED PLUS 2 Watt Dive Light, Underwater Kinetics Aqualite Video 90degree, ScubaPro Nova 700 Lumen Rechargeable Scuba Diving LED Light, Diving Flashlight iGearPro Ultra Bright LED Light, Trident LED Light Stick Dive Light and the Esky 500 Lumen CREE Lamp LED Submarine.
Whether or not you’ve carried the best scuba diving flashlight will mainly depend on the kind of dive you are going for and the particular flashlight you’ve carried. This is crucial to understand because dive situations and scenarios vary extensively. So as you shop for the best diving flashlight, let your decision be based on your dive needs and the environment of your scuba diving destination. That being said, let’s look at some common types of dive lights that you can consider choosing from.
Primary Diving Lights
Primary dive lights are generally very bright, highly durable and guarantee a long run time. For this reason they can be used for both day and night dives. Due to their incredible lighting power, they often will be slightly larger than many other common dive lights. Also, primary dive lights will usually come with a pistol or lantern grip. For dives that you really want to have as much lighting as possible, these are the best dive lights to go for. They provide a powerful beam of light in all the dark areas underwater giving you the best opportunity to see all the weird creatures in the deeper parts of the waters with their natural colors just as they would appear above ground.
Secondary Diving Lights
Secondary dive lights are also referred to as ‘back-up’ dive lights since they are primarily intended to provide lighting to a diver in cases where the primary dive lights you may have carried fail. They consequently are smaller than primary dive lights, quite compact and significantly lightweight. They also provide a narrower beam compared to the primary dive lights. Thanks to their small size, secondary dive lights can fit in your BC pocket and may come handy when you want to have clear vision inside reef cracks or under ledges. Some of the secondary dive light designs will have mask attachment straps to allow for hands-free viewing and lighting.
Photography and Video Lights
If you would like to take back home some photos or videos from your dives, these are the dive lights you should consider purchasing. These dive lights produce a wide bright beam of light that helps to light up all the sea mammals, creatures or areas that you would like to take photos of. Most photography/videography dive lights have adjustable power settings that make it possible for you to either turn down the power so that there isn’t any overexposure effects or fill in lighting and colors where need be in order to take better photos and videos.
Disposable and Rechargeable Diving Lights
Are you a frequent diver or do you spend considerably long periods before you go for your next dive? Those who dive frequently should consider buying rechargeable dive lights. Their initial cost is usually high but you end up saving money because you don’t need to constantly get new batteries. However, if you are not a very frequent diver; the disposable dive lights can be a better option because rechargeable batteries tend to go bad overtime and this may happen before you make full use of your flashlight.
Xenon, LED and HID Dive Lights
You will find many Xenon dive lights practically everywhere you shop because they are rather cheap and a good number of divers prefer them. Be warned though that they cannot cinch the brightness of LED and HID lights plus they use batteries quicker than LED and HID dive lights. LED and HID lights are famous for their unparalleled brightness, energy efficiency and durability. Xenon on the other hand has a more vibrant color rendering than the two. Xenon dive lights produce warm natural colors unlike LED and HID which only give a bluish color that is more or less like what you get from a florescent bulb.
Key Features to Consider
So now you know the different scuba diving flashlights that are out there and the pros and cons of each type. Probably what you need to know now is the features you should look for to determine the flashlight that is perfect for you.
Flashlight Size – make sure you choose a flashlight that has a size that you are comfortable with. Do you prefer a more compact design over a larger one? This is essential to mull over as you shop for a flashlight.
Beam Diameter – some flashlights give a narrow beam while others produce a wider beam. Most divers prefer tight narrow beams because they make it easier to look into crevices. But the choice still remains yours.
Brightness – here the trick is simple, the brighter the flashlight the better. Especially if you are planning a night dive, you will need a bright wide beam for better vision underwater because the idea will be to increase your visibility as much as possible.
These are the three main things to consider that can help you make a wise choice of the flashlight to buy. Nevertheless, other factors you may want to keep in mind too include the grip style, batteries (rechargeable or disposable), lamp type and shape of the flashlight. And remember: Never forget your dive computer when you go out there!