HID or LED which do you prefer more for cave diving and why ??

[Bobby]

Edd has one that you can take to try out the next time you are over in that area. Don't blame me though if you can't do without it after you dive it though.

[Bobby]

Fortunately after a year of producing our own lights we have refined our processes, established volume with our suppliers, and made a few changes that have improved quality, production capability, and lowered costs. This allowed us to adjust our prices to you and our dealers to make our lights more affordable. I have no doubt you will like our new pricing as much as our new products, if not more.

[nkavallar]

Fortunately after a year of producing our own lights we have refined our processes, established volume with our suppliers, and made a few changes that have improved quality, production capability, and lowered costs. This allowed us to adjust our prices to you and our dealers to make our lights more affordable. I have no doubt you will like our new pricing as much as our new products, if not more.

WOW! The new prices are awesome! Thanks Bobby

[victorzamora]

WOW! The new prices are awesome! Thanks Bobby

Yeah they are. Maybe the fiance will be less likely to murder me?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

[a64pilot]

So how much is the price difference in list say old 26 price vs new 26 price?

[nkavallar]

Dive Rite in Scuba shows the prices as followed:

LD15 = $995
LD26 = $1295
LD35 = $1595

Looks to me like a $2-300 difference. But I could be wrong, I don't remember the exact prices

[Bobby]

The pricing has been reduced from $380.00 to $405.00 pending the exact model and options. It has taken us months of working with our suppliers to not only reduce our costs and make also make many improvements. Our machining tolerances are night and day better, improved color and deeper penetration of the hard coat type 3 anodizing. The Goodman handle has been improved considerably. Most already know about the new clip that light head snaps into and it doesn't break. We have also rounded all the corners and put a round profile on the back end of the base to make it more stable on your hand. We added a neoprene cover to the base and a scooter loop of shock cord that goes around the wrist to keep the light from shaking while scootering. We also got rid of the retainer clip on the flat elastic and added sewn in Velcro and have a much better and more consistent supplier for our elastic. Over all we think everyone will like all the improvements we have made along the way.

[jj1987]

The pricing has been reduced from $380.00 to $405.00 pending the exact model and options.

That's not quite the huge price drop I had hoped for

[a64pilot]

That's not quite the huge price drop I had hoped for

JJ,
I think he was saying $380 to $400 per light, not a price drop of $20

[a64pilot]

I just got back from and hour and half dive with Edd where we had a -15, a -35 and the new video light.
A few opinions of mine, remember opinions are like an orifice, we all have one.
From just pure output of light perspective the -35 still doesn't have the amount of light output of a LM-50. I did not take my LM-50 with me today, so it's an impression, not something I actually put one against the other. The LM 50 I think will shine a light further and beam focus is variable so you can spread out the beam like Bobby's light, in tight focus it's well more tightly focused than Bobby's light. But I'm pretty sure when you spread out the beam of the LM 50, you lose a lot of efficiency, in other words I think you lose a lot of light when you defocus the beam, I think the reflector has a "sweet spot" and get out of the sweet spot and it's inefficient, so while you can have a broad beam, I think you lose a lot of light doing so, so in broad beam Bobby's light may in fact deliver more light.
From a user friendliness perspective, Bobby's light simply blows the LM 50 out of the water so to speak. The LM battery is huge, the light head itself is quite large and long and tries to occupy the same space where I wear my computer. The LD 35 has three light levels and can be dismounted from the Goodman handle via the clip, it comes with two bolt snaps, one on the light and one on the handle. The light itself is tiny compared to the LM. It has what looks like about the same beam width the 26 does, but seems to have a little whiter light, or maybe just more light in the same or similar beam. I did not have a 26 with me so this is just what it seemed like. I think the 35 does do a better job of penetrating particulate, but I don't know why, maybe simply more light, or is there a little color difference?
The video light is, well a video light. In other words from a using it like a diving light, it's similar to walking in the woods holding a lantern in front of your face. But for doing what's its made for it is seemingly as good as if not maybe a little better than my LM 50 with a video reflector. My impression is Bobby's video light has more light output than a LM 50, but that's just my impression. As a video light it's outstanding. It has all the good features I like so much in the other lights, small form factor clip mounted, etc. It has a very unusual LED, I've never seen one like it before. I think maybe some kind of surface mount LED? Just very unusual looking, while I don't think it could be focused, if it could it would make one heck of a dive light.
I'd love to mount one of the video lights on the front of my scooter and hand hold the 35, that would be ideal, I think.

From an actual sidemount as in tight places, I think the -15 is maybe the ideal sidemount light. That surprised me, being the least expensive, I didn't expect that, but it's got a tighter beam and seemed to penetrate particulate very well, maybe better than the more expensive lights, and is I think more actual light output than we might think. So maybe I want a -35 for big cave and a -15 with the small battery for real sidemount stuff?

I used to say that HID's were still King, their days may be numbered, but they are still King.
Well, I now think that HID has gone the way of Halogen, it has been un-seated as King.