Originally Posted by JohnnyC
I've been selling big blue for 4+ years. I haven't had a single light or charger come back for repair/warranty.
I have 2 that I use personally. I also have a LM21 a LM35, an UWLD35 and a few Dive Rites, except for the Dive Rite & Big Blue, I have sent back all of my lights for premature failure.
They use sketchy circuit protection and crappy chargers. Doesn't mean they don't function, they're just iffy. Like, aliexpress level sketchy charging circuitry. That's not a comparison against other manufacturers, just a standalone comment. Hell, one battery even blew up in a light apparently. Someone around here has pictures, @tbone1004 maybe?
Either way, that has nothing to do with the fact that they blatantly overstate their output. I mean, unless Big Blue has figured out a way to make physics not apply to their lights..... That sort of thing just makes it really hard to support a company that has no problem lying like that. That seems to be the flashlight world though. Flashlights and depth ratings for dive watches.
They are what they are. The one that blew up was a can light. They had a sealed metal canister with a threaded fitting on the cord you unscrewed and screwed in the charger. It was a bad design and basically a pipe bomb. A little corrosion or water in the fitting and a short could easily happen. I have heard of high end lights failing too. Now their video lights are hard to beat and their handheld dive lights are too. A 4500 lumen dive light is good for 3 hours and I much prefer the beam angle on it to the UWLD 3500. You can buy the 4500 handheld for 350 ish. For that price you can buy several batteries to go with it. Very few people are doing dives in excess of 3 hours of bottom time. You can click the light back a few notches and get 5 hours out of it. Are the other lights better? For 5 times the money they should be but are they 500% better? I don't think so.
I agree with big blue being the best choice. Also it goes along way to say you get a lot more bang for your buck. Even if the lights are overstated in brightness. They are a fraction of the cost of some of the bigger names.
Here is a compilation video we shot in Mexico this past fall. Shooting with a GoPro. 7 and two of the big blue VL 10,000 lights. One light with the camera. The other light was being held by divers in the shot or staged back in the frame to provide Additional lighting. Of course, all the divers had their normal canister lights as well.
https://youtu.be/Uu6MKZg7t3o
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I use Keldan lights and am really happy with them.
Here is DDunlop with the 2 keldans mounted on his scooter at emerald this past sunday. I had a big blue VL10,000 on my camera and another on the nose of my scooter.
https://youtu.be/YtgkqqHSEWg
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Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I'll be busy at Beneath The Sea this year comparing the options
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