Am I allowed to recommend cheap chinese torches which has been serving me well? Or are haters gonna hate?
I bought the following two torches. I couldn't justify buying a 1000Lumen torch from my local dive shop for $300!!!
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CREE-Q5-LED- ... 2c5cd28d39http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1400LM-100m- ... 20c28ff59bTo get a bearing on brightness. A 3W LEDs shine at about 180 Lumens. The first torch above shines at 500Lumens, and the second shines at about 1400Lumens.
The first which cost $12 delivered is surprisingly bright. I have only been down to 10m (which is all I have tried) and it hasn't sprung a leak. I guess the plastic casing has some flex under compression without hindering the seals. At 10m+ I have no idea if it will hold up.
The 2nd is a beast. Very sturdy. A bit too heavy for my liking. If you do buy this torch make sure you buy one with the 18650L-Ion batteries (not the larger batteries). I've never seen a torch that size light up so bright. The only benchmark I have is one of those Dolphin torches we use to have when I was a kid. This dive torch shines brighter than that. Definately something you don't want to shine in someones eyes.
I actually lost the cheap torch while diving somehow. And it could have easily been the more expensive one if I was using it instead. So, I've decided to consider this part of my arsenel as disposable, like my knives. Because I seem to lose shit all the time. I lost my last knife rubbing up against rocks which engaged the release. So I've since bought a flat thin knife which sits in a tight "sticky" sheath (no release mechanism, has to be pulled out).
So I'll stick to knives which cost less than $40, and once I've lost the $70 (incl batteries and charger) torch, I'll stick to the $12 torches.