Whether venturing into a cave, exploring a wreck or diving to depths beyond the reach of the sun’s rays, tec divers need to carry their own illumination. Canister lights are popular because they offer long burn times yet are easy to use. By separating the battery pack from the light head, you’re able to mount the pack somewhere on your rig so you only have a compact light head to hold and point. Many light heads are fitted with hand mounts, leaving the fingers free to operate reels and other gear. Backup lights that burn bright for their size are also important.

Primary Lights

		Dive Rite LED-LUXThe LED-LUX offers the brightness of HID with the extended burn times of LED, cranking out about 1,000 lumens of illumination for an impressive six hours of burn time. It offers a blazing 6,500-degree Kelvin color temperature to a depth of 500 feet. ScubaLab’s test showed that the LED-LUX registered a white-hot center spot of 9.5 exposure value from a distance of six feet. A mini light head houses three LEDs, powered by a rechargeable NiMH battery and connected to a durable PVC battery canister via a 3.5-foot cord. The light head comes with an elastic hand mount or optional Goodman metal hand mount. $799 www.diverite.com
OMS Phantom LED3-KThe Phantom LED3-K uses three diodes and a large lithium battery pack to crank out 1,100 lumens of light for up to 7.5 hours of burn time. It produces an extremely bright spot beam with a light-meter reading of 10.7 EV at a distance of six feet. Its Mil-spec hard-coated light head and PVC canister are depth-rated to 800 feet. The light head can be held in your hand, clipped off to a D-ring or mounted to an optional Goodman handle. The on/off switch is located at the base of the light head and has a lockdown screw to prevent accidental activation. $1,500 www.omsdive.com

Backup Lights

		OMS Vega K2 LEDOMS’ Vega K2 has been upgraded with a brighter LED with higher-color temperature and a more focused beam. In past dive-light tests, the original Vega registered 7.1 EV on our digital light meter at a distance of six feet, but this retooled Vega K2 delivers 8.8 EV, a substantial uptick in beam brightness. Yet it’s still a compact torch housed in a rugged aluminum housing. Depth rated to 330 feet, it’s fitted with a double O-ring twist-on lens and offers a burn time of three hours on twin CR-123A lithium batteries. $146 www.omsdive.com
Dive Rite Intova LEDThe Intova is a superbright backup with a pinpoint beam. Its 4.7-watt Luxeon LED is focused and produces a concentrated spot that’s smaller in diameter than other backup lights but makes up for it in brightness, registering 9.8 EV on our light meter from six feet away. Housed in an anodized aluminum casing, the light will give you from six to eight hours of burn time on a set of batteries and is depth-rated to 400 feet. It features triple O-ring protection, a magnetic on/off switch and comes complete with batteries, lanyard and nylon pouch. $69 www.diverite.com