LIGHT TEKTITE EXPEDITION L5S

The Tektite Expedition LS5 lamp feels as if it should be hooked to one of those diver's belts, it's such a substantial lump of anodised metal.
They say that modern high-output LEDs are virtually indestructible, so I guess some numpty diver will end up using one as a hammer.
Outwardly, it's about as simple a bit of kit as a hammer. The main body is machined from one piece of aluminium, and it has a knurled section that gives a good hand-grip. The importer told me I could knock it around as much as I liked.
Besides the pristine one submitted for photography, he also sent an example that had been used by a well-known technical-diving guru.
He had obviously done what he was told to do. The anodising was a bit shabby, but the lamp still worked.
Everything about this lamp is solid, including the lanyard and its point of attachment. I'm
told that it meets FAA requirements for a commercial pilot's lamp, though why someone flying a plane would need a lamp that goes 330m deep is anyone's guess. I suppose it could be used for beating back would-be hijackers or subduing stroppy passengers delayed on their way to Lanzarote.
Despite its weighty appearance, it wasn't unbearably heavy once immersed and, relatively speaking, it isn't too expensive.

Light Source
The Luxeon III Star high-output 5W LED emits around 220 lumens. That's a lot of light for a single LED. And a solid Plexiglas reflector and lens won't let any of that light get wasted.

Power Source
Three regular C-cells will power this lamp for more than five hours at full power, but after that clever electronics come into their own, so that it continues to work at a reduced output for 10 more hours. You shouldn't be left in the dark during a dive.

Switching
This can be seen either as a weak point or a strength. The lamp uses the simple system of screwing down the front rubber-covered Lexan lamphead onto the batteries to make contact. There are no through-body connections that might leak but I've seen endless torches flooded because the user got confused between "righty-tighty" and "lefty-loosey" while under water.
The only safe way to use a torch like this is to turn it on before jumping in and off after climbing out of the water, even though it is double O-ring sealed. It then has the merit of utter simplicity.

Beam
The Tektite Expedition LS5 gave a very evenly distributed beam that had a diffuse hot spot at its centre and a wide peripheral beam so that you wouldn't miss anything not actually pointed at by the torch.
It was far from the brightest lamp on the block, but still proved very effective. It wasn't very useful during daylight dives on sunlit coral reefs, but things were different once night had fallen, or in the unlit recesses of a wreck.

COMPARABLE LIGHTS TO CONSIDER:
Dive Rite LED 500, £335
Oceanic OP33, £179

SPECS
PRICE £99
BATTERIES 3 x C
BURNTIME 5hr at full power
EXTRAS Lanyard
WEIGHT 575g inc. batteries
DEPTH RATING 330m
CONTACT www.lumb-bros-das.co.uk
DIVER GUIDE