Light Cathx Ocean Euphos handheld

The Irish company specialises in supplying lighting equipment to the offshore diving industry, and engineers lighting, lasers and robotic vision systems for both divers and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
As such, these lamps are designed to operate in the harshest conditions and at extreme depths, including as deep as 6500m below the surface. Yes, you read that right.
All the engineering for this lamp is done in Ireland; the electronics are assembled in the UK.
The lamp is constructed from tough marine-grade alloy with a hard-wearing anodised or Teflon finish. Sealed for the duration of its working life, it looks like something liberated from a sunken submarine.
It weighs a mere 600g in air and is 185mm long, so it will fit into most BC pockets. If you do a lot of long-haul flights before diving, you could save a lot in excess-baggage charges.
The rear end has holes for a lanyard, and I recommend any owner to thread one to it and secure it at the start. You would be heartbroken to lose this expensive item over the side of a club RIB.

Light Source
Six high-output LEDs are arranged in a circle behind the single front glass of the lamp. I'm told that the output is a massive 1250 lumens. These LEDs are virtually indestructible, and
the whole lamp has been built to fill this brief.

Switching
The switching is slightly hard to understand until you have digested the contents of the manual. A spring-loaded rotating collar that can be operated by a single thumb has a magnetic connection with the electronic "smart" controller.
The switch operates on a short or long push, either to the left or right. A long push requires you to hold the collar against its spring for about a second. Switching is sequential, but the sequence can be operated either way.
Full-, three-quarter-, half- and quarter-power settings are possible.
There are also continuously flashing strobe and SOS settings. The lamp will run for 24 hours when either of these settings is activated.

Under Water
I found the beam to be very broad, very bright and very even. A little colder (bluer) than some other similar LED lights, it was accordingly very penetrative.
Under water, the Euphos Handheld weighs around 0.5kg, so it can be put down on a flat surface. If you paid for it, you'd hardly be likely to abuse it, but don't lend it to another diver. He might be inclined to use it as a lumphammer!

Power Supply
The Euphos uses the latest in rechargeable battery technology, in the form of a lithium-ion battery. It gives a 75-minute burntime at full power, or three hours at half power.
The switch controls four power settings, so this is reflected in the burntimes. The long push to the left switches the lamp off, but also displays the battery-life LEDs.
The charger converts to 15V from almost any mains supply. It takes seven hours to fully recharge a depleted battery.
The battery-capacity indicator sits in the centre of the ring of LEDs. Green indicates a full charge, while amber tells that half the battery capacity has been used. Red shows once it has only a fifth of its capacity left.
The lamp automatically dims to the lowest output setting once the battery charge is sufficiently reduced.
It also has a safety lock for travelling, accessed through its switch. This shows a sequence of light flashes in red, green and amber to indicate that it is initiated.

Charging
A short push of the switch will allow you to check battery status by way of the coloured LED. Through-case charging avoids the need to break into the lamp, so it should stay as leak-proof as the day you bought it.
You simply plug the charger leads directly to the two sockets at one end of the lamp.

COMPARABLE LAMPS TO CONSIDER:
Dive Rite LED-500, £370
Kowalski LED Rechargeable, £255
Oceanic OP33 (alkaline batteries), £180

SPECS
PRICE £595
BATTERY Lithium-ion rechargeable
BURNTIME 75min to 10hr, according to setting.
WEIGHT 620g
LIGHT SOURCE Six high-output LEDs
SWITCH Magnetic sequential
DEPTH RATING 250m
CONTACT www.cathxocean.com
DIVER GUIDE