LAMP Beaver Halo

I NEVER GO FOR A DIVE WITHOUT MY CAMERA. What would be the point? So I generally have a couple of flashguns with me, and these inevitably include a targeting light each, so I don’t really need an extra lamp.
However, sometimes I do need one, such as when making my way through the bowels of a wreck, and it’s at such moments that I’m grateful to be carrying a small but useful lamp in my BC pocket, or even stuffed down the neck of my wetsuit.
Swimming through the midship section of the Thistlegorm on a recent Red Sea trip is a case in point. That’s when I pulled out the Beaver Halo and turned it on to have a look around.
At 15cm long, the Halo is a neat little lamp, constructed in aluminium and anodised in black. It will fit into any BC pocket. Supplied complete with a lanyard, it’s a very attractive-looking item of kit.

Light Source
The Halo uses a modern high-output LED that looks nothing like a conventional bulb. It’s said to pump out more than 200 lumens, but it’s what arrives at the subject that counts, and that’s mainly down to the reflector design. The LED is set deep inside a parabolic reflector.

Power Source
Three AA batteries supplied with the lamp sit in a little plastic chassis located neatly inside the main body. They are claimed to be good for 3.5 hours of use, which augers well for a typical liveaboard trip with, say, three night dives in a week.

Switching
The rear end-cap that screws off to access the batteries also functions as a switch.
I am always suspicious about whether divers have sufficient dexterity to operate such a system without unwinding the cap too far and causing a flood.
However, in this case the two leak-proofing O-rings are spaced well apart, which should take care of any clumsy handling.

Beam
The beam is a very tightly concentrated spot, which means that ample light reaches the subject but nothing is spilled elsewhere. You get a lot of light delivered in one place.
The Halo is great for illuminating a single detail, and it certainly doesn’t blind other divers accidentally, but if you require something a little less selective or a bit more diffuse, this is not the lamp for you.
In fact, it probably delivers the tightest beam of any lamp I have recently used. I had to scan around with it constantly to find my way through the Thistlegorm’s main coal-bunker.
On the surface, I surprised everyone by projecting a perfect circle of light onto the white hull of a boat moored at night more than 100m from our own.
Another lamp-owner lit up the whole boat with his lamp, which also had a similar high-output LED but, of course, with a much broader beam it wasn’t very brightly lit.

COMPARABLE LAMPS TO CONSIDER:
Seac Luce, £69
TUSA IFLWA, £54
Scubapro Nova Light 230, £79

SPECS PRICE £75 LAMP Single 220-lumen LED BURNTIME 150 min DEPTH RATING 100m BATTERIES 3 AA (included) WEIGHT IN AIR 330g (including batteries) CONTACT www.beaversports.co.uk DIVER GUIDE