What are HID Lights?

There are many different dive lights to choose from, HID lights being one of them.

You have your run-of-the-mill dive lights made for the average diver and then there are the big boy, strap it to your tank, brighter than daylight, super techie flashlights.

Where do HID lights fall on this spectrum?

Actually HID lights are available to everyone from the weekend diver to the seasoned cave diver. HID stands for high intensity discharge. These lights are state of the art and provide brilliant, full spectrum light without sacrificing battery time.

But how do HID lights do it?

Have you ever been driving at night and have a car behind you that you knew didn�t have its high beams on, yet its lights were glowing an almost blinding blue?

Chances are that the car was sporting HID headlights.

HID dive lights work in much the same way. Inside this high efficiency light floats a mix of gases and metal salts under high pressure. When electricity arcs, the gas/metal mixture becomes plasma, which is basically an ionized gas. This change allows the light to operate much more efficiently than traditional lights.

The benefit to you is a longer burn time before the batteries need to be replaced or recharged.

That, however, is only one of the benefits of an HID light.

HID Light benefits?

Another benefit of HID lights is that they produce a spectrum of light very close to sunlight.

As any beginning diver can tell you, color starts to disappear as soon as you start to descend in the water. The first color to go is red, followed by orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo, and finally violet. But no matter how deep you are no matter how many colors you�ve lost; flick on a HID light and colors will be so vibrant you�ll swear you�re almost at the surface!

This phenomenon is especially helpful on those 30 metre wall dives. The marine life is plentiful but it�s also really, really blue. A good high intensity discharge light will put all of your lost colors back where they should be.

Who uses HID Lights?

HID lights aren�t only for open water divers. If you�re a wreck or cave diver, an HID light will make you forget you�re in an overhead environment.

One of the greatest feelings in the world is diving the cave systems in north Florida and having a tunnel open up into a large room. The water is crystal clear and with a powerful light flooding every corner, it almost feels like you�re flying.

It�s truly amazing how much more enjoyable diving is when you carry the right equipment.

Like all high quality equipment, HID lights can get a bit pricey. A 10 watt HID bulb can be as much as $100 so you need to consider why you want to buy a dive light.

For example, if you want scuba light to look for lobster under ledges or night dive every once in a while, then spending the money for an HID light may not make sense to you. However if you�re the kind of diver who misses seeing brilliant colors on deep dives or you�re looking for a light that can deliver a high output without reducing your burn time, then you�ll be incredibly happy with a high intensity discharge light.

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