El Speleo Light

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El Speleo Light

Postby Scott McCrea » Apr 24, 2012 3:54 pm

http://dougwarner.wordpress.com/2012/01 ... ave-light/

Image

Looks like a nice light. Price ~$250 seems nice, too. I would like to see more details on the battery pack construction. And, the switch, just looking at the pics, looks like it might be awkward.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby potholer » Apr 24, 2012 5:12 pm

I guess with the relatively small set of modes the switch won't be being operated too frequently. Though I'm not sure about a full boot - the ones I've tried seem prone to damage, whereas a silicone half-boot seems harder to damage, and (according to a diving friend) surprisingly waterproof.

The construction looks nicely engineered and solid, but in comparison, the mode selection does seem fairly limited - if the modes are something like the quoted flood of 50/400/1000lm and a spot of 600lm, the low/medium levels do look a bit far apart, and a light with a ~1000lm top end might be better with 4 levels rather than 3 - something like 30/100/300/1000lm?

Given that the spot looks like it is using an XP-package LED, if it is running at 600lm that would suggest it was being overdriven - at nominal max power, something more like 450-500lm might be expected.
Last edited by potholer on Apr 25, 2012 3:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby NZcaver » Apr 24, 2012 6:28 pm

Interesting. I wonder if the spot reflector obscures the flood LED from one of its primary missions, i.e. lighting up your feet?
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby potholer » Apr 25, 2012 3:15 am

NZcaver wrote:Interesting. I wonder if the spot reflector obscures the flood LED from one of its primary missions, i.e. lighting up your feet?

Supposedly it doesn't obscure the flood beam at all (the reflector being more recessed than it looks in the front view).
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby Cody JW » Apr 25, 2012 10:55 am

Looks like a nice option for the price. I am not sold on not having a combination of spot and glow at one time. After seeing The Rude in person and knowing that John's ( Bif) idea of correct caving optics are the same as mine I am spoiled. I have Rude envy. I would have to see this in a cave first to see what the optics are before pulling the trigger on this one. It is nice to have more options. Also would like to see if the lumen output #s are correct.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby ian1210 » Apr 25, 2012 12:24 pm

I've been caving with the El Speleo for about 3 months now. I love it. The flood is incredible and is not obscured by the spot reflector at all. The spot works wonders. Jeja's been incredibly helpful as I ask him questions about designing my own battery pack. I've built my first battery pack, and will be making many more. I've also got a solar panel I'll be using for charging the batteries while I'm in the mountains this summer, and Jeja has answered any questions I've had in regards to that as well. While the options on the El Speleo are more limited than some of its competitors, the price is right. It's built "caver tough." When comparing it side-by-side to the Scurion, it is, in my oponion, about 85% as capable. At 25% the price, it's a no brainer for me and about 15-20 other people in our region.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby potholer » Apr 25, 2012 1:20 pm

Cody JW wrote:Looks like a nice option for the price. I am not sold on not having a combination of spot and glow at one time.

Having good beam mixes can certainly make a serious difference when it comes to the power needed for effective lighting in many situations, allowing more to be done with less.
That might be less of an issue for a light with a big battery, but I think there are situations where the best light is a blend (like seeing the ground under the water when walking in variable-depth streamways where a flood/spot mix seems to be ideal).

I'm also intrigued by lights that put great power into a naked flood LED when a meaningful amount of that is effectively going to be wasted outside the area the user can actually look at.
With a fixed head, even moving my eyes to their comfortable extremes, I still have little more than a 90 degree vertical range between the lowest and highest angles I can see, and while I can look sideways to wider angles, I still only have about a 90 degree horizontal angle covering the things I can see with binocular vision.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby jeffkruse » Apr 25, 2012 4:18 pm

I don't understand why battery packs are not offered with 3100mAH cells?

3cell = 9300mAH
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby Cody JW » Apr 25, 2012 4:36 pm

Did I miss this or can we get the contact info for this guy.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby potholer » Apr 25, 2012 5:03 pm

jeffkruse wrote:I don't understand why battery packs are not offered with 3100mAH cells?

3cell = 9300mAH

Maybe a cost thing - with ~2400s being well behind the cutting edge, it may be possible to get 4 decent-quality 2400s for rather less than 3 genuine 3100s.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby Trooly74 » May 8, 2012 11:06 am

I have this lamp for a year now. Actually I heaved a prototype of this lamp a year ago. Anyway, what I can tell from my experience is that lamp rocks. I changed my first one for a new one with warm LED's, 5600K, because 6500K what is normal model doesn't go well with my eyes, just professional problem. I work in film and TV business as sound person, but was to many time involved in picture and lite control... maybe some other time. In short I prefer 5600K aka daylight light. Now lets say something about the El speleo. When I get first one it heaved 4 modes and different switch. The switch was a big problem because you could not gain 3A current thru that switch and not to melt it. So Zeljko went to ordinary switch but it is to big to put bigger control chip, where you can program more modes. So for now it is three modes on flood light. But if you want different power setting on those modes it can be done. On mine I have 100, 350, 1000 lumen on flood. I found that that is optimal mode settings. If I need camp light, or lower light, I always have tikka or something like that around my neck. I use it lot for filming and photographing underground, and 5600K is perfect because there is no problem with white balance on yours camera if you have it on auto WB. The electronics in camera is pretty accurate with that light. As battery concerns, there is no concerns. With big one, 9600mAh pack, I have been 4 days underground, mostly on middle mode ( 500lm old lamp ), for at least 12 hours a day. In underground camp I'm using a TikkaXP. And it was working 12h more when I come home. It was in testing phase back then. The new 7400 packs are also good. I still use first one that i have put on helmet, and was on four or five short trips ( 6-8h underground ) but it is still the same battery pack. I always have the spare in my bag anyway. And at the end, if you want the lamp, you can always customize your order, because Zeljko can program what you want. And as price thing, I think that for that money you can't buy anything close to this one. It works, it is tested in pretty rough conditions, it is waterproof and is pretty cheap.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby Lava » May 8, 2012 3:07 pm

Hi Trooly,

I think you made a big impression on Doug and I while we were there - he bought the same light you have and I picked up the same chest harness you use!

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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby Scott McCrea » May 8, 2012 3:32 pm

Thanks, Trooly. Great feedback and info.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby Trooly74 » May 9, 2012 3:18 pm

Always glad if I can help.
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Re: El Speleo Light

Postby Trooly74 » May 10, 2012 9:48 am

For those of you that are interesting in El speleo 1600 light, here is Zeljko's email: speleoled@net.hr
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