Light Mares XR DCT/V/S

Light Mares XR DCT/V/S

I’VE BEEN DIVING FOR 30 YEARS OR SO, and while I acknowledge that this isn’t so much as a pimple on the rear of the amount of diving some of you have done, I submit that it’s a decent stint and I’ve seen some changes.

The most profound of these has been the universal adoption of computers and nitrox, but the most noticeable has been the revolution in lighting.

One of my odd diving memories is of coming across a Scubapro diving torch lying on the deck of Thistlegorm in the Red Sea during a night-dive.

It wasn’t switched on, which is probably why nobody had noticed that it had been lost, so I picked it up and decided to give it a try.

Off went my old-fashioned torch with its incandescent bulb throwing out not very much yellowish light, and on went the daylight-blue LED Scubapro. Great day in the morning! Who turned the sun back on? It was a revelation.

That Scubapro had a claimed output of just 230 lumens, and used C-cell batteries.

I now have a teeny-weeny little torch claimed to output 300 lumens that runs for a full week of night-diving on three AAA batteries. Just imagine, then, what 3200 lumens did to my optic nerves. That’s the output of the new Mares XR DCT, one of a set of three new extended-range canister lights, each of which I was sent to test.

Each light comes in a nicely fitted case that also contains the Mares-branded batteries needed to power the lights, a big, chunky battery-charger with all the leads and fittings that allow you to plug it in anywhere in the world, plus a disassembled Goodman handle.

You’ll need to find a camband to strap the canister to your cylinder, but that’s all that’s missing from the box.

The Design