OrcaTorch D900V Underwater Dive Light Review

By Laura James

review articles



I recently had the opportunity to dive and film with the OrcaTorch D900V underwater dive light. This dive light has 3 colors, a bright white setting with wide beam for videos and photos, Red for sneaking up on your favorite subjects and blue for capturing and UV fluorescence.


3.jpg


Build quality on this light is solid. With a depth rating of 150m it can go deeper than you want to go. It has a good button array, the right button for white and the left button for red/blue. There are 2 brightness settings for the wide white beam, and two brightness settings for the spot and the buttons are easy to use with both warm and cold water gloves.


4.jpg


Charging this light is a breeze, I really appreciate the magnetic charging, no plugs to get corroded or bent. The magnetic connection is strong enough that it held well even on the deck of live-aboard in rolling seas.


5.jpg


6.jpg


http://www.diverlaura.me/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/img_4862.mov


7.jpg


The wide white 2200 lumen beam is great for standard video projects and held its own brightness wise against the competitors. I don’t think it is quite as wide as advertised but that is fine as it still does a great job with solid coverage. I did not shoot any high speed footage so i cannot comment on flicker. It is similar enough in color to the other LED’s on the market that I could use it side by side with other lights both big and small without any color aberration issues. I also used this light as part of a 3 lighting array on my 360 camera rig, and I did not notice a difference in color, what this means to you is that even if you already started out buying one light from another manufacturer, you can buy one of these without concern.


8.jpg



10.jpg


Having a spot beam built in is a nice touch, as a back up for your primary light or to get a quick look into the distance (beyond the bubble of the video beam) and also as an option to light up a creature in a crack or den. I use this technique quite regularly where I will have one or more lights on wide video beam and a single light on spot that highlights the subject matter that is tucked into a hole and would normally be too dark to see.


12.jpg


The light comes with a nice storage case, complete with 1” ball and requisite spare o-rings and tools needed for mounting your new light. The build quality is VERY solid and i did not feel any concern packing it for our great white shark trip to Isla Guadalupe. I then clamped the light to the shark cage so that i could capture better 360video of the great white sharks in 360 video.


13.jpg


The Red light is great for sneaking up on your subject matter and the quick two touch switchability between beams is a bonus.


11.jpg


I tried to test Fluorescent video on a couple of dives (I tested the blue light extensively topside) but unfortunately I did not encounter any critters that lit up on our dives as of yet and am still working to get a nice example of cold water fluorescent video.



15.jpg



All in all this is a solid option for entry level underwater video light (you’ll want 2) and it will take good care of your videography needs and when/if you upgrade to larger lights it will work well as your fill or auxiliary / off axis light.


17.jpg