Some critters from blackwater/bonfire dives, Bali+Komodo.
During this trip, I was lucky to test the new Orcatorch D910V as a focus light.
Here are my first impressions.
This video light has an awesome build quality. It has a nicely designed and precisely machined black anodized aluminum housing with bolt-on 1-inch ball mount. The torch is well balanced, not leaning back or forward when attached on the camera’s housing. Not too big or too small, weighing in at only 430g. It utilizes a battery block with 3pcs of 18650 elements in the enclosed battery compartment.
One of the cool features is the possibility to charge the torch without unscrewing the battery compartment as the back part has wet contacts with magnet for a quick snap to the charger.
D910V comes in a handy plastic box with charger and magnetic charging adapter, spare o-ring, ball mount with hex screws and key, manual and warranty card.
The one button design makes using the torch simple and intuitive while a LED indicator shows you remaining battery level.
I have used this torch as a focus light for a blackwater photography session. It gives wide even light and can be dimmed easily if full power is not needed or if you want to extend the run time.
Full power run time at impressive 5000lm is about 50min, about 130 min on the mid 2000lm and more than 8 hours on the low 500lm mode. Charge time is about 2,5 hours. High color rendering index makes your footage or stills look natural and color balanced, compared to the cheap LED arrays of noname lights.
If you are planning dives with a lot of video shooting on max 5000lm mode, you may run out of battery on the second dive, so an extra battery or the ability to charge the one you have in between the dives, which is convenient to do with the snap-on magnetic charger, is recommended.
What would be really great - would be the ability to use standard 18650 batteries instead of the battery block. Also, I found the charger a bit bulky, making it not as easy to pack.
Conclusion - another good piece of equipment from Orcatorch for a reasonable price in travel-friendly format.
