The first thing you notice about the light is that this thing is quality built and made to last along with the fact it's quite a size compared to other lights. Part of that reason is that the battery to power the light is self contained. Yes that means no wet connectors to bugger up, no external wires to catch on things and or kink plus no external battery packs slung under your housing or on you.

The specs on the light are as follows:

Plug the charger into the wall then connect it to the battery. Takes about 5 hours to charge from empty. Once charged unplug the charger, re plug the light lead back in to the battery pack and slide the tray back into the rear of the light. Carefully push the tray in till it sits flush and then push down and turn the lock wheel clockwise till you feel the locking bolt is screwed in to lock it in there.

Now at first I thought maybe instead of having to take the tray out to charge why not a simple grub screw one could undo to plug in a charger. Well here are some reasons why they did not go that way.
* To prevent gas build up and overheating of battery if charged in enclosed casing.
* To prevent flooding, ie user forgets to put the screw plug back in after a charge or does not check its oring.
* Easier to build/less components than if you had to do another circuit to accommodate external plug in charge hole, would need external gauge, more holes in light.
* Easier to replace battery or to remove for shipping or weight reduction.
* The fact you have to open for recharge gives a better chance to detect small water leakage.

The first thing I noticed when I got underwater was how the light weighed nothing being slightly negative. As I only had one it was best to have it over the top of the housing for better balance. I suppose if you are lucky enough to get two of these lights then you can have one hanging out each side of the housing. But for me over the top worked well.

Next I wanted to see how it compared to my 2 x 24 watt HID Darkbusters with my home made diffusers on. I fired up the two Darkbusters for a look then turned them off. I then swung the Discovery G3 back around and that's how it stayed for the whole dive, There was no comparison, the single Discovery G3 was just so much brighter... period.

I found that when on the 50 watts setting the light was just way to powerful for normal close shots so I put it back to the 35 watt setting. You can also see the colour of the beam the light puts out and on that Sea star you can see even with the diffuser on there is still a hot spot area. However the beauty of this light is that one could screw in some more filters/diffusers to spread the light footprint out even more when shooting close at night. As the light is so powerful, if this knocks back the power/penetration of the light just put it on the 50 watt setting.

I also had to stop and set the FX1 back from 3db gain boost to 0db as you just do not need to any use gain boost using this light. If you are not happy with the colour of the light just screw in a filter but you can WB the camera or just fix it up on the computer later. I also found switching from 35 to 50 watt settings on the run is a smooth transition, there is not flickering, it just goes dimmer with no real noticeable light colour change.

The above Goat fish is way too hot, the light was on 50 watts so even with a much heavier diffuser on you are not going to loose light power for shots. Now if you had twin Discovery G3 lights, you are going to have some serious light power down there.

If you take off the lights diffuser the beam goes off forever, great for extra long shots or during the day when you need it to go along way to light up the subject but generally at night it's just too much. After the dive all the other divers were saying it was pretty easy to see where I was...I guess I must of stood out with all the light I was putting out.

I plan to get back down south with it and day dive the HMAS SWAN with the guys at Dive Shed to see how it goes inside a wreck. I will also make a heavier diffuser to use with the supplied one for those up close full wide shots with the Phenom 94 degree port. I'll add those dives to this review later on so make sure you come back for another look.

The Retail price for one light is $2,200 US which is about $3,300 AU which makes it a pretty pricey video light and even more if you want two. But if you can afford it and want some serious lights for daytime or wreck dives then a couple of these Discovery G3's should do the trick. For most even just one would be fine for the average underwater video user. Price for a spare battery is $395 US and a spare 35/50watt globe is $295 US. There is also a package available where you get 2 x lights, 2 x aluminum arms, 2x chargers, 2 x battery packs and a carry case for $4,550 US which is about $6,950 AUD dollars. While I was diving with the light I thought it could double as a very good dive light and one could make a simple pistol grip for it pretty easy, then I found out Amphibico have just that, but they have no pictures yet of it. RRP is going to be about $75 US.

Thanks to the Canadians for trusting me with their brand new light #21 and thanks Pete, Luke, Dean and the crew from Dive Shed down at Busselton for looking after me.

Here is their link if you are interested in purchasing one: www.amphibico.com

Paul Wags 2009