I have recently purchased the SOLA 600P. I have 2 dives with it with similar experience. Battery life is about 1/2 or less of the claims by the supplier. In 78-80 F water, max brightness, the unit showed low power after 30 min. Before 40 min, the indicator lights were flashing - telling me it was about over. Claimed life is 80 min. at full power.
The light was fully charged the day of the dives. It has been kept stored well charged at all times.
There may be night dives where I do not need/want max. light but I specifically bought this light for the Manta dive and Black water dive at KONA. It did not last the full dive either time. I paid the big bucks to have a small light that would last an entire dive...which this clearly does not meet.

So before asking for a refund due to not meeting claimed performance, I want to know if others have different experience.

Are you sure it was fully charged? Cycling between half and full power I have gone to over 120 minutes on a single charge...

Tim

It was on the charger for more than 6 hrs each time. All the lights were green and no longer flashing.
But comments like yours are what I am after. Perhaps its related to this particular light, thus the questions to other owners.

I haven´t actually measured the performance of mine (I have two). One reason that I never bothered is that I have never been able to get them low on a single dive of about 60 minutes. That could indicate that your light is quite low in performance.

/Bent C

I have two 600s and have used them 5-6 days a week for two dives a day for the past ten months.

One of the lights is showing red quicker than the other now (they were both bought at the same time and used for the same durations and have the same charging cycles.) - I mailed them and they have offered to replace it if I send it back to the dealer.

We're only talking about a small problem though, certainly not half the advertised performance.

i bought one a month ago, never decend yet, but i check it in tube, the light with full power(3) last only 5 min. and automatically went to low power(1). i turned it back to full power again all around for 4 times till it went out. It totally last for 120min., i don't know is it in normal condition?

Could it have been overheating?

That's definitely not right.

I've had no issues with mine and confidently used as a main light plus focus light for night dives up to two hours. I keep it at
levels one and two only as that is more than enough for my requirements. I usually exit with charge indicator lights on Yellow
and have got around the advertised 3hrs out of them on a number of times. In fact I've been so happy I ended up getting a
second light(the newer Photo one) to use as dedicated focus light and have the first light as full time dive light using the hand
mount to replace my old Halogen canister light.

Cheers,
Jim.

i finally tested it underwater, it didn't jumped to low power after 15 mins., you were right, it was overheated. Overall it had 120 mins (low power) when turned to red.

If you only had 120 min on low, seems unlikely you will get 80 on HI, which is the claimed battery life. Their website claims 320 min on low power. You might want to consider contacting your supplier or testing it in the bath tub with plenty of water on HI. No need to find out you cannot finish a dive
Just a thought.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42801