Flashlight for reading house numbers

[NightwatchNL]

Hi,

I desperately seek your advice.

I am a driver which delivers parcels for the Dutch Mail. Now that's early dark and people tend to have the most rediculous ideas about their house numbers it sometimes is impossible to find the right house address with right parcels. Or sometimes the standard numbers are eroded to an almost plain white square, or the distance to the street is to big to read the number in the dark in the absence of decent street lighting, like 25 ft. / 50 mtrs. So I thought it would be nice to have a flashlight to incidently illuminate the numbers i'm passing by to see if I already arrived at the correct number.

Since I'm a complete novice when it comes to flashlights, I'd like to have your advice which one to buy.

:shrug:​

A) it has to be cheap (logically; I have to pay for it myself)
B) it has to have a bright, compact beam so it will light up house numbers, even when they further away from the road.
C) it has to be powered by AAA or AA batteries, since I already have a charger for those (from my digital camera)
D) no need for extravagancies like SOS or strobe or different lightstrength settings and so on.

Any thoughts will be duly appreciated :twothumbs


I found a youtube movie, the light bundle on the right at 0:50?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9NoPa0oJQs

 

[RetroTechie]

Welcome to CPF, fellow countryman! :wave:

or the distance to the street is to big to read the number in the dark in the absence of decent street lighting, like 25 ft. / 50 mtrs.

There's a relation between the intensity of the beam in the hotspot's center, and how far that beam will reach. For 50 mtrs. "throw", you'd need a beam intensity of ~600 candela (cd). Which many current LED lights will easily achieve.

To not alert the neightbors, you'd want little or minimal "spill" (= light outside that center beam), so you're looking for a "throwy" AAA or AA based light.

Momentary-on would be very useful here, and I'd consider a 2x AAA or 2x AA light simply because it's longer, meaning you can more accurately aim it before flipping the on switch. Runtimes shouldn't be much of an issue for such intermittent use, so even an AAA based light might do. That said, most AAA lights I've seen are designed for close-up work ("floody"), not for getting a tight beam out.

B) it has to have a bright,

I doubt that... Brightness is defined in lumens (= overall light "flow"). With a tight center beam and minimal spill, you won't need much lumens output for this job.

Summarized: you're probably looking for a throwy, 2x AA light with up to ~600 cd peak beam intensity, minimal spill and momentary-on function. That should narrow the list of options quite a bit, I think.

 

[RetroTechie]

I might add: most "throwy" lights use a Cree XP-G2, XP-G or XP-E LED, combined with a relatively deep reflector.

Not exactly momentary-on, but for example the Fenix E25 might fit your bill. :thinking:

 

[Poppy]

Yeah, but an XML emitter will typically give a larger hot spot, and perhaps a more floody beam. This will allow him to FIND the numbers more easily. An XML can easily hit 50 meters.

 

[Poppy]

It seems that 2AA Quark in the video will fit the bill nicely.

 

[reppans]

I watched the video and have all the lights mentioned... I'm almost certain the narrator did not correctly identify the last light - it's a Quark AA2 *Turbo* not a regular Quark AA2. You can see this by the contrast, intensity, and tightness of the hotspot compared to the spill. Twice the lumens from the same orange peel head/reflector will just be a brighter beam of that shown in the middle with a smooth transition from hotspot to spill.

I do believe the QAA2 turbo would be ideal for your purpose, and as mentioned above, a small XPG2 emitter in a smooth large reflector will be a good thrower. This light still holds Selfbuilt's highest throw numbers in the 2AA class, and would probably as well in the 1xAA class (you can get an optional 1xAA tube for pocket carry, and although it will put out half the lumens, I think it would still throw quite sufficiently for your purposes). It is also a programmable two mode with momentary switch which might again be good for your usage - ie, set low to be moonlight and you will be able read the package addresses in the dark cab of your vehicle without ruining your night vision, and then fire max outside looking for the house number. This can even be done single-handed momentary just car high beam flashers.

The Nitecore EA1 or EA2 are also good AA throwers, but I don't know them.

 

[NightwatchNL]

So the Fenix E25 Cree XP-E or the NiteCore EA2 Cree XP-G R5 would do, but neither of them has a 'moment-on' switch. Any other suggestions in this price-range? Btw, I have no need for endless light intensity possibilities. One (max) would suffice.

 

[NightwatchNL]

Is the Romisen RC-F7 Cree XR-E Q5 240LM 1-Mode White Flashlight - Black an option?

 

[tubed]

if you want to go less expensive, try a Rayovac indestructable. 2x AA. They have a very tight beam are tough as nails, and not expensive (around $15).

 

[Disciple]

There's a relation between the intensity of the beam in the hotspot's center, and how far that beam will reach. For 50 mtrs. "throw", you'd need a beam intensity of ~600 candela (cd). Which many current LED lights will easily achieve. ...
Summarized: you're probably looking for a throwy, 2x AA light with up to ~600 cd peak beam intensity, minimal spill and momentary-on function. That should narrow the list of options quite a bit, I think.

I generally agree with what RetroTechie wrote, except for his suggestion of sufficient beam intensity. In my opinion 600cd is nowhere near enough; I'd say it's off by at least an order of magnitude. My trusty old EDC, a Surefire L2, gives a bit more than this on high (780cd according to flashlightreviews.ca) and I would not even attempt to read a house number at 50 meters with it. This is a close-range light when competing with other light sources such as street lights. (It gets out farther in total darkness where the eye may adjust but that won't apply to your situation I presume.)

RetroTechie is using ANSI FL-1 maximum range values, but the 0.25 lux that standard uses is uselessly small for identifying small or low-contrast things even in total darkness, and with street lighting (with dark corners where your numbers are) you won't even be able to tell that the light is on at that level. User TEEJ recommends 15 lux (minimum) for low contrast targets, and that sounds about right to me. Using that number you will need 50^2 * 15 = 37,500cd to reach 50 meters. You wrote "25 ft. / 50 mtrs." -- perhaps you reversed those numbers (though they still do not agree). If you need to reach 25 meters then you will need 25^2 * 15 = 9,375cd. This is much more easily had from a compact AA powered light than ~37kcd is, so please clarify your range requirement.

 

[RetroTechie]

^^^ good point! :twothumbs (but not all eyes are created equal). Perhaps some practice testing (using a light with known output intensity) would be in order. Or just buy a light with different modes, that is sure to be bright enough in its hotspot.

Note that in the NL, most houses have their number either on a mailbox/fence/whatever right beside the sidewalk, or next to the front door within a dozen or so metres from the road. Or both. Large freestanding houses with a big lawn etc. usually have their number right next to where you'd turn into their driveway. And some house numbers are unreadable no matter how much light you throw at it. So I'm speculating that NightwatchNL's requirements would be covered with "stop delivery vehicle somewhere, read house # a few dozen metres from other side of the road".

But please inform us of cases not covered... :thinking:

 

[Disciple]

Quite right that eyes are different. I quoted TEEJ's figure because he claims to have arrived at it after testing with a group of people so I thought it would be a good baseline.

Note that in the NL, most houses have their number either on a mailbox/fence/whatever right beside the sidewalk, or next to the front door within a dozen or so metres from the road. ... So I'm speculating that NightwatchNL's requirements would be covered with "stop delivery vehicle somewhere, read house # a few dozen metres from other side of the road".

That may be true for "most houses" but it is specifically the exceptions that may be giving Nightwatch trouble:

Or sometimes the standard numbers are eroded to an almost plain white square, or the distance to the street is to big to read the number in the dark in the absence of decent street lighting, like 25 ft. / 50 mtrs.

Obviously something is wrong with the specified distance so I gave two different figures hoping that at least one of them is helpful.

 

[markr6]

if you want to go less expensive, try a Rayovac indestructable. 2x AA. They have a very tight beam are tough as nails, and not expensive (around $15).

That's the first one that came to mind. Has an almost uselessly-tight beam but here's one application where it may do well.

 

[LilKevin715]

So the Fenix E25 Cree XP-E or the NiteCore EA2 Cree XP-G R5 would do, but neither of them has a 'moment-on' switch. Any other suggestions in this price-range? Btw, I have no need for endless light intensity possibilities. One (max) would suffice.

The Nitecore MT21A would work. Has a foward clicky switch for momentary activation.

 

[TEEJ]

The house number search is something I do as well...and, you actually need a fairly tight beam so that as you're driving down the street, everyone is not rushing to their windows because it looks like close encounters of the third kind, etc...and the tighter beam means you at least MOSTLY have the light on the numbers.

If all the homes have the numbers in the same spots, that works well. If you don't know where to look for the number, then the tight beam will frustrate you, as you'll be stuck scanning around, while driving, trying to see through the moral equivalent of a paper towel tube.



As for the lux level, the studies I conducted that are being quoted do not really apply to this short a range. Those numbers apply to 150 -300 meters away better than they do to 25 -50 meter ranges.

For example, the further away the details you need to resolve are, the smaller they appear in your field of vision, so that even though your brain essentially tells you "Hey, its a man, really far away, not a 1" tall man..." its still only occupying a small percentage of your total field of view.

Once the target is far enough away that you are using only the center of your fovea, the narrow cone of vision with the best color and tracking vision, but essentially no night vision....you need a ton more light to see it in detail.

So, if you need ~ 15 lux to make out a low resolution target at say 200 meters, you will NOT need that same amount to make out a low resolution target at 25 meters. ONE lux may be adequate for example, depending on how low that resolution is, your night vision in general, etc. If the numbers are reflective/white, etc...one lux will typically work at that range even if faded. At 50 m, you might need 2 lux.

If its such a faded number that you'd have trouble making it out in broad daylight, well, there may be no lux level that would work...unless you plan on a AA sized source of bright daylight, etc.

So, If you wanted to get something that would probably have a really good chance of working for you, given all the variables, shoot for say 5 lux at 50 M, and you'd most likely have it covered.

That translates to a light with a rating of ~ 12,500 cd....or, a claimed ANSI range of ~ 225 M or so.