1000 5mm white leds or COB light bar

Just for fun, I was thinking of drilling 5mm holes in a piece of plastic and installing 5mm LED's. I would use forward current=25ma and forward voltage=3volts
and would like to use white led's. I want to make an insane 1000 led's light bar. I was wondering whether I should do that, or should I use halogen lights. I want to light up a tree 100 feet away. What should i do?

That would be a huge amount of soldering to do by hand, but you could get 5-10,000 lumens that way depending on the specific LED.

Halogens would be simple, or even using household spot lights (eg - PAR30 bulbs, which are available in both halogen and LED versions).

5mm LED's often come with different beam angles - the tighter beam versions seem to usually be spec'd in candela, while the wider beam versions in lumens, but both often have a beam angle spec, too. You'll want to figure out what angle is ideal based on how tall your tree is.

I think COB's will give you a better balance of design versatility and simplicity between 5mm LED's and household spotlights. The big panel cobs are going to be extremely floody, but a product like a Cree CXA1507 or equivalents from Citizen, Lumileds, Yuji, or others can be paired with a Carclo 30mm optic to get a more appropriate beam angle for your application. You'd need to figure out an appropriate driver, however. A lot of this stuff is available from Digikey, Mouser, and other electronic supply companies.

One XML2 would be equivalent to 75+ of your 5mm LEDS. 12 of them and you have as much light as 1000 5mm LEDs and you can get an appropriate optic for whatever you want to do.