"Practical" Beamshots?

UnknownVT

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"Practical" Beamshots? (indoors, stairs)

Problem with beamshots is that no single photo can actually show how a flashlight performs under all conditions.

Typical shot on white surface from reasonably close up does nicely show the beam characteristics - but doesn't really indicate how well the light performs at a distance.

Real-life situation beamshots are difficult to reproduce by anyone else, and unless the actual scene is known - tends not to show how a light really works to anyone else.

Also there is the difficulty that a camera (digital or film) doesn't really have the same dynamic range as the human eye.

All this is really saying photos do show something useful - but can't really substitute for actual usage of the flashlight. To illustrate a flashlight's ability probably numerous different types of beamshots have to be shown......way too impractical.

Anyway I thought about this and came up with something that most people can at least visualize - shining a flashlight up some stairs.

I picked some of my brightest lights to fix a constant exposure setting for my camera and set up the "scene" to try to get consistent reproducible results (for me).

This is the scene - lit by my regular indoor lighting and supplemented by the flash on my digicam - white balance set to Auto (this shot ONLY) for the mixed lighting. Walls are light cream - ceilings stippled white, carpet camel/beige, and that's a colored optical test target on the wall by the door knob.

StairsSetUp.jpg


The rest of the flashlight shots were all taken with Fixed Daylight white balance -

and fixed exposure - ISO100, f/2.8 at 0.6 sec, lens = 28mm (equiv)

The distance from the camera and flashlight to the center of the target (the door knob) was approx 15ft. Ceiling at top of stairs is approx 8ft, there are 10 steps, width of the stairway is 3ft 5in (41").

From the bottom of the stairs - the camera is about eye-level and the flashlights are held about upper chest/breast level - bascially trying to reproduce how I would see and use a flashlight from the bottom of those stairs.

Flashlights I used for this trial -

StairsLites.jpg

Not shown MagLite 3D

Beamshots:

MagLite 3D (alkalines) ....................................... Streamlight Scorpion Xenon 2x CR123A
StairMag3D.jpg
StairScorpion.jpg


Nuwai Q3 with RCR123 ...................................... 8LED 1AA "Xnova" New (alkaline)
StairQ3.jpg
StairXnova8.jpg


S1801 1w Luxeon 1xCR123 ................................ Fenix L1 v2.5 (Non-Premium) (alkaline)
StairS1801.jpg
StairFenix.jpg


Comments, please?
 
Last edited:

vic303

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

Nicely done! I like the QIII view the best--from a house-clearing and kiddie-caltrop finding point of view. It is the only light that lit the stairs enough to see any hazards left in the path, like HotWheels, and Little People!
 

cratz2

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

I think the stair thing is an excellent idea. While house-sitting this winter, I took several shots down a hallway from a distance of 15 feet and felt that overall, that gave a pretty good impression of the comparative qualities of the beam - throw, hotspot, spill, color rendition. I never posted any of them on the forum, or at least I don't think I did but my goal was the same as yours seems to be - to give a usable, real world idea of how the lights compare.

I also think it's important to use standardized camera settings. I know when I first started taking beamshots a couple years ago, I had a camera with only auto settings. Needless to say, this caused issues, mostly when comparing the dimmest lights to the brightest lights. I just didn't post the ones that were so extreme that the pics were misleading.

Keep up the good work. You, along with a handful of others, are a great asset to all of us and I particularly like your taste in lights. I'm planning on getting a Fenix non-Premium in the next week or so... pretty amazing difference between your beamshots of the Fenix vs the Q3 on rechargeables.
 

DDS

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

Vincent: I really like this presentation. It is VERY helpful for me to understand the various flashlight beams capabilities. I much prefer these beam shots to the white wall shots. Ironically, when I have compared my various lights, I have done the same thing in my basement staircase.
Thanks for the great pics!

PS: How is that "Scientist" of yours doing :)? I managed to find one for myself. Now working on a "Lumberjack".

Dave
 

haydoncandlepower

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

A scene like this (very very much like this!) should definitely be part of standard reviews. In current reviews it's left to the imagination of the reader to visualize how a flashlight would perform based on a beamshot. Indoors "spill" is very effectively utilized and it doesn't just light up what it hits directly. It bounces off walls, ceilings, etc to illuminate the whole scene. These photos show that very effectively.

It'd be nice to have a typical standard "outdoor" shot as well but there's too many lighting variables there. Moon, light pollution, air quality that day, etc...
 

UnknownVT

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

Thank you all for your comments.

It should be noted that in all cases/beamshots I could see a lot better than the photos show, and I mean a lot.

The exposure settings favor the lights I originally metered for - which are the brightest - so that I didn't overexpose them. In that way the "Xnova" 8 new is severely diadvantaged - in real-life I definitely could see really well with it - whereas the "standardized" beamshot seems to show that it is almost all dark with just the large'ish central hotspot - that is far, far from the truth.

Other very famous single white 5mm LED pocket lights like the ArcAAA, Infinity Ultra, Dorcy 1AAA, Photon - would hardly show any light with the "standardized" setting I used for this batch of beamshots -
yet we all know they are more than adequate for most indoor usage, in fact I find this class of light(s) to be too bright for my own personal hand-held close-up tasks - prefering to use a single Yellow LED Photon 2 for that.

By changing the exposure settings or using Auto exposure - may actually show how well any light does, and may show the light closer to the way we actually would see - but then the beamshot is no longer comparable to any others.

So I hope you see the dilema of these types of beamshots.

Please keep the comments, critques and any suggestions coming.

Thanks,
 

Lunarmodule

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

:goodjob: EXCEPTIONALLY WELL DONE !!!

Thank you, the universally understood dimensional cue of the staricase is simple striaghtforward genius IMHO. So much more usable visual info when its easily related to whats familiar. Major thumbs up! I hope this idea proves contagious...
 

HarryN

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

Very nicely done. I am toying with trying this with film. I will need to think through how to simulate your settings.

Is your color rendering target something special or a standard target available on the market ?
 

UnknownVT

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

HarryN said:
Is your color rendering target something special or a standard target available on the market ?

It's an old Paterson (UK) Optical Test target - that's used for lens testing - detail and typical layout -

PatersonTestTarget.jpg
ResTest.jpg


The most famous color rendering panel is the MacBeth - but although they will show up quite subtle differences in color rendering - reproduced in such a small image size - will probably either be non-meaningful or plain confusing.
That's why a simpler RGB (red-green-blue) plus white probably works OK from a distance.....
 

eebowler

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

Unknown: Just to add to the completeness of your post. Please tell me/us what is the width of the door itself. This will give us an idea of how wide the beam actually is at 15 ft. Thank you.

eebowler.
 

UnknownVT

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

eebowler wrote: "what is the width of the door itself."

Door is 24" wide x 80" tall......

test target card - 9"x 8.5"
 

PlayboyJoeShmoe

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Re: "Practical" Beamsots?

Nice job! I try the lights I like a lot or have a special attachment to in situations like these. My outdoor area is likely quite a bit darker than many of y'alls!

Until I can get an appropriate camera, you will just have to take my word on it!
 

adirondackdestroyer

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Unknownvt,


Is that Q3 stock (other than using Rechargable batteries)? It is VERY bright and clearly dominates the Fenix. Impressive.

I also really like your beamshots. They are very helpful when comparing two different lights.
 

UnknownVT

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adirondackdestroyer wrote: "Is that Q3 stock (other than using Rechargable batteries)?"

Yes, very much stock - the earlier version.

Please see:
Nuwai Q3
and
Nuwai Q3 with RCR123 + Nano Charger

There is a newer version with new step-up circuit that draws about 1A - compared to previous ~700mA (distinguished by a tactical clicky - with momentary ON).

However I have been told in both versions when the Vin (V of battery) exceeds the set Vout (in this case the Vf of the LED) the circuit stops working - so in effect the Q3 becomes direct-drive on 3.6/3.7V rechargeable RCR123.

Thank you for your kind comments.
 

adirondackdestroyer

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UnknownVT said:
adirondackdestroyer wrote: "Is that Q3 stock (other than using Rechargable batteries)?"

Yes, very much stock - the earlier version.

Please see:
Nuwai Q3
and
Nuwai Q3 with RCR123 + Nano Charger

There is a newer version with new step-up circuit that draws about 1A - compared to previous ~700mA (distinguished by a tactical clicky - with momentary ON).

However I have been told in both versions when the Vin (V of battery) exceeds the set Vout (in this case the Vf of the LED) the circuit stops working - so in effect the Q3 becomes direct-drive on 3.6/3.7V rechargeable RCR123.

Thank you for your kind comments.

Ok, I really don't know what any of that ment. (Sorry). Can you please explain that to me.
I want to get a Q3 and use Rechargables, if there is anything I should know about different versions of the Q3, that would be nice if you could tell me.

Thanks :)
 

GWC3

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I wonder how a 2500 nmih rechargeable , or a lithium battery affect L1P performance. I use both in mine and can see a bit of difference vs straight alkys. Also, for the scorpion how was the bean focused, what would it look like near the 2 extremes or focus?
 

cheapo

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So the Q3 gets significantly brighter with R123s?

-David
 
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