AA light with high CRI

[mikebc]

Hi CPF,

I'm looking for an AA powered light with a high CRI LED. After a few days of searching, I haven't been able to find anything, but perhaps my needs are too particular. I will be using it for light painting photography, hence the high CRI requirement. In order of priority, I'd like to have the following features:

-High CRI. Color temp is not critical as I will be building a gel filter holder to modify the light anyway, but around 4000K would be a good starting point.
-AA powered. I have boatloads of Eneloops that I use with my speedlights and it'd be nice to not have to worry about yet another battery type while on a photo shoot.
-Momentary switch, to be able to quickly shut the light off as I'm moving it to paint different parts of the image.
-Easily adjustable brightness level. Ideally a separate switch. 5/50/100 lumens would be ideal for a low-medium-high. I can compromise on this as long as it comes up the same brightness level every time I click the light on and off.
-100 lumens max. My subjects will be close-in (15 feet or less) so 100 is more than enough.

The Fenix LD22 fits almost all these requirements perfectly except it only comes in cool white LED. The FourSevens Quark Tacticals would work too, but again, only cool white LEDs.

Other bits:

-$150 budget but can stretch
-1-2 hour runtime is plenty
-Custom build is fine too if that's what it takes
-Spotlight is preferrable but the beam can be tightened with modifiers so this is rather minor

My current flashlight is a Fenix LD01. Pretty nice for EDC, but the twist-on and rotating brightness levels make it tough to use for light painting photography. Any tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-Mike

 

[THE_dAY]

:welcome:

If the only thing wrong with the fenix is the LED then you can have it modded/changed to Nichia 219A high CRI LED.
It will be ~4500K with great color reproduction.

 

[Filip]

L3 Illumination L10C Nichia 219?

 

[markr6]

L3 Illumination L10C Nichia 219?

Perfect! Or the L10 if you like a twist head UI. Nice beam on these as well - somewhere between flood and throw.\

Nervermind, I overlooked your momentary switch requirement.

 

[reppans]

I'd suggest the Eagletac D25A N219 for light painting since that has a tight-bezel max setting (~100 lms), which means you can turn on on that mode as opposed to being reset back to low and have to cycle back up. It also has a very short reset (~0.7 secs) so you could actually use its reverse click as "momentary off" function to single-handedly move to the next section you want to paint.

 

[leon2245]

Both the thrunite & eagletac, along with xeno & others all have reverse clickies. Shame too, because the t10c was originally supposed to have a forward clicky, IDK what happened. Out of current available options, afaik looks like you'd have to choose which of your criteria to break- either no momentary as those suggested, or many without hcri as you've already found, or if you break battery preference like HDS which is also a little over budget, or really blowing the budget with mcgizmo but would nail all requirements with 1xAA pak & .8v+ converter. Idk enough about peak's lineup, but I bet you can get a high cri logan with momentary body (+twist for constant on) under budget from them- I just don't see that combo currently available at any of the usual suspects.

If you can wait, I predict malkoff will eventaully make 219 versions of the mdc's, which would be perfect, meet every requirement and maximize quality x value as well imo, but who knows if/when that will happen. Otherwise, outside of swapping emitters of any forward clicky AA since you mentioned custom builds, because you also had no size restrictions & it sounds like this isn't going to be an edc but more of a dedicated purpose light, you could always just get a m31L(L)-219 or other high cri drop in and use spacers & sleeves to shrink a host's interior, just ridiculously sized for a single aa.

Hopefully someone will chime in with an option we're overlooking that meets all requirements out of the box.

 

[Timothybil]

TerraLux Lightstar 80. 80+ CRI, 2AAA so smaller beam, etc., which should be good since I assume you are light painting. $20 USD each, but Battery Junction has BOGO on the silver and black for $25 USD, so you can get several and modify in different ways without having to redo for different needs. 50-80 lumens, 5 hour run time, momentary/constant rear clicky.

 

[mikebc]

Thanks for the replies so far!

L3 Illumination L10C is a no-go, according to the manual it has no memory and comes up in "firefly" mode every time which is much too dim.

Looks like the Lightstar 80 uses a CREE emitter while the Nichia seems to be tops in the high CRI department right now. How does it compare? Heck it's cheap enough that I might grab one anyway to play with.

... or really blowing the budget with mcgizmo but would nail all requirements with 1xAA pak & .8v+ converter...

I saw the Mcgizmo lights. I was onboard until I saw the price lol.

So far my options are:

• Fenix LD22 modded with Nichia 219
• Eagletac D25A w/ Nichia 219
• Malkoff M31L 219B in a suitable host

I'm considering the first option as the LD22's UI is exactly what I need (separate mode switch and momentary clicky), but I'm not sure what is involved. Are the Nichia and Cree XP-G2 compatible and it's just a matter of desoldering the Cree and putting the Nichia in it's place? I have some basic electronics knowledge but LED circuitry is a bit of a mystery to me. The D25A might be the closest thing in an off-the-shelf light so that's compelling as well. What would the Malkoff option give me vs the others?

 

[markr6]

A Nichia 219 in LD22 is fine. Had vinh quote one long ago but never went thru with it. Sorry I don't remember the cost. But I'm wondering if it would not be floody enough for your needs? I remember the LD22 having a pretty narrow beam.

 

[mikebc]

A tighter beam is preferred actually, since I will be painting small sections of a scene at a time and a tighter beam would give me more control. If it's too narrow, I can slip in a diffuser. Shouldn't be an issue I think. Good to know the Nichia would work in an LD22. I'll contact Vinh for a quote.

 

[THE_dAY]

I'm considering the first option as the LD22's UI is exactly what I need (separate mode switch and momentary clicky), but I'm not sure what is involved. Are the Nichia and Cree XP-G2 compatible and it's just a matter of desoldering the Cree and putting the Nichia in it's place? I have some basic electronics knowledge but LED circuitry is a bit of a mystery to me. The D25A might be the closest thing in an off-the-shelf light so that's compelling as well. What would the Malkoff option give me vs the others?

Yes, the Nichia 219 is a direct replacement for the XPG2. If you are able to get the head open you can desolder the Cree and put the Nichia in its place.
There are also modder's here that can do it for a fee.

You have some skills already then you can try it yourself, if any issue arises you can always contact a modder or come back here for advice.

Btw, once you start modding you won't want to stop, I've heard it's a slippery slope!