All around light - House/Camping

[EL E.D.]

Hi 'all

New member here looking for some recommendations. I have been lurking around for a couple weeks now, looking at lights, and have at least narrowed down what I want in a light.

Size: Mid-size, could put in your pocket if needed
Batteries: No preference, I'll learn/adapt to whatever
Lumen: 400-600
Price: Not too important at this point
What I'm looking for most is: Good span of brightness levels. Moon-light/Firefly is pretty important. Also a good step down in levels. I like the XT11 but why does it jump from Max down to 150 lumens?
Something that went 600,400,100,1 would be ideal.
My ideal beam would be somewhere in between a pure flood and throw.

So far, the Z.L. SC600 looks good, but I'm thinking that I might wan't some more throw, just in case🙂
I think the Scorpion v2 is also fits the bill but I don't know too much about the beam.

Oh and yes I have watched videos on both, I just like to ask people.

What do you guys think?

 

[eh4]

Everybody seems pretty thrilled with the SC600, if you are happy with getting some rechargeable 18650 then I'd be willing to bet that you'd be well served by SC600 or the headlamp version (H600).
I have a strong preference for Neutral and High CRI (Color Rendering Index) lights -High CRI tends to be very warm, like an incandescent, and they do not put out as much light as a regular Cool White led, but with better color distinction, pattern recognition and arguably better depth perception as compensation... If you are looking for snakes in the path, or how the food that you're cooking is doing, rather than just wanting the brightest possible, then maybe High CRI is warranted.

Also, personally, I have more use for a floody light than a light with a lot of throw for overall use most of the time. A floody light gives you an even field of vision. If you have only one light then it would make sense to have a light with a hotspot that throws well, but in regular use the flood is what you need for tasks at hand if you're spending much time working in the dark. I just carry a flood and a light with throw, but I use the high CRI floody light most of the time. Very comfortable and practical.
Also, it's been frequently noted around here that while you can easily make a throwy light into a floody light by bouncing the hotspot against a ceiling, wall, piece of paper or by putting diffusion film over the lens (removable), but you can't make a floody light throw.

 

[rambo180]

Everybody seems pretty thrilled with the SC600, if you are happy with getting some rechargeable 18650 then I'd be willing to bet that you'd be well served by SC600 or the headlamp version (H600).
I have a strong preference for Neutral and High CRI (Color Rendering Index) lights -High CRI tends to be very warm, like an incandescent, and they do not put out as much light as a regular Cool White led, but with better color distinction, pattern recognition and arguably better depth perception as compensation... If you are looking for snakes in the path, or how the food that you're cooking is doing, rather than just wanting the brightest possible, then maybe High CRI is warranted.

Also, personally, I have more use for a floody light than a light with a lot of throw for overall use most of the time. A floody light gives you an even field of vision. If you have only one light then it would make sense to have a light with a hotspot that throws well, but in regular use the flood is what you need for tasks at hand if you're spending much time working in the dark. I just carry a flood and a light with throw, but I use the high CRI floody light most of the time. Very comfortable and practical.
Also, it's been frequently noted around here that while you can easily make a throwy light into a floody light by bouncing the hotspot against a ceiling, wall, piece of paper or by putting diffusion film over the lens (removable), but you can't make a floody light throw.

fenix tk21 has 5 brightness levels and is floody. you'll need to check the throw.

o 468 Lumens (1Hr 50 Min)
o 5 Lumens (220Hrs)
o 58 Lumens (16 Hrs)
o 180 Lumens (5Hrs 10 Min)
o 468 Lumens strobe mode

 

[TEEJ]

The amount of throw will impact what those lumens mean as far as usefulness.

The lumens are the total output....think of it like a regular 60 watt light bulb glowing.

If you put that light bulb in a lamp so it shines a sphere of light...you have lets say 1,000 lumens...but its spread out across the walls, ceiling and floor, so the LUX, which what you SEE (You can't SEE lumens, you see the light reflected back to your eyes...and the amount of light that covers the target so it CAN reflect back is called the LUX.), is dim.

If you put that same bulb in a reflector lamp, so most of the lumens are sent out in the same general direction...you can have a lot more light on a target...but it will not be lit up behind and over/under the way the table lamp, etc, did.

So...if you have a light with a reflector that gives good throw, that means it is concentrating the light into a smaller beam.

If you are using a light in moonlight mode..say trying to get to the bathroom on a camping trip, without tripping...a teeny patch of light in a small circle a few inches across is not that useful...you have to sweep it back and forth, etc, to try to stitch together what's in front of you.

That means it doesn't work as well as a flood light for that.

The SC600 for example is very floody...so it DOES work well on low...as its a larger, more useful pool of soft light.

It CAN throw, with detail, perhaps 50-60 yards, and, to see a treeline but not the trees, you could see maybe 100 yards...but its not a "thrower", as that beam 50 yards out is lighting up a wide area.

The XT11 has a floody beam, but not as floody as the SC600's. So, its low light beam is a little more concentrated, but still a soft pool of light you don't have to sweep to see with....but I can pick out individual deer 200 yards away, etc...a LOT further out than with the SC600.

A good example was at the quarry we used for Photon Fest 18...I had the SC600 and the XT11 with me, and shined them at the scenery. The SC600 showed a wide area of rocks off ~ 50-60 yards away, and a pass through them (Dark area with nothing illuminated). The XT11 showed the same rocks, but revealed that the dark area was actually a 100' deep quarry hole a few hundred feet across, and showed the opposite sides of it, the trees on the other side, etc.

If I was out hiking, the XT11 would have saved me from heading into a dead end. I would not have fallen IN with the SC600, I just would have walked in a bad direction further and then had to turn back, etc. If I was trying to find a boat dock after a day on the lake, the SC600 would need the shore to be a lot closer to find it in the dark, etc.

So - I use both the SC600 and the XT11...as for close work, the floodier 4" SC600 is marginally better than the slightly less floody XT11...but the XT11 gives a nice floody beam with some throw.

If ~ 50 yards of throw works for you, just get the SC600 and be very very happy with it.

If you need more than ~ 50 yards, consider the XT11 as a good alternative.

Don't get too tied up with lumens per se...as the floodier beams NEED MORE lumens to give the same light level as a more tightly focused beamed light...as the lumens are spread out over a larger area....so they are softer in illumination.