Beamshots and "reviews" of my lights

[Empyfree]

Last night I finally got round to taking some beamshots of my lights, this was mainly prompted by the arrival of two products, a) a MTIV drop in from Elektrolumens, and b) a new tripod for my camera!

The Contenders:

Below is an animated sequence showing the results from the beamshot photography:

Here's a link to higer resolution static imagery

I used a Canon 5D for all photos, held steady by a Benro Travel Angel Compact carbon fibre tripod. I used the same settings for each shot:

Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 5D
ISO: 400
Exposure: 4.0 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 35mm

White balance was set to automatic, the Sky was set to red!

My Impressions:

I had expected the 100W 3D special to blow the rest out of the water, surprisingly the 6D ROP is brighter, I may need to look at the 100W, I'm having trouble with the battery holder, getting very low voltages with some loose cells unless I really screw down the cap. I measured 13.3V with no load from the pack just before loading it for these shots.

I expected the MTIV drop in to blow the T1 and similar lights out of the water, I used GP9000 D cells in a 3D host for this. The MTIV does seem to have a better spill, but the T1 out-throws it.

The old Wolf-Eyes Dragon II is still a good thrower, but the spill is typical low wattage HID, poor to say the least! The Fenix T1 seems much brighter, but on reviewing the photo's the Wolf eyes has the brighter hot-spot, ie more throw.

I included the smaller LED lights just for comparison sake, although it's impressive how well the L0D special keeps up with the "big boys"!

I look forward to your comments.

 

[thermal guy]

I cant get the animated sequence to work

 

[Empyfree]

hmm, it's a simple animated gif, make sure you've not disabled animations in your browser settings. You can check it out at www.at-holmes.com/cpfpics/shootout.gif if you want to try it in a browser by its self.

 

[thermal guy]

Thanks i can see it now.Nice shots

 

[I came to the light...]

You've got quite a few amazingly bright lights

Being an LED guy, what's most amazing to me is the T1. I think it puts up an outstanding fight, as it probably has ~1/8 the volume of the first light brighter than it, and 1/4 the volume of the first light w/ more throw.


SF 9AN... :shakehead (don't get me wrong. it's the light, not the manufacturer. have you seen SF's new U2s? :huh

 

[roymail]

Empyfree, thanks for posting... I really enjoyed the pics and write up. :wave:

 

[Nitro]

Nice shots Empyfree! I like the animated GIF. It gives a good comparison of the lights.

 

[swxb12]

Fantastic thread, Empyfree. Thanks for the animation.

and poor Zebralight...hehe

 

[Empyfree]

I need to re-shoot this series... and then possibly myself! I just had the battery pack out of my 12AA flashlight to charge it and spotted a potential problem.

I've been having trouble with the pack not making a good connection so I decided to look closely at each connection point for problem areas, I noticed one cell wasn't making contact at all as I looked at it, and is actually about 1mm shorter than the others! I quickly made a small brass pad to slide in between the contact and the cell and that seems to work.

I then put the pack on the desk in front of me... and stopped... and thought, surely this pack shouldn't have two positives connecting...

:mecry::thinking::tinfoil::hairpull::whoopin::eeksign:


Last time I had all the cells out I must have been drunk or very very tired! There was a single cell completely reversed. I quickly took the pack apart and swapped that cell out for the "spare" (it's a 12AA carrier running 11 AA's and a spacer for the 623 lamp)

Do you think I've killed the cell? it reads 1.23V on my mulitmeter, but I'm now staring at it like it's a bomb! It's a Nimh, and obviously not as scary as a lithium cell, but i'm still a little wary of it.

The up side is that the flashlight's a darn sight brighter than it was when I took the beam-shots, it may yet win the day!