Building inspections - fire damage (commercial + industrial)

[Moph]

Hey all, looking for a recommendation for wide spread beam with a bit of oomph for inspecting and photographing fire damaged buildings. I'm typically inspecting after make-safe board up has been completed so we're talking near pitch black environment combined with a building interior coated in soot.

I use an LEDLENSER H7R.2 headband and Nitecore EC11 compact torch for general use in residential buildings and they work fine there, but I've had a few warehouse fires recently that have been far more challenging due to the physical size of the buildings. I used my Dereelight XSearcher hunting light to get detail views of connections up at roof level, but it was far from ideal as the beam was far too tight. I use a decent camera and flash (Panasonic FZ1000 w/ Metz AF-1 flash) so photographing details is fine but getting a good view on site is tricky.

As such I've just ordered an LEDLENSER XEO-19R headband but am also looking for a larger torch with a nice, broad spread for handheld use. A broad spread and even light distribution (minimal hotspot) are important as I prefer not to have to drop the torch beam down before I take photos, for both safety reasons and to aid focusing. As such a beam with a significant hotspot will show up on my final image. I've had good success with the EC11 thus far - while it does have a hotspot, it's not so blown out that it affects the image.

CHECKLIST:
- Online order (preferably Australian store)
- Essentially unlimited budget
- Flashlight
- Medium to large
- LED
- Traditional manufacturer.
- Preferably 18650 protected cells
- Removable batteries
- Search and rescue type illumination. Burnt-out buildings are black as pitch and soak up light.
- Turbo mode is fine, but I won't be able to run at that for my use case. Always fun to play with though.
- All flood.
- 50 metres. Note again though that burnt-out buildings soak up light.
- 60 minute runtime would be good.
- Durability is important.
- Body switch like the Nitecore EC11 would be great.
- Adjustable light levels.
- Anodized aluminium.
- IPX4+. Soot gets everywhere so everything gets cleaned with a damp cloth once I'm done.
- Storage in car. Australia so 0-50°C (32-122°F).
- Belt clip would be handy but isn't necessary.

Even recommendations as to what emitter would have suitable characteristics would be awesome. I do like the Nitecore EC11 so was looking in their range, but simply don't know enough about the various emitters to choose the torch that'll best suit my needs.

TIA

 

[archimedes]

The Malkoff Wildcat is the "warehouse" light I'd suggest you check out, to see if it might be suitable.

 

[wicky998]

A streamlight hl 5 might work

pretty much checks all your marks

no clip and side switch but I know a nite ize holster work

Runs cr123s and 18650s

On the cooler side, I think it's a xp-l emmiter but I could be wrong hopefully someone chimes in but color rendering wasn't mentioned

Runtime on high is 1.25 hrs

Ipx7, lmh and strobe. You can program the strobe out.

 

[Nichia!]

+1 for Malkoff

 

[Moph]

Thanks guys

I'm a bit concerned that the Malkoff may not have the intensity I need, again due to the way that soot soaks up light - there's very little refraction so what would normally be a very bright torch (eg 900 lumens from my EC11 in a standard living room) is borderline in the same sized room in a fire damaged, boarded up building.

The beam on the Streamlight HL 5 looks a bit too tight.

I've been looking at pop can style 4x18650 lights like the AceBeam X80-GT. Looks like it delivers serious flood coverage at up to 100m range using its medium power settings. Has a bit of hotspot but comparable to the EC11 so likely won't affect images too much. 3.5 hrs @ 2300 lumens / 1.75 hrs @ 4000 lumens would be more than adequate for my needs. Thoughts?

 

[delus]

50 Meters without a hotspot is asking a lot. Then you throw photography on top... If you want to take perfect photos at 50 meters, I don't think there's any single flashlight that qualifies, you need an array of light sources.

When you say "A broad spread and even light distribution (minimal hotspot) are important", I must recommend an Elzetta with flood lens. It's a lens, not a reflector, and has without far and away the smoothest beam profile in the business. Durability is off the charts. Their Throw lens has a hotspot but with no hard edges like every reflector light on the planet, might want to look at elzetta. Not getting to 50 meters though.


If you are looking at pop can lights, don't forget to ask "how long can it hold that brightness?", "will it melt?" and "will it overdrive my batteries?" For these reason I must recommend the Noctigon M43, and it's massive copper thermal path. It holds a large percentage of it's full brightness even after 90 minutes of runtime. Parallel battery configuration is much safer for you and the batteries, and no fragile battery carrier is a gigantic win as well. It is a very well designed light. Just don't drop it on it's somewhat thin bezel.
Oh, and that price is insane for the quality of that light. It looks like intl-outdoor dot com has them in stock now.

 

[Moph]

I'm not looking for either perfect photographs or no hotspot - just to be able to capture most/all available detail in a 25mm f2.8 image. If the contrast between the hotspot and the corona is too great then detail will be lost, even with infill from the Metz AF-1 flash. If the hotspot and corona are closer in magnitude then I can pull up shadows and pull back highlights using Lightroom, bringing both shadows and highlights into range without blowouts at either end.

These photographs provide a record of damage and assist in drawing up the scope of works for repair, so clarity of detail is all that's important - I don't care about their appearance beyond that as it's typically only me who ever spends any time looking at them.

The Elzetta flood lens does look brilliant but, as you say, they're not going to get to 50 metres. It seems the M43 has a much tighter hotspot and less spill than the X80-GT per the beamshot comparisons below; honestly it's the beamshot of the X80-GT here that somewhat sold me on it due to the amount of spill:

https://imgur.com/a/0OW666M

If only a flood lens was available for the X80-GT =/

 

[Buck91]

Hard to beat something like a streamlight scene flood light. After all they were literally designed for this. Always worked great on fire scenes for us.

 

[Moph]

Has to be mobile for my use, unfortunately - stand lights aren't really an option. Here's a recent example showing the kind of accessibility I have to work with on occasion. In that instance there was decent lighting coming through where polycarb roof sheets had melted, but it serves to illustrate typical access conditions. I'm almost always the first through after firefighters have left the site (sometimes on site with them) so all debris still in place.

https://i.imgur.com/Ib9pL7k.jpg

I'm typically only on site for a couple of hours as well, so stand lights would slow me down quite a bit. Thanks for the suggestion though - I have mulled long and hard about how to make something like the Milwaukee M18 lights work for me, but I really need handheld w/ belt clip or pouch.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

How about the trational Surefire M6 with an appropriate lamp. It's incan bit should last an hour with interment use, Good color rendition too.

Bill

 

[Buck91]

Has to be mobile for my use, unfortunately - stand lights aren't really an option. Here's a recent example showing the kind of accessibility I have to work with on occasion. In that instance there was decent lighting coming through where polycarb roof sheets had melted, but it serves to illustrate typical access conditions. I'm almost always the first through after firefighters have left the site (sometimes on site with them) so all debris still in place.

https://i.imgur.com/Ib9pL7k.jpg

I'm typically only on site for a couple of hours as well, so stand lights would slow me down quite a bit. Thanks for the suggestion though - I have mulled long and hard about how to make something like the Milwaukee M18 lights work for me, but I really need handheld w/ belt clip or pouch.

What about something like the Armytek Wizard with XHP50.2? Can be a headlamp or has a clip to use as a 90 degree light. Something like 1000 lumens of floody light, but not truely a pure flood like a mule would be.

The Lumens Factory turbo heads off a balanced beam with more throw than that. Similar to the profile from a Malkoff M61 IMHO (Just brighter).

 

[bbltint]

In warehouses you need something like X80-GT. Make it floody.
Fex. Lee filters is making filters for professionals.
Ask help, we have here in CPF many people who know a lot
about filters. I do not.

If you want to upgrade your residential buildings gear

Zebralight SC700Fd
Zebralight SC600Fc and Fd

 

[bbltint]

If somebody is wondering what is the difference between floody and flood,
Stefanos GIFs may help.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...4-Zebralight-H600-Fc-vs-H604c-(only-beamshot)

 

[Moph]

Thanks all. I've decided to order an AceBeam X80-GT with the intent of using either M2 (2300 lumens) or M3 (4000 lumens) mode depending on ambient lighting conditions, which should give a runtime in excess of 2 hours. Though I couldn't find runtime graphs for M2/M3 modes, I'm hoping that M2 at least will remain stable throughout its runtime without thermal throttling.

The Zebralight SC700Fd looks pretty awesome for residential work, though it's much larger than my EC11. I'm not sure it would get used much due to that. The EC11 is always in my pocket on site and does a great job in tight spaces (roof spaces; subfloors) where the SC700Fd would be a little less convenient. Given the price though, I'm tempted to pick one up anyway ... handy to have in the toolbox.

Cheers

 

[bbltint]

SC700Fd would be a little less convenient. Given the price though, I'm tempted to pick one up anyway ... handy to have in the toolbox.

Keep us informed how it suits for your quite unusual needs.