WadeF
Flashlight Enthusiast
I just got back from a camp out at one of our regional zoo's. The Lehigh Valley Zoo aka Trexler Game Preserve to be exact. They offered a chance to camp out in the zoo overnight, as well as go on a night time nature walk and night time zoo tour! Of course the best part of the description was where they said "Participants should bring flashlights."
Of course I went over kill and packed more flashlights that I could possibly need, and didn't use half of them!
On the nature walk it was just getting dark, so the flashlights weren't needed to navigate, but once in the woods we used them to help spot things in the shadows. Most of the people had cheap incans. They were flashing around dim yellow/orange beams, filled with horrible artifacts from the incan bulb. There were a few LED lights in the crowd, nothing spectacular. Actually one of the brightest and most annoying LED lights in the group, excluding myself, were contained in a little girls shoes! When her multi-colored flashing LED shoes went off it was pretty bright and obnoxious.
Then of course some little kid had a CFL based lantern that was just flooding out bright annoying light in our faces, which made it hard to see anything else. Thankfully he didn't have it on very long. That's great for in the tent, but not for trying to walk down a trail.
The female guide had a cheap incan flashlight as well. Just one of those $2-3 types you get with the plastic body. When everyone tried to illuminate something I would of course over power them all. I was using my Dereelight CL1h v1 with a XR-E Q4 5B neutral tint at 1.2A or my Dereelight CL1H v4 with a XP-G R5. I gave my wife my Fenix TK20 since I wouldn't be too upset if she dropped it, etc.
Once back at the zoo it was time for the night time zoo tour. I was thinking to myself "Which lights to bring! Should I get the Ultrafire WF-500 with a 630 bulb lumen lumens factory bulb? The Mag85? They might be too bright, maybe I'll just stick to the LED based lights." and then the tour guide said "No flashlights on the zoo tour!" Well, that made that decision easy. I had a feeling the flashlights would disturb the animals, so it made sense and I was fine with that, but this is where it gets good. The tour guide said her flashlight was shot and asked if she could borrow someone's flashlight. I took the TK-20 from the wife and promptly handed it over to the guide.
So off we went, and the TK-20 sure looks a lot brighter when it's in someone else's hands. Maybe too bright. On our first stop she was lighting up a snowy owl, but just with the spill.
Here's a pic:
I set my Canon SX200 IS camera to a 3200 ISO mode. This lets me take shots with a decent shutter speed. There was no way I was going to be able to capture these images with long 1-5 second exposures at a lower ISO, as there would be too much motion blur from everything moving around, including the flashlight's beam. So the pics are what they are, but you get the idea.
Here's a shot of the guide with the Fenix TK-20 in hand:
The neutral tint did an excellent job of rendering the outdoor colors. The beam's hot spot was a bit intense for close range critters, but the throw was helpful for when she wanted to point out things in the distance, like this ostrich:
After the snowy owl I also showed her how to twist the TK-20 to switch between high and low. There's not a huge difference in the output, so I wasn't sure which see what using most of the time, but when I got the light back later it was on high and pretty warm.
So she may have put it on high soon after I showed her low.
Asphalt beam shot!
After the tour she continued to harness the power of the TK-20 to gather up supplies for the camp fire.
She then continued to use the TK-20 to help light up the fire pit while one of the tour group members helped start the fire:
After that I got the TK-20 back. I was wondering if she'd comment about the flashlight, like "This is a great flashlight! Where could I get one like this?", but she didn't. Maybe the next time she fires up her cheap flashlight she'll be like "Wow, this looks really dim! Something must be wrong with it."
As far as the other flashlights, I used my Zebralight H60 to finish setting up our tent after dark. Then I hung the Zebralight H60 from the top of the tent as our indoor tent light. My Liteflux LF3XT saw some use, mostly in max low just to help navigate around on the dark paths. My Ti Quark 2x123 also saw some similar use. That's about it.
Of course I went over kill and packed more flashlights that I could possibly need, and didn't use half of them!
On the nature walk it was just getting dark, so the flashlights weren't needed to navigate, but once in the woods we used them to help spot things in the shadows. Most of the people had cheap incans. They were flashing around dim yellow/orange beams, filled with horrible artifacts from the incan bulb. There were a few LED lights in the crowd, nothing spectacular. Actually one of the brightest and most annoying LED lights in the group, excluding myself, were contained in a little girls shoes! When her multi-colored flashing LED shoes went off it was pretty bright and obnoxious.
Then of course some little kid had a CFL based lantern that was just flooding out bright annoying light in our faces, which made it hard to see anything else. Thankfully he didn't have it on very long. That's great for in the tent, but not for trying to walk down a trail.
The female guide had a cheap incan flashlight as well. Just one of those $2-3 types you get with the plastic body. When everyone tried to illuminate something I would of course over power them all. I was using my Dereelight CL1h v1 with a XR-E Q4 5B neutral tint at 1.2A or my Dereelight CL1H v4 with a XP-G R5. I gave my wife my Fenix TK20 since I wouldn't be too upset if she dropped it, etc.
Once back at the zoo it was time for the night time zoo tour. I was thinking to myself "Which lights to bring! Should I get the Ultrafire WF-500 with a 630 bulb lumen lumens factory bulb? The Mag85? They might be too bright, maybe I'll just stick to the LED based lights." and then the tour guide said "No flashlights on the zoo tour!" Well, that made that decision easy. I had a feeling the flashlights would disturb the animals, so it made sense and I was fine with that, but this is where it gets good. The tour guide said her flashlight was shot and asked if she could borrow someone's flashlight. I took the TK-20 from the wife and promptly handed it over to the guide.
So off we went, and the TK-20 sure looks a lot brighter when it's in someone else's hands. Maybe too bright. On our first stop she was lighting up a snowy owl, but just with the spill.
Here's a pic:
I set my Canon SX200 IS camera to a 3200 ISO mode. This lets me take shots with a decent shutter speed. There was no way I was going to be able to capture these images with long 1-5 second exposures at a lower ISO, as there would be too much motion blur from everything moving around, including the flashlight's beam. So the pics are what they are, but you get the idea.
Here's a shot of the guide with the Fenix TK-20 in hand:
The neutral tint did an excellent job of rendering the outdoor colors. The beam's hot spot was a bit intense for close range critters, but the throw was helpful for when she wanted to point out things in the distance, like this ostrich:
After the snowy owl I also showed her how to twist the TK-20 to switch between high and low. There's not a huge difference in the output, so I wasn't sure which see what using most of the time, but when I got the light back later it was on high and pretty warm.
So she may have put it on high soon after I showed her low. Asphalt beam shot!
After the tour she continued to harness the power of the TK-20 to gather up supplies for the camp fire.
She then continued to use the TK-20 to help light up the fire pit while one of the tour group members helped start the fire:
After that I got the TK-20 back. I was wondering if she'd comment about the flashlight, like "This is a great flashlight! Where could I get one like this?", but she didn't. Maybe the next time she fires up her cheap flashlight she'll be like "Wow, this looks really dim! Something must be wrong with it."
As far as the other flashlights, I used my Zebralight H60 to finish setting up our tent after dark. Then I hung the Zebralight H60 from the top of the tent as our indoor tent light. My Liteflux LF3XT saw some use, mostly in max low just to help navigate around on the dark paths. My Ti Quark 2x123 also saw some similar use. That's about it.
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Oops, my light is dead. "Does anyone have a flashlight I can use?!?"
