Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welcome!

[MrBenchmark]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

[ QUOTE ]
Haesslich said:
[ QUOTE ]
MrBenchmark said:
Where I live, walking outdoors, my eyes are almost never really well dark adapted.

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If you're anywhere where man has been, which means highways or cities, villages or even farms, your eyes aren't going to get fully light-adapted unless you're indoors and in a room with no windows. The point is the the rhopsodin CAN be destroyed even with exposure to this faint level of light, but that the destruction is so minimal compared to that of any artificially produced light that it's almost not worth talking about... Red is used most frequently because it doesn't destroy rhopsodin, but it kills your ability to differentiate color because you need to use the rods to pick most of those up, which means you're stuck depending on photopic vision, which depends on the cones and has better acuity and color differentiation... but which is useless once the light level drops below a specific point.

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gifWell, it's sort of pointless to talk about being completely dark adapted - if there's no light whatsoever, then your dark adaptation doesn't really matter... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif (I know it's not really pointless - it is possible to use this to see fainter things than one would normally be able to see.)

When I said "never fully dark adapted" - I was being charitable to my city - I meant "probably not dark adapted at all..." There is so much light around me that I suspect much of the time my scotopic vision is doing relatively little to help, but there's not enough light for my photopic vision to really work efficiently, either. Unless I'm in a parking lot - then it's bright enought that I can read the newspaper. Of course much of that light ends up going straight up, which isn't too helpful.

Sorry, we kinda drifted off-topic here. Does anyone besides astronomers and pilots commonly use red light anymore?

 

[Leeoniya]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

when we were at college we were growing a certain type of herbal plant..lol...in a farmfield in the middle of nowhere, and when we went out to check on it, which was about a 3 mile trek through all sorts of fun stuff like bushes and such, some of the route was by roads so we had to be pretty covert about it. red light not only preserves your night vision, but unless you look straight into the light source, it is very hard to see from the sides, and diffuses well. so you have just enough light to navigate that is not visible to onlookers. we all had red inova X5Ts. ...and the only type of red light to have is a flood, it makes no sense to have anything else. just get a laser pointer if you want focus.
but i would not call that common use /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Dmitri]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

Ah, those links provided were excellent, I feel like I understand this a LOT more now =)

Thanks very much!

Last question: <font color="red">I have heard that the Inova X5T-HA is not regulated. Is this true and how would it affect performance?</font>

Thanks again!

 

[Hoghead]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

The X5T-HA (or any X5/X5T) is not regulated.

This results in the light dimming as the batteries are depleted.

 

[Dmitri]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

<font color="red">The reported battery runtime is 20 hours -- how close to this does the X5T-HA actually perform? Is there a breakdown point where the light is pretty bright for X amount of hours, and relatively useful for another Y amount of hours?

Also, has anybody noticed any difficulties in one-hand operation, since the bezel is smooth and has no knurling?</font>

 

[Hoghead]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

Roy's runtime chart for the X5 shows 4 hours 2 minutes to half brightness.

 

[Dmitri]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

Goodness, that's not very long at all. The appeal of the Inova X5T-HA was that it (supposedly) had an extremely long runtime approaching/surpassing 20 hours.

Maybe I would've been better off getting a Surefire L1? Since it provides much more brightness for nearly 5 hours, which is the same as what the Inova has until half brightness.

 

[Mike Painter]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

[ QUOTE ]
Haesslich said:
Because, as noted earlier, red DOES preserve your natural night-vision; the rods in your eyes don't react to red wavelengths, which means


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that you could not see red as rods are what see light.
"...intensity (brightness) of the light used to read charts is more important than the color." Green seems to be the color of choice now. http://www.corvus.com/kniffen.htm for an article on teh subject.

 

[Haesslich]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

[ QUOTE ]
Mike Painter said:
[ QUOTE ]
Haesslich said:
Because, as noted earlier, red DOES preserve your natural night-vision; the rods in your eyes don't react to red wavelengths, which means


[/ QUOTE ]

that you could not see red as rods are what see light.
"...intensity (brightness) of the light used to read charts is more important than the color." Green seems to be the color of choice now. http://www.corvus.com/kniffen.htm for an article on teh subject.

[/ QUOTE ]

Green may let you see things on charts, but it still kills the scotopic night-vision as the wavelengths fall well into what is absorbed by rhopsodin. This article of yours has been referenced in the post I linked to, and while intensity is important... it should be noted that, for true rod-based night vision, scotopic vision is still key. Yes, it's grainy and low-res, but it'll let you navigate. Low levels of other light may let mesopic vision work, which activates both rods and cones, but it also means that you've compromised your night-vision adaptation in the process to some degree. For reading charts, there may be some use in this, as long as the intensity of light is low enough to allow for minimal reductions in the rhopsodin levels in your rods. Remember that even starlight can consume this, and that's VERY low intensity light - it's just that the amounts used are minimal, compared to shining a flashlight in someone's face.

But if you're talking walking around in the dark, rod-based scotopic vsion is the most useful. If you need more definition, then either you need to employ mesopic or photopic. However, if you use enough light to activate the third type, your eyes will take some time to re-adapt to the darkness.

 

[Dmitri]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

So are you saying that even with bright, intense red LED lights, your night vision will not be compromised?

 

[Haesslich]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

Less so than with bright, intense green LEDs or blue LEDs - but the disadvantage is that the red LED won't do much for color recognition, and won't carry very far, as it were. If the things are bright enough to be orange in the center, then they're probably too bright, though. The main thing is this - scotopic vision is able to discern shapes and shadows, but as far as being useful for reading or recognizing fine objects... forget it.

 

[MrBenchmark]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

Very bright red lights will also compromise your night vision. It's not as bad as turning on a white light, but it's real. I know for a fact that it takes a few moments after looking at a star chart to see some very faint objects in my telescope. I use the dimmest red light I can get away with when I have to use any light at all to read a starchart. I only use a fairly bright one, like a red X5T, when I'm walking around the site, because falling and breaking my ankle will have a worse impact on my observing than slightly damaging my dark adaptation.

 

[paulr]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

Bright red light does mess up your night vision. A typical 5mm red light is fine for walking around in the dark.

One of the nice things about CPF is if you buy a light you don't like, you can resell it on BST pretty easily for a few dollars less than you paid for it. (Unless it's in Arc, in which case you can resell it for much MORE than you paid for it). So you can try out new lights and turn them around when you get tired of them.

I've never felt the need for an Inova X5T myself. It's about 3x as bright as the Infinity Ultra (5 leds instead of 1, but individually they're not run as hard). I've never felt a need for anything brighter than an Ultra for long periods (of course I use brighter lights too, but for short periods, so 20 hours of runtime isn't important). The Ultra is an indispensible little light, and if you want to get one, you might want to do it now, since they've just redesigned it and the some people don't like the new version as much as the old version.

I didn't see this thread earlier or I'd have also suggested the UKE 2AAA eLED. It's 1000 feet waterproof, weighs less than an Ultra, runs 20 hours on two AAA's, and has more throw than the Ultra without about the same total output (it has a focusing optic in front of the led). It's a a nice, underrated little light. There's also a xenon version that's about 10x brighter (and 1/20th the runtime) so they make good companions for each other.

 

[MichiganMan]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

[ QUOTE ]
Dmitri said:
Goodness, that's not very long at all. The appeal of the Inova X5T-HA was that it (supposedly) had an extremely long runtime approaching/surpassing 20 hours.


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You want runtime? We got runtime.

Every flashaholic, and every person setting up a disaster preparation plan needs at least one Eternalight.

Personally I would look at finding a deal on an Elite X-Ray, but you can get an Ergo for around $20 on eBay right now. I have an EliteMax, but 90% of its features can be had in the cheaper Elite X-Ray. About the only downside to Eternalights is the lack of regulation (see comment below) but a set of lithium AA's will give a reasonably flat discharge curve, run longer and brighter, and make the light float.

Another good emergency light is the venerable Lightwave 4000 No regulation here either, but that because the Lightwave is built for durability (its a tank) and runtime. (Note, Regulation, an otherwise highly desirable factor in lights IMO, cuts down on runtime and therefore may be viewed as a negative in disaster lights) You can get a Lightwave 4000 for around $35 on eBay right now.

Eternalights and Lightwaves don't have the gee-whiz factor of the newer lights (and I still think that Inova you have on order is a pretty nifty light) but they're both reliable workhorses that are still around because they do what they were designed to do and do it well. I would argue in terms of combining runtime/brightness/and durability, the LW 4000 still hasn't been topped. And very few lights provide the custom dimabilty that Eternalights do.

If nothing else, take a look at Craig's reviews for some good reading.

 

[RonM]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

Gotta throw my word of support for the eternaLights as well. One of, it not the, most flexible lights out there. Well built. Fits in the back pocket fairly well (but not EDC), stands on end, variable output, runtimes into the hundreds of hours, emergency signalling modes, etc., etc. I can think of no better emergency light, especially when loaded up with lithium AAs.

 

[Frame57]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

For longterm emergency lighting I have 3 old 2D Mags fitted with white Ever LED's. 15 hours run time on full brightness on 2 alkiline D cells. Can't get much better than that.

Jim Skinner

 

[Hoghead]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

[ QUOTE ]
Dmitri said:
Goodness, that's not very long at all. The appeal of the Inova X5T-HA was that it (supposedly) had an extremely long runtime approaching/surpassing 20 hours.

Maybe I would've been better off getting a Surefire L1? Since it provides much more brightness for nearly 5 hours, which is the same as what the Inova has until half brightness.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Surefire L1 has a runtime of about 1 hour 30 minutes of regulated light on high.

A Surefire E2e/KL1 has a runtime of about 4 hours of regulated light.

The X5T is much cheaper than the Surefire L1 or E2e/KL1.

The Surefire A2 & L2 are other options. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/au.gif

 

[tracker870]

Re: Flashlight Recommendations -- Suggestions Welc

X5T-HA Due in Friday.
A2 Due in Monday.
KL1, Still need to order this!
(Will it ever end??? I just have to try these and others out in various applications....) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif