Fog lights (as in cars) but with flashlights?

[ltiu]

I find it annoying during foggy, dusty, snowy or rainy conditions. My light would illuminate the particles (water, dust) right in front of me and a lot of the light reflects back to my eyes and I cannot see anything in-front of me anymore.

Cars have fog lights. How do these work? They seem to reduce the amount of reflected light coming back from particles right in-front of the car. Can this be implemented in flashlights? How?

 

[Marduke]

Fog lights work in two ways. They are slightly yellow, which helps them penetrate the fog, and they are low to the ground where the fog is less dense. Also, being incandescent helps, as LED's are less effective in smoke, dust, and fog because of the light spectrum they emit.

 

[Brozneo]

I don't have any problems in fog with my Mag85 (incandescent, 800ish lumens) as I hold it as far away below my eyes as possible, i don't hold it in the near head, bent arm ready to hit someone position...

 

[GreySave]

Marduke is correct on both of his points. Specifically, the yellow tint that many fog lamps use enhances contrast. Fog lamps also have a very sharp cutoff of the top of the beam which is designed to keep the light output low to the ground. To be useful they MUST be properly aimed. Point them upwards as many people do, and you get the glare anyway plus you blind everyone coming from the otherr direction.

Your best light in fog is probably going to be an lamp assembly that throws a tight beam. It will penetrate the fog with minimal glare and reflection as long as it is "aimed" correctly. The more spill the light has the more glare you will likely see. I have never tried a optic based LED in fog. Might be interesting to see if it works as well as a tight incan.

 

[nyyankeefen]

Fog lights work in two ways. They are slightly yellow, which helps them penetrate the fog, and they are low to the ground where the fog is less dense. Also, being incandescent helps, as LED's are less effective in smoke, dust, and fog because of the light spectrum they emit.

My setup:

 

[sysadmn]

Thought you were going to mention the LumaRay:
http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/eighth/fl12rxf.htm

 

[GregWormald]

Cars have fog lights. How do these work? They seem to reduce the amount of reflected light coming back from particles right in-front of the car. Can this be implemented in flashlights? How?

Since car fog lights work by using yellow filter and/or having a tightly focussed beam (onto the road and not into the air), the same should work for a flashlight. Yellow filter and/or a very tight beam with little or no spill. One of the ?aspherical? lenses that have a couple of threads on the forum should work.
Greg

 

[yellow]

fog lights working good in fog because of being yellow = wrong
fog lights working good because the spill is cut away = correct

get Yourself an Docter Aspherilux Light, if You think You need such a light
http://www.hundt-direkt.de/katalogseiten/KAT230164.html
... but this is one of my lights I hate the most, a beam without spill is nothing.

Another possibility were one of these LED-lights with an optic making more or less no spill. The one I know of (for sure) is a PalmBlaze, maybe someone has an idea of a more recent light with a Cree/Seoul led

 

[Bogus1]

I've noticed testing identical lights side by side the cool tinted (blue) LEDs reflect more light back from fog than the warmer tints.

 

[B@rt]

get Yourself an Docter Aspherilux Light, if You think You need such a light
http://www.hundt-direkt.de/katalogseiten/KAT230164.html
... but this is one of my lights I hate the most, a beam without spill is nothing.

I agree, a light with a sharp cutoff like the Aspherilux will help, btw, I like mine as nightlight for just that reason.
It's definately a light for dedicated use. :thinking:

I wonder how hard it is to implement something like this in a flashlight, maybe with a 3000K HID? :thinking: :naughty:

 

[sysadmn]

fog lights working good in fog because of being yellow = wrong

Are you sure?

I guess so. Learn something new every day!