Help appreciated: looking for a long-throw flashlight

[AGZ]

Greetings all,
I am looking to buy a handheld flashlight with the following specs:
Long throw (preferably >500yards)
Zoomable
>1000 lumens (1600 and up would be better)
Uses 1 or max 2 rechargeable batteries (e.g. 21700)
Good battery life

Was looking at Fenix TK22 V2.0 (but beam range is a bit short)
Nightcore P30 (but only 1000 lumens)

Any other suggestions???

Cheers

 

[kerneldrop]

Greetings all,
I am looking to buy a handheld flashlight with the following specs:
Long throw (preferably >500yards)
Zoomable
>1000 lumens (1600 and up would be better)
Uses 1 or max 2 rechargeable batteries (e.g. 21700)
Good battery life

Was looking at Fenix TK22 V2.0 (but beam range is a bit short)
Nightcore P30 (but only 1000 lumens)

Any other suggestions???

Cheers

500 yards usable throw will take a large head and a small LED. Don’t believe marketing hype…not many lights will throw 500 yards.

Just looking at the size the P30 will probably get you 250 yards of usable throw at best.

If new…I strongly recommend the Noctigon K1 with a W1.

Noctigon K1 Thrower 1*21700 LED Flashlight

<p><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">21700 Battery is NOT included in the price, it should be purchased separately！</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: medium; color: #000000;">Recommend battery,</spa

intl-outdoor.com

There’s one for $60 that’ll work great too:

WTS: zebralights, lep, skylumen (N. America preferred) | BudgetLightForum.com

budgetlightforum.com

$200 LEP on that same page is an awesome thrower

 

[fulee9999]

Long throw (preferably >500yards)
Zoomable
>1000 lumens (1600 and up would be better)
Uses 1 or max 2 rechargeable batteries (e.g. 21700)
Good battery life

LEDlenser P7R covers pretty much your requirements

 

[brachypelma44]

Noctigon K1 is great. I have the SBT 90.2 version, not sure how it compares to other versions. It chucks light a long way...if you need more than that, you probably want a LEP.

 

[AGZ]

500 yards usable throw will take a large head and a small LED. Don’t believe marketing hype…not many lights will throw 500 yards.

Just looking at the size the P30 will probably get you 250 yards of usable throw at best.

If new…I strongly recommend the Noctigon K1 with a W1.

Noctigon K1 Thrower 1*21700 LED Flashlight

<p><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">21700 Battery is NOT included in the price, it should be purchased separately！</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: medium; color: #000000;">Recommend battery,</spa

intl-outdoor.com

There’s one for $60 that’ll work great too:

WTS: zebralights, lep, skylumen (N. America preferred) | BudgetLightForum.com

budgetlightforum.com

$200 LEP on that same page is an awesome thrower

Thank you! I will look into the models you've mentioned. The P30 specs say 700m... I have used the P30 of a friend and it is very powerful for its size. It is difficult to measure the through but it was quite long. It does, however, get extremely hot when used on max power for a few minutes. Battery life was ok. Not great.

 

[AGZ]

LEDlenser P7R covers pretty much your requirements

Thank you! will read about it.

 

[AGZ]

Noctigon K1 is great. I have the SBT 90.2 version, not sure how it compares to other versions. It chucks light a long way...if you need more than that, you probably want a LEP.

Thank you!

 

[AGZ]

500 yards usable throw will take a large head and a small LED. Don’t believe marketing hype…not many lights will throw 500 yards.

Just looking at the size the P30 will probably get you 250 yards of usable throw at best.

If new…I strongly recommend the Noctigon K1 with a W1.

Noctigon K1 Thrower 1*21700 LED Flashlight

<p><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">21700 Battery is NOT included in the price, it should be purchased separately！</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: medium; color: #000000;">Recommend battery,</spa

intl-outdoor.com

There’s one for $60 that’ll work great too:

WTS: zebralights, lep, skylumen (N. America preferred) | BudgetLightForum.com

budgetlightforum.com

$200 LEP on that same page is an awesome thrower

Just wondering... why the Noctigon with W1 and not one with higher lumen?

 

[kerneldrop]

Just wondering... why the Noctigon with W1 and not one with higher lumen?

There's a lot of science here that I don't know.
But....redneck talk here. Think of lumens as brightness with no where to go, so it just scatters.
Now the key is to harness that brightness in a beam in a direction you want.
That is where the reflector, optic, and LED die size comes into play.

The smaller the die size the more narrow the beam
The more narrow the beam the more throwy
The larger the reflector the longer your throw is.
So pair a small LED die size with a large reflector and you get a longer throw.

A W1 is the smallest die size that I know of....so it has the most throw.
Pair the W1 with the head of a K1 and you have as good as it gets in terms of LED throwers.

It's not the brightest...not even close. But it points the tiny little beam the furthest.

The w2 is brighter than the w1 because it's twice the die size
The 90.2 is way brighter but less throwy because it's an even bigger die size
The new 70 LEDs out are even brighter but less throwy because it's an even bigger bigger die size

You can have bright and you can have throw, but you can't have both out of 1 LED flashlight.

You can pick a dedicated flood light, a dedicated thrower, or a compromise that is good at both but not great at either.

The generally accepted and recognized formula to calculating throw is : Usable Throw = 1/2 the distance that's advertised, best case. lol

Good news is you have tons of choices anyway you go.

 

[kerneldrop]

Here's what I mean by big LED vs tiny LED

Left is SBT90.2. Right is W1. There's not a right or wrong, it's about matching the LED and light with your purpose.

 

[Monocrom]

Need throw? Lumintop THOR II V2.
One of my subscribers has his own YouTube channel and did a great video on this light. Check it out:

 

[brachypelma44]

So, I have the Lumintop Thor 3, and the Noctigon K1. Here's what I think: LEPs are fun to play with, but are undeniably the least useful throwers. Sure, they can throw light a mile or two, but 1) the hotspot is very small, so it's easy to miss what you're trying to find, especially at short to medium distances, and 2) you can't see much of anything a mile or two away, even if the light reaches that far.

Most people that need throwers only need a few hundred yards (at the most) for their situation, and would also benefit from a larger hotspot than the LEP's to work with, because it makes stuff easier to find. If I'm scanning for predators around my chicken coops on the other side of the farm, for example, the LEP is pretty much useless. The K1 is the tool for that.

 

[hsa]

You have summed up years of my experience with that single post. I agree completely.

 

[kerneldrop]

Here's my choices for throw just to give you another size illustration:
From left to right: Noctigon Kr1 SFT40, Convoy C8 SFT40, Malkoff AA EDC just for size, Convoy L8 SBT90.2

On a rural farm in total darkness with almost a full moon I can barely see an object at 200 meters with the two on the left.
I just got the L8 and I will test this weekend.

The two on the left are "throwers" and certainly won't reach close to 500 meters
So you know need bigger than those 2 plus a smaller LED than the SFT40 if you need to shoot a beam 500 meters.
I expect the L8 to reach 500 meters, but I doubt my eyes can make out anything at 500 meters.

 

[AGZ]

There's a lot of science here that I don't know.
But....redneck talk here. Think of lumens as brightness with no where to go, so it just scatters.
Now the key is to harness that brightness in a beam in a direction you want.
That is where the reflector, optic, and LED die size comes into play.

The smaller the die size the more narrow the beam
The more narrow the beam the more throwy
The larger the reflector the longer your throw is.
So pair a small LED die size with a large reflector and you get a longer throw.

A W1 is the smallest die size that I know of....so it has the most throw.
Pair the W1 with the head of a K1 and you have as good as it gets in terms of LED throwers.

It's not the brightest...not even close. But it points the tiny little beam the furthest.

The w2 is brighter than the w1 because it's twice the die size
The 90.2 is way brighter but less throwy because it's an even bigger die size
The new 70 LEDs out are even brighter but less throwy because it's an even bigger bigger die size

You can have bright and you can have throw, but you can't have both out of 1 LED flashlight.

You can pick a dedicated flood light, a dedicated thrower, or a compromise that is good at both but not great at either.

The generally accepted and recognized formula to calculating throw is : Usable Throw = 1/2 the distance that's advertised, best case. lol

Good news is you have tons of choices anyway you go.

Thank you so much for the explanation. I might need two flashlights then.

 

[orbital]

+

If an Acebeam K30GT doesn't blow your socks off, this may not be the forum for you,,,
especially if you buy direct from Acebeam for only $109

note: you have to click the box for 'LED color' & exclude the other options.
I tried it & it will give $109 at checkout

K30GT Far-Throwing Searchlight

Using the latest SBT-90 GEN2 LED, Acebeam K30GT is the best compact flashlight with 5500 lumens output and its beam reaches a distance of 1024 meters. Suitable for everyday carrying in your pocket.

www.acebeam.com