Highest light output spotlight.

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bngbuck

Newly Enlightened
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Hello Spotlight fans.

I am a new (January) Forum member and my trade is one of a freelance technology populizer writer (for a freelance writer, this consists of rather a niche market of a wide variety of publications.)

Recently, I have been doing some work on a book on the technology of perception and I have chosen the topic of flashlights a portion of one chapter. I have discovered in my last month's reading on this forum that an entire book could easily be written about flashlights alone.

Having accumulated considerable information (and inventory) concerning the miniature end of the flashlight spectrum, I have recently turned my attention to the opposite end of the size gamut of portable lighting devices. Naturally, this has led me to spotlights and lanterns and I am here to pose a serious request to the many highly expert collectors and enthusiasts that frequent this forum.

I am requesting recommendations or links, if possible, as to the absolute highest powered (in lumen output either claimed or possibly confirmed), portable (one human being carry power - no horses, Hummers, or even wheeled carts) spotlight known to exist. I am going to need pictures of it.

This may be a commercial product or a modified commercial product, or a fully custom designed and built light - no matter. Beam throw or spread is not important. Overall size, configuration, lens diameter, overall dimensions or weight is not important except for the caveat that it must be reasonably portable by one average sized human being - think a soldier or police officer or lighting technician. I am hopeful, for purposes of device elegance, that the battery or power source will be self-contained in the light's body, but if it is a separate pack, it must be corded to the light body so that the light can be reasonably carried and used as a spotlight or searchlight simultaneously.

Aside from portability, the only requirement is that it be the highest lumen emitter that anyone here knows of. As I indicated above, I understand that many manufacturers and suppliers tend to quote light source emitter lumen output and I will certainly take that into consideration if there are no actual tests available for the out-the-lens lumen output of the device.

I would greatly appreciate opinions on this "biggest, brightest, baddest" lighting device of this type, and I actually hope there is a simple consensus as to one particular light, but this is probably not too likely.

Thanks to everyone in advance for your help and expert opinions.
 
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Check this thread. I'm not sure if any of those classify as spotlights but 10K+ lumen is pretty bright, even if it runs for only a few minutes.

Also check out the Polarions and BarnBurner. There are also some twin bulb lights modded to 2 55 watt HID units.

The Maxabeam is a really far throwing light(miles of throw) and RA's Maxablaster tops the Maxabeam in throw.

There's also a light that looks like a gun with the battery pack in a backpack. I don't remember it's name.
 
Either custom the 4556 1000 watt par 64 bulb lights or that 400 watt HID light is the brightest I know of, though I thought I heard somewhere that a 800 watt par 64 style bulb exist "though extremely expensive:broke:", if so it would be the brightest spotlight style light you could possibly make:twothumbs.
 
IIRC someone was able to make a light that used an aircraft landing light as the lighting source. That might be a contender for the brightest hand held light.
 
Juggernaut said:
Either custom the 4556 1000 watt par 64 bulb lights or that 400 watt HID light is the brightest I know of, though I thought I heard somewhere that a 800 watt par 64 style bulb exist "though extremely expensive:broke:", if so it would be the brightest spotlight style light you could possibly make:twothumbs.
Click to expand...

Juggernaut.....

Thanks for your response. Is the 4566 1000 watt PAR 64 in a built spotlight that you know of? If so, can you give me a reference or a link?
I would ask the same for the 400 watt HID light you mention. Where can I locate?

Can you remember where you heard of the 800 watt PAR 64 bulb? Was it in a built portable device with power source, etc.?

Has anyone else any information on these devices?
 
EZ78's 400 Watt HID should be putting out somewhere around 30,000+ Lumens. That leaves the LarryK14's etc. (Q4559x, 600 Watt and 1000 watt Incans) in the dust.

The 30,000 Lumens figure seems low to me. A stock Barn Burner, IIRC, puts out around 8500 Lumens or about 113 Lumens per watt. It's not a short arc and that may account for the difference in the Lumens-per-Watt rating.
 
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I thank all who have contributed to this thread. So far, it appears that the highest output fully portable spotlight that is commercially available as a shelf item from a retailer is the Sunforce Model 77782, rated by the manufacturer at 40 million candlepower. I have no idea what this spot-torch would rate in emitted -past-the-lens lumens, and I have been cautioned both at this forum and elsewhere not to attempt a conversion from candlepower to lumens, as it cannot be done.

Would anyone here care to hazard a wild guess as to what 40 million candlepower might mean in terms of the light output that one would be comfortable with in discussing a typical Surefire or Fenix, etc., tube flashlight?

Is there any way to fairly compare the light output of a Maxablaster (lumens) orange with a Sunforce (candlepower) apple?

As far as the various modification spotlight threads that I have plowed through in the past day, I have yet to glean any information about pictures (which I need for inclusion in my book), current condition (2009) of the modded lights (most of the threads are several years old) and whether or not anyone has ever custom built, from scratch, an absolute greatest maximum performance spotlight.

Any more highly informed expert factual information or opinion on what is the world's brightest and most powerful (in sheer light output) hand-held portable (including power source) lighting device? I am excluding strobe lights and momentary flash devices, I really mean something that can output light for a least a few continuous minutes in some form of beam - something that most folks would call a flashlight or spotlight capable of illuminating the landscape for more than just a few seconds, but certainly doesn't have to be capable of hours of continuous service.

I guess I'll have to go with the Sunforce unless someone can lead me to something that I can get definitive information and some pictures of.
Guiness is always interesed in these kind of things, but they often get their facts wrong, or at least incomplete. I don't want to make that mistake.

Thanks again to all that have commented.
 
Candlepower is not output. For almost all lights it is supposed to mean max throw at a certain point. Most of us here use Lux instead of candlepower. For total output, look for spherical candlepower.

Another thing to keep in mind is that none of the "XX million candlepower" lights even come close to hitting 1 million candlepower. Almost all are less then 300,000 candlepower. The Sunforce Model 77782 doesn't hold a candle to what has been done here.

IIRC those lights are usually between 100 and 500 lumen. Maybe 1000 lumen max. That's nowhere close to the 10K+ lumen of some of the lights here. The Polarion PH50 outputs over 5000 lumen. Even some budget LED lights can hit around 500 lumen.

The Maxablaster has over 50 million real candlepower, as in actual measured candlepower. I think it is the "absolute greatest maximum performance spotlight" you can find in a portable size custom or not. It doesn't have a lot of lumens but the tiny emitting area and a huge reflector gives it miles of throw(IIRC he said he hit a boat 11 miles away?, opps, more then 11 kn, not miles. Around 8.5 miles)

Many of the members like petrev who made the 1000w light and ez78 who made the 400w HID are still quite active. You can probably shoot them a PM. Ra also drops in every once in a while.

All the threads I posted have the pictures of the light in them or links to a thread with the pictures.
 
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I think the OP is looking for Lumens output, not throw capability. The maxblaster is a throw king but is not high in the Lumens output area.

The Sunforce is not the highest output light meeting your original criteria (as long as you're still open to non-commercially produced lights) From what I recall, EZ78's 400 Watt HID light is the highest output "handheld, portable" light at around 30,000 Lumens as compared to the Sunforce's approximately 12,000 to 14,000 Lumens. The 40,000,000 MCP figure you mention in relation to the Sunforce is, well, shall we say, highly over-inflated. Candlepower is a measurement of light intensity at a single point source in space. It's a measurement of how well/tight one can focus total light output of a light source. By their nature, LED's are not tightly focusable light sources as compared to HID light sources. I'd be surprised if the Sunforce obtained a Candle Power measurement of 1,000,000. Lumens is the overall light output measurement you're looking for in your original post.

Post #85 is as recent as last November and indicates the light is functioning well.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=191645&highlight=400+watt&page=2
 
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bngbuck said:
I thank all who have contributed to this thread. So far, it appears that the highest output fully portable spotlight that is commercially available as a shelf item from a retailer is the Sunforce Model 77782, rated by the manufacturer at 40 million candlepower. I have no idea what this spot-torch would rate in emitted -past-the-lens lumens, and I have been cautioned both at this forum and elsewhere not to attempt a conversion from candlepower to lumens, as it cannot be done.

Would anyone here care to hazard a wild guess as to what 40 million candlepower might mean in terms of the light output that one would be comfortable with in discussing a typical Surefire or Fenix, etc., tube flashlight?

Is there any way to fairly compare the light output of a Maxablaster (lumens) orange with a Sunforce (candlepower) apple?

As far as the various modification spotlight threads that I have plowed through in the past day, I have yet to glean any information about pictures (which I need for inclusion in my book), current condition (2009) of the modded lights (most of the threads are several years old) and whether or not anyone has ever custom built, from scratch, an absolute greatest maximum performance spotlight.

Any more highly informed expert factual information or opinion on what is the world's brightest and most powerful (in sheer light output) hand-held portable (including power source) lighting device? I am excluding strobe lights and momentary flash devices, I really mean something that can output light for a least a few continuous minutes in some form of beam - something that most folks would call a flashlight or spotlight capable of illuminating the landscape for more than just a few seconds, but certainly doesn't have to be capable of hours of continuous service.

I guess I'll have to go with the Sunforce unless someone can lead me to something that I can get definitive information and some pictures of.
Guiness is always interesed in these kind of things, but they often get their facts wrong, or at least incomplete. I don't want to make that mistake.

Thanks again to all that have commented.
Click to expand...






The Sunforce 77782 is just a run of the mill 35W HID (no more than 3200 lumens) and the 40 million rating is just marketing non-sense. The actual candle power rating for that type of light will typically be less than 1 million.

It would be best to remove the Sunforce from your mind completely since 35W HID's are nearly just the starting point for portable HID spotlights. If you publish that as the most "powerful portable" it would be laughable. :)

It would also be good to throw out the term Candlepower for this discussion since it's not a commonly used measurement by any group or manufacturer. Generic spotlight makers have been sticking 'whatever million' cp on lights for decades and it doesn't mean a thing. These cheap spotlight manufacturers have just been sticking the next highest number on their newest lights in order to make sales to the unsuspecting, uniformed public. Incandescent, H4 bulb, 120W automotive based spotlights typically produce around 2300 lumens on a fresh 7amp SLA battery. 35W HID's typically produce 3000-3200 lumens on the same battery. They're also more efficient and produce more throw.

Regarding the comparison yes, it's apples and oranges...two difference technologies. The Maxablaster is a Xenon Short-arc and the others mentioned are HID. Xenon short-arc has a much smaller arc and much higher surface brightness than HID. HID typically produces more lumens but less throw for a given wattage.

The "maximum custom builts" are going to be the Maxablaster and the 400W HID light linked by member BVH above. These are two very different lights in that one of them has extreme lumen output 30,000+ while the other has extreme throw. Neither can touch the other in their specific extremes so you might have to break them down into two categories. To understand this concept of throw vs. overall output, think of a laser compared to a florescent tube in your office. The tube produces several thousand lumens while the laser might own produce a few lumens but throws much farther.
 
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