I need a really bright flashlight...

[Dutch.22]

I am searching for a really bright flashlight to be used to illuminate dark/shadowed areas 35-55 yards away during day light conditions. Why would someone want such a light to do such a thing your asking yourself...welp...I am into a sport known as field target. This is a game where you have a high tech pellet rifle with a range finding scope @ 50 power that focuses on a field target. This target has a circle that is the kill zone. The killzone is anywhere from 3/8" to 1 3/4" at a distance from 10-55 yards away. What I am wanting is a handheld flashlight capable of lighting up a shadowed area so that I can range find and see the killzone of the target. I am thinkin a 1 million power candlight flashlight would do the job...but I need one that looks like a typical flashlight that is light in weight as I have to mount it to the gun.

Also I have been studying flashlights on ebay. Can anyone tell me if there is a conversion of lumens to candlight power?

Thanks in advance

Dutch

 

[FILIPPO]

I think that you can't do a conversion in CP from lumens...
however I'd suggest a surefire becouse they are quite light in weight...problably M3 or M4.
I don't know what do you mean with really bright...
i think you can help us telling: I need a light that output fron X lumens to X lumens...

 

[Codeman]

Theoretically, cp can be converted to lumens. Realistically, they can't be because lights don't emit light evenly in all directions and cp ratings from manufacturers are for the hotspot only.

If you were to convert such a cp rating into lumens, the value you'd get would be greatly inflated.

If you attempt to convert a lumens rating into cp, the value you'd get would be the average across the light's entire beam. But, as we all know, lights don't have uniform output, so such an average would be too high for a given light's flood and too low for it's hotspot.

A more useful way to evaluate lights is to look at the "throw" values shown over at www.flashlightreviews.com.

I can't really offer any help in regards to your specific needs, but others might be able to. I suspect, though, that you'll have a hard time finding a suitable light. A light that is capable of illuminating a target at 50 yards in the dark won't help at all during the daytime, because you're eyes are adjusted to daylight. It'll take a lot more to do what you're wanting. It would probably take a light with an external battery pack, like a Maxabeam, but there's no way you could practically mount a Maxabeam on a weapon.

Good luck, though, and I hope you can find something!

 

[Gunner12]

35-55 yard in daytime???, That is 35w+ HID category and those will be brighter then the "million CP" lights ant they usually cost$100+ and are much too big to be gun mounted. There might be some Maglite sized mods around that lumen rating but they have runtimes measured in minutes and cost a lot to build.

Sorry but eBay is not a place to be studying about lighting, many sellers overstate lumen and throw figures and even less understand what they mean, CPF is a much better place to read about lighting.

In order to convert CP to Lumen, the light has to have the same CP rating at every point in a 360 degree sphere. Most "1 million CP" are around 200-500 lumen and have a greatly inflated candle power rating.

Welcome to CPF!

 

[mdocod]

never heard of using a flashlight during the day, but I agree with the others, your in a category that doesn't exists, you need 35+W HID at a bare minimum, even that barely makes a noticeable dot during daylight. But no 35W HID is made in a form factor that you could easily mount up and use while firing a weapon.

 

[Patriot]

Like the others have already stated, there is not light that is mountable and will still do what you need it to. Even if you used a Costco HID, Polarion or Xevision, (all non-mountable HIDs) the amount of illumination in the shadows would be minimal at 50 yards.

Since I've never heard of that sport before I had a few questions.

1)Do you have to range with a scope or can you use a range finder?

2)Do you have to use a 50x scope.

3)Why is additional light needed during the daytime?

Even at dawn and dusk good optics will normally provide the user with enough usable light. If the 50x is part of the rules, then your exit pupil will be very small. Even if youf scope has a 50mm objective you'd only have a 1mm exit pupil. This alone will cause the image to be much darker that a scope with a more reasonable power. Even Bench-rest shooters use 24x 36x 40x magnification scopes. The parallax issues alone with a 50x scope at 25 yards must be terrible..

 

[LuxLuthor]

This was a unique question, you got me curious. I tested the XeRay BarnBurner HID spotlight, Maxa Beam Spotlight, Mac's & Ledean's Aspherical Mags, 10W HID Elephant (drilled down to pin point beam), The Torch, The MaxBlaster, and the Larry14K spotlight (uses a 747 landing light bulb).

The only two that were EASILY bright enough to show up 50 yards away on any brightly sunlit (no clouds) surface or shadows cast was

• The MaxaBeam Spotlight
  
• Green Laser

These did fill in shadows next to bright sunlit surfaces, but would get lost in a bright sunlit surface in order of brightness:

• Barn Burner
• Larry 14K

Could get minimal, noticeable benefits in shadows in order from:

• Aspherical Mag
• 10W HID Elephant
• MaxBlaster
• The Torch
  

I don't see any of these as being practical the way you are trying to use them, except perhaps a laser.

 

[65535]

Sounds like you need a lense focused HID lamp. I'm thinking 75 watt HID bulb behind an optic setup, custom job and very precise work.

 

[Nitro]

How about this?

 

[PayBack]

How about this?

Yes think outside the box. Don't mount a light on your weapon, mount a weapon on your light

 

[Codeman]

Yes think outside the box. Don't mount a light on your weapon, mount a weapon on your light

ROTFLMAO!!!

 

[Mr.Urahara reloaded]

How about this?

 

[FAAbUlights]

How about this?

Holy $h*!

 

[Lighthouse one]

You know...I think my Ultrafire 500 incan might be able to get rid of the shadows... around $27...1" barrel. Uses 2 18650 li-ions.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1317 If it doesn't do it, you've still got a great light!

 

[PayBack]

It probably would with a smooth reflector with a tighter focus, but with the LOP with slightly wide focus it comes with I'd doubt it would do any better than an A8.... otherwise I wouldn't be buying my A8

 

[Patriot]

You know...I think my Ultrafire 500 incan might be able to get rid of the shadows... around $27...1" barrel. Uses 2 18650 li-ions.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1317 If it doesn't do it, you've still got a great light!

Sure it probably would take the edge off a shadow in the daylight.........................at about 3 yards away.

Lux Luthor allready tested a 14,000 lumen spotlight and a 8500 lumen HID and even they weren't easily visible. In dark overcast skies it might be a little different story but how much different...only the owners of the megalights will ever know.

 

[LED_Thrift]

From the thinking outside the box department:

The only thing I know of that can throw a beam in daylight conditions is using a mirror to reflect sunlight. It is amazing how much light a 5 or 6 inch mirror can throw. But you would need extra time [which you probably don't have much of in competition] and a third hand, and you would have to be in the sunlight.

Attacking the problem from the other side:
Using a lower power scope would increase the brightness of the image.

 

[slidecontrol]

I shoot FT, hopefully can answer your queries about our odd little sport,

Since I've never heard of that sport before I had a few questions.

1)Do you have to range with a scope or can you use a range finder?
range finders themselves are outlawed, but any decent scope that has an adjustable objective to correct parallax, can give fairly good ranging info

2)Do you have to use a 50x scope.
no, although many do, My scope is 3-9x50 and so far [at 9x] I haven't met a field target I couldn't see with it.

3)Why is additional light needed during the daytime?
unsure on this one, although as you have noticed in your points below, the picture does become much darker at very high magnification. presumably this is why the OP wants to add light.

an amusing side affect of high mag ( for spectators at least ) is for shooters to hit the wrong target ( due to reduced field of view ). The look of horror on the shooters face is priceless when they realise what they have done. even olympic level shooters get it wrong occasionally

Even at dawn and dusk good optics will normally provide the user with enough usable light. If the 50x is part of the rules, then your exit pupil will be very small. Even if you scope has a 50mm objective you'd only have a 1mm exit pupil. This alone will cause the image to be much darker that a scope with a more reasonable power. Even Bench-rest shooters use 24x 36x 40x magnification scopes. The parallax issues alone with a 50x scope at 25 yards must be terrible..