LED Even Flood Choices for High ISO Photography?

[Frank Petronio]

Hi -- I am a total newbie about flashlights, I've never gotten beyond a Maglite and I fear this may be an expensive diversion... but I am a photographer looking for flashlight suggestions.

Criteria:

-- I am looking for lights that I can carry-on for air travel, so I don't want something that looks like a weapon. It has to clear TSA, not end up in some guy's pocket.

-- While I would love a smaller form factor that used a CR123 or two, I am also considering larger options. My instinct tells me I may end up with several lights.

-- I am shooting handheld at ISO 3200 (mostly) and can shoot at reasonable speeds using my 2xAA Maglite LED but the beam pattern has a wicked hot spot. I'd like more even illumination. I am working close -- 3 to 10 feet, so throw doesn't seem as important. But I need brightness! Also I don't need it to spill in every direction -- ideally I'd like a 3' circle at 3-5' distance. (Not sure if I have my terms right.)

-- One fella already suggested a McGizmo Sunspot but I see they are over $400. I would love to support smaller domestic US manufacturers, but I have to watch my own personal economy too. $50 to $120 seems like a good price range to start with... I know I will probably want something more exotic down the road.

Is the Deerelight a good option? Or would it be better to modify something? Is it easy to remove the reflectors on some of these and just have the LED shine through the tube?

Thanks in advance. I've tried searching already but forum searching is really difficult.

 

[DM51]

Welcome to CPF, Frank.

We have a forum dedicated to photographic questions (The Dark Room) and there's a thread there that might interest you:

Lighting your flashlight photos... with a flashlight!

I'll leave your thread here in LED Flashlights as members here may have some good suggestions for you. However, high ISO speeds are more the province of serious photographers, so let me know if you'd prefer it to be moved to the Dark Room.

 

[hyperloop]

hmmm. i am no expert by anyone's standard but you may wish to take a look at the Zebralight H60W neutral white, it's a pure flood beam with different levels of output.

Do a search and you will find many reviews on this light.

You can see some beamshots of the H60W here, click on Road Dry, Road Dry 2 and the other scenarios, look for Zebralight H60W in the list of lights and check out the beamshots.

 

[LightChaser]

As a photographer who happens to be a (budding) flashaholic, more questions come to mind than answers for you - for example, what are you shooting, and why do you want to use flashlights instead of strobes?

As a direct answer though, I can suggest using any powerful flashlight you have and putting a diffuser in front of it to effectively kill the hotspot.

For example, my Fenix LD10 projects pretty well-defined 5" hotspot with a 2.5' corona on a wall roughly 3' away. If I slap on a makeshift diffuser, in this case a transluscent white cap for a spray bottle, the same light gives me a pretty even flood, albeit much less light.

Going to back to my first point though, I still wonder what you'd want to use this for. For the life of me, I can't think of anything you can do with a flashlight that you can't do with a strobe, at least in the realm of photography. Care to enlighten me?

 

[Frank Petronio]

Thanks -- I saw that thread mentioned but it seemed to be veering off into light painting technique, which I don't want to do. And only 1 person is viewing that forum, versus 123 here.

I've been using the Maglite LED to photograph people, either as the sole illumination or as a fill to separate them from the background.

The advantage of having a constant source, rather than a strobe, is that I can see what the light is doing, placing it exactly where I want it as the person moves around, and I can extend my arms to get the light off the lens axis. I can do all that with strobes too, but not with a tiny flexible handheld device.

I like the look so far, with its hard shadows and circular pattern. It has some of the qualities of a ring flash, without the flash.

I do fashion and "different" kinds of portraits, not straight normal stuff.

 

[Flash Marcus]

Hi Frank,
I have been pondering this same issue for quite a while too. I'm a photographer aswell and was thinking of using flashlights as a lights source for certain photojournalism scenarios. The Zebralights look like the best option. But what about colour-rendition aswell. Or does white-balance work on the RAW files get rid of any need for special LED's?

 

[MrGman]

The best choice is really the Malkoff M60 MC-E "warm" tint flood light that can run off of 2X18650 for long run times or 2X18500 or 2X17500 in a Solarforce host with extension tubes based on which battery options you want to go with. This will give a very even 450 lumen flood light for starters and hold around 400 lumens. The LED itself is in the $125 range and the solarforce host with extensions is where you will save money.

The next cheaper price option is to go with the regulator Malkoff M60 Warm Flood module that is about 180 lumens or so of good soft flood light. It draws less power so you could run that off of 2 CR123's up to 2X18650's given the right sized host with optional extension tubes.

At distances of 3 to 5 feet this is what you want, I have used both options, they work much better, there will be no hot spot glare at all and you will like your photos.

I have made several videos and taken lots of back yard pictures which you can find searching MrGman here and MrGman9999 on you tube. I use 2 Malkoff M60 MC-E as dead of night worklights and that pretty much covers it. Ultra reliable, excellent warranty, they will probably last you a lifetime.

 

[computernut]

You posted this in the LED section but I thought I'd mention that I've used my Surefire E2E (incan) with an F04 diffuser to good effect with my DSLR. Depending on what lamp you use (ie, MN03, MN02, HO-E2A) you'll have to vary your distance to the subject so you don't wind up with hotspots or the light being diffused too much.

 

[sol-leks]

The Romisen RC-C6 warm might be a good cheaper option. It has an absolutely smooth output when unfocused and the warm tint should be handy too. The fenix E20 might also be good since you can either use it as a normal light or spin the head off entirely for pure flood. If you want to go bright than an MC-E light is probably the way to go.