Lighting up the backyard (or why not a whole forrest)

[Swiss]

Hi all,

I'm still new to the flashlight world and all i own so far is a Streamlight Task-Light 2L3W. Pretty cool light with a fairly good run time. Only thing that it can't do, however, is light up my backyard or a large piece of forrest when we're out there. I've had a couple of instances when our dog was barking at the backyard and it was kind of a hassle pointing my Streamlight at every 10 inch point in the yard... :-(

So what i'm looking for is a light that can do the task of bringing daylight to our yard ...it doesn't need to be tiny, but I also don't want to have to bring an extra trailer if I wanna bring it to the forrest. In terms of run time, it would be great if it doesn't run out of juice from the left side of my yard to the right... Oh and of course it should be bright, very bright!! In regards to cost I was thinking about something in the area of 100-150$ - however, if this is unreasonably low, I can also invest some more. In the end I wanna be happy with my new toy

Alright, any help and thoughts appreciated. Oh and one last thing: I'm from Switzerland but for two weeks in California - so also happy about suggestions where to go buy it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dr Jekell]

Your best bet for this application would either be a hotwire mod or even better would be a HID light.

Hopefully someone soon will pipe in with which HID would be best as I have only have limited knowledge about them.

 

[BVH]

Battery Junction N30. Excellent price, excellent light. Have 3 of them. You will be pleased.

 

[adamlau]

Swiss must be referring to either the AmondoTech Titanium N30, or the Elektro Lumens Maglite w/ P7 C bin...

 

[Swiss]

Thanks a lot, guys. The AmondoTech Titanium N30 really does look pretty good. Anyone else been using it? does it light up a big part of a yard at like 5 yards away?

Any other suggestions? And any tips on where to buy?

Thanks again,
Swiss

 

[enLIGHTenment]

So what i'm looking for is a light that can do the task of bringing daylight to our yard

How big is your yard and how much of it do you want to illuminate at once?

What kind of light you need is entirely contingent on how large an area you want to illuminate. If your yard is particularly large it won't be possible to get the results you want within your budget, or perhaps even with anything handheld.

 

[RyanA]

mag62623

 

[Wattnot]

For incan, I agree with the hotwire recommendation. If that's too much then get a Wolf Eyes Raider and put a Lumens Factory HO9 or EO9 in it. Small formfactor and a nice flood . . . surprisingly powerful for it's size and very reasonably priced. A very underrated light.

If you want an LED then look at something with a P7 in it. There's the new Wolf Eyes offerings and some DX stuff and some Mag mods by Electrolumens in the Marketplace section.

:thumbsup:

 

[Swiss]

@enLIGHTenment:

Yard is not that big... i'd estimate around 15-20 yards wide and around 10 yards deep. i don't mind moving the flashlight around a little, but with my current one i really only get a very narrow beam that is pretty much useless for the task... so perfect would be the whole thing at once, but i can also do with a little less - considering the budget

 

[Swiss]

@wattnot:

thanks for the recommendation. as i'm not very savvy yet when it comes to flashlights, i was actually hoping to find something that i can just take out of the box and use ...somewhat confused with modifications

so any tips for CPF rookie?

 

[LED-holic]

@enLIGHTenment:

Yard is not that big... i'd estimate around 15-20 yards wide and around 10 yards deep. i don't mind moving the flashlight around a little, but with my current one i really only get a very narrow beam that is pretty much useless for the task... so perfect would be the whole thing at once, but i can also do with a little less - considering the budget

My yard is bigger than yours, and I find my Fenix L1D and my NiteCore ND10 both light up my yard as if it's daylight.

I don't why know you'd need more than that...

 

[LukeA]

My yard is bigger than yours, and I find my Fenix L1D and my NiteCore ND10 both light up my yard as if it's daylight.

I don't why know you'd need more than that...

I like my 7-cree spotlight mod, but I could definitely use much less.

I think any Fenix, any Nitecore, or any one of the K2 TFFC Inovas would suit the OP very well. Lights like the N30 or mag hotwires are huge overkill, like installing all 100W bulbs around a vanity mirror. I mean, sure it can be done, but it's kind of a waste to do it.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

You need something with a fairly wide beam. Consider an L4, or KL4 on an E series body, which you can often buy on BST at the CPF Market Place. I tried my Malkoff M30, and while very bright it still did light up my whole backyard, which is about the same size as yours. The Malkoff M60F, or M60LF would work fine for this task. Do some searching on CPF. Welcome to CPF.

Bill

 

[Swiss]

thanks a lot, guys. i generally like overkill and think the brighter, the better but i can also see that the lights you recommend like the nitecore or fenix are much smaller. are they really able to do the trick? kinda hard to imagine that they can light up my yard any more than my streamlight tasklight... do they have a much wider beam?

i just visited the nitecore website - what i see there is the nitecore extreme and the nitecore defender. are they what you'd recommend?

oh and is there anything else apart from size that speaks against the overkill N30?

 

[Patriot]

Another vote for the N30.

 

[enLIGHTenment]

Yard is not that big... i'd estimate around 15-20 yards wide and around 10 yards deep.

Most of the lights suggested here are severe overkill for a yard that size. The HID and hotwire options others have proposed are intended for 100m++ distances. This level of performance is good for American rural and suburban environments but the beam angles necessary for 100m make these lights unsuited to close range wide illumination for the area you have.

I would recommend a flood-oriented light such as the 2008 Inova T1, Surefire L1 or E2DL with diffuser, or a Malkoff M60F (beamshot) in a suitable P60 host. This T1 is the cheapest option while the M60F + host is the most expensive and brightest option.

If you actually needed to illuminate an entire American-style rural back yard with 100m sight lines then you'd need something like a Polarion HID and a few thousand dollars to pay for it.

 

[enLIGHTenment]

You need something with a fairly wide beam. Consider an L4, or KL4 on an E series body

Word has it that SF has halted L4/KL4 production pending an upgrade. Probably not a good time to fork over money for an L4 given the radical advancements in LED technology since the L4 came on the market--whatever revision SF comes out with will likely be far better than the current model.

 

[Swiss]

the beam angles necessary for 100m make these lights unsuited to close range wide illumination for the area you have.
QUOTE]

thanks a lot for this helpful advice? question to the above: why is it unsuited for smaller areas? will it not light up the whole yard but rather throw a small beam?

reason i'm asking is that yes, i don't have a big american style backyard (just yet ...but i'm also thinking about forrest trips and would like to have a light that can really light up large areas 'in the wild' as well.

i know, i'm a little complicated...

 

[adamlau]

...but the beam angles necessary for 100m make these lights unsuited to close range wide illumination for the area you have.

Aha! You have not seen a beam diffuser on an HID in action then .
For flooding sections of forestry and large swatches of area at short range, a filtered HID produces excellent results.

I go forest camping all the time as I am only fifteen minutes away from Angeles National Forest.
Here is a unfiltered HID illuminating a trail @ 295 yards in complete darkness (outside of 10% moon illumination).

 

[Patriot]

What....no range to the last tree Adam..... :nana:

That's a really neat shot. It sure looks green.