Misc. backyard beam shots - Large Images

[WadeF]

Thought I'd take some misc. beam shots of some of my lights for fun. The location, my back yard, which isn't completely dark, but dark enough. The distance to the neighbor's garage in the background is approx. 135 feet.

All images captured at 1 second shutter speed, f2.8, ISO 100. I set the WB to incan for the Surefire E2e, and Daylight for other LED lights.

Here are the contenders:

Fenix P3D Rebel100, Surefire E2e, Rayovac 3-Watt 2AA, Surefire G2 w/ Malkoff M60 Cree Q2, Dereelight CL1H V3 SMO Q5 WF 3-stage:


Control shot:



Surefire E2e 65 lumen bulb:



Rayovac 3-Watt 2AA:



Fenix P3D Rebel100 TURBO:



Surefire G2 w/ Malkoff M60 Cree Q2:



Dereelight CL1H V3 SMO Q5 WF 3-Stage MAX:




That's it for now. The Dereelight has a smooth reflector installed, so it has a tighter hot spot, but even so it still has the brightest spill.

Notice the Surefire E2e rated at 65 lumens and the Rayovac 3W 2AA which is rated at 80 lumens at the emitter, are pretty close. The Fenix P3D Rebel100 is rated at 200 emitter lumens (Probably around 140 lumens out the front) and appears to be putting out about twice the light as the previous two, as expected.

The Dereelight is the clear winner here for total output and throw with the Q5 running at 1A and the SMO reflector.

Wish I had the new Malkoff M60 to compare.

I may repeat these shots with more lights, and a slightly longer exposure as they came out a little darker than they looked in person.

I should also point out everything outside is wet, so it may make things look darker than if everything was dry.

 

[woodrow]

Nice beamshots! (as always) Though I could only tell that the things on the ground were leaves with the incans though...I think its a color rendition thing
JUST KIDDING!!!

Actually the Fenix and CL1H V3 looked great. I seriously considered the CL1H today as it really does look like a great light, but went with the LP M1Q5...don't know if I made the best choice, but I suppose either will do a decent job biscuit hunting at night as the British would say.

Great shots again. Thanks for taking the time to post them.

 

[WadeF]

Thanks woodrow. I really like the V3, some good improvements over the V2 with regards to o-ring seals and heat sinking. I have a V1, V2, and V3. The V1 isn't as solid but it's pretty cool because it's smaller, and just as bright with the same module installed.

Let us know how you like the LP M1Q5.

 

[Illum]

Fenix P3D Rebel100, Surefire E2e, Rayovac 3-Watt 2AA, Surefire G2 w/ Malkoff M60 Cree Q2, Dereelight CL1H V3 SMO Q5 WF 3-stage:

so the lights been sold under rayovac eh? where did you buy it? wally?
Originally I saw this light labeled under as Nuwai X3 [see dougs review here] and under Nuwai's retail label "Favourlight"
thought it looked pretty nice [design wise off the typical look having fluted sides] but never could find a source offline

:thanks:

 

[Kiessling]

Very good beamshots indeed ! :thumbsup:
And this Rayavoc sure looks like a Jedi weapon
bernie

 

[WadeF]

I got the Rayovac at WalMart and I think KMart has also carreid them. I'm not sure if they are still available, but it is the Nuwai X3 as far as I know. Not a bad little light for the money, and it does have a neat looking design. I believe a CREE or Rebel version is on the way, at least under the Nuwai name.

 

[Kiessling]

Btw ... did you have your white-correction set to "auto"? Asking because the incan isn't as yellow as I'd have expected it.

 

[Lobo]

Btw ... did you have your white-correction set to "auto"? Asking because the incan isn't as yellow as I'd have expected it.

Doesn't look so.

I set the WB to incan for the Surefire E2e, and Daylight for other LED lights.

And always, thanks for the great pics, WadeF!

And a request, could you throw in the DBS q5 there? I know it's a thrower, but would be interesting to see how it fares in close distance.

 

[jzmtl]

For some reason all the malkoff drop in shots never look as bright as the lumen rating suggested. Maybe something to do with the host?

 

[Kiessling]

It is always best to read the post first :sick2: , sorry.

Sometimes I wonder if black&white shots wouldn't be better as they eliminate the tints fooling us.

I usually take pics with fixed white balance and incan vs. LED looks like this:

bernie

 

[Illum]

its very difficult to take shots of LED lights in the night...
by experience up to this point [using my canon powershot SD630] only the surefire L4 comes out very nice...everything else is either too blue, too green, or not even remotely close to the tint actually being emitted. When shooting with a balance set in comparison to incandescent the proformance is such, if the balance was auto, then theres no way to compare the pics since one may be more overexposed than the other

 

[Khaytsus]

The way Wade did it, in my opinion, is best. It eliminates people judging differently simply based on tint if what he's demonstrating is beam pattern and throw.

In fact, it might even just be best to white balance from a neutral color in the shot or even shoot with a grey card somewhere in the shot to balance off of to remove all tints from the shot.

 

[Monocrom]

I got the Rayovac at WalMart and I think KMart has also carried them. I'm not sure if they are still available, but it is the Nuwai X3 as far as I know. Not a bad little light for the money, and it does have a neat looking design. I believe a CREE or Rebel version is on the way, at least under the Nuwai name.

Nice beamshots, Wade! :thumbsup:

BTW, yup; the 1watt and 3watt Rayovacs are indeed available at K-Mart. But don't look for the "Sportsman's Extreme" packaging. Look for a combination clear / light green blister pack with Rayovac on it, along with either 1 or 3 watts mentioned.

 

[dealgrabber2002]

WadeF,

You have one scary backyard!!

 

[cat]

Yes, it's easy to think that whiter / more blue light is brighter or better.

Thanks, Wade, excellent.

I'm impressed by the Malkoff LED drop-in, but I found that it costs almost
as much as I paid for my G3. I'm always impressed by the good old P3D RB100.

 

[Patriot]

Very good and useful comparison shots Wade! I really like the way you used the WB. I kinda did away with the huge tint variation. Wow, have flashlights come a long way or what? The difference between the trusty E2E and the P3D Rebel is enormous. The Dereelight is really something. It would be neat to see it with OP reflector also. Thanks for the pics.

 

[WadeF]

When using LED's I set the WB to Daylight (sunlight). This is close to the color temp of the LED's, so it will look close to white. If there are tint differences, they will be apparent. If an LED has a purple tint, it will look purple when shot with the WB locked to daylight. However, you'd need something white in the picture to notice. You could try looking at the white part of my porch (needs a paint job) to look for tint changes. The fact is most of the LED's I used are pretty close to white, and don't have obnoxious tints like LED's of the past. The worst of the bunch, tint wise, would be the Rayovac, but it's not really bright enough in those beam shots to notice.

You can see a tint difference between the Malkoff and the Dereelight, the Dereelight is cooler, check the white porch in the foreground.

Setting the white balance to auto would make them all look virtually the same. So I don't do that as I try my best to never be misleading. I want to put everything on as much of a level playing field as possible.

Locking the WB to daylight when photographing an incan will make it look horribly orange (warm). So I shoot incans with the incan WB (tungsten WB). However, shooting LED's with the WB set to tungsten will make them look horribly blue. The fact is in real life our eyes adapt either incans or LED's to white (or close to it), especially if you are exclusively using one light. If you switch back and forth you will notice the difference in tint and color temperature.

Incans may still do a better job of color rendering than a LED, as long as the incan is bright enough. A 200+ lumen LED light will out perform a 65 lumen incan light if you're spotting things out doors at a distance, if they both have similar reflector set ups.

The Malkoff is a Q2 and isn't putting out as many lumens as the Dereelight's Q5 module, but it does have a warmer tint. The Malkoff module also has an OP reflector, so it won't throw as well. I haven't seen the new Malkoff module yet, and it throws out more light and uses a lens to focus it, so it may throw very well.

I will probably repeat these shots when things dry out, and include more lights, including the DBS.

For some reason all the malkoff drop in shots never look as bright as the lumen rating suggested. Maybe something to do with the host?

It's pretty bright, but not as bright as a Q5 being driven at the same level, 1A. The host shouldn't matter, as long as you have two fresh cells delivering enough juice for it to deliver 1A to the emitter.

Also my pictures came out a bit darker than things appeared in real life. Next time I'll adjust my exposure to try and get a more real life look, but then my images can vary from one person's computer monitor to the next. As long as all the exposures are the same you can at least compare the different lights to one another.

It is always best to read the post first :sick2: , sorry.

Sometimes I wonder if black&white shots wouldn't be better as they eliminate the tints fooling us.

I usually take pics with fixed white balance and incan vs. LED looks like this:

What fixed white balance setting are you using?