Hi CPF, another long time lurker, first time poster here.
I came across this forum while searching for a LED flashlight I had seen in someone's kit on another forum. I didn't really need a flashlight at that time, and I knew nothing about LED flashlights; to me the king of flashlights was still my trusty 3D maglite that had been going strong for over 10 years. However that LED light I saw online was tempting me so I wanted to know more about it. After some research on this forum I found out that it was a Fenix TK-12. I had never heard of the brand, but the kind folks here at CPF seemed to think it was an affordable, good quality light so I ordered it, completely unaware of what I was getting myself into.
When the light arrived I was completely blown away by it's build quality but especially by the output. I was amazed. What followed in the weeks thereafter will be familiar to many of you: it involved a lot of time spent reading on CPF and a lot of little boxes from all over the world appearing at my doorstep. Lights, more lights, batteries, chargers and more lights, a DMM, you get the idea.
What I've always found very helpful in my searches for "that next awesome light" are real-world, outdoor beamshots. So I thought that I'd put up my own, and hopefully someday, someone in search of a light may find them useful.
Setup: All shots were taken with fixed White Balance, ISO200, 2.5 second exposure, F5. All lights are placed on the edge of the table in the shot below, illuminating the target at full output. All lights have fresh primaries or freshly charged AW lions or Eneloops as indicated.
Here's a daylight shot showing the "target". Lights will shine from A (table) to B (purple flowers). Distance is 20 meters (65ft).
And here are the contenders:
4Sevens and Jetbeam, from left to right: Quark 123T R2, Quark AA NW, Quark 1232T R2, Jetbeam Jet-III Pro ST Q5 OP, Jetbeam Jet-I Pro V3 Warm OP, Jetbeam RRT-0 R2 OP
Fenix: LD20 Q5 SMO, TK12 Q5 OP, PD30 R4 SMO, LD10 R4 SMO, LD01
Surefire LX2, Eagletac T20C2 Mark II R5 (OP) , Nitecore Extreme R2 (OP) and Nitecore D10 R2
On to the beamshots!
Quark 123T R2 on AW RCR123
Quark AA Neutral White on Eneloop
Quark 1232T R2 on AW RCR123
Jetbeam Jet-III Pro ST on AW 18650
Jetbeam Jet-1 Pro V3 Warm on AW 14500
Jetbeam RRT-0 R2 on AW RCR123
Fenix LD20 Q5 on Eneloops
Fenix TK12 Q5 on CR123 primaries
Fenix PD30 R4 on AW RCR123
Fenix LD10 R4 on Eneloop
Fenix LD01 on Eneloop
Surefire LX2 on CR123 Primaries
Eagletac T20C2 Mark II on AW 18650
Nitecore Extreme R2 on AW RCR123
Nitecore D10 R2 on Eneloop
I came across this forum while searching for a LED flashlight I had seen in someone's kit on another forum. I didn't really need a flashlight at that time, and I knew nothing about LED flashlights; to me the king of flashlights was still my trusty 3D maglite that had been going strong for over 10 years. However that LED light I saw online was tempting me so I wanted to know more about it. After some research on this forum I found out that it was a Fenix TK-12. I had never heard of the brand, but the kind folks here at CPF seemed to think it was an affordable, good quality light so I ordered it, completely unaware of what I was getting myself into.
When the light arrived I was completely blown away by it's build quality but especially by the output. I was amazed. What followed in the weeks thereafter will be familiar to many of you: it involved a lot of time spent reading on CPF and a lot of little boxes from all over the world appearing at my doorstep. Lights, more lights, batteries, chargers and more lights, a DMM, you get the idea.
What I've always found very helpful in my searches for "that next awesome light" are real-world, outdoor beamshots. So I thought that I'd put up my own, and hopefully someday, someone in search of a light may find them useful.
Setup: All shots were taken with fixed White Balance, ISO200, 2.5 second exposure, F5. All lights are placed on the edge of the table in the shot below, illuminating the target at full output. All lights have fresh primaries or freshly charged AW lions or Eneloops as indicated.
Here's a daylight shot showing the "target". Lights will shine from A (table) to B (purple flowers). Distance is 20 meters (65ft).
And here are the contenders:
4Sevens and Jetbeam, from left to right: Quark 123T R2, Quark AA NW, Quark 1232T R2, Jetbeam Jet-III Pro ST Q5 OP, Jetbeam Jet-I Pro V3 Warm OP, Jetbeam RRT-0 R2 OP
Fenix: LD20 Q5 SMO, TK12 Q5 OP, PD30 R4 SMO, LD10 R4 SMO, LD01
Surefire LX2, Eagletac T20C2 Mark II R5 (OP) , Nitecore Extreme R2 (OP) and Nitecore D10 R2
On to the beamshots!
Quark 123T R2 on AW RCR123
Quark AA Neutral White on Eneloop
Quark 1232T R2 on AW RCR123
Jetbeam Jet-III Pro ST on AW 18650
Jetbeam Jet-1 Pro V3 Warm on AW 14500
Jetbeam RRT-0 R2 on AW RCR123
Fenix LD20 Q5 on Eneloops
Fenix TK12 Q5 on CR123 primaries
Fenix PD30 R4 on AW RCR123
Fenix LD10 R4 on Eneloop
Fenix LD01 on Eneloop
Surefire LX2 on CR123 Primaries
Eagletac T20C2 Mark II on AW 18650
Nitecore Extreme R2 on AW RCR123
Nitecore D10 R2 on Eneloop
