Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots *UPDATE SEPT 2010* - now 34 lights!

[selfbuilt]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Selfbuilt, your reviews are perfect, except they lack outdoor beamshots so we can "feel" the light at some distance.

Thanks for these outdoor beamshots. What do you think about adding those pics to their respective reviews?

Working on it ... the Sunway lights and the Maelstrom G5 reviews have already been updated with animated GIFs. The SR90, Catapult V2, TK45, ITP A6, and L35 HID reviews will done soon. After that, I may go back and edit a few more ... we'll see.

But just as a reminder again - outdoor beamshots are really only useful if you are comparing a number of lights under identical conditions. Depending on the camera setting, a penlight could illuminate the world, or a thrower seem like a minimag.

This is why I haven't done them until now - you really need to do all the lights at one time. But I will likely do a second batch later this summer, as I get more lights in (plus add a few that I forgot this time).

 

[kramer5150]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Excellent work as always!!!

Yeah the M2C4-P7... looks like its in medium mode. On high its spot and flood should both be visibly brighter than the A6 Polestar. The A6 polestar doesn't drive its LED as hard as the other lights in this class.

Nice (!!) beam out of that Sunway M40C and TK45.

 

[selfbuilt]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Yeah the M2C4-P7... looks like its in medium mode. On high its spot and flood should both be visibly brighter than the A6 Polestar. The A6 polestar doesn't drive its LED as hard as the other lights in this class.

I'm thinking the same thing - although I was careful to just slip past strobe, it's possible it moved during handling. That's the problem with lights without clear detents.

In any case, I'll toss it into the second batch of lights that I test out there - likely in a month or so, once I have a few more high-power specimens on hand to test.

 

[selfbuilt]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Formatting adjusted, for those you in wide-screen mode. Should only be two beamshots wide, making it easier to scroll down.

 

[Sharpy_swe]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Many :thanks:

 

[king2penn]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Great comparison of all the latest lights!lovecpf

 

[Geoffrey]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Thank you for your hard work.

Your reviews are most appreciated and I always look for your review before buying a light.

Thanks for these outdoor pictures.

 

[selfbuilt]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Glad you are enjoying them everyone.

I've tried to find what I think are reasonable exposure settings for the "heavy guns" (i.e. not over-exposed, which tends to wash out the hotspots at a distance). This doesn't lend itself well to the general purpose lights, but I figured its really the throwers than people wanted to distinguish between.

But of course, all of this depends heavily on your monitor setup - on my color- and contrast-calibrated desktop monitor, everything comes out darker than I would like. But on the default settings of most commercial monitors and laptops, I find these should look roughly as I intended.

It was a fun project - although Mrs Selfbuilt spent the evening waiting for a call from the cops, expecting me to be picked up as a suspicious character in the woods ("bring ID" were here last words to me out the door :laughing. Of course, I figured any LEOs I did happen across would be more interested in playing with the lights ...

I'll definitely do this again before the end of the summer, once a few more heavy hitters land on my desk (e.g. Sunway M40A, shipping 4Sevens G5 Maelstrom, Olight SR91, Olight M20-R5, etc.). And of course, I'll the add the XP-G R5 ones I forgot this time around (e.g. Eagletac T20C2-II, Fenix Tk12).

 

[HeyGuysWatchThis]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Do you have the tele-force kit for the D-mini? I'd love to see that setup. Wait, you have the the SST-50 version, don't you. They're probably not compatible, huh?

 

[brightnorm]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Selfbuilt,

I've always felt that your reviews set a unique standard and constitute one of the most valuable resources on CPF. My one reservation was the lack of long-throw beam shots. Despite your explanation of the challenge to obtaining truly "objective" comparisons, your inclusion of these shots is tremendously valuable and has removed my only "criticism".

Trekking to that special beam-shot location is probably inconvenient but I would encourage you to continue doing it; it makes your already marvelous reviews complete.

Assuming that manufacturers don't pay for your batteries I have just made a modest contribution to the Selbuilt "Energy fund"

(BTW, you have the Catapult V2 with its single SST50 listed under Multi-emitters.)

Keep up the great work!

Brightnorm

 

[specimen]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

This is the one I wait for.

The real life using.

It make me easily choose the most suitable for myself.

 

[recDNA]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

SR90 vs SR91 would be great.

 

[kdaq]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Do you have the tele-force kit for the D-mini? I'd love to see that setup. Wait, you have the the SST-50 version, don't you. They're probably not compatible, huh?

D-mini VX Teleforce is not compatible with the SST-50, but Turboforce is

 

[selfbuilt]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Do you have the tele-force kit for the D-mini? I'd love to see that setup.

D-mini VX Teleforce is not compatible with the SST-50, but Turboforce is

Sorry, don't have either. I can only test what I've got ... but there's always more on the way ...

SR90 vs SR91 would be great.

... and that is one of them. Not sure on an ETA, but I should have it for the next batch of beamshots.

Assuming that manufacturers don't pay for your batteries I have just made a modest contribution to the Selbuilt "Energy fund"

:thanks: Appreciate the support. While Battery Junction does currently supply my primary CR123As, I'm on the hook for everything else.

It make me easily choose the most suitable for myself.

Glad it helps ... although I would re-iterate that its only one set of lighting conditions. I recommend you check out other beamshots (and reviews) to make a fully informed decision.

 

[recDNA]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

I'd love to see a Tactical HID smooth 26 watt and a Stanley HID.

 

[07gttom]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

make sure when you do the review on the sr91 you get some beam shots in the same setting, gonna be another winner

 

[run4jc]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

As one who has done a few beam shot tests (but NOTHING as awesome as this one), I know a bit of the effort required. Locating the spot, setting up, hauling your gear out there in darkness, getting the camera settings correct, taking the photos, packing up the gear, editing the photos (making the collages, adding text, etc.) Plus the expense of buying lights or the effort in securing loaner lights.

It can literally take hours.

Wow. Selfbuilt, you set the standard!! Outstanding!

Thank you for all the thought and effort you put into your reviews!

:twothumbs:twothumbs:twothumbs:twothumbs

 

[donn_]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

Great shots! Thanks for the effort. :twothumbs

One of these days I'm going to attemt something similar, over water.

I'm a block and a half away from a town dock at the mouth of a river, with targets ranging from 100 yards to 300 yards. The targets are reflective navigation aids in the river and in the bay.

I always take at least one of my throwers when the dog and I go walking at night, and these reflective buoys are perfect targets. I've just never taken the cam and tripod and other stuff to do it right.

Maybe this fall. I'd have to do it before November, because a lot of the NavAids are taken in for the winter.

 

[Golfer2000]

Re: Selfbuilt's 100-Yard Outdoor Beamshots - 26 lights - July 2010

another great thread, thank you!

 

[selfbuilt]

Just updated the main thread - added 9 new lights, and re-did another 6 lights for direct comparisons. Here what's new:

Second Batch of High-Output or Multi-Emitter – 2x18650 - Lights

I've retaken the Eagletac M2C4 & M2XC4, to allow you to directly compare to the new M3C4 series lights. SUNWAYLED M40A also added, compared to the M40C.

Second Batch of Single Emitter – 2xRCR/1x18650 – Lights

I've retaken the Tiablo A9-Q5 & A10 shots, to compare to the new A9-R5 (also added the DBS R2 for comparison). Aspheric head shots included for both A9 versions. I've also retaken the 4Sevens Maelstrom G5 now that the shipping sample has arrived. Other lights added include the Eagletac T20C2-II R5, Fenix TK12.

Click on the thumbnails above to open full size images.

The aspheric shots now show a lot better, and I've corrected that unusually low M2XC4 shot from the first batch (must have been on Hi, not Turbo).

Some animated GIFs will soon find there way into the reviews of those lights ....

Enjoy!