sportsman's flashlight

[deuscoup]

Things have changed in the last few years.

I've used cheapo headlamps for years. The cool tint has left me feeling like I'm stuck in the last Lord of the Rings movie. I have used them for all kinds of tasks, but the most demanding one is night fishing, blood trailing or field dressing and cleaning game. The cool tint leds have been terrible for blood trailing at night. A coleman lantern was far superior for popping the red color. I'd also like to BBQ at night for those long low and slow cooks. Judging by color is hard with some lights.

Please recommend me a good tinted, bright and floody headlamp. A handlight that will pop white hair and belly might be helpful too. Oh, and something that crappie like too:duh2:. Thanks!

 

[aimxplode]

The Zebralight H51 seems to be highly regarded here. It comes in Cool, Neutral, and High CRI

 

[deuscoup]

Thanks Aim! I guess there aren't many hunters here.

 

[Websniper]

Hey Dues, I pretty much asked this same question myself a few months ago, so lemme tell you the conclusion that I came to.

I ended up purchasing a Zebralight H51FC. The floods type beam is great for close up to medium range work(at higher output levels, of course), but let me say this: seven though this is the "high CRI" version, the tint is fairly neutral, not warm. Greens and browns render ok, and reds are decent as well, but I have to say I still believe I prefer my incandescents for detail outdoor work. However, I plan on picking up one of the high CRI Quarks and converting it to a headlamp to see if it does any better.

That being said, I don't think you can go wrong with the ZL C series headlamps, but don't expect it to do as well with reds greens and browns as a warmer tint or incan.

I will also say that I occasionally found myself wanting more throw than my floody h51fc, so I took to carrying either my Quark AA2 neutral(xpg) or one of my Surefire incandescent lights. I only used these when I wanted to look out further than 25 yards or so.

 

[deuscoup]

Thanks WS. Given your review of the CRI module I may need a few different models that specialize. A good light while blood trailing may mean the difference between a lot of money and energy wasted along with a wasted animal (which I really hate) or a recovery. Field dressing in moonlight or no light is the second most important task where it's just critical to be able to tell the difference between a bloody finger and the esophagus. Everything else is just gravy.

After doing research here I think the H502W has the best likelihood of meeting both needs, but your take on the CRI gives me pause. Reds and browns have to be part of color scheme. ROPs were all the rage last time I spent any amount of time here. The short run times are a bummer.

I gots some thinkin' to do.

 

[GaAslamp]

First you need to decide what basic tint best suits your needs. "Warm" typically means a tint similar to that of an incandescent light bulb being driven decently hard, resulting in a color temperature of ~3000K--it emphasizes red hues over blues and greens. "Neutral" typically means a tint that is more evenly balanced between reds, blues, and greens, resulting in a color temperature of ~4000K--it renders colors a bit more like sunlight would in comparison. For the purposes of this discussion, having a high CRI basically means that the light output has a more filled-in spectrum (i.e. fewer/smaller gaps), which may help and shouldn't hurt, making it preferable, in my opinion (albeit not absolutely necessary); high CRI is not inherently associated with any particular tint, so do not make any assumptions in that respect (many people seem to assume that high CRI implies a warm tint--or maybe even that it IS a tint--but that's not true).

I don't know from personal experience which tint would work best for your purposes, and for all we know it may vary with the individual, as well. However, I will say that what you're looking for is contrast, so the question is whether a warm tint will provide superior contrast because it has so much output in the red range, or a neutral tint will provide superior contrast because it is more balanced (hence the term "neutral"). Obviously the answer depends on the kinds of things you're trying to differentiate. In the general case, I prefer neutral myself for contrast because none of the basic colors are strongly emphasized over the others. For your purposes, I would guess that a neutral tint would theoretically be the best, as well, if you need good contrast between something that is primarily red and something else that has other hues, but that is just a guess.

Whichever tint you decide to go with, make sure that you know what you're getting with any particular flashlight (if you don't know, then ask). For example, the high-CRI flashlights from 4Sevens have a warm tint--not identical to every other warm-tinted LED out there, but still definitely warm. On the other hand, the high-CRI flashlights from ZebraLight (suffixed with a "c") have a neutral tint, much like their regular neutral-tinted flashlights (confusingly suffixed with a "w"). Pick a tint first, and then we can go over options. Your closest reference for warm tints would be incandescent flashlights and your closest reference for neutral tints would be sunlight (or an overcast day).