Note: This thread is a follow-up from last year's thread, The Ultimate Flashaholic Camping Trip, which was not very popular, due to the lack of beam shots… I've got that covered this time around, as promised, and I'd like to share my experience along with some nice beam shots. This year I had to do a review on the TK45, so we (my cousin and I) figured that was a good reason to get on with the picture taking we had wanted to do for well over a year now. Here's the link to my review: TK45 Extensive Review. You should consult this thread and last year's thread for the rest of the pictures and a little more information about the park.
This post can be considered as a comparative outdoors beam shots, but I'm also taking the wordy opportunity to share our experience out there. We had a lot of work on our hands, took quite a few pictures, and I'm sharing the most interesting ones here. We did this because it is something we had wanted to do for quite a while and needed to get out of our systems. I think it's only fair to show you the result.
While we did have fun, we worked hard and might not do this to the same extent the next time around. Some of the pictures didn't quite come out as we intended, so there will definitely be a second take for the tower to tower pictures, with a few newer lights. I just did a very extensive and long review on the TK45 and have some more reviews coming up soon, not to mention all the picture tagging/resizing involved, so I'll basically let the pictures speak for themselves.
To sum up :
Every summer, my cousin and I like to go to a campsite here, in Quebec, to navigate the trails at night. THE most interesting feature there for flashaholics, besides the trails, are two observation towers in line of sight, standing about a mile apart (0.98 miles measured on google earth). We only had the idea of testing what a flashlight would look like at a mile distance two years ago, when my cousin's friend, Fern, was still coming with us most of the time. It was Fern's idea to go there and walk the trails at night in the first place. I had been out in the woods at night many times in parks closer to home in my teenage years, but this was a whole new experience for me. Fern doesn't join us much anymore on the trails, as he's now busy with his new house, career and girlfriend. Good thing he was never much of a flashaholic.
A little more about me (flashaholism in the making):
I discovered flashaholism at a very young age, but my interest had been rekindled about 5 years ago, when I decided I was sick and tired of going camping with lazy people who thought it was a good thing to sleep till noon on the day we where going to camp. I didn't mind much setting up camp after sunset, but had enough of looking for a spot and fire wood when I couldn't see my own hands anymore (I did a lot of camping in the wild back then). I went out and bought my first LED flashlight, which was a combo with a Krypton bulb and a red LED. WOW, was I wrong when I thought I just bought the last flashlight I'd ever need!
Two or three years ago,, there was an interesting new flashlight from the same brand (Rayovac) on the shelf at WallM***, and this was the first time I saw advertised lumen rating and runtime. I didn't think much of it until I noticed the brand (not knowing anything about lumens at the time). That's when I decided I needed one and got my cousin to buy one too, without even trying it first. We ripped the package off in the car and for the first time in our lives, turned a flashlight on in broad daylight. We laughed out of joy when we realized we could light up the car floor on a sunny day, went back to my place to compare with my older flashlight and laughed some more (it was an impressive light at the time.) We where sure to scare the bears away with that 45 lumen killer. OH boy, do things change! We had plenty of fun with those in the trails, as we could really see clearly at night for the first time.
It only took about a month or so before we discovered Terralux and Fenix flashlights on the Internet. Having already spent a whopping 90$ in flashlights and a headlamp for myself, I ordered 2 Terralux 120 lumen flashlights for each of us. In the same week I also ordered an L2D Q5 for each of us. I spent over 300$ in flashlight that summer alone. I won't even try to estimate how much I spent last year, but at that point my flashlight collection had cost more in two years than my car was worth. Good thing I changed my car… it was costing me my whole flashlight collection's worth per year to keep it on the road.
PREVIOUS WEEKEND
In the spirit of keeping the comparison pictures of the same lights together, I decided to show you the beam shots I took for practice 7 days before the camping trip. There's a few trails and a field at walking distance from home, so I went there to take some pictures I knew I might not have time to take care of later.
TEST 1 : Throw
This is the field where I took the first pictures. The trees are a lot further than it may appear (about 50 meters measured in foot steps)
I installed the tripod about ten feet from the tarp. The following pictures are pretty close to reality.
Now the night time pics:
Quark AA neutral
Sorry, I forgot to take a reference picture.
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion
Malkoff MC-E Neutral Drop-in (400 lumen, 20 degree optics) in a Surefire 6P host
JetBeam M1X V4
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
Test 2: Spill
I then turned my whole setup 90 degrees to the right and aimed the hotspots at about 6-7 meters from the camera.
Yup, that's pretty much what I saw after the clouds covered the moon. Good thing I had one or two flashlights with me.
Quark AA Neutral
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix TK20 – love how it is almost as strong as my TK11, but with much better color rendition
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion (focused) – The colors seem very real with this one. I'll try to remember to take a picture with it diffused next time
Malkoff MC-E Neutral
I was afraid I was spending too much money on a flashlight with no throw until I turned it on in this very same field for the first time. I'd like to have the same thing with different modes and a lighter package as a trekking light.
JetBeam M1X V4
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
That alone can replace the use of the Malkoff MC-E neutral combined with a TK11 (or anything up to TK40 / M1X.)
Test 3: Covered Trail
The trail. It rained a little after I took this picture.
Even the moon couldn't help me here, so I needed to keep one flashlight on after the other, passing the light over like a bunch of Olympic Torches.
Quark AA neutral - I had my TK45 review in mind, so I was aiming towards the end of the trail, making this more of a throw test than a usability test. Anyone who owns a Quark AA can guarantee that it's a very useful light and this picture doesn't do it justice. Same goes for some of the following lights.
Fenix L2D Q5
That some flying bug in the front, not a caterpillar or a zipper. I think I'll try to do some artful pictures like this at some point. I can't explain why it looks like that, but I think it is more likely due to the camera than the flashlight. The L2D seemed to attract bugs more than the other lights that night.
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion
Malkoff MC-E Neutral Drop-in (400 lumen, 20 degree optics) in a Surefire 6P host
What can I say?
JetBeam M1X V.4.0
Fenix TK40
M1X or TK40? Even though the M1X has a little more brightness to it, if you're undecided, my advice is forget all other aspects and base your choice on the interface or battery type. I have had some issues with 18650's in my M1X (so has my cousin) so I intend on starting a thread to find out more about it.
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
I already said enough about this one.
Test 4: Open Trail
This one will give you a better idea of the usability of the smaller flashlights.
The moon was right in my face here, so this picture is looking towards where I set up and I was standing where I aimed the flashlight spots.
Light pollution from the houses on the other side of the trees.
Quark AA neutral
Fenix L2D Q5
More flying zippers. I took three pictures to get rid of them, but decided it was just too interesting not to share.
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
I'd like to understand why some people say this isn't really a thrower. I wouldn't recognize my own father at that distance…
Streamlight Strion
Malkoff MC-E Neutral
JetBeam M1X V4
Fenix TK40
I think this flying zipper had a heart attack when it crossed TK40's beam… it literally seemed like it tried everything it could to avoid the hotspot and get away. It was not flying like any of his kind and went straight for the grass afterwards… I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP! He flew pretty close to the front of the flashlight and it felt like he was seriously affected by it.
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
Test 5: Can you hit the tower?
After I took the pictures of the TK45 VS car headlights for my review, I stopped in front of this tower. I was on the other side of the trees you see here, since that's where the street is from my TK45 VS car headlights test. In this picture, I'm standing on city property and I possibly was a little closer to the tower than in the following pictures. I didn't bother with the lights that couldn't hit the tower. I have no idea how tall this tower is, but I didn't feel like climbing it with a measuring tape in hand for some reason.
Tower Reference picture
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion
JetBeam M1X
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
OK, on to the trip…
CAMPING SITE:
I would prefer to keep the name of the park I'm talking about secret, just in case. If you're close enough to go there, I don't need to name it anyways, as there are plenty of clues as to which park this is.
This camping site is nothing like the real stuff where you have to carry all you need on your back for some miles. It's a familial camping but I call this car camping, as you can access your camp site by car or even park on it. We don't really go there for the camping anyhow. I never asked if we had the right to walk the trails at night, but no one has ever mentioned anything and even though we are discrete, it's kinda obvious we're not just headed for the bathroom when we walk by. We've done our share of picking up after others, so we don't feel we're doing anything wrong. I think nature is much better off with us walking there at night than it is with most people standing next to a trash can on the sidewalk.
THE EXPERIENCE:
Ironically, we used to go there to walk the trails in pitch black night, but we now carry more light than a whole platoon, as I have come to conclude from all the military guys asking for advice here on CPF. We don't really use all that much light to walk around, but we like to stop to do some testing and beam comparisons. Boy am I glad I'm not telling this to some shrink who goes to bed when the sun sets!
The towers are located on the two highest points of the park, which is more of a hill than a mountain. One of these towers is close to the longest suspended footbridge in the world, which traverses a gorge 50 meters below. Another good spot for flashlight testing, but that part of the park is really close to the village (you can see the street from there), so we try to be discrete around there, since we're not into attracting attention and prefer to let people sleep.
THE TOWERS :
Sorry, I tried to print a map from Google, but I'm having problems with Google Earth plug-in. If I get if fixed, I'll come back and post it right here.
We did this on St-Jean Baptiste (St-John Baptist) day, which is THE national holiday for Quebec, so there are a lot of fireworks and weirdos everywhere on that day, which was a good thing for us, since we where lighting up towers that stand out and can be seen for miles around with the light power we had. I'd have to say we probably where as stealthy as two lighthouses that night.
Yup, that's the sun tower. 96 feet (20 meters) high, 120 steps.
It's located at the edge of the park and sits right next to a bunch of transformers, so don't mind the electrical wires. It look fenced in, but only the power house is fenced in, not the tower.
We named this one the moon tower, simply because the moon rises right behind it (we're normally asleep when the sun rises). I didn't have the presence of mind to go down and take a picture of it with the moon, but I'll certainly think about it next time. Sorry, I don't have specs on this one, but it obviously is much shorter than the sun tower as it sits on higher grounds.
EQUIPMENT
On top of the lights you will see listed, we had to carry these also:
Tripod
Tripod flashlight adapter
Screwdriver + Pliers
Walkie-Talkie
Notepad
Checklist
Pen
Water
Backpack
Oversized fabric grocery bag (our other packs where holding camping equipment and clothing)
THE CHALLENGE(S)
Murphy's Original Law : "What can go wrong will go wrong"
… Or something like that. It wasn't that bad at all, but we did have a few minor mishaps.
You probably wonder why I refer to my cousin as "Mr. Compass". Last year we did pretty much the same thing, without cameras and much less equipment, and on his way back from the moon tower, Mr. Compass managed to get lost (not an easy thing to do when you can only turn either left or right at no more than two intersections). He had a chance to explain how he got lost this time around and, believe me, provided you take it as a sarcasm, the name Mr. Compass is very well deserved. I might sound mean to you, but he wanted to stay anonymous and I warned him that I would have to keep the same nickname alive. He had been walking around the woods, off the trails, for almost two hours in the rain before I could reach him on the walkie-talkie that time. I had been waiting for so long I decided to go up the trail, thinking he must have hurt himself when I finally heard his voice on the radio. He still isn't sure of how he got out of the woods, and I can't explain it in any way even if I know all the paths. All I can extrapolate is that he was following a trail that doesn't exist and ended up on the opposite side of where he should have been. His shoes took six months to recover from the rain.
This year I bought some light sticks to leave as bread crumbs and convinced Mr. Compass to go to the sun tower to do his part of the beam shots, because there is a lot less background lights behind the moon tower and I have the most lights, plus the TK45 that had to be reviewed. I walked over to the tower with him, carrying half his load and setting up the light sticks towards the way back before sunset. From our camp to the sun tower was about a half hour walk with his shared load of about 20 pounds of equipment. I then had to go back to camp, picked up my heavier load alone and headed for the moon tower, which was another 20 minutes of walk from our campsite if you're light. I knew it would be a challenge to get up there with close to 30 pounds of equipment, but I managed without stopping once. I do have to mention I have started to become serious about hiking last year, so I'm in a much better shape and better equipped now.
I finally reached the top of the moon tower around 9 O'Clock, so it was still bright. I had enough time to take a break, pour out my flashlights and setup before the moon arose behind me.
That's the moon as it arose from behind some clouds and, as you can see, it was pretty much at it's fullest.
Mr. Compass wasn't sure we'd be able to go through with all the pictures, as one of the legs on his tripod had fallen off while setting up. Need I mention that a tripod is a crucial device when taking beam pictures or holding flashlights in the dark with long expositions, especially at a distance of one mile. Fortunately, he was able to use it while extended at max and it doesn't seem to have affected the pictures at all.
After a few brief exchanges on the walkie-talkie with my cousin, I finished setting up and we started taking some pictures. I should explain that taking a bunch of pictures a mile apart requires some preparation. We figured that talking on a walkie-talkie that might break up anytime during our exchanges was not a good idea, so we planned accordingly. First, I determined that we needed identical checklists to know in which order to present flashlights and for writing picture numbers on. Second, since we didn't want this to last for hours, like it did when we practiced using walkie-talkies only, we figured that using a one-way radio that you have to pick-up and set down was a bad idea. It was decided that we had plenty of bright flashlights to choose from to use as light signals rather than voice. We put a red filter on our TK11's and used that as a signaling device. We still wanted to take a picture of the TK11's so that one picture was done with vocal communication at the beginning.
Something unexpected happened when we started taking the pictures. We apparently where using the same frequency as someone else and that someone was listening in on us, but I can't tell for how long. What I can remember of our conversation went something like: "Ok, I'm pretty much set up, so we'll wait for it to get a little darker and then we'll start" … "I'll take a break for 7-8 minutes and the we'll take the pictures" … "Let's finish the TK11 and then we'll switch to signals" At which point some nice female voice started singing on the walkie-talkie a peppy song from "La Compagnie Creole". We decided to change channels, to which the very nice female voice agreed we should do. All I know for sure is that she heard "let's finish the TK11 and then switch to signals", so I'm really wondering what the H**K she might have thought we where up to…
TOWER TO TOWER BEAM SHOTS
Sun Tower from the Moon Tower (Mr. Compass' collection)
The following are the pictures I took of my cousin's collection. I had a more recent camera and more experience with beam shots, so those are the best pictures we have for the tower to tower pictures. It is unfortunate since I have the bigger collection, but I prefer to put these shots first to give you a good idea of what to expect. As I look at these I can't help but realize how close to reality they actually look.
Reference picture towards the Sun Tower. The line of lights that looks like a reversed checkmark is the illuminated bridge (we didn't do it!). That part of the park is obviously real close to the city.
I cropped the rest of the pictures in order to keep a good resolution. I have to catch up a little with Photoshop, so they won't be centered exactly the same.
Reference picture cropped
Quark Mini 123 Warm – Impressive little bugger.
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix PD30 R2
Something happened with the TK11 picture. We where probably very distracted by that angelic voice over the radio, so the picture came out no good. Just picture the color of the PD30 with the exact same intensity as the next picture:
Fenix TA21 R2
M1X at minimum intensity - We almost couldn't get this picture, as my cousin had some trouble getting his M1X in low mode and it wasn't the user's fault.
Jetbeam M1X Turbo. This wasn't very pleasant to look at directly and the light didn't look like it came from anywhere close to a mile away even if I knew better.
Cheapo 1 Million Candle halogen projector – impressive for something bought on special at 10 bucks.
Quark RGB – I wasn't expecting much here, due to the small reflector. It still is enough to communicate, provided there are no other lights around, or if you know where to look.
Quark RGB R
Quark RGB G
Quark RGB B
The Blue from the Quark RGB was pretty impressive at that distance considering it's a flood light with a very shallow reflector. This goes to show two thing: that current LED technology is still better in the blue spectrum and that even a naked LED can be seen at quite a distance. I can make the last affirmation with confidence since, last year, I saw my cousin walking on the path to the Moon Tower, while waiting on the Sun Tower, and he was using a cheapo headlamp with a naked green LED... and he was on a path perpendicular from my viewpoint. My conclusion from this is that, if you where stuck somewhere far enough from city lights, you really don't need a huge spotlight to call for help, although bigger will get attention much faster.
Ok, I know I'll probably get asked for this or at least any real flashaholic should ask, so here's the full picture with the M1X.
If you can't call for help with somtehing like this, you might as well use it as a hammer to build a house.
Looking at the Moon Tower from the Sun Tower (My collection)
Now for the pictures my cousin took of my collection. I must mention that we forgot to compare our camera settings, so while I was taking one second expositions, he was taking 1/8th of a second expositions. I had experimented a little more with beam shots on the previous weekend, so please forgive him as it wasn't his fault but rather mine for not thinking about this. For reference (if it can help) here is a picture I took of the rising moon and the houses you'll see behind me:
Only one of these green lights on the left is visible from the Sun Tower. As you can judge for yourself, these a BRIGHT outdoor lights as this picture is very close to reality. I believe they are some sort of HID, judging from the tint and how much they light up. The sun tower is about a mile away from the moon tower and possibly a little less than that from these lights.
I've cropped the following pictures in such a way as to keep the house light in sight, so I'm standing on the left of the pictures (I won't need to point where.) There are also two communication towers with beacons on top of the hill, so they show up with different intensities.
Reference picture. Notice how much the poor green light has become dim due to the fast exposition rate.
Quark Mini 123 Warm
Quark AA Neutral
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix PD30 R2.jpg
Fenix TK20. I'm not sure saying it's a 150 lumen flashlight does it justice. It seems like a lot more to me.
Fenix TK11 R2
Fenix HP10
Streamlight Strion
Surefire 6P with M60 bulb. I have a strong preference for the Strion over the 6P for the obvious reasons and the rechargeable battery.
Malkoff MC-E neutral 20 degree optics – Looks much more impressive when used for your own navigation.
JetBeam M1X V4 Turbo
Fenix TK40. I had fun with my cousin's reaction last year. I didn't tell him I got one until after he had a good look at it in this exact situation. I had to hold onto the secret for months just for that. I didn't quite understand what he meant when he said "that light is so strong!" He thought it was a TK11 at the time.
Fenix TK45 Test Sample. I compared the last three pictures directly and the TK40 looks exactly the same as the M1X. The TK45 R4 sample is only a little dimmer.
Cheapo 1 Million Candle halogen Projector
Eliminator 25 Million Candle HID. Amazingly, it doesn't throw much more than my TK40 in the field, but it sure is obvious here.
Quark RGB Neutral
Quark RGB Red
Quark RGB Green
Quark RGB Blue
Bonus Picture: The TK45 at dusk (dead center)
Once we where done with the pictures from the towers, Mr. Compass headed back to camp, as planned, to dump most of his equipment, picked up some snacks and two beers for me (thanks again) then came to join me. I did the whole trip down unequipped and back up with a full load in about an hour, so I walked around looking for some nice place for beam shots and took some pictures on my own for my TK45 review.
About an hour later, I turned the radio back on to find out Mr. Compass just barely made it to camp by then! Late, but at least not lost… Some of us are definitely in better shape than others, so I took a few more pictures and then set up a temporary camp in an open shelter where Mr. Compass finally joined me. Here he is:
He's looking a little disgruntled, as he had just realized he lost his L2D Q5. We haven't found it to this day, and no one had brought it back to the administration when we asked the next day in the afternoon. The batteries in it where in their final phase (low mode only), so I hope that whoever found it had the decency to try new batteries before throwing it out as a crappy LED flashlight. With enough luck, it might be converting a new flashaholic. In the end, it's nothing really bad, since it's now being replaced by an LD20 R4. I'll be doing a review on that one too, soon, before I review the PD20 I ordered for myself.
Afterwards we rested a little more on top of the moon tower, planning on how we should illuminate the tower for the last picture of the night. Then another thing happened: I dropped my second beer, which was almost full and it broke one level below us, sending sticky shards of glass all over the place. We didn't want to leave the place that way (families go there in the day), so we started picking up the glass, even if we where pretty tired by then. Using an HP10, PD30 and the TK45 made short work of it. We went back the next day and it seems we really did a good job as we couldn't find a single piece of glass. Try that with a store bought flashlight!
Here's the illuminated moon tower with different camera settings:
The fortress of power!
Makes me think back to "Encounter of the fourth kind"
Just like a live show! Don't ask me to bring the speakers, though
SECOND DAY
We had to take some daytime pictures of the Sun Tower itself, the Moon Tower from afar and the bridge, so we hit the trail and went to do just that. I already have daytime reference pictures of the towers from afar and you've seen what they look like up close, so here is the bridge as seen from one end:
And here's the target we where aiming the following night:
(The arrow points at a couple sitting down there)
We then had dinner, rested a little and waited for dark before leaving camp. The only pictures left to take where those from the bridge into the gorge. Getting there was a breeze with less than half the equipment we had the night before.
I had the tripod extended at maximum and as close as possible to the fence. I did want the fence to show a little anyways.
Fenix L2D Q5
The quark AA didn't show anything on the camera screen, so I didn't take the shot.
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
JetBeam M1X V4
HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE! I would have said that if anyone had been down there, otherwise we would have been suspicious looking.
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
Nope, no one there.
Taking the pictures from the bridge went very well. I just forgot to take a picture of the bridge itself at night with all its lights on. I'll make it a point to do so next time.
There's just one thing that's not getting through to me:
While we where headed out for the bridge, we where walking through camp around 10:30 p.m. and came across a young employee – quite possibly not even legal drinking age, which is 18 around here - who warned us about some skunks lurking between the trash containers next to the sanitary block we where walking by (big containers like you usually see behind some businesses or construction sites.) He was busy trying to scare them off with buckets of water when we walked by and he never asked anything about us carrying a full backpack and a tripod at such a late hour, even though he had a good look at us from the ambiant lights.
We came back somewhere around 1:30 a.m. and "Billy the Kid" was still there, throwing rocks at and between the containers, which still smelled like skunk. When he heard us approaching, he shone some incandescent flashlight at us for quite a moment (and fairly bright for an incan) until he could tell we where not giant carnivorous skunks. His flashlight looked like it could have been a Strion, but despite that it wasn't helping much even though he did hit the containers pretty good, hence the name Billy the Kid. We stopped next to the containers and I asked if he'd like to have better lighting, to which he didn't respond. I figured I might as well take the opportunity to be helpful, prove we where not up to any mischief AND show off a great light at the same time! I whipped out the TK45 on turbo, lighting up everything around the containers like we where in broad daylight. He quickly went around to the other side, still shining his little flashlight as I joined him. I proved to him in less than a minute that there where no skunks there and he seemed relieved, then went on with his other business.
What absolutely dumbfounds me is that he never made a single comment or asked a single question about the TK45, or even said thank you for that matter. How can someone fighting off skunks like his life depends on it, in blinded darkness, not sure about what he's facing not even realize that this other guy is casually whipping out daylight from his jacket pocket??!?!?!?!? I'm guessing he was half scared of skunks, half sick and tired of his efforts to try and get rid of them, and half ignorant on how much a flashlight can light up (if you're not holding count, that's like 150% ignorant). He must have been really scared or was wayyy past his bedtime.
Me and my cousin where still amazed at how much we could see around the containers, even after two full nights of playing with the TK45 outdoors, and not a single remark from this guy who's acting like he's fighting for survival with the comparative equivalent of a wet match! (!!!!!!!!!!????????????) We thought the situation was so ridiculous we laughed all the way back to our campsite and are still laughing about it to this day! We will probably remember Billy the Kid for a looong time… I hope he finally woke up at some point and will remember that night too.
CONCLUSION
We had a lot of work to do that weekend and accomplished our main goals and a little more in good time while still having fun, despite the physical effort involved. Our hurdles where nothing compared to the rain that hit us last year, so we're very happy about the results and there will most likely be another time around although we'll probably stick to tower to tower beam shots with the newest / most popular of our lights… mostly.
I do have a nice trail and a field at walking distance from home, so I WILL definitely bring you more outdoor shots in the future. If you've seen my video you can tell I need the exercise anyway. With a little help from god, I might find the time during my vacation trip in august to take pictures from a more advanced type of trail, but I'm not making any promises. After all, a vacation should be about resting the bigger muscle on top during daytime, and the rest of them at night.
This post can be considered as a comparative outdoors beam shots, but I'm also taking the wordy opportunity to share our experience out there. We had a lot of work on our hands, took quite a few pictures, and I'm sharing the most interesting ones here. We did this because it is something we had wanted to do for quite a while and needed to get out of our systems. I think it's only fair to show you the result.
While we did have fun, we worked hard and might not do this to the same extent the next time around. Some of the pictures didn't quite come out as we intended, so there will definitely be a second take for the tower to tower pictures, with a few newer lights. I just did a very extensive and long review on the TK45 and have some more reviews coming up soon, not to mention all the picture tagging/resizing involved, so I'll basically let the pictures speak for themselves.
To sum up :
Every summer, my cousin and I like to go to a campsite here, in Quebec, to navigate the trails at night. THE most interesting feature there for flashaholics, besides the trails, are two observation towers in line of sight, standing about a mile apart (0.98 miles measured on google earth). We only had the idea of testing what a flashlight would look like at a mile distance two years ago, when my cousin's friend, Fern, was still coming with us most of the time. It was Fern's idea to go there and walk the trails at night in the first place. I had been out in the woods at night many times in parks closer to home in my teenage years, but this was a whole new experience for me. Fern doesn't join us much anymore on the trails, as he's now busy with his new house, career and girlfriend. Good thing he was never much of a flashaholic.
A little more about me (flashaholism in the making):
I discovered flashaholism at a very young age, but my interest had been rekindled about 5 years ago, when I decided I was sick and tired of going camping with lazy people who thought it was a good thing to sleep till noon on the day we where going to camp. I didn't mind much setting up camp after sunset, but had enough of looking for a spot and fire wood when I couldn't see my own hands anymore (I did a lot of camping in the wild back then). I went out and bought my first LED flashlight, which was a combo with a Krypton bulb and a red LED. WOW, was I wrong when I thought I just bought the last flashlight I'd ever need!
Two or three years ago,, there was an interesting new flashlight from the same brand (Rayovac) on the shelf at WallM***, and this was the first time I saw advertised lumen rating and runtime. I didn't think much of it until I noticed the brand (not knowing anything about lumens at the time). That's when I decided I needed one and got my cousin to buy one too, without even trying it first. We ripped the package off in the car and for the first time in our lives, turned a flashlight on in broad daylight. We laughed out of joy when we realized we could light up the car floor on a sunny day, went back to my place to compare with my older flashlight and laughed some more (it was an impressive light at the time.) We where sure to scare the bears away with that 45 lumen killer. OH boy, do things change! We had plenty of fun with those in the trails, as we could really see clearly at night for the first time.
It only took about a month or so before we discovered Terralux and Fenix flashlights on the Internet. Having already spent a whopping 90$ in flashlights and a headlamp for myself, I ordered 2 Terralux 120 lumen flashlights for each of us. In the same week I also ordered an L2D Q5 for each of us. I spent over 300$ in flashlight that summer alone. I won't even try to estimate how much I spent last year, but at that point my flashlight collection had cost more in two years than my car was worth. Good thing I changed my car… it was costing me my whole flashlight collection's worth per year to keep it on the road.
PREVIOUS WEEKEND
In the spirit of keeping the comparison pictures of the same lights together, I decided to show you the beam shots I took for practice 7 days before the camping trip. There's a few trails and a field at walking distance from home, so I went there to take some pictures I knew I might not have time to take care of later.
TEST 1 : Throw
This is the field where I took the first pictures. The trees are a lot further than it may appear (about 50 meters measured in foot steps)
I installed the tripod about ten feet from the tarp. The following pictures are pretty close to reality.
Now the night time pics:
Quark AA neutral
Sorry, I forgot to take a reference picture.
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion
Malkoff MC-E Neutral Drop-in (400 lumen, 20 degree optics) in a Surefire 6P host
JetBeam M1X V4
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
Test 2: Spill
I then turned my whole setup 90 degrees to the right and aimed the hotspots at about 6-7 meters from the camera.
Yup, that's pretty much what I saw after the clouds covered the moon. Good thing I had one or two flashlights with me.
Quark AA Neutral
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix TK20 – love how it is almost as strong as my TK11, but with much better color rendition
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion (focused) – The colors seem very real with this one. I'll try to remember to take a picture with it diffused next time
Malkoff MC-E Neutral
I was afraid I was spending too much money on a flashlight with no throw until I turned it on in this very same field for the first time. I'd like to have the same thing with different modes and a lighter package as a trekking light.
JetBeam M1X V4
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
That alone can replace the use of the Malkoff MC-E neutral combined with a TK11 (or anything up to TK40 / M1X.)
Test 3: Covered Trail
The trail. It rained a little after I took this picture.
Even the moon couldn't help me here, so I needed to keep one flashlight on after the other, passing the light over like a bunch of Olympic Torches.
Quark AA neutral - I had my TK45 review in mind, so I was aiming towards the end of the trail, making this more of a throw test than a usability test. Anyone who owns a Quark AA can guarantee that it's a very useful light and this picture doesn't do it justice. Same goes for some of the following lights.
Fenix L2D Q5
That some flying bug in the front, not a caterpillar or a zipper. I think I'll try to do some artful pictures like this at some point. I can't explain why it looks like that, but I think it is more likely due to the camera than the flashlight. The L2D seemed to attract bugs more than the other lights that night.
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion
Malkoff MC-E Neutral Drop-in (400 lumen, 20 degree optics) in a Surefire 6P host
What can I say?
JetBeam M1X V.4.0
Fenix TK40
M1X or TK40? Even though the M1X has a little more brightness to it, if you're undecided, my advice is forget all other aspects and base your choice on the interface or battery type. I have had some issues with 18650's in my M1X (so has my cousin) so I intend on starting a thread to find out more about it.
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
I already said enough about this one.
Test 4: Open Trail
This one will give you a better idea of the usability of the smaller flashlights.
The moon was right in my face here, so this picture is looking towards where I set up and I was standing where I aimed the flashlight spots.
Light pollution from the houses on the other side of the trees.
Quark AA neutral
Fenix L2D Q5
More flying zippers. I took three pictures to get rid of them, but decided it was just too interesting not to share.
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
I'd like to understand why some people say this isn't really a thrower. I wouldn't recognize my own father at that distance…
Streamlight Strion
Malkoff MC-E Neutral
JetBeam M1X V4
Fenix TK40
I think this flying zipper had a heart attack when it crossed TK40's beam… it literally seemed like it tried everything it could to avoid the hotspot and get away. It was not flying like any of his kind and went straight for the grass afterwards… I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP! He flew pretty close to the front of the flashlight and it felt like he was seriously affected by it.
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
Test 5: Can you hit the tower?
After I took the pictures of the TK45 VS car headlights for my review, I stopped in front of this tower. I was on the other side of the trees you see here, since that's where the street is from my TK45 VS car headlights test. In this picture, I'm standing on city property and I possibly was a little closer to the tower than in the following pictures. I didn't bother with the lights that couldn't hit the tower. I have no idea how tall this tower is, but I didn't feel like climbing it with a measuring tape in hand for some reason.
Tower Reference picture
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
Streamlight Strion
JetBeam M1X
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
OK, on to the trip…
CAMPING SITE:
I would prefer to keep the name of the park I'm talking about secret, just in case. If you're close enough to go there, I don't need to name it anyways, as there are plenty of clues as to which park this is.
This camping site is nothing like the real stuff where you have to carry all you need on your back for some miles. It's a familial camping but I call this car camping, as you can access your camp site by car or even park on it. We don't really go there for the camping anyhow. I never asked if we had the right to walk the trails at night, but no one has ever mentioned anything and even though we are discrete, it's kinda obvious we're not just headed for the bathroom when we walk by. We've done our share of picking up after others, so we don't feel we're doing anything wrong. I think nature is much better off with us walking there at night than it is with most people standing next to a trash can on the sidewalk.
THE EXPERIENCE:
Ironically, we used to go there to walk the trails in pitch black night, but we now carry more light than a whole platoon, as I have come to conclude from all the military guys asking for advice here on CPF. We don't really use all that much light to walk around, but we like to stop to do some testing and beam comparisons. Boy am I glad I'm not telling this to some shrink who goes to bed when the sun sets!
The towers are located on the two highest points of the park, which is more of a hill than a mountain. One of these towers is close to the longest suspended footbridge in the world, which traverses a gorge 50 meters below. Another good spot for flashlight testing, but that part of the park is really close to the village (you can see the street from there), so we try to be discrete around there, since we're not into attracting attention and prefer to let people sleep.
THE TOWERS :
Sorry, I tried to print a map from Google, but I'm having problems with Google Earth plug-in. If I get if fixed, I'll come back and post it right here.
We did this on St-Jean Baptiste (St-John Baptist) day, which is THE national holiday for Quebec, so there are a lot of fireworks and weirdos everywhere on that day, which was a good thing for us, since we where lighting up towers that stand out and can be seen for miles around with the light power we had. I'd have to say we probably where as stealthy as two lighthouses that night.
Yup, that's the sun tower. 96 feet (20 meters) high, 120 steps.
It's located at the edge of the park and sits right next to a bunch of transformers, so don't mind the electrical wires. It look fenced in, but only the power house is fenced in, not the tower.
We named this one the moon tower, simply because the moon rises right behind it (we're normally asleep when the sun rises). I didn't have the presence of mind to go down and take a picture of it with the moon, but I'll certainly think about it next time. Sorry, I don't have specs on this one, but it obviously is much shorter than the sun tower as it sits on higher grounds.
EQUIPMENT
On top of the lights you will see listed, we had to carry these also:
Tripod
Tripod flashlight adapter
Screwdriver + Pliers
Walkie-Talkie
Notepad
Checklist
Pen
Water
Backpack
Oversized fabric grocery bag (our other packs where holding camping equipment and clothing)
THE CHALLENGE(S)
Murphy's Original Law : "What can go wrong will go wrong"
… Or something like that. It wasn't that bad at all, but we did have a few minor mishaps.
You probably wonder why I refer to my cousin as "Mr. Compass". Last year we did pretty much the same thing, without cameras and much less equipment, and on his way back from the moon tower, Mr. Compass managed to get lost (not an easy thing to do when you can only turn either left or right at no more than two intersections). He had a chance to explain how he got lost this time around and, believe me, provided you take it as a sarcasm, the name Mr. Compass is very well deserved. I might sound mean to you, but he wanted to stay anonymous and I warned him that I would have to keep the same nickname alive. He had been walking around the woods, off the trails, for almost two hours in the rain before I could reach him on the walkie-talkie that time. I had been waiting for so long I decided to go up the trail, thinking he must have hurt himself when I finally heard his voice on the radio. He still isn't sure of how he got out of the woods, and I can't explain it in any way even if I know all the paths. All I can extrapolate is that he was following a trail that doesn't exist and ended up on the opposite side of where he should have been. His shoes took six months to recover from the rain.
This year I bought some light sticks to leave as bread crumbs and convinced Mr. Compass to go to the sun tower to do his part of the beam shots, because there is a lot less background lights behind the moon tower and I have the most lights, plus the TK45 that had to be reviewed. I walked over to the tower with him, carrying half his load and setting up the light sticks towards the way back before sunset. From our camp to the sun tower was about a half hour walk with his shared load of about 20 pounds of equipment. I then had to go back to camp, picked up my heavier load alone and headed for the moon tower, which was another 20 minutes of walk from our campsite if you're light. I knew it would be a challenge to get up there with close to 30 pounds of equipment, but I managed without stopping once. I do have to mention I have started to become serious about hiking last year, so I'm in a much better shape and better equipped now.
I finally reached the top of the moon tower around 9 O'Clock, so it was still bright. I had enough time to take a break, pour out my flashlights and setup before the moon arose behind me.
That's the moon as it arose from behind some clouds and, as you can see, it was pretty much at it's fullest.
Mr. Compass wasn't sure we'd be able to go through with all the pictures, as one of the legs on his tripod had fallen off while setting up. Need I mention that a tripod is a crucial device when taking beam pictures or holding flashlights in the dark with long expositions, especially at a distance of one mile. Fortunately, he was able to use it while extended at max and it doesn't seem to have affected the pictures at all.
After a few brief exchanges on the walkie-talkie with my cousin, I finished setting up and we started taking some pictures. I should explain that taking a bunch of pictures a mile apart requires some preparation. We figured that talking on a walkie-talkie that might break up anytime during our exchanges was not a good idea, so we planned accordingly. First, I determined that we needed identical checklists to know in which order to present flashlights and for writing picture numbers on. Second, since we didn't want this to last for hours, like it did when we practiced using walkie-talkies only, we figured that using a one-way radio that you have to pick-up and set down was a bad idea. It was decided that we had plenty of bright flashlights to choose from to use as light signals rather than voice. We put a red filter on our TK11's and used that as a signaling device. We still wanted to take a picture of the TK11's so that one picture was done with vocal communication at the beginning.
Something unexpected happened when we started taking the pictures. We apparently where using the same frequency as someone else and that someone was listening in on us, but I can't tell for how long. What I can remember of our conversation went something like: "Ok, I'm pretty much set up, so we'll wait for it to get a little darker and then we'll start" … "I'll take a break for 7-8 minutes and the we'll take the pictures" … "Let's finish the TK11 and then we'll switch to signals" At which point some nice female voice started singing on the walkie-talkie a peppy song from "La Compagnie Creole". We decided to change channels, to which the very nice female voice agreed we should do. All I know for sure is that she heard "let's finish the TK11 and then switch to signals", so I'm really wondering what the H**K she might have thought we where up to…
TOWER TO TOWER BEAM SHOTS
Sun Tower from the Moon Tower (Mr. Compass' collection)
The following are the pictures I took of my cousin's collection. I had a more recent camera and more experience with beam shots, so those are the best pictures we have for the tower to tower pictures. It is unfortunate since I have the bigger collection, but I prefer to put these shots first to give you a good idea of what to expect. As I look at these I can't help but realize how close to reality they actually look.
Reference picture towards the Sun Tower. The line of lights that looks like a reversed checkmark is the illuminated bridge (we didn't do it!). That part of the park is obviously real close to the city.
I cropped the rest of the pictures in order to keep a good resolution. I have to catch up a little with Photoshop, so they won't be centered exactly the same.
Reference picture cropped
Quark Mini 123 Warm – Impressive little bugger.
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix PD30 R2
Something happened with the TK11 picture. We where probably very distracted by that angelic voice over the radio, so the picture came out no good. Just picture the color of the PD30 with the exact same intensity as the next picture:
Fenix TA21 R2
M1X at minimum intensity - We almost couldn't get this picture, as my cousin had some trouble getting his M1X in low mode and it wasn't the user's fault.
Jetbeam M1X Turbo. This wasn't very pleasant to look at directly and the light didn't look like it came from anywhere close to a mile away even if I knew better.
Cheapo 1 Million Candle halogen projector – impressive for something bought on special at 10 bucks.
Quark RGB – I wasn't expecting much here, due to the small reflector. It still is enough to communicate, provided there are no other lights around, or if you know where to look.
Quark RGB R
Quark RGB G
Quark RGB B
The Blue from the Quark RGB was pretty impressive at that distance considering it's a flood light with a very shallow reflector. This goes to show two thing: that current LED technology is still better in the blue spectrum and that even a naked LED can be seen at quite a distance. I can make the last affirmation with confidence since, last year, I saw my cousin walking on the path to the Moon Tower, while waiting on the Sun Tower, and he was using a cheapo headlamp with a naked green LED... and he was on a path perpendicular from my viewpoint. My conclusion from this is that, if you where stuck somewhere far enough from city lights, you really don't need a huge spotlight to call for help, although bigger will get attention much faster.
Ok, I know I'll probably get asked for this or at least any real flashaholic should ask, so here's the full picture with the M1X.
If you can't call for help with somtehing like this, you might as well use it as a hammer to build a house.
Looking at the Moon Tower from the Sun Tower (My collection)
Now for the pictures my cousin took of my collection. I must mention that we forgot to compare our camera settings, so while I was taking one second expositions, he was taking 1/8th of a second expositions. I had experimented a little more with beam shots on the previous weekend, so please forgive him as it wasn't his fault but rather mine for not thinking about this. For reference (if it can help) here is a picture I took of the rising moon and the houses you'll see behind me:
Only one of these green lights on the left is visible from the Sun Tower. As you can judge for yourself, these a BRIGHT outdoor lights as this picture is very close to reality. I believe they are some sort of HID, judging from the tint and how much they light up. The sun tower is about a mile away from the moon tower and possibly a little less than that from these lights.
I've cropped the following pictures in such a way as to keep the house light in sight, so I'm standing on the left of the pictures (I won't need to point where.) There are also two communication towers with beacons on top of the hill, so they show up with different intensities.
Reference picture. Notice how much the poor green light has become dim due to the fast exposition rate.
Quark Mini 123 Warm
Quark AA Neutral
Fenix L2D Q5
Fenix PD30 R2.jpg
Fenix TK20. I'm not sure saying it's a 150 lumen flashlight does it justice. It seems like a lot more to me.
Fenix TK11 R2
Fenix HP10
Streamlight Strion
Surefire 6P with M60 bulb. I have a strong preference for the Strion over the 6P for the obvious reasons and the rechargeable battery.
Malkoff MC-E neutral 20 degree optics – Looks much more impressive when used for your own navigation.
JetBeam M1X V4 Turbo
Fenix TK40. I had fun with my cousin's reaction last year. I didn't tell him I got one until after he had a good look at it in this exact situation. I had to hold onto the secret for months just for that. I didn't quite understand what he meant when he said "that light is so strong!" He thought it was a TK11 at the time.
Fenix TK45 Test Sample. I compared the last three pictures directly and the TK40 looks exactly the same as the M1X. The TK45 R4 sample is only a little dimmer.
Cheapo 1 Million Candle halogen Projector
Eliminator 25 Million Candle HID. Amazingly, it doesn't throw much more than my TK40 in the field, but it sure is obvious here.
Quark RGB Neutral
Quark RGB Red
Quark RGB Green
Quark RGB Blue
Bonus Picture: The TK45 at dusk (dead center)
Once we where done with the pictures from the towers, Mr. Compass headed back to camp, as planned, to dump most of his equipment, picked up some snacks and two beers for me (thanks again) then came to join me. I did the whole trip down unequipped and back up with a full load in about an hour, so I walked around looking for some nice place for beam shots and took some pictures on my own for my TK45 review.
About an hour later, I turned the radio back on to find out Mr. Compass just barely made it to camp by then! Late, but at least not lost… Some of us are definitely in better shape than others, so I took a few more pictures and then set up a temporary camp in an open shelter where Mr. Compass finally joined me. Here he is:
He's looking a little disgruntled, as he had just realized he lost his L2D Q5. We haven't found it to this day, and no one had brought it back to the administration when we asked the next day in the afternoon. The batteries in it where in their final phase (low mode only), so I hope that whoever found it had the decency to try new batteries before throwing it out as a crappy LED flashlight. With enough luck, it might be converting a new flashaholic. In the end, it's nothing really bad, since it's now being replaced by an LD20 R4. I'll be doing a review on that one too, soon, before I review the PD20 I ordered for myself.
Afterwards we rested a little more on top of the moon tower, planning on how we should illuminate the tower for the last picture of the night. Then another thing happened: I dropped my second beer, which was almost full and it broke one level below us, sending sticky shards of glass all over the place. We didn't want to leave the place that way (families go there in the day), so we started picking up the glass, even if we where pretty tired by then. Using an HP10, PD30 and the TK45 made short work of it. We went back the next day and it seems we really did a good job as we couldn't find a single piece of glass. Try that with a store bought flashlight!
Here's the illuminated moon tower with different camera settings:
The fortress of power!
Makes me think back to "Encounter of the fourth kind"
Just like a live show! Don't ask me to bring the speakers, though
SECOND DAY
We had to take some daytime pictures of the Sun Tower itself, the Moon Tower from afar and the bridge, so we hit the trail and went to do just that. I already have daytime reference pictures of the towers from afar and you've seen what they look like up close, so here is the bridge as seen from one end:
And here's the target we where aiming the following night:
(The arrow points at a couple sitting down there)
We then had dinner, rested a little and waited for dark before leaving camp. The only pictures left to take where those from the bridge into the gorge. Getting there was a breeze with less than half the equipment we had the night before.
I had the tripod extended at maximum and as close as possible to the fence. I did want the fence to show a little anyways.
Fenix L2D Q5
The quark AA didn't show anything on the camera screen, so I didn't take the shot.
Fenix PD30 R2
Fenix TK20
Fenix TK11 R2
JetBeam M1X V4
HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE! I would have said that if anyone had been down there, otherwise we would have been suspicious looking.
Fenix TK40
Fenix TK45 Test Sample (XP-G R4 LEDs)
Nope, no one there.
Taking the pictures from the bridge went very well. I just forgot to take a picture of the bridge itself at night with all its lights on. I'll make it a point to do so next time.
There's just one thing that's not getting through to me:
While we where headed out for the bridge, we where walking through camp around 10:30 p.m. and came across a young employee – quite possibly not even legal drinking age, which is 18 around here - who warned us about some skunks lurking between the trash containers next to the sanitary block we where walking by (big containers like you usually see behind some businesses or construction sites.) He was busy trying to scare them off with buckets of water when we walked by and he never asked anything about us carrying a full backpack and a tripod at such a late hour, even though he had a good look at us from the ambiant lights.
We came back somewhere around 1:30 a.m. and "Billy the Kid" was still there, throwing rocks at and between the containers, which still smelled like skunk. When he heard us approaching, he shone some incandescent flashlight at us for quite a moment (and fairly bright for an incan) until he could tell we where not giant carnivorous skunks. His flashlight looked like it could have been a Strion, but despite that it wasn't helping much even though he did hit the containers pretty good, hence the name Billy the Kid. We stopped next to the containers and I asked if he'd like to have better lighting, to which he didn't respond. I figured I might as well take the opportunity to be helpful, prove we where not up to any mischief AND show off a great light at the same time! I whipped out the TK45 on turbo, lighting up everything around the containers like we where in broad daylight. He quickly went around to the other side, still shining his little flashlight as I joined him. I proved to him in less than a minute that there where no skunks there and he seemed relieved, then went on with his other business.
What absolutely dumbfounds me is that he never made a single comment or asked a single question about the TK45, or even said thank you for that matter. How can someone fighting off skunks like his life depends on it, in blinded darkness, not sure about what he's facing not even realize that this other guy is casually whipping out daylight from his jacket pocket??!?!?!?!? I'm guessing he was half scared of skunks, half sick and tired of his efforts to try and get rid of them, and half ignorant on how much a flashlight can light up (if you're not holding count, that's like 150% ignorant). He must have been really scared or was wayyy past his bedtime.
Me and my cousin where still amazed at how much we could see around the containers, even after two full nights of playing with the TK45 outdoors, and not a single remark from this guy who's acting like he's fighting for survival with the comparative equivalent of a wet match! (!!!!!!!!!!????????????) We thought the situation was so ridiculous we laughed all the way back to our campsite and are still laughing about it to this day! We will probably remember Billy the Kid for a looong time… I hope he finally woke up at some point and will remember that night too.
CONCLUSION
We had a lot of work to do that weekend and accomplished our main goals and a little more in good time while still having fun, despite the physical effort involved. Our hurdles where nothing compared to the rain that hit us last year, so we're very happy about the results and there will most likely be another time around although we'll probably stick to tower to tower beam shots with the newest / most popular of our lights… mostly.
I do have a nice trail and a field at walking distance from home, so I WILL definitely bring you more outdoor shots in the future. If you've seen my video you can tell I need the exercise anyway. With a little help from god, I might find the time during my vacation trip in august to take pictures from a more advanced type of trail, but I'm not making any promises. After all, a vacation should be about resting the bigger muscle on top during daytime, and the rest of them at night.
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