What do I need?

[hossdaniels]

I want a light that will light up something 350-400 yards away, and still be very portable.

Flashlight sized would be sweet, but I'm not sure if it is realistic. How bright do I need it to be? No hard budget(not sure what they cost), try to keep it under $300 or $400. Cheaper is better.

 

[BlueBeam22]

Many lights will be able to illuminate objects in the 400 yard range. It sounds like the AmondoTech L35 ($332) would fit your needs, and there is also the AmondoTech N30 that should be back in stock any time for around $200 that is similar to the L35 but will have a shorter runtime, not be as waterproof, and might be a little less bright. Either of these lights are extremely powerful and will illuminate objects 800 yards away pretty easily.

The other light you should consider is the Stanley HID rechargeable spotlight bought at Wal-Mart for $70. It is a more powerful thrower than either of the two lights mentioned above and will illuminate objects up to 1000 yards away, but will only have a 30 minute runtime and is quite large and bulky compared to the N30 and L35.

One other recommendation I can make is the Dorcy Industrial Rechargeable Xenon Lantern (usually around $40). It is a very lightweight incandescent lantern style flashlight and has a throw of around 500 yards, plus a 4 hour runtime.

If you are looking for the smallest possible solution, then The Dorcy 220 lumen rechargeable CREE XR-E LED flashlight (around $40-$0) will illuminate objects 300 yards away and is very small and lightweight.

Which of these lights appeal most to you? What runtime do you need? Do you need to be able to rapidly turn the light on and off? Do you just need throw, or would you like it also to have a lot of close up flood?

:welcome:

 

[Patriot]

I want a light that will light up something 350-400 yards away, and still be very portable.

Flashlight sized would be sweet, but I'm not sure if it is realistic.

To no fault of your own hossdaniels, terms like "light up something" is a commonly used reference but at the same time very subjective when we get around to trying to nail down exactly what lights may be helpful to your application. Almost any light will cast some light photons out to 400 yards but there's a big difference between the way a N30 HID does it and the way a LED thrower does it. If you can give us an application we can give you an idea of what's possible.

Bluebeam made some good general suggestions for starters and was helpful as always but I'm always curious about the application before I toss in my suggestions. Generally speaking, it's going to be pushing the edge of technology to throw 400 yards and still be flashlight sized, unless it's a pretty beefy sized flashlight. The small HID's in the 24W range will light up a bill white billboard at 350 yards but you're not going to see a guy kneeling in dark clothes near the edge of a tree line with that same light. "light up something" can mean many things.

 

[hossdaniels]

This looks great for 327 yards, but the light(titanium megailluminator) is a little bulky. I could take a "little" less light than that. I cant find a similar picture for a smaller light. Is there a good reason for that?

 

[BlueBeam22]

hossdaniels, your image is hotlinked which is not allowed, so you need to download it and re-host it or just remove it. EDIT: Thank you very much for re-hosting. :thumbsup:

You can see all of the beamshots shining at that same tree in this thread: LINK. The N30 is one of the lights in that thread and you can see how it isn't too far behind the Mega Illuminator.

It sounds like the N30 or L35 would be perfect for you because they will be around the same brightness of the Mega Illuminator and only have around 30-40% less throw. I have the N30 and it illuminates objects well over 500 yards away very brightly. I recommend waiting for the N30 to come back in stock and then get it.

I have posted lots of long distance beamshots of the N30 in the HID beam pictures thread:

LINK

LINK

 

[hossdaniels]

Wow, thanks! exactly what I was looking for. I changed the pic too, didn't know I was being bad.