What flashlight in the rainforest?

[Adriano]

GOOD!!! A last question: what batteries can I buy precisely? I mean batterie for TK35 that is 18650 batteries. What is the right and good brand without spending much money for a cluster of batteries?
Thanks a lot to share your suggestions.

 

[Dizos]

I know you made your call, but I figured I would chime in since I have spent a fair amount of time working in rainforests. Warm tint is the most important factor. Cool tints mess with your depth perception in that environment. I find that combining a headlamp (Zebralight/Spark) and a P60 host with a Surefire flip top diffuser to be ideal. You want a drop in with some throw (not a XML) so you can get a look at that critter rustling around high up in the canopy but flood when you a navigating through the brush. This combo packs small for travel and light weight, rainforests are hot sweaty environments so you want to carry a light pack. I also use a Malkoff Hound Dog if I am spotlighting, but that is a relatively heavy light so I only bring it if I don't have to travel around too much.

 

[Adriano]

I have just known has shipped a new Fenix TK35 Update (860Lm). Where can I buy it with a good price?

 

[RedForest UK]

I'm sorry but I don't see any link. Do you mean the link of "scaru" guy? Can you send me again, please?

I sent it to you in the thread you opened in the other forum (budgetlightforum). It is against site rules for me to post it on this one, please check back to my posts in your thread on the other forum.

 

[qwertyydude]

You are going into a real life rain forest?
LED's is not what works well in there, HID's or incans is the only thing that will let you see all the tiny details, especially in the low light or complete darkness.
Using LED's will be like looking through poor quality sunglasses: Everything will blend into what is next to it!

That's absolutely not true anymore. HID's actually at best only produce light that is about 75 CRI whereas we now have LED's that can rival incans at 90+ CRI. Also low temperature incans can ruin color rendition. Generally under 3000k and color rendition of even incan 100 CRI is terrible.

But generally a decent neutral white led, not even necessarily high CRI should be more than adequate. Consider that a Xenon flash strobe and HMI movie studio lights is usually only about 80 CRI and these produce excellently lit photos when focused and diffused properly. The same can easily be done with an led of an appropriate color.

The reason I say this is I have a 90 CRI xp-g warm white. But it is so warm that it becomes difficult to distinguish between shades of blue. Whereas my generic neutral white XR-E of about 4500k and unknown CRI looks just like noon day sunlight.

So when it comes to actually lighting your path I think LED now has the real advantage but seriously you don't need 3000 lumens for walking around.

 

[adnj]

I agree with Selfbuilt. I live with a dense rainforest 100 feet from my fence. You will need something with multiple levels. On a moonlit night you will need nothing to see in the open but the tree canopy requires something floody. A pair of 18650 lights works well for me because I can swap batteries between them. It is also very beneficial to have a powerful, throwy light for spotting trees and such. Tree boas are a problem here sometime. It also helps to have something that can shoot down a hill to just see what is on the trail.

You might find my experience from a few years ago relevant:

LED flashlight experience: 2 weeks in a Costa Rica rainforest

The actual lights I used are all way out of date now, but the principles are the same.

Personally, I would skip all the high-output, multi-emitter lights. If I were going back, the two primary lights I would bring is something relatively floody that works as a headlamp (one of my Zebralights or Sparks, most likely), and a small pocket light with good throw. Multi-levels are a must for both, so you can adjust output and runtime as needed. Battery choice is up to you, based on what you expect local availability to be (both for batteries and electrical charging).

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