ZebraLight H502 XM-L

[How Goes It]

What do you want to see Moozooh? A path in a dark wooded area to see how functional it is on a hike? Or how it lights up my porch?

How it lights up your unlit porch.

I'm curious to see how this thing can light up parts of my house.
For instance, if the electricity goes out, how good would this be at lighting up the basement, or garage, or outside the house, around the water heater. Or if there was some kind of rodent, opossum, or skunk outside, how good would this light be at lighting up an exterior wall of the house?

Some interiors of rooms and exterior wall shots would be great.
And the picture of how evenly it lights up a newspaper, such as the picture david1 did with his H501, while sitting in his car. That was david1, right?

---------
Steve

 

[varuscelli]

How Goes It: For home interiors, the H502 will light up just about any room wall to wall and back to front, depending on the direction you're facing. Enter a room door and the entire room will light up in front of you. When you're walking around in a dark house with the H502 on, the impression you'll get is that of everything you can see (well into your peripheral vision) is nicely lit. You don't have to "direct" the light...you just look ahead and there is everything lit up in front of you, basically bathed in a soft light.

As I had mentioned a few posts back, one of the challenges of doing interior shots with a flood as broad as the H502 is that most camera lenses won't take it all in. I think just about the only ways it can be done is with a fisheye lens...or other extremely wide-angle lens...or setting the headlamp up and getting well behind it with the camera. But when you do the "camera behind the lamp" thing, you won't see the light as you'd see it when used as a headlamp on your own head.

I wish more people would at least try to do beamshots (for the sake of those who want to see them)...but we're sure not seeing very many attempts.

 

[Bolster]

On the H502 and falloff, I don't think the falloff as viewed by the eye in person is really as exaggerated as the photo seems to indicate. To the human eye (at least, to my eye), it's much more even and balanced (smooth overall) in appearance. I think still photo images tend to exaggerate falloff in most beam shots.

Understand! I've noticed exactly the same phenomenon when taking beamshots of floody lights. To the eye the illumination looks very even; in the photo you get the "directional flood" look and ask yourself, "Where did that that hot spot come from?" The eye has a commendable way of "photoshopping" a central weighted beam, doesn't it.

Wish I could help you with the beamshots; my H502c hasn't arrived yet. When it does I'll do a color and beam comparison among the H50, H501w, Spark SD52, and then H502c...provided most of those comparisons haven't been done already by then. Anyway your beamshots (or "bimshotty" as I read in one Russian review) are a big help, thanks.

 

[pblanch]

Thanks for the beam shots varuscelli. I was following this thread as an interesting headlamp and progression of the 501. Have to say though that even beam covering such a large area has really impressed me. For close up work would be ideal.

By the way not sure if you know but you have a big hole in your wall!

 

[MountainVoyageur]

Understand! I've noticed exactly the same phenomenon when taking beamshots of floody lights. To the eye the illumination looks very even; in the photo you get the "directional flood" look and ask yourself, "Where did that that hot spot come from?" The eye has a commendable way of "photoshopping" a central weighted beam, doesn't it.

Perhaps the effect is a rods and cones thing -- the human eye is more light-sensitive in peripheral vision than in focussed straight-ahead vision.

 

[TyJo]

Awesome pictures varuscelli, I'm loving the amount of flood this thing puts out. I just got shipping confirmation on my H502D, hope to report back soon.

 

[CoherentRays]

Awesome pictures varuscelli, I'm loving the amount of flood this thing puts out. I just got shipping confirmation on my H502D, hope to report back soon.

I got my shipping confirmation today too. And now the Zebralight website, after showing "in stock" for that light for the past couple of days, is now again showing status as "back order." I'm glad I put in my pre-order when I did.

 

[Bolster]

By the way not sure if you know but you have a big hole in your wall!

LOL! Possibly caused by the searing beam of that H600!

Perhaps the effect is a rods and cones thing -- the human eye is more light-sensitive in peripheral vision than in focussed straight-ahead vision.

Interesting hypothesis! Hadn't thought of that. Although, if true, you'd see the beam vary in brightness as you moved your eyes back and forth across it.

 

[mobi]

All shots taken with same camera setting.

H502 on highest setting, about 35 feet from house

Same shot with H51w on highest setting

H502 on high, and camera moved back from light, tree in left foreground cuts off some of the light

H502, camera moved to side

H502, light moved closer to house and aimed at tree, camera aimed slightly to left

 

[varuscelli]

Yes, I noticed the big hole in the wall!

No, the H600 didn't sear the hole.

It heated up the water pipe behind the wall, bursting it like an overheated boiler (the logical explanation).

Sheesh...

 

[Harry999]

Nice beamshots! That H502 looks like a great light for light hiking and reading. I will be placing an order for a cool white and a daylight version next week.

Sent from my GT-I5800 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Bolster]

Excellent shots, thanks so much Mobi! It's not the light I'd choose for trail hiking, but to each his own. Truly a "wall of light," isn't it.

 

[mountaineer1]

just got my shipping confirmation for my 502d i can't wait

 

[varuscelli]

Here's another of the H502 outdoors. The H502 was set on a stand 10 feet from the doors of a three-car garage. The distance across the garage is 33 feet side to side. I stood about 10 feet behind the tripod to take this shot.

I'm going to elaborate on the point the image captured by the camera and what's seen by the eyes once more but with a bit more detail.

First, the photo doesn't show it well, but the periphery of the light carries beyond the edges of the garage (easily seen with the naked eye but not in the photo).

Interestingly (and I paid close attention to my perceptions of this), I see the light falloff easily in the photo, but the falloff is much more dramatic in the photo than in person. Additionally, if I stand behind the lamp as I did when taking this photo, I do see the light falloff (live and in person) -- but not nearly as much as seems to be shown in the photo. And beyond that, if I wear the H502 as a headlamp and stand in the same position as the light stand in the photo, I can barely notice the falloff at all.

There is a huge perception difference when the headlamp is worn compared to what is seen in the photos. Perhaps the rods and cones conjecture by MountainVoyageur is correct, but certainly the eye perceives the light differently than the photo image shows it....and the eye perceives the light differently up close (when the source of the light is right above the eyes) compared to viewing it from a distance (as where I stood when I took the photo).

The photo below represents cheating a little bit by Photoshopping in a bit if fill light to help the edges without really increasing the intensity in the mid area, but if you look at the edges of this image compared to the one posted above, I think this one shows more of what the eye really sees at the outer edges (not seen in in the first photo). Of course, this will also vary monitor to monitor, but hopefully you'll see a difference at the outer edges of the garage in this image...and hopefully this is a little closer to the reality of what the eye sees.

Edit: One photo added with a diagonal view (taken when the previous images were done). Light stand was 10 feet from garage, highest setting use, garage front 33 feet across). Again, I want toemphasizee that the eye sees better and farther into the periphery of the beam than the still photo indicates. You can't judge the true effectiveness of this wide-angle beam very well in photos.

 

[psychbeat]

^^^^^
Great job explaining and awesome pics!!

Floody lights are hard to capture-
My biking headlamp has 2 bare hiCRI XPG @2.8a & 4C XML in SMO 3.5a
I was trying to get a beamshot of the flood but the camera was just getting the hotspot.
Until these shots I thought it was impossible.
Although mine is like an H600w +2 H50w all on overdrive haha

Id bet with the 502 u can roll yer eyes down and still see without moving yet head

I just scored an h501w on the MP for EDC in my guitar case.

I might consider the 18650 & W or C of this when/if it comes out tho.

 

[How Goes It]

varuscelli and mobi, thanks for the beam shots. Much appreciated.

It's great to see how this light performs across this range of distances ----- 3', 10' and 35'.

varuscelli -- the bottom photo you adjusted to more approximate what the eye sees --- very nice.

Now if I could only get a picture like david1 took of him sitting in his car, reading the newspaper with his H501.
I'd really like to see how even and smooth the flood is on an H502 at this distance.

---------------
Steve

 

[YoSeKi]

H502, camera moved to side

Can we get more shots taken from the side like this one? This shot seems to really show just how quickly the light intensity drops off.

Can we get a shot like this for M1?

 

[varuscelli]

How Goes It (Steve): I don't have any pics like davidt1 with reading a newspaper, but I've played with the H502 a bit for the "at arm's length" and closer stuff. I tried it for reading and it's fantastic, to me actually topping the H501 (and the H501 has been my favorite reading headlamp by far).

If you have reading material in front of you with the H502 on, you'd have to turn your head deliberately very far to one side or other to diminish the smooth/effective light hitting the page...and if you turned your head that far, you could no longer be reading the print anyway since your eyes would be turned too far away from the page. Hold your head how you want and read by scanning with the eyes only (regular reading style) and the page (book or newspaper) will be evenly lit -- small book, large newspaper...it won't matter, they'll all be effectively lit.

The beam of the H502 being broader than the H501 makes it an even more effective reading light to me, comparing one after the other. The H501 is no slouch in these matters (one of the finest reading headlamps ever, I believe)...but I feel the H502 is an improvement for the up-close stuff with the extra added beam width.

One area where the H502 might present a problem would be if you were reading in bed with someone trying to sleep next to you. The broader beam could actually be a problem in that kind of situation. So...it might not be ideal for everyone in every situation as a reading light.

 

[riccardo.dv]

All shots taken with same camera setting.

wb was auto? the h502 seems to be warmer than the h51w

 

[How Goes It]

How Goes It (Steve): I don't have any pics like davidt1 with reading a newspaper, but I've played with the H502 a bit for the "at arm's length" and closer stuff. I tried it for reading and it's fantastic, to me actually topping the H501 (and the H501 has been my favorite reading headlamp by far).

If you have reading material in front of you with the H502 on, you'd have to turn your head deliberately very far to one side or other to diminish the smooth/effective light hitting the page...and if you turned your head that far, you could no longer be reading the print anyway since your eyes would be turned too far away from the page. Hold your head how you want and read by scanning with the eyes only (regular reading style) and the page (book or newspaper) will be evenly lit -- small book, large newspaper...it won't matter, they'll all be effectively lit.

The beam of the H502 being broader than the H501 makes it an even more effective reading light to me, comparing one after the other. The H501 is no slouch in these matters (one of the finest reading headlamps ever, I believe)...but I feel the H502 is an improvement for the up-close stuff with the extra added beam width.

One area where the H502 might present a problem would be if you were reading in bed with someone trying to sleep next to you. The broader beam could actually be a problem in that kind of situation. So...it might not be ideal for everyone in every situation as a reading light.

That's what I wanted to hear.
That seals the deal.
I'm gettin one!
Likely even two or more.

Thanks Varuscelli.

-------------
Steve