Please help with understanding LED flashlights

I have been looking for LED flashlights and the array is mind-boggling for me. Is it correct to assume that the more LEDs, the brighter the light? Does it follow that the battery life is then shorter? There are now 1 Watt Luxeon LED flashlights out. Is there a fraction of wattage for a standard LED? How does a 10 or 21 led flashlight for example compare in brightness to the 1 Watt flashlight? How long realistically would 3 AAA batteries last with a 1 Watt flashlight? I am looking for a 1 Watt Luxeon LED with red and blue filters, a wrist-strap, anodized aluminum, carrying case optional. Is there a reliable place to find these, which is also perhaps wholesale and quick to ship? I need 15 of these.
Thanks for any help, both in understanding LEDs better, and in locating flashlights.
Peggy

Hi Peggy and welcome to CPF !

A lot of questions require a lot of answers.

Yes, more LEDs make a brighter light ... IF the drive current per LED is the same AND the efficiency per LED is the same. So in the end ... when looking at the zillions of multi-LED lights out there ... more LEDs could mean the light is brighter, but you can't be sure untill you actually tested it.

Battery life will be shorter, yes.

The Luxeon LED ... there are actually three of them right now ... the LuxI (what you called the 1W light), the LuxIII and the LuxV ... where the LuxIII is basically a souped-up LuxI that can withstand more current (--> can be run brighter) while the LuxV is a larger LED and is even brighter than the LuxIII, but more difficult to focus for throw.

The runtime of a "1W-light" on 3xAAA would depend on the regulating electronics of the light, if any, and the drive current. About one to one and a half hours at max seems realistic.

And there is much much more to explain in order to fully understand what those lights are all about, and I cannot do that in just this one post, I am sorry :shrug:


Now ... to answer your purchase-related question we would need additional info:
- your price range?
- 3xAAA batteries or other batteries ok, too? Think AA or CR123
- should it be able to run on rechargeable cells?
- how tough should it be? waterproof? bombproof?
- do you want a lighjt that throws far or has more like a flood beam for close-up work or walking?
- would a "plastic" light be ok, too? Might make sense to bring the price sown, and there are some nice specimen there, too.
- size of the light?
- you want it for making light (duh!) or something else, like signaling?

Feel free to ask precise quesitons anytime ... there are zillions of lights out there, and we will find one that will meet your needs!

bernie

oh ... and ... roughly speaking ... an "1W".Luxeon light should be roughly equal in output to 10-15 5mm LEDs ... roughly. The difference is the beam spread ... the 5mm LEDs will give you a big flood whereas the Luxeon LED can be focussed to thrwo via reflectors or optics (little plastic collimator lenses).
bernie

Some vendors with a very diverse range of lights are:
www.brightguy.com
www.glowbug.com

bernie

Peggy:

I'm afraid you have come to the right place!

You will soon have more information that you ever dreamed (or feared) was available about flashlights.

Welcome and enjoy.

Yeah, there are so many options out there... But I'll give it a go.

The Luxeon lights tend to give decent 'throw' which means that if you are wanting to generally use the lights in an outdoor situation where you are wanting to effectively illuminate objects further than, say, 15 feet away. A Luxeon is also what I would suggest if the lights are to be used indoors, but in a large area such as a warehouse. The 5mm array lights simply don't have enough 'throw' capability to light something up at 50 feet for example. A very good example of a very cost effective light in this category would be the Streamlight ProPolymer for under $25 at Fox International .

On the other hand, if the lights are to be used mostly indoors and mostly in areas less than 20x20 feet, then the array lights (with multiple 5mm LEDs) start making sense. The Luxeon lights can work in this role, but a bright Luxeon light will cause glare when reflected off of close by shiny objects including white or off white semi-matte wall paint. The Nite Ize drop in available for $5 at Walmart along with a $9 Minimag would be a great, cost effective example as would the Princeton Tec Attitude that runs for a LONG time on 4xAAA batteries.

Discounting the actual utilization of the light, most of the 5mm array lights tend to be cheap and of questionable to poor construction while there are many fine Luxeon-based lights available at a reasonable cost. The two examples I list above are certainly exceptions and are of known good quality but many of the 3xAAA lights are, as I said, questionable. I've probably owned 8 different 3xAAA lights with multiple 5mm LEDs and half of them were pure junk, two of them had issues with the tailcap, one was given away and one I still have.

On the issue of lights that work with readily available red and blue filters... that kind of throws a kink into the plan. I can't think of any LED lights other than a couple at Walmart that have blue and red lenses provided though red and blue lenses exist that fit in the Minimags... but the user needs to remove the bezel and replace the clear lens with whichever colored lens is deemed appropriate.

Wow, that was a quick response and much appreciated. I thought the 1 watt was going to be so much brighter than multiple standard LEDs. But I see (ha ha) anything above 20- 5 mm LEDs could be brighter.
I am looking for 15 flashlights, as awards for directors. The price must be below $25 Canadian, inclusive of shipping (so may not be able to get the 1 Watters). Rechargeables are more expensive so are probably out. Must be waterproof, with a wrist-strap preferably. The colored lenses are wanted to preserve night vision. The lights I have been looking at are about 4" in length but could be a little longer. I don't need a fantastic throw as the main purpose is to pre-flight a plane which requires a good amount of light but not a spotlight. The colored lenses would be for reading maps after but not essential I guess. They could have a second flashlight for that. Some of the lights that I have seen have 2 power settings to preserve batteries. As for batteries, I don't know what a CR 123 is. AA would be fine but don't want lithium as expensive to replace. Most ads are quoting 15+ hours of use for the AAAs but didn't know if that was realistic.
Thanks again and I will look at the sites mentioned.
Peggy

If it weren't for the $25 CAD ceiling the Streamlight Pro Poly 4AA Lux would be ideal for what you want. And it can use low cost rechargeable AA NiMH batteries just as easily as it does AA Alkalines.

Peggy said:

The price must be below $25 Canadian, inclusive of shipping (so may not be able to get the 1 Watters). Rechargeables are more expensive so are probably out. Must be waterproof, with a wrist-strap preferably.

Click to expand...

As a quick follow up... pretty much ignore any and all claims as to runtime and output.

In the just barely over $25 range, there is the Fenix L1 which is the non-premium version of the much hearalded L1P. The have a nice balance of throw and flood... decent runtime (one to two hours on 'normal' alkaline cells but they can also use lithium or rechargeable NiMH cells to get closer to three or more hours) and run on a single AA cell. The quality will instantly impress anyone that has never seen a quality flashlight and will keep a lot of jaded Surefire/McGizmo owners reasonably happy as well.

This pic has both a L1P (black) and an L1 (silver) though the L1 is also available in a finish that looks very much like the black.

Come to think of it, the next step down the ladder would be something like the Nuwai 0.5W lights. They use an LED that looks similar to the 5mm LEDs, but are much brighter than any regular 5mm LED and are, in fact, on par with some of the dimmer Lux I lights. They have a nice beam, but it is slightly blue tinted. Decent throw, nice spill/flood and good runtime. They are available in 1xAAA, 2xAAA and 1xAA versions though I'd personally skip the 1xAAA light if it's going to get much use. The 1xAA option has two models and one of them has a low/high setting so the 'low' provides a bit dimmer output and increased runtime.

They are available for about $10 each plus shipping from a Canadian reseller at J2LED and the have a 'specials' page that can be seen here to get close to that $10/per price point. I've ordered from him twice and have nothing but praise for how he runs his business. I've owned all 4 varieties and liked them all. The 1xAAA version is the smallest, but runtime is shortest, it has the least output and it would be the most difficult to use when in a cold environment or with gloved hands.

Also, you might want to get a hold of forum member 4sevens who is an EXCELLENT reseller of Fenix products (that I mentioned above) and see if you can get some type of discount for ordering 25 of them at once.

Having said all that, if it was MY plane that was being inspected, I'd want you guys to have the brightest lights available!

Good luck.

I agree either the Fenix L1 or Streamlight Propoly Luxeon 4AA would be good "award" lights, with the edge going to the Fenix because of its small size.

The Lux 4AA is about $23 from http://www.fox-intl.com/, not sure about shipping.

The Fenix L1 is about $29, but maybe you could negotiate a lower price for volume quantities. Personally I think the Fenix L1 is the best -- very small, very powerful, uses one common AA battery, looks good, feels good, comes with gift box and lanyard. It's well worth it.

She said 25 Canadian$$, that's about US$21.50. And shipped to boot. Probably the most likely suggestion is the minimag with the nite ize upgrade. I'm sure the minimag is easily available in Canada, the Nite Ize probably is too.

I'd suggest minimags with the lens kit:
http://www.maglite.com/product_pack.asp?psc=2AACELL&pck=combopackblister

And then a Nite Ize LED swap:
http://www.niteize.com/productdetail.php?category_id=28&product_id=110&PHPSESSID=84eb546d64cdbae10d46e7b43311eef9

The Nuwai .5W (or one of its rebrands like the River Rock) wouldn't be sufficient for pre-flight checks of a plane, not even a small one. But I do have a 2AAA version in my pocket all the time.

cratz2 said:

Come to think of it, the next step down the ladder would be something like the Nuwai 0.5W lights. They use an LED that looks similar to the 5mm LEDs, but are much brighter than any regular 5mm LED and are, in fact, on par with some of the dimmer Lux I lights. They have a nice beam, but it is slightly blue tinted. Decent throw, nice spill/flood and good runtime. They are available in 1xAAA, 2xAAA and 1xAA versions though I'd personally skip the 1xAAA light if it's going to get much use. The 1xAA option has two models and one of them has a low/high setting so the 'low' provides a bit dimmer output and increased runtime.

They are available for about $10 each plus shipping from a Canadian reseller at J2LED and the have a 'specials' page that can be seen here to get close to that $10/per price point. I've ordered from him twice and have nothing but praise for how he runs his business. I've owned all 4 varieties and liked them all. The 1xAAA version is the smallest, but runtime is shortest, it has the least output and it would be the most difficult to use when in a cold environment or with gloved hands.

Also, you might want to get a hold of forum member 4sevens who is an EXCELLENT reseller of Fenix products (that I mentioned above) and see if you can get some type of discount for ordering 25 of them at once.

Having said all that, if it was MY plane that was being inspected, I'd want you guys to have the brightest lights available!

Good luck.

Click to expand...

As for filters... http://www.quakeinc.com/opt1.html
They come in all sizes, so you should find one for most lights. Not too expensive either.

I wouldn't recommend a MiniMag with a Night Ize. Peggy wanted a decent amount of throw.

I'll second the Fenix L1 suggestion, although it is slightly above the budget. A Streamlight Propolymer 4AA Luxeon seems like a good choice, but they seem more like 'duty' lights rather than 'gift' lights... they don't have aesthetic appeal.

If you later decide to buy a map reading light instead, I'd suggest a Photon Freedom Micro, available from Brightguy.com for $15. It has variable brightness. Or possibly a Gerber Infinity Ultra, (which may be too bright?).

Brighteyez said:

The Nuwai .5W (or one of its rebrands like the River Rock) wouldn't be sufficient for pre-flight checks of a plane, not even a small one. But I do have a 2AAA version in my pocket all the time.

Click to expand...

I wasn't really thinking the 0.5W lights would be ideal, but since the original poster mentioned 5mm array lights, I thought I'd throw them out there...

And as I said, I'd want the brightest lights available to inspect the plane I was getting ready to fly.

Peggy, if you want them as Award-Lights I guess the Look is important?
If this is true a nice metal light would probably be best, and so the above mentioned and pictured Fenix L1 is a nice choice at the upper financial limit, and I think that the 0.5W Nuwai lights would be a cool alternative, too.
I use one almost daily and I am very happy with output and runtime.

Here's a pic of a 3xAAA version, but the 2xAAA seems to be more readily available and just as good and a tad bit shorter:




On the other hand ... if your main goal is to impress, than you also might want to consider that almost all people still think that Maglights are the ultimate flashlights ... so the mentioned MiniMags with drop-in LED replacement for the crappy incandescent bulbs coulod actually be an option, too, especially since your people will get "upgraded" Mags instead of normal ones (additional wow) AND you could buy the colored lenses you wanted ... although to be honest, a little keychain 5mm LED light in red will do better here.

bernie

If you're worried about impressing them, keep a stock MiniMag on hand. Show them how theirs is brighter than the Mag.

White LEDs are a blue LED that has phosphors placed above the light emtting part that take some of the blue light and change it to yellow/orange light. Your eye interprets this combination as "white" light. There is a lot of blue light in that "white" light so the blue filter will probably work fine. Depending on the phosphors used and the tint bin of the LEDs, there may not be much red light output so the light may be very dim with the red filter.

PM sent!

Peggy, it sounds like you might want a Gerber Recon. It's a low powered light (no Luxeon) but it runs on one AA and has built in filters:

http://www.brightguy.com/detail_int.php?Sku=GER2280016

You might be able to work out a quantity discount.

Fenix lights are very new to the market and don't have all the bugs worked out of them yet. One production run of L1Ps has devloped serious switch problems. Think twice about giving away Fenix lights until they've got all the bugs fixed.


What kind of plane are these lights to be used to preflight?