Flood Lights?

Spin

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Nov 8, 2005
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Which 5 pocketable lights have the best flood using 1-2 cr123's, or 1-4 AA's?
 

moonkat

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Streamlight PolyPro Luxeon 4AA - great beam quality and spill; long run-time, cheap batteries and initial cost are bonuses.
 

pec50

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Streamlight Propoly 4aa 7-LED as a relatively low cost and long run consideration, although something like a Streamlight Jr might be far more pocketable.
 

Mark2

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PentagonLight S2 beats them all when it comes to flood.

moonkat: The ProPoly 4AA Luxeon is *not* a flood light, it's pretty much the opposite!
 

joema

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Mark2 said:
...moonkat: The ProPoly 4AA Luxeon is *not* a flood light, it's pretty much the opposite!
That's correct. The Streamlight 4AA Propolymer Luxeon (to use Streamlight's exact name) has a very tight narrow hotspot beam. The spillbeam is OK, but that doesn't make it a flood. It's a great light, but if you want a broad flood beam, that's not it's strong point.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_propolyluxeon.htm

There may be confusion over the name, since Streamlight also makes the similarly-named 4AA Propolymer LED, which looks similar but has a broad flood beam.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_4aaled.htm
 

Mike Painter

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ACMarina said:
L4 comes to mind, as does the QIII..

The Nuawi 115x has an adjustable head and a much better flood setting than the QIII. Lighthound was selling them for about $29.00 to your door.

It won't stand up but on high with the head off it's a great tent light.
 

fire-stick

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I second what joema says, the Nuwai TM-301X-5 sound like a great lux V light. Good output and a flood light.

You prob already know this but you can read more about this light here at:
http://flashlightreviews.com/reviews/nuwai_tm301x5.htm

It also takes rechargeables; but it starts out at about 60% output due to lower voltage of the rechargeable battery.

Most people underestimate a light with a throw of 523; but in a pitch black dark situation a light with a throw of 500 or so will be good up to about 100'

Hope that helps.

L8er

scott
 

Paul6ppc

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Jan 12, 2006
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Coast 7840 1 AA , 4 inch pocket light has a nice flood if your looking at a small light.Good runtime,nice white light.

Sears 29.99
 

CroMAGnet

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I'm not the flood authority but it is my favorite quality in a flashlight, for my uses and I have been on a rampage trying to find them all for few months now.

I'd would say it's mostly about the reflector. Yes there are multi LED lights that make a nice flood too. And yes there may be optics that do it as well.

Maybe you could post some potential uses you may have in mind for this flood light.

I have a Moded 3w LED Minimag with McFlood reflector that does an excellent job. The L4 surefire is a nice wall of flood that is about 500 LUX and similar to an A19 reflector used with the Aleph system. The 5w LED makes a flood with a lot of output but when I use my 3w NG1000 in an A19 I get a pretty nice wall of light with extra throw, measured by about 800 LUX IIRC Now that's a wall of light. Others I can think of are the BlackBird but pretty much unobtanium.

Some would say the Jil is floody but its new reflector has a wider spot with lots of spill. Also the Q3 has a nice reflector that has a very gradual transition from the ceter spot to the outer corona. So it is smooth but not really a flood IMHO

Oh and try this if you want close or short distance flood and dont have a McFlood or McLux TK, Just remove the reflector in a minimag Mod or Jil. That makes a really nice flood. Smoothest flood you'll ever see.

If I think if any more I'll jump in later :)

Oh ya, forgot this other light I had. An Ombu 5w. It's a Nuwai clone that has a 5W LED and a Q3 reflector with two CR123A Batteries. That's more floody that the Q3

So in summary, reflector, 5w LED and ....

Forgot one other thing. I use an LDF lense on my Groovy! LED and one of my Magmod incan lights. You can get one at flashlightlens.com This can make any light diffused. Turns a thrower into a soft wide spot and sacrifices throw.

You can see some beamshot of the A19 in my sigline.

:)
 
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cratz2

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Yeah, I think different people have different impressions of what a true flood light is... In my lexicon, a flood light is where the bulk of the light being put out it's concentrated in the middle. Llights such as the Nuwai Q111 and Fenix are floody, in that the hotspot is not super tight, and the spillbeams are pretty bright. Also, lights like the Inova X5 are kind of flood lights, in that the beam is pretty much an even brightness, but the actual beam wideness isn't in the category of the L4.

I've never used the Pentagon light that Mark2 refers to, but I can say with authority that once you've used the L4 or the KL4 head, pretty much everything else pales by comparison. Almost anytime you have a light that puts out well into the 80 lumen range and doesn't really make that beam do much at 50 yards, you have a flood light.

Having said that, true flood lights such as the L4 aren't quite as useful as a general purpose light such as one that has a large hotspot with an ample spill beam. I think the perfect light would be one that was small, but one that had 2 levels of brightness and 2 throw/flood settings. Sort of like my Lux BOG module, with a beam shaper that you could flip up and down, but instead could switch between a Lux III in a McGizmo 27mm reflector and a Lux V in the 19mm reflector.
 

Flying Turtle

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I find that the UKeLED 4 AA has a very usable flood blended nicely with a tight little hotspot for decent throw.

Geoff
 
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