Asolutely Amazing LED Flashlight?

This website: www.hbeamtech.com claims that their flashlights have a range of 900 feet and penetrate through fog, rain and tinted windows. All on just three standard AAA batteries. What do you think?

Its all about marketing. I doubt the distance claims. It looks like they do have optics.

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Looks interesting but I am very dissapointed at their choice of 3xAAA. Why not AA?

All that throw with a claimed 80 lumens? A super-concentrated beam with no side-spill....hmmmm, I might want to see it/play with it, but I don't have too much use for a AAA light with those characteristics.

Who would want a light with that narrow a beam? If shown at anything up close all you would see would be a white spot surrounded by black. I guess it might be handy for signaling or maybe blinding someone but other than that it seems pointless. If you really just want to project a hand held spot at extreme distances just get a laser.

and with 3AAA's what's the runtime? 30 minutes? My Sam's Element 3aaa lights are great.... for about 30 mins when they go kaput!

roverjohn said:

Who would want a light with that narrow a beam? If shown at anything up close all you would see would be a white spot surrounded by black. I guess it might be handy for signaling or maybe blinding someone but other than that it seems pointless. If you really just want to project a hand held spot at extreme distances just get a laser.

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For illuminating a 15-ish ft. spot at distance.

Well looking at the specs, it is not that tight a beam. It is 5 degrees and claims to be uniform within the angle. I need to check my files, but I may even know what optic they are using to do this. Someone from Future brought the info by years ago and may have even had a demo of the optic.

Now what is really interesting is the stuff on this page http://www.hbeamtech.com/prototypes.html 0.05 degree degree is on the order of a laser. That is very impressive!

Semiman

SemiMan said:

Well looking at the specs, it is not that tight a beam. It is 5 degrees and claims to be uniform within the angle. I need to check my files, but I may even know what optic they are using to do this. Someone from Future brought the info by years ago and may have even had a demo of the optic.

Now what is really interesting is the stuff on this page http://www.hbeamtech.com/prototypes.html 0.05 degree degree is on the order of a laser. That is very impressive!

Semiman

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It looks as though they took 1/2 of a riflescope and stuck an LED in it. So I suppose that one could get a very tight and nearly collimated beam by applying more glass and optics than most any other flashlight maker would ever dream of bothering, but would be childs play for the economics of cheap $30 riflescopes at Wally World.

It would be a cool toy to throw a white light spot with almost zero spill great distances, but I sure wouldn't pay out the nose for one.

To illuminate a target with 1 lux at 900 feet, the light must have at least 75000 lux @ 1m. I only know one LED-based light which is capable of such a thing: This one!
By "range of 900 feet" they probably mean the light can be seen in a distance of 900 feet.

It depends on what "illuminate" means. Does it mean it is hit by some photons or does it mean it is useful for a human to see from the flashlight point? And then who defines what is useful light and what not?

Making it short: we'll see when somebody tests it.

Luigi

i don't think the 3AAA is going to cut in terms of runtime and regulated output.... especially with alkalines...

I cannot verify the 900ft claim but I played with these lights at the CES earlier this year and was impressed enough to keep in contact with the Mfr. and get pricing etc.

The optics are pretty sound and the throw is pretty amazing given the outputs of the emitters being used. Clearly this is a specialized product for a niche market. The parent company, ILKO is an optics and night vision manufacturer so I wouldn't be so quick to doubt the claims - especilly having played with the products.

Obviously I haven't been in a big hurry to get the line. The reason is that I am concerned that the market is too small...but then I've been wrong before.

$390,- for the 3W waterproof light?

http://www.policesafetygear.com/site/556316/product/220A-999

A liittle too much for testing:shakehead


Best regards

____
Tom

MSRP for the 3W waterproof is $469.

Looks like someone has finally decided to build production lights around high quality aspherics.

They really need to learn about power supplies, though. Three AAAs isn't going to cut it for serious use.

roverjohn said:

Who would want a light with that narrow a beam? If shown at anything up close all you would see would be a white spot surrounded by black. I guess it might be handy for signaling or maybe blinding someone but other than that it seems pointless. If you really just want to project a hand held spot at extreme distances just get a laser.

Click to expand...

I would, for one. Fortunately I have my inova x1 and don't really need to aquire this neet flashlight. Maybe if the price is right... Well, the compact version is 159. I guess if I REALLY NEEDED IT it would be worth it. I'm trying to stay in the affordable range.

enLIGHTenment said:

Looks like someone has finally decided to build production lights around high quality aspherics.

They really need to learn about power supplies, though. Three AAAs isn't going to cut it for serious use.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I thought...every part.

Aspherics :thumbsup:

3xAAA :thumbsdow

price

Buy (or better yet - build) an asperic mag that runs off 2-3D cells or 1xLiIon.

MattK said:

MSRP for the 3W waterproof is $469.

Click to expand...

......:eeksign:...:lolsign:

Best regards

____
Tom

The website claims that the battery life is 5 hours. www.bhphotovideo.com has the 1-watt model for $179, www.nvstaroptics.com has only three models but has the compact one for $160. The compact model has a 15-degree angle and a range of 420 feet this seems to be the cheapest model, it is not waterproof though. I've been wandering how useful these lights may be for diving, for seeing stuff on the bottom from several meters away for example. Also, there is a new product on their website: http://www.hbeamtech.com/c300.html, looks like a very long range light.