Stress_Test
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2008
- Messages
- 1,334
There's a paved "nature trail" path that runs between several large commercial buildings and weaves in and out of the surrounding woods. I've never been on it before but I went tonight after work, starting out at just about sundown.
The path wasn't really remote or anything, as I found it was almost always in sight of buildings or other roads, but there were a few woodsy sections.
I had a Quark AA Mini and AA Tactical neutral, along with a G2 w/ R2 drop-in. I figured I'd use the Quark neutral and see how it looked in the wooded areas.
For the first half of the walk, it was still plenty light enough to see. It wasn't until after I decided to turn around and go back that is was starting to get dark. It was that time of day when the sky is still light, but your surroundings are dark.
As the trail moved away from one of the buildings and off into the natural area again, I brought out the Quark and clicked it on low. Hmm, I can barely see the hotspot, better turn it to high. Even that didn't seem to help much, because there was still enough ambient light to prevent dark eyesight adaptation, but not enough ambient light to be useful.
I think part of the problem was that there were still buildings off in the distance that could be seen sometimes through the trees, and their lights and parking lights were messing with my eyes everytime I was looking in those directions.
It was pretty disorienting actually, which I didn't expect. If I looked ahead I'd get the light of the horizon or a distant building, and not be able to see my immediate surroundings. The 70(?) something lumen from the Quark just wasn't enough to really be much help in this situation (not a knock on Quarks though). I couldn't believe that this light could seem so bright inside at home, yet out here it felt like I was waving a candle around.
I suppose if I had been in deep woods, and my eyes had the chance to get dark adapted, it would've been better, but there were just too many distant points of light in this area. I was really surprised at how glaring those other light sources could be even from far away! There were traffic lights probably 300 yards away, but even so when I looked in that direction the glare was screwing up my close range field of view. That was a real shocker. I'm used to running/walking on city streets and it's nothing like this.
I did have the G2 in my pocket, but I usually keep that one for SHTF situations, and I didn't wan't to use it in this case unless I REALLY needed it.
Anyway, this particular setting called for waaay more lumen than I would've though necessary until I actually experienced it. I'll have to try my TK11 R2 next time. The extra throwing ability should help also in addition to the increased output.
If I'm still not satisfied, then clearly it's time for a TK30!! :devil:
The path wasn't really remote or anything, as I found it was almost always in sight of buildings or other roads, but there were a few woodsy sections.
I had a Quark AA Mini and AA Tactical neutral, along with a G2 w/ R2 drop-in. I figured I'd use the Quark neutral and see how it looked in the wooded areas.
For the first half of the walk, it was still plenty light enough to see. It wasn't until after I decided to turn around and go back that is was starting to get dark. It was that time of day when the sky is still light, but your surroundings are dark.
As the trail moved away from one of the buildings and off into the natural area again, I brought out the Quark and clicked it on low. Hmm, I can barely see the hotspot, better turn it to high. Even that didn't seem to help much, because there was still enough ambient light to prevent dark eyesight adaptation, but not enough ambient light to be useful.
I think part of the problem was that there were still buildings off in the distance that could be seen sometimes through the trees, and their lights and parking lights were messing with my eyes everytime I was looking in those directions.
It was pretty disorienting actually, which I didn't expect. If I looked ahead I'd get the light of the horizon or a distant building, and not be able to see my immediate surroundings. The 70(?) something lumen from the Quark just wasn't enough to really be much help in this situation (not a knock on Quarks though). I couldn't believe that this light could seem so bright inside at home, yet out here it felt like I was waving a candle around.
I suppose if I had been in deep woods, and my eyes had the chance to get dark adapted, it would've been better, but there were just too many distant points of light in this area. I was really surprised at how glaring those other light sources could be even from far away! There were traffic lights probably 300 yards away, but even so when I looked in that direction the glare was screwing up my close range field of view. That was a real shocker. I'm used to running/walking on city streets and it's nothing like this.
I did have the G2 in my pocket, but I usually keep that one for SHTF situations, and I didn't wan't to use it in this case unless I REALLY needed it.
Anyway, this particular setting called for waaay more lumen than I would've though necessary until I actually experienced it. I'll have to try my TK11 R2 next time. The extra throwing ability should help also in addition to the increased output.
If I'm still not satisfied, then clearly it's time for a TK30!! :devil:
