I need a good flashlight for night photography

dthor68 · Oct 14, 2010

First, new here. Second, WOW! I never knew flashlights were so popular. There is a forum dedicated to flashlights. There are hundreds of brands, styles, etc. I had no idea. So a simple need has turned into a confuzing mess.

I need a flashlight for photography. I take long exposures in the dark lighting up the subject with a flashlight. It is called subject painting, not the light painting. Light painting is a long exposure moving a light to create some sort of design. There are quite a few photographers who this. However, only one I can find that shares what brand of light he uses, maglite. Personally my style will be a little differant than his, I will need more reach. I have no idea of what the pros use, I do know that a spotlight would be great, but, to big for a mile long trail walk with camera equipment. I think the LED light would be the best to pfhotograph with. It closely matches the light given off with a flash so white balance should be better. It would be nice to have one light to do it all, a very dependable light. I will spend up to $100.00 as long as it will last.

I appreciate any help,
Derek

Jash · Oct 14, 2010

A Quark Tactical will give you a nice smooth beam and several output options. It can go from 'I can barely see' to 'Way brighter than a maglite' and you can choose from 1xCR123, 2xCR123, 1xAA, 2xAA and there's even a battery tube for an 18650 li-ion battery.

If it were me I'd go the 2xAA as you get both a high output and long runtime in a simple battery format.

*edit* - Oops, my bad. You said you want more reach than a mag. Consider the Quark Turbo. It has exactly the same UI and output as the Tactical but with a smooth reflector for more throw (reach).

HKJ · Oct 14, 2010

Maybe my beamshot can help you, I have compare a couple of lights at different distances (30 and 160 meters). The photos contains EXIF information if you want to see the exposure.

Belstaff1464 · Oct 14, 2010

If you're looking for an LED flashlight, I recommend the HDS high-CRI Clicky. It is particular good for night photography and rendering colours. Check out pjandyho's review. Although, I believe the incands still have higher CRI.

wyager · Oct 14, 2010

Belstaff1464 said:
If you're looking for an LED flashlight, I recommend the HDS high-CRI Clicky. It is particular good for night photography and rendering colours. Check out pjandyho's review. Although, I believe the incands still have higher CRI.

Incans, by definition, have a perfect CRI. However, many agree that the quality of light from the HDS/Ra high CRI is much better than that of an incandescent. It's much less orange-ey. However, it is $40 more than the OP's budget.

Belstaff1464 · Oct 14, 2010

wyager said:
Incans, by definition, have a perfect CRI. However, many agree that the quality of light from the HDS/Ra high CRI is much better than that of an incandescent. It's much less orange-ey. However, it is $40 more than the OP's budget.

Yep, you're right. It's out of the OP's price range. Sorry.....I missed that. In that case try any of the warm versions of the Zebralight.

RobertM · Oct 14, 2010

If you can swing the extra $40, the HDS EDC High CRI is worth every penny.

dthor68 · Oct 14, 2010

Thanks for the help folks. From what I gather from your responses incandescent may be the better quality light for photography. So I have been looking at some models and came across the Solorforce L600 and L1200. They both look very well built and throw out 600 and 1200 lumens. I have no idea if this is a good quality brand or if they are even as good as my maglites. Both are in my price range.

So, what do you all think about Solorforce?

AnAppleSnail · Oct 14, 2010

dthor68 said:
Thanks for the help folks. From what I gather from your responses incandescent may be the better quality light for photography. So I have been looking at some models and came across the Solorforce L600 and L1200. They both look very well built and throw out 600 and 1200 lumens. I have no idea if this is a good quality brand or if they are even as good as my maglites. Both are in my price range.

So, what do you all think about Solorforce?

I know some photographers who use the L600 to great effect in shooting dark places. They do use tripods and light-paint.

EV_007 · Oct 16, 2010

Great thread. Combining two of my favorite hobbies.

I also highly recommend the HDS CRI100 for the high color rendition. Almost all other non CRI lights will have a cool cast to them. Sometimes greenish and often times pale bluish hue. The warmer ones will bias too much toward the muddy, brownish/orange which looks like sepia on steroids.

I like to mix the different colors of the LED lottery for effect sometimes using the EDC CRI 100 as the main source of illumination.

Also the smoothness of the beam profile is something to consider t avoid reflector artifacts from showing up on your subject. I use the Surefire F04 diffuser to spread out the light, although you will lose a couple stops of light.

I'm curious to see your results. Do you use flickr?

dthor68 · Oct 19, 2010

Wow, that is a lot of votes for the HDS CRI100. I have looked at it and I just dont see how such a tiny light could cost $140.00. It also seems way under powered at a max 100 lumans. Maybe I am looking at it wrong, maybe I dont need much power? On the other hand I have seen some very affordable incans from Solorforce and Ultrafire with 5 times more power. Can you tell me why the little CRI100 would be a better choice than the Solorpower/Ultrafire?

dthor68 · Oct 19, 2010

EV_007 said:
Great thread. Combining two of my favorite hobbies.

I also highly recommend the HDS CRI100 for the high color rendition. Almost all other non CRI lights will have a cool cast to them. Sometimes greenish and often times pale bluish hue. The warmer ones will bias too much toward the muddy, brownish/orange which looks like sepia on steroids.

I like to mix the different colors of the LED lottery for effect sometimes using the EDC CRI 100 as the main source of illumination.

Also the smoothness of the beam profile is something to consider t avoid reflector artifacts from showing up on your subject. I use the Surefire F04 diffuser to spread out the light, although you will lose a couple stops of light.

I'm curious to see your results. Do you use flickr?

No, I dont have flickr. You can see my work here, http://imagepro.photography.com/dfthornton. I have never tried light painting so you wont see any of that at my site. I do hope to try it out in a couple of weeks. How about you? Do you have any work I can see using the EDC CRI 100?

ayglass · Oct 19, 2010

The advantages of the HDS include excellent quality and an excellent warranty. It also actually produces 100 real lumens where other manufacturers are known to make claims well beyond what the light can produce.

I carry one all the time and it's my first choice for photography at night. You will probably end up with one eventually, so just buy it first and save some money :poke:

- Andy

get-lit · Oct 19, 2010

wyager said:
Incans, by definition, have a perfect CRI. However, many agree that the quality of light from the HDS/Ra high CRI is much better than that of an incandescent. It's much less orange-ey. However, it is $40 more than the OP's budget.

You can use color filters with incan and keep the perfect CRI. Better yet, use a higher K Halogen. That's what's generally recommended for photography.

Yoda4561 · Oct 19, 2010

At what ranges are you photographing at?? That HDS high cri is really nice, but for still photography work I wouldn't want to use it for distances of more than 20 feet or so, or your exposure times are gonna get really long.

for quick reference, here's a shot of my M60 WLF (100 lumens, flood pattern optic, 4300K led) Which should be somewhat similar photographically to the high cri lights, their color temp is a bit higher and they use reflectors, so they should illuminate the far end of that photo a bit better. Don't mind the lack of image sharpness, this was from an old output beamshot comparison and I had the manual focus set wrong.

1s, F/4, ISO 1600 Distance to the reflector is around 50 feet or so, the treeline was about 80.

RobertM · Oct 20, 2010

dthor68 said:
First, new here. Second, WOW! I never knew flashlights were so popular. There is a forum dedicated to flashlights. There are hundreds of brands, styles, etc. I had no idea. So a simple need has turned into a confuzing mess.

I need a flashlight for photography. I take long exposures in the dark lighting up the subject with a flashlight. It is called subject painting, not the light painting. Light painting is a long exposure moving a light to create some sort of design. There are quite a few photographers who this. However, only one I can find that shares what brand of light he uses, maglite. Personally my style will be a little differant than his, I will need more reach. I have no idea of what the pros use, I do know that a spotlight would be great, but, to big for a mile long trail walk with camera equipment. I think the LED light would be the best to pfhotograph with. It closely matches the light given off with a flash so white balance should be better. It would be nice to have one light to do it all, a very dependable light. I will spend up to $100.00 as long as it will last.

I appreciate any help,
Derek

To be honest, a flashlight probably isn't the best thing to use. You really need to look into off camera flashes, light stands, gels, etc. Keep in mind that even super bright flashlights might only produce around 1000+ lumens (probably not in your price range though). A good OCF will produce 1,000,000 - 10,000,000 lumens for that brief moment when it flashes. Just some food for thought.

wyager · Oct 20, 2010

If I understand OP, he is not just taking photos at night (where a flash is fine) but he is using a unique style that requires long exposures at low brightness (compared to a flash). Also, think about this-some day, LEDs will replace xenon flashes.

oo:

AnAppleSnail · Oct 20, 2010

RobertM said:
To be honest, a flashlight probably isn't the best thing to use. You really need to look into off camera flashes, light stands, gels, etc. Keep in mind that even super bright flashlights might only produce around 1000+ lumens (probably not in your price range though). A good OCF will produce 1,000,000 - 10,000,000 lumens for that brief moment when it flashes. Just some food for thought.

You can do some things with flashlights that can't be done with flashes easily. Click on the link in my signature for one example.

DaveTheDude · Oct 20, 2010

Another suggestion is to purchase a Linger Special from Nailbender, and drop it into a suitable 18650-bored P60 host. The Linger Special uses two Cree XP-G emitters...the trick here is to order one emitter at about 4400K, and the other at 5700K, to produce a mixed, broad-spectrum beam with a relatively high CRI. This emitter style produces a relatively wide flood beam (several posts showing beamshots are in other threads), and might be suitable for your purpose. Cost for the drop in is about US$50, plus or minus a bit depending on type of reflector, etc.

EV_007 · Oct 24, 2010

dthor68 said:
No, I dont have flickr. You can see my work here, http://imagepro.photography.com/dfthornton. I have never tried light painting so you wont see any of that at my site. I do hope to try it out in a couple of weeks. How about you? Do you have any work I can see using the EDC CRI 100?

This was shot under a full moon at 30 seconds. The tree was lit up with the HDS EDC CRI 100. Plenty of light. In fact, I had to be careful not to leave it on too long for fear of over exposure. I swept the light up and down the tree for about 5 seconds. I have many lights both incan and LED, but I find the runtime and size as well as color temp ideal for this type of photography.

Full camera EXIF found here on my flickr stream from this image.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lexpix_/4631113594/meta/

I need a good flashlight for night photography

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