How much difference in the high powered throw LED lights

I've been reading and reading, looking at beam shots and watching videos on all of the lights that average anywhere from 500 lumens to 1200. I really like the catapult v2. Looking at lights near $150.00 give or take.

Is there really that much difference between the V2 and the following lights ? I'm looking for a light that throws to 300yds.

Olight M30 Triton
JetBeam M1X Military
OLIGHT M31 Triton
Fenix TK30

Or any of the other similar lights ?

Thanks

Throw is made of lux. Generally, higher lux equals greater throw.

AnAppleSnail said:

Throw is made of lux. Generally, higher lux equals greater throw.

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Correct. But say for example a light reads 25,000 lux and another reads 23,500, is the difference in throw going to be that noticeable to the eyes ?

CamoNinja said:

for example a light reads 25,000 lux and another reads 23,500, is the difference in throw going to be that noticeable to the eyes ?

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not really, 23,500 to 25,000 will not be much different.

CamoNinja said:

Is there really that much difference between the V2 and the following lights ? I'm looking for a light that throws to 300yds.

Olight M30 Triton
JetBeam M1X Military
OLIGHT M31 Triton
Fenix TK30

Or any of the other similar lights ?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Take out the M30 - it is a flood light. It will not throw anywhere near 300 yards. It is about 10k lux

M1X is better but will not throw too well over 100 yards. After that it is too dim to illuminate an ocject very well - about 20k lux

Fenix TK30 is about the same as above - 20k lux

Catipult is better yet at about 30k lux. It will not light something up very bright (if at all) at 300 yards.

The M31 will out-throw the Catipult V2 and it is brighter (look at HKJ beam shots). That is the best on your list for the purpose you want. I'm still not sure it is going to do much at 300 yards though.

If you want light to go 300 yards, you need to look at a dedicated thrower or ashperic setup (at least 50k lux if not quite a bit more). If you want bright + spill + 300 yards there are very few LED lights that can do that. HID lights will have no problem.

Have you thought about the Jetbeam M2S? I've been keeping an eye on it and I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on it for Christmas.

Your vision will automatically compensate for small changes in lux. You're not going to notice a difference of 1500lux when you're already up into the tens of thousands of lux to start with.

The biggest differences between otherwise comparable flashlights at this point are driver efficiency and user interface, i.e. how much power does it waste and how easy is it to switch modes.

CamoNinja said:

Correct. But say for example a light reads 25,000 lux and another reads 23,500, is the difference in throw going to be that noticeable to the eyes ?

Click to expand...

Throw is the square root of (lux/desired level of illumination)

Assume you want one lux that would be 158m vs 153m for seeing that something is there.
Or 41m vs 40m for decent color vision at 15lux.
I wouldn't worry about 2% difference.

Now factor in that +-10% output are perfecly within tolerance and the lights will have different regulation curves. :nana:

For 300yd the Olight SR90 comes to mind, your average 2x18650 light is good for 150-200m.

If you want 300+ yards you need to look at XR-E R2 lights, not SST-50 LED lights.

fyrstormer said:

Your vision will automatically compensate for small changes in lux. You're not going to notice a difference of 1500lux when you're already up into the tens of thousands of lux to start with.

The biggest differences between otherwise comparable flashlights at this point are driver efficiency and user interface, i.e. how much power does it waste and how easy is it to switch modes.

Click to expand...

Well said :thumbsup:

kengps said:

If you want 300+ yards you need to look at XR-E R2 lights, not SST-50 LED lights.

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The Olight SR50 might disagree with you...

The reality is at 300yds, without magnification you can't really make out what you are lighting up. Unless it is a large known object.

If you could make it like daylight at that range then the above statement wouldn't apply. However a military or Hollywood light that could do that wouldn't fit in our cars.

Dude Dudeson said:

The Olight SR50 might disagree with you...

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I think not. 800 lumens and a 2.4" reflector is not going to throw that much better (if at all) than a V2 with 1000 lumens and a 2.2" reflector. And the V2 is inadequate at 300+ yards in real-world use. The V2 is about 35,000-40,000 lux. How much is the SR50? In my experience you need 50,000 plus for a good 300+yard light. Only the R2 throwers such as A10 and Masterpiece Pro 1 will do that. My Tiablo A50 with a 2.2" reflector and 900 Lumens is at best a 225-250 yard light.