She wants flood, not spot for the trail

I got my wife a Klarus ST20 for trail running at night. It was the best one for her because it has an easy UI and it runs at 125 lumens for 5 hours (her minimum).

She took it out tonight and says the spot is distracting/disorienting. She wants something floody......

Any recommendations for a real "floody" 2 battery (aa or 123) light?

Thanks!

If she likes the light, put some scotch tape over the lense to diffuse the beam. There is also a company called "Flashlight Lense" that sells diffuser film specifically for diffusing light.

Really? I'll give it a try!

Or, what the heck, one more idea along similar lines...
Try clear Contact Paper, specifically named "Frosty", usually available at hardware stores.
It's put on windows for privacy without blocking out light.
I swear it turns any spotlight-type flashlight into an even "wall of light",
without any substantial loss of brightness.

One roll of the stuff will keep an average flashaholic happy for decades.

Lou Minescence said:

If she likes the light, put some scotch tape over the lense to diffuse the beam.

Click to expand...

I'll second that, while temporary - this works beautifully. I do that on my TK41 whenever taking it hiking, it makes it floodier than the floodiest stock light I've thus far seen.

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/sh...haserburn-s-Diffusion-Film-DC-Fix-CPF-Service

^ CPF member Phaserburn sells a more permanent-ish solution that people rave about. Still reversible, but not easily torn-off/etc. like scotch tape.

The Spark SL6 comes with a frosted lens that makes for a very floody beam.

Wrecked said:

I got my wife a Klarus ST20 for trail running at night. It was the best one for her because it has an easy UI and it runs at 125 lumens for 5 hours (her minimum).

She took it out tonight and says the spot is distracting/disorienting. She wants something floody......

Any recommendations for a real "floody" 2 battery (aa or 123) light?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

SureFire L4. Very floody beam. And bright.

edit: no, didn't realize for running. Headlamp?

leon2245 said:

SureFire L4. Very floody beam. And bright.

edit: no, didn't realize for running. Headlamp?

Click to expand...

+1

I nice lightweight headlamp should do the trick look at the Zebralight H31F or H51F, you can also get those in a neutral/warm tint. Do you have any neutral or warm tints to show her? My wife loves them and I never thought to ask her until one night I was using a neutral light and she commented on how much easier it was on her eyes vs. my other "color" lights.

http://www.zebralight.com/Headlamp_c_7.html

Thanks, all. I'll try the scotch tape and frosty solutions first. I wonder if it matters what type of scotch tape....:duh2:

She has a head light that she really likes (although I think she should get a better one).

Hey Wrecked,

Scotch tape by far is the best recommendation here, and works great. For future considerations - the Thrunite Neutron 2AA is all flood. It has the very large XM-L LED in it which makes it very bright and very floody. 50 lumens for 6 hours unless she uses Energizer Lithium primaries; she'd then get better runtimes than with alkalines...max on this light is 260 lumens for 1.5 hours. The Thrunite Neutron 2C (2 CR123's) is also an all flood light. Runtimes are 65 lumens for 4 hours and the next step up is 120 lumens for 4 hours...max is 340 lumens for 1.5 hours. Check em out at goingear.com.....these lights have a similar UI as the quarks with the "regular" UI.

Also, 4sevens is about to release an XM-L version of their quarks sometime this month. Using the same small head as the other quarks this light will be all flood just light the Thrunite Neutrons with the XM-L LED's in them. The new quarks with be brighter than the older models, and will be very floody. Here's a link to a review that leaked out on the new Quark X 123x2 - Click Here

Outdoorsman5 said:

Hey Wrecked,

Scotch tape by far is the best recommendation here, and works great. For future considerations - the Thrunite Neutron 2AA is all flood. It has the very large XM-L LED in it which makes it very bright and very floody. 50 lumens for 6 hours unless she uses Energizer Lithium primaries; she'd then get better runtimes than with alkalines...max on this light is 260 lumens for 1.5 hours. The Thrunite Neutron 2C (2 CR123's) is also an all flood light. Runtimes are 65 lumens for 4 hours and the next step up is 120 lumens for 4 hours...max is 340 lumens for 1.5 hours. Check em out at goingear.com.....these lights have a similar UI as the quarks with the "regular" UI.

Also, 4sevens is about to release an XM-L version of their quarks sometime this month. Using the same small head as the other quarks this light will be all flood just light the Thrunite Neutrons with the XM-L LED's in them. The new quarks with be brighter than the older models, and will be very floody. Here's a link to a review that leaked out on the new Quark X 123x2 - Click Here

Click to expand...

I've always wondered about how runtimes are affected by using Energizer Lithium. I assume the companies mostly test with alkalines....

Looks like I'll be sending back the Quark AA2 I just ordered if the XM-L's are coming out soon!

Thanks

Wrecked said:

I've always wondered about how runtimes are affected by using Energizer Lithium. I assume the companies mostly test with alkalines....

Looks like I'll be sending back the Quark AA2 I just ordered if the XM-L's are coming out soon!

Thanks

Click to expand...

Not in all cases & at all output levels, but in general lithium primaries have 2.5 times the output compared to alkalines.

That's a shame about having to send the Quark AA2 back...great light in general. Maybe she'll like the replacement better; otherwise, the scotch tape idea works really well. I've used it on several lights with great results.

Outdoorsman5 said:

Not in all cases & at all output levels, but in general lithium primaries have 2.5 times the output compared to alkalines.

That's a shame about having to send the Quark AA2 back...great light in general. Maybe she'll like the replacement better; otherwise, the scotch tape idea works really well. I've used it on several lights with great results.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that if the specs for a light are say, 100 lumens for 2 hours, that with lithiums I could expect 4+ hours?

Well, I'll only send the AA2 back if the AA2 with XM-L is coming out soon.

Woohoo! I just achieved Flashaholic status! :rock:

Here's a "AA Shootout" runtime test done a couple of years ago using a Fenix L1D with a Q5 LED in it and running on max output.

Durecell alkaline ran for :57 min
Eneloop ran for 1:35
Energizer lithium ran fo 2:26

Here's the link - Click Here

EDIT - By the way....based on this test the Energizer Lithium primary battery lasted almost 2.5 times as long as the alkaline. That's why I said earlier that it has about 2.5 times the energy. If running a light on low then this statement is not accurate. Alkaline batteries do quite well on low load for a long time....think of your wall clocks & how long they run. It's my understanding that a lithium primary would not be much better than an alkaline on low load.

i'm with her. i live in the wilderness and MUCH prefer flood for trail navigation and camp chores.

my current pick is the Fenix E05 1xAAA. nice tint, great flood, around $20, tiny enough to always have it on you, around 30 useful lumens, runtimes at full brightness are 3 hrs with aklaline, 4 with rechargeable, 5 with lithium and then many additional hours at lower brightness.

if your wife finds the hotspot distracting, isn't that just another way of her saying that the hotspot is too bright for her? maybe she just needs to dial down the brightness a little bit. i've done some, not a lot, but some running on trails, some of them pretty nasty, and honestly, i don't think i've ever felt like i needed more than 50 lumens. anything more than that is just too blindingly bright.

if not, using some diffusion material on the lens might help, but at the same time, diffusion material can drastically change the look of the beam and she may not like the result. the best way to test out whether you'll like it is to try scotch tape, as the effect will be similar to what you find with better diffusion materials.

the best way to preserve the look of the beam as much as possible while still diminishing the hotspot is to mist a fine coat of hairspray (1) or clear acrylic spray paint (2) onto the reflector. this will result in an almost totally even disk of light with a hard edge and a bright spill similar to a regular beam. but this also requires you to remove your reflector and risk damaging it. it's only recommended for certain lights and for experienced hands.

(1) this can be washed off
(2) this cannot be washed off

I think I qualify as having non-experienced hands. LOL.

i still think you should have gotten your wife a Zebra H51Fw headlamp (floody beam, neutral tint) and a Fenix LD25 (neutral hot spots aren't as distracting IMO) or a Xeno E03 NW (neutral tint, plus a very large hotspot that gradually fades into the spill).

i won't take it personally that you managed to spend over $300 on lights without buying a single light that i recommended but i really think you could have saved yourself a good amount of time and money by going with the setup i recommended just above, which is what i recommended to you back at the beginning of your search. just sayin.

You know, robo has a good point. I go trail running almost every morning using my Zebra H51 and have used my H51w some too. Since your wife likes flood and since she doesn't have a great headlamp then either the Zebra H51F or H51Fw would solve many problems. Both of these are the floody version of the H51. When I go running I use my zebra H51 headlamp 90% of the time. The light in my pocket is more for throw anyway, and helps me spot things...doesn't get used a lot. On the headlamp I use the medium (30 lumens which can run for 9 hours) half my run and high2 (100 lumens for 2.4 hrs) the other half of my run. If she was using an Energizer lithium primary then she could get better runtimes than what's listed here, and carrying a spare weighs only .51 oz. Zebralight makes the best headlamps on the planet for the money - IMO. If you do get one of these don't forget to get a NiteIze headband to go with it so the light won't bounce around. The Zebra headband is too loose & the light bounces too much. The NiteIze headband is perfect & very comfortable.