Whats the best light for up close use

I'm a tech and most of the time I am working indoors and upclose. I always felt that a light with a tight bright beam was best. But I have recently been using the fenix E05. Its not as bright but it is very floody and seems to give off an even amount of light to work with. I am finding myself liking the floody light for close up work. Am I going against the grain?

The Sunwayman V10R XM-L is excellent for up-close. The XM-L is very floody, and the adjustability makes sure you can dial up just the right amount of light.

like you, i've found the E05 to be about as good a close-up as i've found. a "best-buy". i have one in my pocket as i type...

Yep, the Fenix E05 is tops for that even, floody type of closeup beam, however, don't overlook the possibility of adding diffusion material to a different light to help even out the beam. That way you could have adjustable brightness levels as well.

Zebralight H501, H501W, H51F, H51FW. The H501(W) will be all flood while the H51F(W) won't be as floody but still nice for up close work.
FYI- The W denotes warm led (actually its neutral). If it doesn't have the W in the model then its a cool tinted led.

The ZL H501W is pretty tough to beat. It can be too floody sometimes, but is a great task light with many ways to use/attach.

sweetlight said:

I'm a tech and most of the time I am working indoors and upclose. I always felt that a light with a tight bright beam was best. But I have recently been using the fenix E05. Its not as bright but it is very floody and seems to give off an even amount of light to work with. I am finding myself liking the floody light for close up work. Am I going against the grain?

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I agree with you. I like using the fairly floody beam of my SF T1A Titan for close work. I still prefer a light with more throw for outdoor use though.

Robert

Some of my favorite lights for close up use are

McGizmo Mule high CRI - no reflector, super smooth flood without hot spot, high CRI for accurate colors.

McGizmo Haiku XM-L - cool white but nice tint, reasonable amount of flood covering a large area.

Zebralight H501w - superb flood lighting, neutral white tint pretty close to high CRI.

4Sevens stainless steel Preon ReVO neutral white - nice flood even though it uses XP-G, tint a little too yellow instead of warm but it is still acceptable.

HDS 100 HCRI Clickie - floody enough, high CRI, multiple output control from lowest of 0.07 to 100 lumen.

HDS R1B Rotary - floody enough, rotary control pretty straight forward to use.

Overall, I have quite a few other lights, including some Surefire, that are compatible with the Surefire F04 diffuser. When the diffuser is added on to the lights the beams are transformed into a nice smooth flood beam.

sweetlight said:

I am finding myself liking the floody light for close up work. Am I going against the grain?

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Not at all, at least from what I've seen--it seems that the vast majority of people here have the same preference. Actually, I'm one of the apparent few who goes against the grain in this regard. While I sometimes prefer an even flood, in general I keep going back to the old hotspot+spill beam profile for up-close tasks (as long as it's not a super-throwy pinpoint of light, that is). I think this is because most of the tasks I do that involve a headlamp or flashlight require my focus to be on a small area anyway, and as long as I still have a sufficiently bright spill to help me see other things around my area of focus, I think that I usually work better (and actually feel more comfortable) with a regular beam. In the broadest sense, it's just a way of allocating light to where it's needed the most, which is a form of efficiency. Accordingly, for tasks in which everything in a wide area (near or far) has equal priority, I prefer floody light. By the way, I also prefer floody light for reading (words or maps) so that I can move my eyes around rather than my head or flashlight.

sweetlight said:

I'm a tech and most of the time I am working indoors and upclose. I always felt that a light with a tight bright beam was best. But I have recently been using the fenix E05. Its not as bright but it is very floody and seems to give off an even amount of light to work with. I am finding myself liking the floody light for close up work. Am I going against the grain?

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Being a tech myself i know what you mean. i use two lights all the time, of course all the lights listed so far are great but i use the following

4Sevens Preon
Sc51W

for my upclose work i sometimes hold the light in my mouth. so i usually want a skinny AA/AAA for that purpose, and multiple levels for me as well

but i have to say also that i have V10R and Surefire Titan and they are awesome for upclose, they are just a mouthful

I agree with several others the H501 gets the nod for up close work. And it is a head light freeing both hands. A good diffuser will do the same thing to any light. Eliminating the hot spot is just easier on the eyes.

The floody Zebra's with the optic are great. E series Surefires and HDS EDCs with the Surefire F04 diffuser also work well. Having the whole work area or object uniformly illuminated is much easier on the eyes than a bright hot spot illuminating a small area surrounded by dimmer spill light.

Depending on what needs to be illuminated this used-to-be pretty good amateur photographer would suggest diffuse area light with a moderately bright center spot. Not too powerful that it creates glare though.

But my favorite light for close up work is actually a setup of multiple diffused lights to wipe out any shadows.

another :thumbsup: for the ZL H501w. i love mine

I like to use both hands when I'm working on something, therefore I wear a headlamp. I like Sparks SD5/SD6. I'd also consider Zebralight too.

Consider Balder BD-2, not bad also.

I've actually roughed up the bottom edge of a front tooth from holding a knurled aluminum bodied flashlight in my mouth.oo: Soooo, when I need light for up close work, it's my ZL H51fw that gets ALL the use! The frosted lens on the "f" series is just awesome for smooth even lighting. I have many other lights and probably 3 or 4 Surefire F04 beam diffusers. But just can't deal with holding the light in my mouth. I'll never be without a ZL headlamp, ever! They're great headlamps! YMMV

mrlysle said:

I've actually roughed up the bottom edge of a front tooth from holding a knurled aluminum bodied flashlight in my mouth.

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I can sympathise with that and have over the years become quite adept at holding the flashlight under my arm, as for up close illumination a variable output light is a must, I'm still being well served by a JetbeamIII-M :thumbsup:

mrlysle said:

I've actually roughed up the bottom edge of a front tooth from holding a knurled aluminum bodied flashlight in my mouth.oo: Soooo, when I need light for up close work, it's my ZL H51fw that gets ALL the use! The frosted lens on the "f" series is just awesome for smooth even lighting. I have many other lights and probably 3 or 4 Surefire F04 beam diffusers. But just can't deal with holding the light in my mouth. I'll never be without a ZL headlamp, ever! They're great headlamps! YMMV

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Thats why I'm liking the E05. Its a single AAA that is about the size of half a cigarette. It is easy to put in the mouth. I wouldn't recommend it for all day use but for a few minutes here and there it does the trick without the need of a head attachment.