We did a little test last night on about 20 lights ranging from a itp A3 all the way to an Olight Sr90. This test was in the woods surrounding a small lake, done on a pretty dark night with no moon light visable and very little other light noise from other sources. Use of binoculars and several standby viewers were used as verification. This lake was appx 640 feet wide and appx 1450ft long. We set up the test 320ft from one end. So what we did it start testing the lights going to the left shooting at the wood line on one end at 320 ft, then proceeded to across the lake at the 640ft point, and then finished with the 1350ft span to the right. All was done shooting over the small lake. The tree line had a average height above the water of 50-70ft and we attempted to keep the lights shining on the upper half of that. We used google maps and gps to verify distances. They might not be perfect, but I'm sure withing 10% + or -
The lights tested--
itp A3
Olight i1
Quark Mini 123 X
Quark Mini 123
Eagletac T20c2
Quark 123-2 turbo X
Olight SR51
Olight SR90
Mag 6-cell basic led convert
Mag 3-cell incad.
Mag 2-cel led
Mag mini led
Mag xl200
And an assortmant of ebay cheap smaller ultrafire incads and smaller ebay xr-e throwers.
Well every single light but the itp A3 made it to the 320ft treeline. In fact every other single light made it to the 640ft tree line. The SR90, Sr51, all three bigger mags, Quark 123-2 Turbo X, Eagletac t20c2, and several of the ebay cheapy lights made it to the 1350ft treeline. So how is this possible? I verified as "reaching" the treeline by being able to easily see light evidence on the the tree trunks and bushy tops by moving the light beam from above and then bringing it down onto the treeline. Once it got to the point that there was just too much light pollution put out by the light to accurately say yes or no, or I couldn't notice the branches reasonably easy, we considered it as not reaching.
Now I know the water plays some factor, but not how much. Most of the more concentrated beam lights could easily bounce the spot from the water in the middle of the lake and spot the trees. But thats when we intentionally tried. But most of the testing was a minimum of 30ft above the water. Also as a note the tree line starts appx 5-10ft above the lake surface.
So just how much of a factor did the water play? How can my Quark Mini 123 xpg light up trees up to about 800ft (I estimate)? So guys please educate us on how these lights did this. Is the ansi throw rating of .25 actually much brighter than what I could easy see with binoculars? Or is the water surface doubling our throw even though its 30+ft. below? So what gives? We did this test there because of easy access, very few people or lights around and nice treelines.
The lights tested--
itp A3
Olight i1
Quark Mini 123 X
Quark Mini 123
Eagletac T20c2
Quark 123-2 turbo X
Olight SR51
Olight SR90
Mag 6-cell basic led convert
Mag 3-cell incad.
Mag 2-cel led
Mag mini led
Mag xl200
And an assortmant of ebay cheap smaller ultrafire incads and smaller ebay xr-e throwers.
Well every single light but the itp A3 made it to the 320ft treeline. In fact every other single light made it to the 640ft tree line. The SR90, Sr51, all three bigger mags, Quark 123-2 Turbo X, Eagletac t20c2, and several of the ebay cheapy lights made it to the 1350ft treeline. So how is this possible? I verified as "reaching" the treeline by being able to easily see light evidence on the the tree trunks and bushy tops by moving the light beam from above and then bringing it down onto the treeline. Once it got to the point that there was just too much light pollution put out by the light to accurately say yes or no, or I couldn't notice the branches reasonably easy, we considered it as not reaching.
Now I know the water plays some factor, but not how much. Most of the more concentrated beam lights could easily bounce the spot from the water in the middle of the lake and spot the trees. But thats when we intentionally tried. But most of the testing was a minimum of 30ft above the water. Also as a note the tree line starts appx 5-10ft above the lake surface.
So just how much of a factor did the water play? How can my Quark Mini 123 xpg light up trees up to about 800ft (I estimate)? So guys please educate us on how these lights did this. Is the ansi throw rating of .25 actually much brighter than what I could easy see with binoculars? Or is the water surface doubling our throw even though its 30+ft. below? So what gives? We did this test there because of easy access, very few people or lights around and nice treelines.
