Ok, been lurking around, made a few posts, but I thought I would try to contribute to the site this time. My brother and I have obtained appx. 40 flashlights over the last 6 months since we started becoming flash-o-holics. We have a pretty good range varying from high end LED's to cheapy lights. We narrowed this test down to mostly name brand lights.
After research and seeing examples of similar light boxes from other members, we made our own. Used 4" pvc capped on one end with just a small opening for the lux meter and open on the other end. This end we got a custom cut piece of glass and siliconed it into the pvc flange. It's big enough for a SR90 to fit with a little room. We used foam rings of varying sizes to seal of the lights into the flange. It actually worked really well on containing all the light.
Now for the testing. We did all lux readings after 30 sec. The only exception was the one HID tested that we waited about 40sec for it to get to full power. After taking all the readings, it looked like the base numbers were very consistent. We calculated a baseline number for calculating lumens and used it for all the testing. I think that baseline number is pretty close considering for weak, medium, strong, thrower, and flooders, all had some read a little high and some a little low. To me, that makes me think the testing method is pretty reliable.
For lux reading we made a stand to hold all lights at exactly 1 meter. Again we recorded numbers at 30 seconds. That number needed no calculations.
So here is the lightbox and lux meter--
Now here is our reading we got. I know some sound a little off like the deerelight's lumens, but other throwers tested close to published figures, so who knows.
Lastly, we did a little unusual test. We made a man sized stand that held the lux meter. It had reflectors to help spot the target at longer distances. We did peak readings on many of the lights at multiple distances. We wanted to do more complete testing, but the little we did was VERY time consuming. As a note my lux meter only reads in tenths when it gets unter one lux, so its not a perfect test, but we thought the members might find it interesting
After all of that, we rounded up our medium through largest lights and did a full beamshot test. We are not professional photographers and the test location had a few obstacles that show in the reflections, but I feel the beamshots came out pretty realistic to what we were seeing in person.
Here is the control shots. Daytime was zoomed in a little. The night shot was exact size, settings, and location.
Here is testing did at 100yards.
The finial image is gif showing them all played out together at 100yards--
Now here is the beamshots at 200yards. The camera was still left in place at 100yards for consistency. A little different, but it works I think.
Here is the gif taken at 200yards--
Now the 300yard beamshots. A few of these lights struggled to make it, but I'm posting the shots anyway.
Here is the gif at 300yards. Again the first lights are pretty weak, but some people might be curious how they do at that distance.
Now for the 400yard beamshots. For these we narrowed it down to 8 of the lights. Some are getting weak there, but some light is getting to the target tree.
Now the gif for the 400yards--
Now the final beamshots. Some of these lights will go beyond this like the SR90 and Deerelight, but I was running out of park for shooting at the same target. Again some are pretty weak here and some did ok.
Here is the final shot. Gif at 500yards of all the bigger lights--
After research and seeing examples of similar light boxes from other members, we made our own. Used 4" pvc capped on one end with just a small opening for the lux meter and open on the other end. This end we got a custom cut piece of glass and siliconed it into the pvc flange. It's big enough for a SR90 to fit with a little room. We used foam rings of varying sizes to seal of the lights into the flange. It actually worked really well on containing all the light.
Now for the testing. We did all lux readings after 30 sec. The only exception was the one HID tested that we waited about 40sec for it to get to full power. After taking all the readings, it looked like the base numbers were very consistent. We calculated a baseline number for calculating lumens and used it for all the testing. I think that baseline number is pretty close considering for weak, medium, strong, thrower, and flooders, all had some read a little high and some a little low. To me, that makes me think the testing method is pretty reliable.
For lux reading we made a stand to hold all lights at exactly 1 meter. Again we recorded numbers at 30 seconds. That number needed no calculations.
So here is the lightbox and lux meter--
Now here is our reading we got. I know some sound a little off like the deerelight's lumens, but other throwers tested close to published figures, so who knows.
Lastly, we did a little unusual test. We made a man sized stand that held the lux meter. It had reflectors to help spot the target at longer distances. We did peak readings on many of the lights at multiple distances. We wanted to do more complete testing, but the little we did was VERY time consuming. As a note my lux meter only reads in tenths when it gets unter one lux, so its not a perfect test, but we thought the members might find it interesting
After all of that, we rounded up our medium through largest lights and did a full beamshot test. We are not professional photographers and the test location had a few obstacles that show in the reflections, but I feel the beamshots came out pretty realistic to what we were seeing in person.
Here is the control shots. Daytime was zoomed in a little. The night shot was exact size, settings, and location.
Here is testing did at 100yards.
The finial image is gif showing them all played out together at 100yards--
Now here is the beamshots at 200yards. The camera was still left in place at 100yards for consistency. A little different, but it works I think.
Here is the gif taken at 200yards--
Now the 300yard beamshots. A few of these lights struggled to make it, but I'm posting the shots anyway.
Here is the gif at 300yards. Again the first lights are pretty weak, but some people might be curious how they do at that distance.
Now for the 400yard beamshots. For these we narrowed it down to 8 of the lights. Some are getting weak there, but some light is getting to the target tree.
Now the gif for the 400yards--
Now the final beamshots. Some of these lights will go beyond this like the SR90 and Deerelight, but I was running out of park for shooting at the same target. Again some are pretty weak here and some did ok.
Here is the final shot. Gif at 500yards of all the bigger lights--
Last edited:
Just kidding! Really excellent post!
