Im trying to find my first light, and I was thinking I needed a throwy light because i want to see out to about 100-150 yards. But I still want to have the capability to use it at closer range ( possibly multiple brightness settings?). Am I wrong? Can a light designed with a wider beam reach that far? Does it depend on lumens or what?
Any clarification would be awesome!!!
P.S- AA vs. CR123A. any noticeable performance difference?
OK, good questions!
Throw requires either a lot of lumens, or, concentration of the lumens you have into a smaller area.
So, a floody light with 150 yards range is a big lumen monster....depending upon what you need to SEE at 150 yards, and, how much area you need to cover at close range, and at 150 yards, etc.
So, after that set of concepts, its all a matter of degree.
Just think of the lumens as the gallons per minute coming out of your hose....and the deeper the water ON what you are spraying....the more LUX.
The next concept is beam SHAPE. Choosing a light really needs to start with beam shape, not lumens.
After beam shape, you need to know a rough guess as to what LUX you want on what you're looking AT.
LUX is what you SEE when the light hits your target and bounces back to your eyes.
So, if you just need to not bump into things close up, a fraction of a Lux is ok after your eyes are adjusted to the dark...like waking up in your tent and wanting to get to the latrine at 3 am.
An average night, from the moon and starlight, etc, you might be given ~ 0.25 lux.
If you can see at night w/o a flashlight for example...well, then you might not need a light at all on an average night such as used in the reference.
If you want more light than that, say to read a sign further away...or to see if that's a dog or a wolf following you down a dark trail...you need more light.
Here's a chart that lists examples of Lux by types of tasks:
So, if your task requires a level of detail that corresponds to a similar task above, consider that a similar lux value might work.
Also consider that (Not shown in chart...I need to make one for that still....) as what you need to see gets further away, the part of your vision that you need to use to resolve it, requires more light than you need for close tasks.
The fovea, essentially, your central field of view in a ~ 2º cone from your eye...is not very good at seeing in the dark. It has the poorest light reception in your total field of view....and needs a lot more light to see things.
If you are looking at a critter 150 yards away trying to tell if its a rabid racoon or a twicky rabbit - you are using your central and sharpest part of your vision.
OK, so, if your light has only 100 lumens, it CAN hit a target that far away..but, with all 100 lumens concentrated into a small circle of light.
That same light will put an even SMALLER circle of light on the ground in front of you, so it would be terrible for talking a hike where you didn't want to step on a snake of trip over a root...the light bean is so small that you are trying to see where you are going through a paper towel tube type view.
If you have 2,000 lumens, you don't NEED to concentrate them into a teeny patch of light....you can spread them out. You can have a wider beam shape. That means no more paper towel tube view...you see a lot at a time.
Of course, it might STILL reach out 150 yards, but, depending on HOW spread out the beam is, the target might look brighter, or, dimmer.
Again, its a question of degree.
So, there are throwy lights, and floody lights, but, those terms in of themselves are not always going to tell you what you wanted to know.
For example, I have some floody lights that can throw over 300 yards, and some throwy lights that can't.
I have an 300 lumen thrower that can hit targets ~800 yards away, and a 850 lumen thrower that can't.
There are other factors...spill for example. Most light's produce a beam with 3 parts, a central hot spot, a corona that surrounds it, with a somewhat less bright donut of light....and spill, a generally unfocused field of light that is shaped by the shape of the light's head.
If a throw light has decent spill, it can ACT like a floody light's beam for walking around, providing enough light to see where you're going, even though the main beam is pointed hundreds of yards away.
And
If you are asking about AA vs CR123A - well, neither will give a good account of themselves at 150 yards if ONE of them is powering your light.
An alkaline AA cell is too weak to power modern high performance lights, and to use them, a LOT of them have to be bundled together.
An "Enloop" or rechargeable AA, can be better, but still doesn't have the energy density of a lithium ion cell.
The CR123A is a disposable lithium ion cell, and, has a high enough energy density to make a small yet bright light.
A RECHARGEABLE lithium ion cell has even more power (Higher voltage) and can make the same sized light a lot brighter. (RCR123 instead of CR123, as in "R" for Rechargeable)
To get 150 yards of throw...the cells you need will depend on how bright you need your target to be, and, how large an area you need illuminated at that range.
You then consider the flood light use you want...how large an area, and how brightly lit.
You need to start there...and work backwards.
Most of us simply follow the flashaholic mantra: (Get both). Get a throwy light optimized for your distance/target, and a floody light optimized for the close range task(s) expected.
:welcome:
