Binoculars as Light Projector!

I just made a wonderful discovery. If I shine my TW4 through the eyepiece of my 8.5 X 42 binoculars, it turns it into a serious spotlight with almost double the throw. Using the remaining binocular tube a monocular, you have a precisely pointed light beam which exactly matches the size of the image area with no harsh center spot at all. The LM4 head has the right diameter to match the binocular eyepiece (0.85"), being a bit bigger so the metal does not touch the glass even if angled somewhat improperly. Psychologically, the sharp edged, even lighted beam feels like a stage or helicopter spotlight instead of a flashlight, providing some serious fun factor.



The focus setting does not change the effect noticeably. I measured the image brightness with Photoshop at the tip of the arrow.

The inset is with a special 2X magnification doubler. Notice that in this case if forms an optical image of the square face of the LED. It's not that much brighter this way though, and the beam is too small to be useful. In this case the focus does matter a lot in forming a sharp versus blury image. I'm interested to know if a 7X, 10X or zoom binoculars work well too.

I tried this before with some of my lights. I haven't found a combination of optic/flashlight that worked well. They were either too dim, or the slightly increased brightness was not enough to justify the exceedingly narrow beam.

where can i find a woman who wants to do that?

Edit:
I decided to try it out just for fun.. I had a pair of 7X35's handy.. i decided to try it with the Arc AAA.. after projecting it thru the binocs i found that the Arc AAA projected about as far as my SL 3AA Luxeon.

Cool.

And how far did the Streamlight project? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

Nik, welcome, and very cool discovery!

Nik,

Welcome ... Great pictures and what an innovative use of a flashlight. You're thinking outside of the box, keep it up!

It provides us with more excuses ... Uh I mean reasons to buy flashlights /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I just went out to the barn and tried this. I have a small 8x monocular. In the barn from where I stand it is 65' to the wall, and it is mostly dark with a little light coming in behind me. With my Arc-AAA turquoise I can see the wall but but NO detail. Through the monocular the beam is about 5' wide and I can see a lot of detail, seems about the same brightness. I cary this monocular backpacking so this is good info to know. I can't wait to see this outside and see how much further this adds to the throw of this light. I tried it with my streamlight TL-2 and it was dark and useless. With my Arc LSL it was darker and very tight beam but it will need to be outside at night to draw any conclusion about length of throw.

This technique alters my selection of "pocket spotlight" for periodic use while using a TW4 continuously for hiking. The C3/P91 is the brightest light I can find which has a small enough reflector (ideally 0.85"). The M3 is too big.

If the beam is already extremely tight then it might not offer as big of an advantage. The 8.5X binoculars have an optical angle of 7.4°. A 20X binoculars has 3.2° but the eyepiece is way too small to collect all the light. The UK SL6 is said to have a beam angle of 5.4°. Not sure what a P91 has.

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Mark_Larson said:
And how far did the Streamlight project? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

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in the conditions i have here the SL 3AA Luxeon goes out about 90-100 feet.. so that's saying alot for the little Arc AAA! (in combination with the binocs of course)

Nik. I like your Tube Lamp. Great idea.

Wow! You may make a lot of friends here with discoveries and photos like that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Welcome!

Cool. I have a friend who is an amature astronomer. He told me that when they are out at a dark skies event, like a gathering they have in NM, that they sometimes shine the brightest flashlight that they have into one of their telescopes. He says the 20 X mirror does wonders for the beam and it comes roaring out as a huge bright column of light. Will try the monocular trick tonight. Thanks

Heh,

That is neat, but if you scratch those swarovski El's with a surefire I'm going to have to take them away from you and give them to a more deserving home /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Though I'm tempted to do that with my El's now. Part of the quality of the light transfer could well be that these are considered among if not the best binoculars you can buy.

Actually I'm really tempted to do that with my 20-60x STS HD 80.

Man now I'm going to abuse my swarovski's /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Todd

my bad double post

I play around with lenses, reflectors, flashlights, LEDs, lasers and everything else that has to with light. A while ago, I tried using my binoculars to focus the beam of my Inova X5T... dumb idea, it focused each individual LED. I had a relatively good focus, too bad I had 5 little spots instead of a smooth round beam. At the time, I had no other 'quality' lights.

Since then, I've joined the Surefire club. Haven't tried experimenting with the binoculars and my G2. Thanks for idea.

Jeff

I tested some flashlights with my 8x50 and 8x21 binoculars, and I got the best results when using a LED flashlight. I get a round spot that throws much farther then the flashlight alone. I could even focus the beam to an intense small spot.
Good to know this trick.
Incans did not give a comparable result, though. Maybe because they are already focussed quite good.

Tried it unsuccessfully with many lights on my tiny 8x21 binocs and at best it created a beam 90% dimmer than the original, though the Arc AAA projected somewhat better than some others.

Brightnorm

I got nice projection with a big Carson 5x magnifying loupe, whose lens is about 2.5" in diameter.

And how did the person that appears in the window on pic #5 feel about all this? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Good one Nik. An optically focusable flashlight would be nice.

i bet this is a great combination with a monocular.