My Beam Shot Page

I've been dying to do a page with my beam shots, and in time will get a better camera (using iPhone5 for now), Tripods, and whatever else I need to get better pics, but for now here's a few I took earlier.

All of these shots are High setting if there is one.

Shed is 50M away...



Fenix PD32U (we nearly get there)...



eBay Special! - Skyray King...



Skyray 4000 (Lumens ... )...



Boruit 7500 (Again Lumens, bless!)...



Ultrafire 13800 (Lumens ... )...



The Torch!



Fenix TK-41 (Here goes the side spill, but let's light up the door!)...



Jetbeam DDR30 (Let's light up the door + include some side spill ... )...



Next 2 are cheap eBay HID Flashlights.

No Name 22W HID...



No Name 85W HID...



I haven't included much info about these, but a few of the decent flashlights will be known, the others not so, but all the same, a picture tells a thousand words if you ask me ...

I don't expect a thousand thanks, but we're looking at 2+ hours of my time to get these pics together so at least one thanks by the time I wake would be nice ...

I hope you enjoy.

That's a nice touch, adding an inset photo of the light.
:thumbsup:

Thanks mate
keep em coming

Poppy said:

That's a nice touch, adding an inset photo of the light.
:thumbsup:

Click to expand...

I agree! I've never seen that before and it's so much better than text!

The flashlight pic insert I thought would give a better idea of what's being used, especially for the eBay cheapies!

I'll be back to the field later tonight for more beam shots as look what arrived in the post today ...

Fenix TK-75



and a

ThruNite TN30



Can't wait! ...

Ok here we go...

ThruNite TN30



and my new 'fav' the Fenix TK-75



Look what the TK-75 does to the door! ...

To be honest I think the iPhone as a camera is good enough for snaps and day shots, but I can't help but feel it's not capturing these flashlight beam shots as good as a decent camera would, so I'll invest in something a bit better I reckon.

Still, gives a decent enough idea for now ...

No takers!

Ok, a tree outside my house. I estimate the top is about 40-45M away.

Jetbeam DDR30...



ThruNite TN30...



Fenix TK-75... (love this thing!)



The TK-75 doesn't have the side spill of the DDR30 or TN30, but it's centre beam is awesome! ...

Paul_DW said:

To be honest I think the iPhone as a camera is good enough for snaps and day shots, but I can't help but feel it's not capturing these flashlight beam shots as good as a decent camera would, so I'll invest in something a bit better I reckon.

Click to expand...

Sorted!

A nice CPF member has offered me something a bit better to capture my beam shots, and that should hopefully be with me in a few days or so ...

I've also got a couple of tripods on their way so once they all arrive I reckon I'll be able to produce some better images.

Oh and only other flashlight on the way to me is an Olight M3X Triton (1000 lumen version) so will get a few pics up of that once it arrives.

Now just wondering if I should bin all my eBay flashlights ... ... altho in all seriousness they'll get their use ...

Those look good, except it appears that the camera phone is compensating automatically, which can camouflage differences, and at ~ 50 M, its harder to separate the men from the boys so to speak.

For some of these lights, the 50 M shots can look quite similar, but 200 M shots can appear completely different, etc.

The new equipment and tripods should help you a lot, but you did do a great job with the iphone, so don't feel bad!



Is there a way to get longer lines of sight?

TEEJ said:

Those look good, except it appears that the camera phone is compensating automatically, which can camouflage differences, and at ~ 50 M, its harder to separate the men from the boys so to speak.

For some of these lights, the 50 M shots can look quite similar, but 200 M shots can appear completely different, etc.

The new equipment and tripods should help you a lot, but you did do a great job with the iphone, so don't feel bad!



Is there a way to get longer lines of sight?

Click to expand...

Yeah I knew the iPhone wasn't capturing what I was seeing, but half of it I guess so thought I'd get started as am dying to get pics up.

Longer line of sight is a waste of time with the iPhone as I took a few of a tree about 100M away but they wasn't any good at all ...

I'll hopefully have the camera by early next week at the latest, maybe this week and I'll be replacing all of these pic's with better once I have them in my possession.

TEEJ said:

Those look good, except it appears that the camera phone is compensating automatically, which can camouflage differences, and at ~ 50 M, its harder to separate the men from the boys so to speak.

For some of these lights, the 50 M shots can look quite similar, but 200 M shots can appear completely different, etc.

The new equipment and tripods should help you a lot, but you did do a great job with the iphone, so don't feel bad!



Is there a way to get longer lines of sight?

Click to expand...

Iphone is not compensating (at least for the recent examples)
All were 1/16 second exposure, F2.4, ISO1600.

Paul , you should add the beamshot of you avatar it look amazing.

edgar said:

Paul , you should add the beamshot of you avatar it look amazing.

Click to expand...

Ok no worries! ...

Battersea Power Station in London, taken from the other side of the River Thames with my old Supernova HID (Maxabeam copy)...



Camera wasn't the best, but I wish I still had this flashlight as that thing threw a beam over a mile, and certainly as far as the eye could see!

Oh and thanks to Chodes for the hot tip ...

Ok, I grabbed a few more shots earlier, but will def wait till I've got new camera before posting more as like before we're not seeing heaps of difference, altho TBH there isn't heaps and heaps of difference anyway! Well, with the DDR30, TN30, and TK75 anyway.

I don't have a day shot for reference, but shed on the roof is 100 - 125M away.

Skyray King...



The Torch...



eBay 85W HID (HID throw well right?)



ThruNite TN30...



Jetbeam DDR30...



Fenix TK75...



TK-75 wins again! ...

All the decent flashlights would also reach the building closer to the top of the page and to the right a bit. They'd also reach the 3 towers top left.


That eBay 85W HID that's like 25 or so CM long. Well, that is gonna be given to a friend or something along with my other eBay flashlights as I'm REALLY seeing the difference now compared with these quality flashlights ...

I wish I took my Ultrafire 13800 lumen eBay with me. Probably wouldn't reach the hut! ...

Hmmmm, no comments ...

Ok.

Paul_DW said:

will def wait till I've got new camera before posting more as like before we're not seeing heaps of difference, altho TBH there isn't heaps and heaps of difference anyway! Well, with the DDR30, TN30, and TK75 anyway.

Click to expand...

Really now?

Ok, new camera arrived today and altho still playing about with manual settings, these were taken with F5.6 - 0.5 - ISO400 (will mean something to someone ... )

Tree in in my garden and only 20M from the camera so we won't see any throw here, but we DO see the quality flashlights pee all over the eBay specials, inc the 'so called' 13800 lumen one ...

Fenix PD32U...



Skyray King...



Another Skyray, so called 4000 lumens yet not as powerful as the 2000 lumen King ... ...



Fenix TK-41...



Ultrafire 'so called' 13800 lumens



The Torch...



ThruNite TN30...



Jetbeam DDR30...



Fenix TK-75...



I'll get another set from the footy field tomorrow night with new camera.

You are doing a great job!

BTW - the ISO number is analogous to how fast the film is...so, the higher the ISO number, the less light it takes to produce an equivalent brightness in the image...but, the more noise or grain, etc.

So a higher ISO will be brighter but potentially grainier, and the lower ISO will be darker, but higher resolution, etc.

You could bracket a few shots to see the differences in practice, and select the versions that match what you remember it looking like to your eyes, etc.

TEEJ said:

You are doing a great job!

BTW - the ISO number is analogous to how fast the film is...so, the higher the ISO number, the less light it takes to produce an equivalent brightness in the image...but, the more noise or grain, etc.

So a higher ISO will be brighter but potentially grainier, and the lower ISO will be darker, but higher resolution, etc.

You could bracket a few shots to see the differences in practice, and select the versions that match what you remember it looking like to your eyes, etc.

Click to expand...

Thanks! ... I am learning with camera's as altho I had a couple of decent ones a few years back, I was shooting in the day and never steered too far from the 'auto' setting to be honest.

Only thing is these shots aint capturing the side spill from these flashlights. The better ones have a heap of it, but it doesn't show in the pic's too well.

I think the TK-75 is simply too close for a pic without obliterating the centre of the shot! ...

I'll do a heap tomorrow night, but with just one flashlight. I'll try and play with the settings a bit and see if I can replicate what my eyes are seeing a bit better.

Still, am well happy with the camera and performance so far, and will be able to produce heaps better pics than with the iPhone ...

Paul_DW said:

Thanks! ... I am learning with camera's as altho I had a couple of decent ones a few years back, I was shooting in the day and never steered too far from the 'auto' setting to be honest.

Only thing is these shots aint capturing the side spill from these flashlights. The better ones have a heap of it, but it doesn't show in the pic's too well.

Click to expand...

Stick with it Paul these shots seem a lot better than your Iphone pics :thumbsup:
There is a heck of a lot less noise in these pics.

Norm

Norm said:

Stick with it Paul these shots seem a lot better than your Iphone pics :thumbsup:
There is a heck of a lot less noise in these pics.

Norm

Click to expand...

Yeah and you can actually see some differences now, unlike with the iPhone where I now see how half of the shots look the same!

As I say I'll play with settings again tonight as not quite convinced we're seeing EXACTLY what I'm seeing from my eyes. Maybe never gonna replicate that, but I feel we can get closer! ...

Cheers