LED Questions

E

explenture

Guest
I'm doing some research on LED v. traditional flashlights.

1. Is it true that LED's are less bright at a distance than regular flashlights?

2. Is it true to LED beams are less focued?

3. In general is is truer that LED lights are better closer and icandesent's farther?
 

SilverFox

Flashaholic
Joined
Jan 19, 2003
Messages
12,449
Location
Bellingham WA
Hello Explenture,

Welcome to CPF.

1. Yes with qualifications
2. Yes with qualifications
3. Yes with qualifications

With that said, the current group of LED lights are beginning to cross into the incandescent realm. With high powered LED's and good reflectors, there are LED lights that will out throw and are more focused than bulb lights.

If you check out the reviews forum, you will find listings of various lights along with some measurements of how far they will throw and some comments about the lights. That should get you started.

Tom
 

Harrkev

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 30, 2001
Messages
443
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
The real deal is that an incandecent bulb is close to a "point source" of light. It throws light off in ALL directions, and you can do anything that you want with it -- including using reflectors to generate a nice tight beam.

LEDs, on the other hand, come "pre-packaged." Due to the way that they are made, they only offer illumination over 180 degrees, max. Because they are encased in a tomb made of clear plastic, the shape of the LED housing can form a sort of lens. This means that LED light is not the "blank slate" that you get with an old-fashioned bulb.

Note that, with clever engineering, the package of the LED can serve to focus the light nearly as well as a reflector. But one problem with this is that the LED die (the chunk of semiconductor that glows) can be somewhat large when compared to the size of a xenon bulb fillament. This provides a sort of upper-bound on how well they can be focused. But, using clever engineering, LEDs are catching up!

Also, keep in mind the advantages of an LED light: relatively constant color (no "yellow beam of death'), more reliable, can be more efficient.
 
Top