Challenge Week #3: Throwers Only! Got Throw??

Thrower: A light with a beam profile which concentrates most of the output into a center "hot spot", to send more intensity far down range for distant illumination. The D and C cell Maglites are well-known examples of this type of light.

Good for lighting things far away; not so good for lighting things that are only a few feet in front of you, since the spill beam tends to be overpowered by the much brighter hotspot, which is very small at close range.

The Challenge: This week, use only "thrower" types of lights! It can be any number of lights, any output range, but the lights used must all have the "thrower" beam profile.

Techno-babble:

Don't base this on lux numbers alone! Many recent lights have high lux numbers just because they have a huge lumen output, but the beam profile is actually more of a flood light! The beam profile of a thrower should look more like this:

TK20


TK12


Stock SureFire 6P incan module (6V) in a SolarForce host


These old-school examples should give the idea. There are many lights out there right now being marketed as "throwers" but if you look at their Lux-to-Lumen ratio, it's actually less (often significantly less) than the lights above. For example, the TK20 has been measured at about 6000 lux on its 150 lumen output. So Lux/Lumen = 40. You can use that as a rough guide to see how effective any given "thrower" really is.

Many newer lights that I checked have ratios more like 15 lux/lumen, so a true thrower may be harder to find than you think!

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The challenge this week will make us get creative at using a thrower beam for all tasks, not just long range/outdoor use. Using beam modifiers (diffusers, tape, etc) is NOT allowed. --edited to change this from original post, after reconsideration; see later posts below.

Rules list can be found in the first post here (I added an item as an addendum to the original set):

Link to Thread with Rules List

That's it! Have fun!

Hmm... this is going to be a tricky one for me :thinking:

Almost all my throwers are for outdoor use so I haven`t changed the emitters to a more pleasant tint <4000k except for my SF11 and that`s a nice 3500k, but it`s Big! the FT03 is out the question, the C8 is like 5000k so out the question as well, a LEP would be silly! and my FF4 HID would be annoying because of the warm up delay.
I can do the Surefire p60 dropin though! and maybe use the Original Mk1 Manker E02 with the reflector, or maybe swap the carclo lens in my d4v2 out for the narrow beam one that I don`t use. I have a 2D mag halogen but again, it`s Big!
I have a 26650 Zoomie that I did a nice 4000k emitter swap with, if zoomies are allowed? (I can`t beleive I just admitted to owning a Zoomie in public! )

I really need to think hard about this one.

Hm.. Since I just used my 6P in the first challenge, it would be boring to rely on it again for this one. All depends on whether or not you consider the Fury (15/500) a trower or not. I certainly would. It throws further then many 1000 lumen lights Ive seen. Since I got it not too long ago, this would be a good opportunity to give it some more use.

Excellent! I guess I'll probably be using Surefire E1B and L1 a lot this week. The Aviators are pretty throwy too... I'll try to post some pics.

I have three lights with throwy profiles: a Convoy C8 XM-L2 with OP reflector, one M2 SST-20 with smooth, and an S2+ SST20 with smooth as well. All three have pencil beams, but I don't know their lux/lumen ratio and have no way of measuring it.

EDIT: You know what, heck, I'll do this one with those three. Even if one doesn't technically match the specs, at least it can be in the spirit of things :naughty: And it will be a welcome break from the pure flood of the EDC01. I'm missing having a hotspot in my beam by now.

I'll get started at sunset, as per last week. 7-day streak, incoming!

Pencil beam week will be like freestyle week for me. Flooder week would be the one where I'd struggle with in stock items.

Time to dust off those Luxeon lights.


Good week to get my mind wrapped around this tiny tosser.
Manker T01. T is for tosser.
Long press for off freaks me out everytime. It's how it ended up in my collection. The previous owner haaaaaaaaated the interface and sent it to me. It's one of those 8355 lumen numbers for 12 seconds on a special battery that settles to a normal output after that. I stuck a Rayovac in it and giggle like a second grader after burping the national anthem when it lights up my neighbors shed 300 feet away.

+

I still have an original Dereelight DBS from '07 == Crazy deep reflector & upgradable 'pills' like in P60 lights
That was one of the very first true led throwers & it seems like yesterday I was emailing Alan at Dereelight about new pills . Fun time with lights for sure.

{without doing a google search, who knows what DBS stands for}

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?177261-Dereelight-DBS-review!

I'm reconsidering the statement about allowing temporary mods to a light for beam diffusion; seems like that defeats the point of the exercise.

What do you guys think, should the requirement be that the beam has to remain unmodified for the week? No diffuser, no scotch-tape, no nuthin'?

:thinking:

well I`v stuck a 6v Surefire P-61 in my Seraph just to be on the safe side (at least I`ll have something nice I can use), and I do have an awefull lot of DC-Fix equiv here and frosted fIlters, so I dunno, it would be in my best interests to say "Allow it" so I`ll leave it to others and abstain from giving an opinion.
Either way, I think my Surefire incan and modded SF11 will be my carry this week, at least that`s what I`v decided so far

it`s quite a timely challenge really, because we`re having some Snow here and as everyone knows, Throwers and Snow are a match made in heaven!

A Throw Challenge is for use for lights only in a throw configuration, no diffusers. These challenges are meant to be specific...if I didn't have the light that fit the challenge I'd just skip that week.


I have my Thrunite TN4A HI that throws over 450m that I'll be using this week.

Stress_Test said:

I'm reconsidering the statement about allowing temporary mods to a light for beam diffusion; seems like that defeats the point of the exercise.

What do you guys think, should the requirement be that the beam has to remain unmodified for the week? No diffuser, no scotch-tape, no nuthin'?

:thinking:

Click to expand...

I say don't allow nuffin'. If you use workarounds to make your thrower floody, you might as well be using a flooder.

Besides, who needs adaptations when throwers are so marvelous at ceiling bounce?

Sounds like the zoomy is verboten as well.

When performing close up uses the intensity of a thrower may become annoying due to self blinding. So take the case of the Luxeon lit Maglite solitaire (the 37 lumen one) that intense hot spot would be too extreme for peering into a usb port looking for dust. And with no way to lessen the output that one would not be ideal for the folks who only carry one light.

Ok, so how about this? A snoot to turn a flooder into a thrower? The home made snoot eliminates all spill. But is it acceptable for this challenge? Just thinking out loud.

Okay, I've edited the opening post to say that a diffusing mod is not allowed. Wasn't considering the implications last night when I wrote that part!

bykfixer said:

Sounds like the zoomy is verboten as well.

When performing close up uses the intensity of a thrower may become annoying due to self blinding. So take the case of the Luxeon lit Maglite solitaire (the 37 lumen one) that intense hot spot would be too extreme for peering into a usb port looking for dust. And with no way to lessen the output that one would not be ideal for the folks who only carry one light.

Ok, so how about this? A snoot to turn a flooder into a thrower? The home made snoot eliminates all spill. But is it acceptable for this challenge? Just thinking out loud.

Click to expand...

Just saw this.. I think we gotta go with un-modified beams for this challenge. However, multiple lights and multiple modes are allowed. So, if you've got a thrower that has a moonlight or 5 ~ 10 lumen mode, that'll help for close range work.

As for "zoomable" lights; well, if that's the only thrower a person has, I think that'd be okay so long as they dial it for a throw beam only, and don't use it in flood mode. Not ideal, but I guess we can allow it.

I really enjoyed the last two, but this one I will have to sit out. I favor balanced beams, leaning toward flood. My only true thrower is too large for pocket duty. I will enjoy using some of my favorite lights again this week as I cheer you on from the sidelines.

nbp said:

I really enjoyed the last two, but this one I will have to sit out. I favor balanced beams, leaning toward flood. My only true thrower is too large for pocket duty. I will enjoy using some of my favorite lights again this week as I cheer you on from the sidelines.

Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat.

I've got a few modern throw-y lights in inventory - Emisar D1, Emisar D1S, and a Manker Mk41 - and a few older lights - Pelican M6 3W, a no-name aespheric, a 35W HID spotlight that's sat idle for a decade, at least one more.

But my daily use cases call for flood. Even the Emisar D4/D4S stock optics are a bit too tight for dog-walking, around the house, project work. If I've got to reach out to 20m+ I'll use brute force for a few seconds, but >95% of the time I need perhaps 5m of useful illumination.

My EDC is a 1 cell max vision number that I put a water bottle cap over to reduce the intensity of the hot spot. I really don't consider it a thrower anyway. Like with other challenges that one is a work light. So it still goes with me, even though I don't use it for recreational or general use purposes. It's used whenever work requires it.

My Bones and Bravo AVS have 3 distinct beams. A tiny hot spot, a milder but still intense outter ring to accent the tiny hot spot and a 3rd intensity for a broad spill. So that one is tricky to decide without doing some math to come up with a ratio. So I'll forgoe using those for this one. To replace those, again the Pentagon eX2 with M60T will get the call.

This is going to be fun and challenging! Back to the old standby of the cupped hand over the bezel as an improvised diffuser. Safe to assume that's acceptable?

this should be interesting

I say YES !