Photo of 5 small flashlights.

I thought you guys might be interested.

5_flash

Flashlights were 7" away from wall at the height of 30" while camera (Canon Powershot A50) was 27" away from wall at the height of 55".

This is my first try capturing light with a digital camera and I think picture was pretty close to how my eyes see them.

UK4AA is really my favorite with its bright smooth beam of light that gradually dim to the edge, unlike the Streamlight 4AA and TEC-40 with rings that interchange with a dim and bright circles.

Streamlight Syclone although bright is at the bottom of beam quality with distortions caused by its reflector and lens.

Bison is somewhat similar to UK4AA but UK4AA has the smoother beam of light.

I'll try to take pictures of lights at the distance of 20 feet from target to show dimmer rings, smoothness, and width of each flashlight. Looking for a big room with big wall for this.

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2d_edge

Cool! Someone else besides me is doing it. Ya To me it is really the best way to compare the different lights intensity. I think you could speed up the shutter a bit. I know it is one of those things that if you speed it up it makes the TEC 40 look really dim. That is the problem I have right now.

Brock

Cool. I'm surprised the Bison looks very similar to the UKE 4AA. Makes me want to get one. Do you know if it uses a T1 bulb?

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"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"
-Nordic proverb

Here's another shot of flashlights.

6-flash@20ft

I went to the basement and took photos of 6 flashlights aimed to a door 20 feet away.

I'll try to take another shot of these lights using a SLR camera.

DavidW... sorry I don't know what a T1 is but according to Bison FAQ "In a pinch, you can use many small 3 volt bi-pin bulbs,".

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2d_edge

<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by 2d_edge on 10-07-2000 at 08:30 PM</font>

A big thanks from me too. I agree that shots like these are very helpful for people who do not have certain lights to compare them to lights that they do own. I especially appreciate the second shot with the 6 lights at 20 feet. That shot proves how great the Scorpion is.

Thanks also to Brock for his page and his new addition of a shot with the Surefire 12PM. After seeing the comparison of the 12PM and the P61, I have to get a 12PM. I did not realize exactly how bright it was until Brock's photo.

Thanks again to both of you for the shots,

Bucky

Here's another shot of flashlights at 20 feet.

3-flash@20ft

Maglite 4C, UK-SL4, and Streamlight Scorpion.

Bucky.... that Surefire photo by Brock convinced me to buy SF-9ZM and SF-12ZM. Should be here by next week.


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2d_edge

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>In a pinch, you can use many small 3 volt bi-pin bulbs, but you will experience significant loss of brightness and beam quality compared to the proprietary Bison bulbs. By the way, spare bulbs are available from your retailer or directly from us, and are very reasonably priced.

-Bison faq<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I take this to say that uses the somewhat popular T1 bulb size. Which means it can be used in the Mini-Maglite. That would, with premium AA alkalines, make a very bright light that won't pull your pants down at the belt. Cool. One more thing to try. I'll have to try a Bison light too. But with $100+ LED lights planned for order I'll have to wait.

Thanks for the pictures.

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"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"
-Nordic proverb

DavidW... I replaced the Bison bulb with a Maglite 2AA bulb, it works but I cannot get rid of the layering circle beam of light and not as bright as the Bison bulb. Now I know what a T1 bulb is.



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2d_edge

I'm sorry I didn't explain further when I first posted. T1 is a bulb standard. Defining demensions and capacities. Like HPR52 defines a Halogen bulb with a PR base and certain voltage/amperage draw.

Not all T1 bulbs are alike as you found out. They can have different gas fills or vacuum (the most common) and different volt/amp ratings. Also the filamint makes a huge difference in beam quality. I found this out after using Carley Lamps Xenon Star bulbs.

I always thought the poor beam quality in Maglites was due to the plastic reflectors. Carley slipped me enough bulbs with excellent enough construction to give me great beam quality in some of the lights. Unfortunately their bulbs are not consistant.

I think I'll try the Bison bulb in a AA Mini-Maglite. The Brinkmann bulb provides very bright light but I can always use something brighter

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"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"
-Nordic proverb

This is Brilliant!

2d_edge, you are helping to develop a new way of comparing flashlights!

From the first photo, I'm thinking UKE 4AA.

From the 2nd photo, I see how the Scorpion beats the non Lithium flashlights no contest.

From the 3rd photo, I can see how the Scorpion beats the UKE SL4, not to mention the Mag.

It'll be great to see some SureFire flashlights compared this way too.

Keep up the great work!

Alastair

P.S.

I tend to write UKE rather than UK cos to me living in England, UK is the United Kingdom.

DavidW... forgot to tell you that Maglite 2AA bulb will work with Bison, but Bison bulb will not work with Maglite 2AA because Bison's bulb will not fit thru Mag 2AA's reflector hole. They're the same in overall length, pins are the same, except for bulb diameter.. Bison's bulb is bigger.

Size15s... I'll do the Surefire comparison shot soon as they arrive. Placed an order for a SF-9Z (P90 & P91) and SF-12ZM and they should be here within this week.

I'm still looking for a big empty room with big wall to clearly show flashlight's full center and peripheral beam of light at 20 to 40 feet including the rings layering around the center beam, and a Friday or Saturday night of flashlighting and beers with friends. I'm thinking of Pelota or Squash indoor playing courts with their big walls.


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2d_edge

<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by 2d_edge on 10-10-2000 at 11:23 PM</font>

Another shot of flashlights using slow shutter feature of camera.

6 4AA Flashlights

4 Flashlights

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2d_edge

<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by 2d_edge on 10-14-2000 at 12:43 PM</font>

Yes pepopl.. new photos (regular & led) are shots taken using the same slow shutter speed, camera has only 2 modes of shutter speed.. regular and slow. Software (Paint Shop Pro) was used only to reduce size of photos for the photo collage.

I have not seen a LED flashlight that can match brightness of regular flashlight, but I have not seen a regular flashlight that can match the durability and long burn-time of LED flashlight.


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2d_edge

sorry, but, criticism of 2d edge's photos :
as a photographer and appreciator of light both incidental and reflected I couldn't help noticing that any part of the flashlight's hotspot hitting the white wall surrounding the dark brown door bounces back into the hallway illuminating it brightly. A hot spot that is contained fully by the width of the door is not reflected and looks darker.
I notice that in both sets of photos that include the Scorpian, the Scorpian's hotspot is skewed to the left where a large portion of it is obviously reflected back ino the hallway, like a mirror, almost, making it look much brighter...
I suggest going outside at night and shining them all on a larger, flat, even density, (meaning same-colored) surface. Got a barn?

Ted is right! That is the reason I'm scouting for a large empty room with big wall or indoor Pelota playing court to capture full size of beam of light and prevent distortions caused by reflections bouncing from the walls of the small confines of photo area.



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2d_edge

2d_edge & Brock,

I just like to say that whilst I'm all for this method of comparing flashlights, there are many factors influencing the results. One of these may even be the temperature which could effect the flashlight and/or the camera(!)

But, I realise that there are limitations, with each flashlight having slightly different lamp/reflector/lens/batteries which can combine to influence the results. The camera, and the surface the beam is shone on are also important. It's also great to see close-up, "room distance" (close range) and long range photos as the beam changes with distance.

Above all, these photos give indications, suggestions which are far more valuable than Candle Power ratings or even Lumens for that matter.

So whilst I would like to see photos which have tighter controls on the setup, I'm not expecting strict scientific methods from 2d_edge or Brock. I would expect such from Flashlight Manufacturers!

Well done you two. Keep up the excellent work. Have fun too (I suppose we are the few among many who actually shine our flashlights for "fun"! Each to their own! )

Alastair

They all look right on for what I would expect. The new shots are easier to compare the output of the lights in this one and the LED's as well. Much fancier than my shots

Brock

2d_edge, are these last comparisons with regular flashlights taken with the same exposure time as the most recent LED comparisons? Are the regular flashlights really that much brighter than even the best LEDs? I'm just getting into flashlights, and I think this is all really intriguing.


pepopl

2nd edge; I think you have done an outstanding job of initial brightness testing of flashlights!! I hope you can find a larger test area and would suggest that you put some target, such as a sheet of newspaper, so that illumination can be better measured.

There are a host of difficulties with trying to perform a comparison such as you are doing. One problem is that the camera CCD (if digital) or film (if standard) may not be the same sensitivity at different color temperatures. This means a light which is brighter than another, but the color temperature is one to which the camera is less sensitive, may appear less bright than it is.

For example, sunlight is about 5800 K, but the Carley Xenon Star lamp is only about 3000 K. The KSR rechargeable lamps are even a lower temperature. This actually fooled my naked eye, as the whiter (higher color temp) Krypton Star Alkaline lamp (the predecessor to the Xenon Star) looked brighter than the KSR lamp, even though the KSR lamp was in reality, a lot brighter. I had to take the flashlights outside at night and see how well they could pick out objects in the trees to determine that the yellower light was actually brighter than the bluer light.

To try and compare pics taken from two different cameras is fraught with problems. The two cameras may have different sensitivities to light due to different effeciencies of the lenses, as well as the aforementioned sensitivity of the light detection device. Even if the two cameras are set for the same apeture and shutture speed. Another thing is that some cameras can be adjusted for maximum sensitivity to various color temperatures. My digital camera, for example, can be left to auto adjust the white, or can be manually be set to sunlight, tungsten or fluorescent light.

This is why I am glad to see that one person is testing several flashlights at one time in one place. It would be helpful if any aberrancies in the photos could be mentioned. For example, 'you know flashlight xyz looks a lot brighter (or dimmer) in the pictue than it does to my eye.' This would be a tip off to a technical problem.

I think that we are off to a good start here, and a lot more information about a flashlight's brightness and beam shape and comparison can be obtained from the pictures here than from any manufacturer's information. Good job!

Walt

Thanks for the compliment and suggestions Walt!

I'm still looking for the big room to compare and photograph different flashlights beam of light. It's kind of difficult to locate a place to do this stuffs. At first I fancied the idea of shining the big guns (Sure-Fire 12ZM and LSI Nite-Tracker 3800) down the street across the other block and take photos. Decided against it, gang-bangers down the block might return my beams of light with flashes of their own. Going to the park at night with all this expensive stuffs? No way!! I'll ask my friends in the suburbs if they can find a nice, quiet, safe place for a night of flashligthing.

Other flashlight photos I'm planning to do are shots of battery and bulb run-time of flashlights. Have to buy a digicam with time-lapse capture for this. I have to choose between these digicams which I think are the only models with time-lapse capture;

Panasonic PV-DC 3000
Ricoh RDC-7
Kodak DC-290
Kodak DC-265
Kodak DC-220
Minolta Dimage EX 1500 Zoom

I chose Kodak DC-290, got it from amazon.com and it's now in transit according to UPS package tracking. How I wish they could have included time-lapse capture feature in Canon EOS-D30.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, I appreciate your help guys. Your comments and suggestions help improve my method in photographing flashlights for comparison photos.


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2d_edge


<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by 2d_edge on 11-02-2000 at 12:02 PM</font>