Beam shots

Since I don't have a lot of lights it is rare to be able to look at a beamshot comparing "A" to "B" since I have neither.
I rarely shine my flashlight on a wall and rarer still is my need to do so. It is also hard to tell if the light is 2 or 20 feet from the wall.
Same goes for trees.

Needless to say I'm not happy with most beam shots.

I'd like to see some useful easy to use standards be suggested.

Cars come to mind. Most cars are "about" the same length and we can tell if it's a big or little car.

So a beam shot would consist of going out side and shining the light on your car from a distance of 10, 20, 30, ..., 500 feet, depending on the intended use and power of the light. Maybe even 3 feet if it's a small light.

Thoughts?

Forget it.
Beam shots are terribly difficult as is, because:

- the dynamic range of the camera can't cope with a bright hotspot and a dim corona, not on a white wall and not outside
- setting up a controlled experiment to properly compare two lights is difficult but barely doable inside
- we have too many variable that influence the results, and eliminating every single one of them is a PITA: luxeon lottery, lenses, reflective system, driver, the wall, the camera, ...

Now ... if you want it outside you can add:

- find your car that is parked in an absolutely dark spot
- that won't move because you'd need the same car for subsequent shots
- color problem ... you won't see the color of the light or the color might influence your perception of the light
- you will only see hotspots because most digicams cannot capture coronas outside AND because the coronas will be much bigger than your car, and will get lost.
- it might be cold outside, and this will take a while
- it is a PITA to transport all the lights and equipment there, and people might look at you in a strange way
- you are depending on the moon, the stars and the pollution in the air
- what if others would like a house? or don't like cars or don't have one nearby?

So ... forget it.

Agreed on the issue about beamshots severly lacking in some areas, but unless we have better, we'll have to live with what we have.
I also think we should be thankful for every effort that is made to provide info, even if it is more or less flawed.

bernhard

P.S.: look at the Superlights Shootout ... there you will find what you seek except that they are shooting trees most of the time. And try to understand the tremendous work this one involved before trying to work out standards that might surpass even this fabulous shootout. Or we might end up without any beamshots at all ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

You might check out the shootouts at flashlightreviews.com Quickbeam did a pretty fair job in these comparisons and photos. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Shootout 1
Shootout 2

http://www.jtice.com/bsdb /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Its hard to do really,
I personally like both,, do a nice white wall shot at 12 feet or so, and then do a long distance outside shot with trees, fences, cars etc.

That will give you a great feel for what the lights are really like.

Mike, I agree completely, a splodge of light on a wall 6 feet away means nothing to me.
However a fence / car etc at 30 feet is better when you compare one light against the other and it doesn't matter if it isn't completely dark or on weather conditions etc as it's the same for all the lights as long as your not their ages.
I suppose thinking about it each has its advantage doing a tree at 30 feet in a group test is only relevent on that test and you cannot compare one test against another due to varying conditions.
A reviewer who gets one light at a time is probably best doing the inside test to keep conditions the same although I personally would still like to see a decent lenght shot.