$100 100yd help

A friend asked me to find a light for him. I'm familiar with LEDs mainly and for what he asked, it's going to have to be incandescent only and I only have limited experience with various incandescents.

Requirements:

1. Light up a 20x20 campsite thats at least 100yds away brightly. He wants to see clearly whats going on at that distance.
2. Waterproof. Needs to be able to submerge a few feet in water.
3. Durable. Must be able to knock it around a little. (Yes, he understands the bulb could pop if he drops it onto a hard surface.)
4. Last at least an hour between charges and/or battery changes. 45 minutes is pushing it but acceptable
5. Around or under $100
6. Use alkalines or car charger

Of all the incandescent lights I know of personally, I was thinking that a Mag-Charger fits the bill. 1 hour of light to 50% with another half hour of dimminishing light. Tigerlight works for about 45 minutes to before dropping to nothing quickly. I think that might rule Tigerlight out.

Got any ideas, fellow incand CPF'ers?

TIA,
Jeff

the choices you have a good, and are what I would pick if I were him.

The other light the came to mind was the WA1166(I think), when driven with 12 AA's it lasts over an hour with output approaching that of the WA1185 with over an hour of output. If a 4D is not an issue, 4D+4 3AA-D+bulb+reflector+lens=17+20+10+25+7=79 dollars, and whatever NIMH AAs you want...

Thanks for the reply, 270. If he can't charge it in his car or just throw in some alkalines, it wont do. Good idea, though.

Jeff

Jeff,

Can't he use one of those 4x4AA charger with cigarette jack?
Can you loan him your Triton? If you could I can make a special pack for you with a plug charger.

The hardest problem is the combination of #2 & #6. Once you make the light submersible the cost goes well above $100.

A DC charger set-up for the Tigerlight (TL) and Magcharger (MC) will work well at 100 yards in pitch dark camp sights with no ambient lighting. My TL out throws my Surefire M6 outfitted with 500 lumen lamp assembly BUT the M6 offers good close to medium range work.

I have put my TL against a MC and the MC won in throw but has less side spill. I can't comment on the durability of the MC but my TL takes a beating and keeps on ticking. My TL has been thrown, dropped, used as a blunt object, and knocked up on so many times it has the scars to prove it. I blew a lamp once and had another lamp slowly burn away, but I had two lamps sent to me from TL (one replacement and another upgraded lamp) so I wasn't in the dark for too long and I had my trusty back-up (2 cell CR123, changed with time from Streamlight Scorpion, to Pelican M6, to Surefire E2e.)

I always try to prepare for stuff that happens. With incandescents there is a higher chance of blowing a bulb than LED's but it still happens (uhm, Murphy's law.) So, always have a back-up, and a back-up to the back-up, then have a light for last resort.

Water is an issue though. I don't think the TL or MC are waterproof, water resistant maybe, but not submersible. Maybe stick them into a Pelican case?

I would think going less than a MC or TL or even a 3 X CR123 light, will be going to be underpowered. I haven't been camping but been to a dark environment before and my SL TL-3 was way too bright (for close-up day to day work, but was nice for building clearing), it could light up the side of a building at 150-200 yards but not too well (more of a 10X10 space vs. 20X20 space), wished I had my TL with me. Most of the time I had night vision goggles but they were more of a burden becaus I had to mount them to my face.

So maybe a MC/TL with a Streamlight TL-3 or possibly a TL-2 as back-up (with some spare 123's) seems to be what I would go with.

I don't know about the MC lighting up a site brightly at 100 yards. I've got one with a WA1160 and I don't think it'll do that. That's a ways out there. You might be better off with a spot light with a good sized reflector.

For the waterproof requirement you might look at diving spotlights. Doesn't the LightCanon run about an hour?

-LT

Lunal_Tic said:

Doesn't the LightCanon run about an hour?
-LT

Click to expand...

More like three to four hours. But, it's a pain in the rear to carry around, and it's $60 over-budget. If you do go for that, I'd suggest getting the other handle for it (top mounted lantern handle) makes it much easier to carry for long periods.

At 100 yrds, he needs to be able to see if someone is snooping around his camp or wild animals are walking around. I suggested the UK Light Cannon to him but the price was more than he was willing to pay.

The light mainly has to be heavy rain resistant.

If I could get a spotlight that could withstand a bit of water that would be perfect. Too bad Thor has all those holes that water can get into.

Jeff

Thor!!!!

Thor in a baggie?

-LT

For a submersible light the PT Shockwave II seems to be a good choice.
Don`t know if it reaches 100 yards, though.
Flip switch for choosing 7.5watts or 15watts, burn time 4-10 hours, uses 8c cells, 100-200 lumens, price 55.- USD.
Light-edge.com sells them at a discout for only 41.25.

Streamlight Vulcan? They have nice throw and I am pretty sure that for even more power they can take the 20W LiteBox bulbs. They are very water resitant and more than meet his runtime requirements. You can get the whole setup for less than 100 bucks.

LighttheDarkness.com Vulcan Standard System

I noticed it isn't in stock here, so perhaps a call or email would be in order.

Fox International is another good retailer for this product.

Also you might try Tyler Tool, They have an excellent price but I have never dealt with them.

Pelican Big D SLA? (as in the complete light itself not the hotwire incandescent hacking we've done with its bulbs )

http://www.brightguy.com/detail_int.php?Sku=PEL3850071245

At $116 it's a little bit on the pricey side, but that light is a monster.

OK, now we are getting somewhere. For the price of a Vulcan with a 20W Litebox assembly, you can get the Litebox with 20W Spot for more runtime. The Princeton Tec Shockwave II has 2 levels of output but I don't know if 15W flood will have 100yd illumination power.

So the choices so far

1. Mag-Charger (you can carry extra battery sticks) $90
2. Streamlite Litebox with 20W Spot $105
3. Princeton Tec Shockwave II 7.5~15W flood $50 (enough power??)

I still have a couple of days before I see him again. So which of these do you think will fit the job best?

Jeff

The Litebox weighs 7.4 pounds though. That may be a consideration. The Vulcan is much lighter and still gives excellent runtime for a rechargable.

The 7.4lbs is not a problem, I dont think, I'll have to ask.

Has anyone ever used a Pelican Big D? I can't seem to tell if its 24W or 8W.

Jeff

Hello Jeff,

My Pelican Big D Rechargeable (Sealed Lead Acid) has two lamps. One is a 24 watt and the other is 11 watts.

Tom

Ok, the word from Streamlight is that the vulcan CANNOT use the 20W bi-pin. I am not sure if that is true or if they would just prefer that you didn't use it.

Oh, never mind. It wasn't a good idea anyhow.