Flashlights 101: Flooders vs Throwers, beam parts and optic types.
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- Опубліковано 25 вер 2021
- This was a video requested for people just starting to get into flashlights. What constitutes a flood flashlight vs a thrower? How does optic type effect that? Take a look at a sample of different lights I pulled to explain it all.
- Наука та технологія
There used to be a time where the C/D cell sized Maglite heads were about as large a head/reflector as you would want in a handheld flashlight before you start stepping into the lantern sized handle-based lights. Back in the early 90s, LED usage in handheld lights were primitive and OP reflectors were frowned upon. We used to mod Mag heads with Luxeons, created holders for CR123s to fit the C bodies, and hoped for the best. Acrylic reflectors didn't really come into play in the mods until Lumileds started to refine their 5W emitters. If your custom made Elektrolumens or ArcLS light back then could hit 300 lumens direct drive, you were considered lucky and hit the bin lottery. Nowadays, not only has optics come a long way, but the LEDs and driver options have made it a situation where it's not so odd anymore that you might carry around an Astrolux MF05 or an Antman on the other end and be totally fine with it because of what your usage necessitates. If you carried around a short arc McCulloch X990 back then, you were considered MIB or CIA and likely had the cops called on you.... Times have changed.
Love these Flashlight University videos... Such a good resource for the uninitiated! Your interest in what you're presenting and your passion for sharing it make it so engaging. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this!
this is a great presentation, thanks, i wish the companies would explain these things to the people.
This video was very useful! Thank you Cheule!
Thanks for making and posting this video. I am in the market for my emisar light and this As hoped a lot. I was going into this hoping that I would only buy one light. But now I'm in the market for a second already in the afternoon but the 1st period
Very nice review thank you for your time and information 👍
Thanks for watching!
Great video! I believe it is Laser* Excited Phosphor
Really great video, deserves more views
Much appreciated!
Great explanation video but i would strongly disagree on the zoom flashlights not being useful. My Convoy Z1 with the osram cslpm1 emitter is by far the best light i own. Can flood everything up to 50m when zoomed out and it can throw as far as 1.3km when zoomed in visible to the naked eye if you point it at a reflective rocky mountain peak. You can choose to have a round hotspot if you won't zoom all the way in and you will lose candela but it will still look like a Kr1 w1 or a w2. Since i got this Z1 my opinion about flashlights totally shifted. My best buddy who is a hiker and a landscape photographer has ordered one too after he tried all of my lights which is not a whole lot but i got a fair mix of beams. After extensive use he rejected: Sofirn sc31pro, Sofirn sp36pro, Wurkkos fc12, Noctigon Kr1 w2, Convoy L21A, Fenix PD35v2. He rejected all these traditional reflector lights to get the same Convoy Z1 cslpmn1 that i own. He considered it the most fun and useful light he ever handled
Great information for a newbie here. Thank you!
Mules are great for camping and use indoors or such as a portable lamp per se, and an orange peel reflector is great all round use outdoors at night if you don't need to blind someone or see if there's a person 200m away. A mule with optisolis would be pretty neat.. though TIR is something I only learned about today.
Dude great videos, I have been trying to find a video that has the beam shots of either a mix of 2 of these 3 noctigon models with the green emitter DM11, KR1, K1 and I believe it was on your channel but cant find the video. Do you have a beamshot video of any of these models with the green emitter? It was very specific about describing the spill with the green emitter.
Which convoy was that with the sbt90? L6 or l7? Ive been looking for my first sbt90 and convoy seems like a good host.
That is the L7 with SBT90.2
my opinion : thrower type are good for tactical task like assult or defence so it mostly one bulb， and flood type is good for searching ，mostly it include multi bulbs inside
I have a larger question about the impressive lumens that flashlights are now attaining. I want to get an extreme thrower with just enough spill to add context, like LEP lights and the K1 are not. The question is, what good is
More lumens = more candela (throw). So lights that can only turbo for a few seconds are still good at delivering more reach during that burst. Some times you need to see *just a little farther*.
I just recently got my first 4000 lumen flashlights (Nitecore T4K and an Olight Seeker 3 Pro). Before that, I had only used a 450 lumen Fenix and a 1000 lumen Nitecore SRT7, both of which I’ve used for many years, probably close to a decade or even more for the Fenix. I’ve found, now that I have 4000 lumens to draw from, that I rarely have a need for all those lumens (neither of these has a ton of throw, but they’re adequate - my 1000 lumen Nitecore actually has more throw even at 1/4 the lumens). In 95% to 98% of my use cases, I need 1000 lumens or less, and can get by often with probably 200-400 lumens just with a little more effort. The 4000 lumens is nice to have when you do need more light, but so far I haven’t had a need for that much light for more than the couple minutes they’ll put it out. I find that most of my need for that kind of brightness is “bursty”, not continuous. I expect only a few people will need that kind of brightness for an extended period of time. I could see first responder type applications would benefit from it, and there may be some working environments overnight or underground or in buildings where maybe it’d be useful to have that much brightness continuously for longer than a minute or two at a time, but it’s not going to be many people who really need that.
For me, it’s mostly been useful indoors so far, where I can just point it at the ceiling and it lights up the entire room almost like it’s daylight. It _looks_ daylight in a dark room, but actual daylight is way, way brighter. But it’ll illuminate an entire room from shining at the ceiling better than probably all the lights being turned on in the room will. So it’s useful if you need A LOT of light close up or down range for a minute to do something, and to show off, but otherwise most people will almost never truly need it in their lives.
Where would i get a good mule for taking pictures with my phone, i just ordered a Emisar d4k, it hadnt even arrived yet, should i ordder a second one as a mule?? I usally like my lights to be either 21700 or ladda AA, trying not to have a zillion battery types
Nice video to explain the different types of beams. So basically your needs would depend on distance and activity. I have been trying to find the perfect work light and driving myself insane. With this information it may make things a little bit less complicated. I do close up work so maybe a mule might be the best thing. I would need high cri, flat light so it doesn’t bounce back and blind me. About 3 hours capacity at 400-600 lumens. And preferably in front of me so there are no shadows. Also, if I attach it to my head a light weight would be nice. Wish me luck in my quest. Anyone have any suggestions? I seem to be having luck sticking a light on the brim of my cap and am currently looking actively for a good right angle headlamp. I did order an emisar light t 28:47 o try. Sst 20 4000k with a frosted optic. D4V2. Boosted driver. Maybe try it with no optic when I get it. So far my favourite light for my cap is an olight baton 3 pro in neutral tint and the best headlamp has been a sofirn D25L. I have a Wurkkos ts21 that is really nice but it’s a bit heavy to clip on my hat.
A mule D4W with no optic (or even the frosted optic) and boost driver is exactly where my head was going as I read your post, based on your requirements.
If that doesn’t work, would suggest two right angle lights, one off your left and one off your right to fill in the shadows the other one creates.
@@cheule yep. I will see how I like the D4V2 first. Then if I like it I will strap one to my head. Lol. With the boost driver of course so I don’t light my head on fire.
2 cautions about ALL non-optic lights (ie; mule). They cast discrete shadows. If that's not an issue then ok. But if you're looking for soft lighting you'll be sorely disappointed as the number of leds are multiple point sources that a photographer will notice quickly. You still must diffuse (scatter) the point sources or you get distinct shadows that will make images look like very low bit-depth photos. Frosted optic helps but in my experience you really need true diffusion. Hope this makes sense.
@@keansakata1015 I ended up buying an H04 RC, Lumintop HL3A, Firefly Mule PL47MU, Sofirn HS10, and an olight Perun Mini 2. The 16340 lights are great to wear because they are super light. They do not last long enough for my job. They die halfway through. The mule was great because it lights up a large area but it’s a bit heavy because it’s a 21700 battery. Run times are awesome though. It comes down to the Lumintop and the Skilhunt. The Lumintop is brighter but the Skilhunt lasts a long time. Most likely the Skilhunt is the most practical because of the versatility as far as battery type. The beam quality is excellent and the tint is very nice, 519a 4500k. I do like the form factor of the HL3A though. The Skilhunt headband is most likely the best out there. That’s a whole other topic.
Can emitters and lenses be changed on most headlamps such as Fenix, Sofirn, and Nitecore? If not, how does one know?
Not always, as the sizes of most optics and reflectors vary. Also the height of the emitter into the reflector matters for proper beam focus, so the centering gasket matters a lot.
@@cheule Do you possibly have any tutorials that go further into standardization and compatibility of these parts?
@@cheule I'll check out your video on emitter swapping!
what was the very tiny light? Sorry new to the hobby
Reylight pineapple mini
If I could put U in a corner for a second…If you were to give your opinion on ONE “tactical”, portable- (doesn’t have to be tiny..I rock tactical pants daily) -but you would trust your life on the dependability, functionality and most of all the ability to melt eyeballs in a flash and well enough to give you the upper hand 2 evade/defend. What would be your answer sir…I have several different EDC lights from surefire 2 Olight…but what would be the NIKI MANAGE, Ferrari, Lighty McLighterton, Fire stick of flash lights In your well respected opinion sir? Please O please this rabbit hole is just one I’m ready to get the heck out of…My wife kinda brought me to the light by making the point that “you only have 2 hands and 12 flashlights…money well spent.” But with your title as “THE FLASHLIGHT GURU”…yep that’s what I call you…I just know your opinion will let me finally sleep at night instead of endless UTUBE videos.
Your argument against unzoomed zoom lights based on dark adaptation is actually an argument against using throwers to look for things. At a 30-45 degree angle (common for looking for a dropped item) the relative difference between center and closest edge on an unzoomed light will be minimal, and left and right edges equal, whereas a thrower with sharp hotspot will still be many times brighter than the periphery and even the closest edge, reducing your search field of view. A super-floody beam pattern could be argued to be better, but, if you only have one light on you, why restrict yourself to a definite lack of throw availability?
(Sorry, great explanations otherwise, but the anti-zoom at the end just collapses into a mass of self-contradictions.)
Flashlights can make you nuts.....
I started that way.