Ok, beam shot… Success! Beautiful night, simply stellar. Crazy people going 50mph on the water at night, with no lights, no moon, insane. Other than that, I’m blown away with this TN42. Mind you, it’s not super bright out at a mile. And while my wife did capture it, she failed on the focus so you can’t actually read the print. :person_facepalming:
Here’s a shot from my 7DMkII with 70-200 at the same settings I use for beamshots on the little G1X on the other end of the beam… ISO1600, f/5.6, 1/2 second shutter.
I’ve circled the 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of typing paper in green, my wife is in a coral colored shirt with black pants to the left, also circled. You can actually see her black pants in the light from a mile away!
Here’s the same shot, no green circles so you can pick out the sheet of paper and my wife on your own…
Here’s from the G1X, same settings, right in front of/left of the sheet of paper, Mary swears this is as it appeared to her eyes.
And for kicks and grins, here’s the green laser on the sheet.
And here’s from my camera again, this time the 5DMkII full frame sensor with a 17-40mm wide angle, at 40mm, with the blue laser. Had to, the lake was so gorgeous. Millions of little minnows swimming right below the surface everywhere!
Interesting possibility, but exactly WHY does my Sportwagen need to go 150mph?
This green laser can put visible light on a cell phone tower over 2 miles away. Can’t imagine why I’d need it to do more. Am blown away that it does what it does, like this TN42! I don’t need to see anything a mile away, but I do like being able to see things half a mile away in such good light.
Not sure what you’re referring to in regards to light pollution. The lake was dark, dang near pitch black. The lights in the parking lot at the marina were not spreading far at all and walking out to where the sheet was set up on a tripod it was dangerously dark, without a light you couldn’t see where to step. In the first two pictures (same picture, one with guidance and one without, both full sized 20MP images) the illumination on the bank is purely the TN42. Without the light on, it’s black over there.
Edit: From the closest parking lot light to the target is about 60 yards.
I remember when I first got into this hobby - which was more than 5 years ago, it was extremely hard to have a 1km LED thrower, let alone a one-mile LED thrower!
My 55W Sanmak SM5200 HID spotlight does around 680~700kcd, and if I am living near with you definitely I would want you to bring along my HID spotlight to join this one-mile beamshot!
My wife complained about not being able to get the sheet in focus, I had the camera set up in manual focus but she said she couldn’t see it well enough to know if the focus was right and shining her headlamp on it blew it out and she couldn’t see any letters at all. When we got home and I saw what she had, I asked her if she realized about 5 stops of exposure adjustment would allow the headlamp to be properly exposed to adjust focus, then reverse the 5 stops and shoot away. She got mad at me for implying she doesn’t know what she’s doing. No win scenario right there.
Winds are up again of course, last night was a rare opportunity. Sorry folks, really really wanted a nice clear legible shot of that sheet.
Here’s a dark shot from my 5DMkII, 21MP full size image at 40mm on a full frame sensor. You’ll have to look at it full size after clicking on it to be able to see across the lake. The target was clearly in full dark no ambient.
I only wish I had a K70 to run beside it for a side by side comparison. Perhaps something like that will be more doable in the future.
Thank you for the kind words. Appreciate it. Went to a lot of trouble lining all that up, not very happy that I didn’t end up with a clear photo of the sheet. But it is what it is I reckon. Windy today. I’ll continue looking for a better place with object matter at relevant distances so various throw lights can show well against each other. I think I need a high ground start point, with everything from 200 yards on out easily shown so that various lights will fare well at the same site. Hmmmm……
I’d like to test my K70 like this. I looked at Google Earth and I have handy landmarks at 1 mile, 3/4 mile, and 1/2 mile. Moon doesn’t rise until near daylight and is almost new, so it’s very dark out in the field. I might give it a shot.
Thanks and it was always a test that I always wanted to see for myself actually.
Must be cool to see the other end of the beam to see what kinda light is hitting the target from very far away.
I gotta say, the thing that gets me is that it’s not a de-domed XP-G2 or something, you know, very small die surface and all that? It’s the XHP-35, the die surface of the 4 mated dies is comparatively large, and yet BAM! That’s the thing I think is amazing. Getting 2400+ lumens to push that far.
Neat video. I was really hoping to see some of the k70 vs tn 42 shots tho.
Hey Dale, are you considering modding the thing? Sounds like there’s room to up the amps since it doesn’t get hot too fast.
If we wanted to change out the driver, you think it’s possible?
Dale, have you checked what’s the PWM frequency? Is it used on all modes other than the highest?
Set your camera to a fixed shutter speed, wave the flashlight (or move the camera itself) in front of it until you get a good shot. Adjust ISO/fstop as needed. Multiply the number of distinct images by the inverse of the shutter speed to get the PWM frequency.
With my Canon G1X, Manual setting, 1/100th sec, varying f stops with each mode level, I get exactly ONE image. All modes.
Edit: For the smart alec’s out there, the one image has one single view of the flashlight, no ghosting, no secondary images. Flashlight waved back and forth while a 10 second timer counted down and snapped the shot.
And for the question about bumping output. The XHP-35 is a 12V emitter that is listed as having a max current of 2A. I have built one that is working at 3.13A but I know it’s got to be on the very edge of going POOF! Several other’s I know have had them fry at high 2.8-2.9A range.
Mine at 3.13A is making 2989 lumens, this TN42 is making 2463 lumens. So while there might be some small gains to be found, it would mostly be invisible to the naked eye. And since I don’t really relish messing up a proprietary driver on a new $200 light, I’m not playing around with it.
2463 lumens for 702.5Kcd and one mile throw suits me just FINE!
Beautiful night, simply stellar. Crazy people going 50mph on the water at night, with no lights, no moon, insane. Other than that, I’m blown away with this TN42. Mind you, it’s not super bright out at a mile. And while my wife did capture it, she failed on the focus so you can’t actually read the print. :person_facepalming:
