40 metre beamshots - Lots of large pictures

I had a nice break in a very peaceful place. One nice thing about being so far from the road is that you couldn't hear the traffic. Here's the assistant checking out the little remaining icy snow.

I took a few lights (126 of them to be precise)

Checked out some of the wildlife - red squirrels are seriously endangered here - someone imported American grey squirrels in the nineteenth century and they are displacing the reds. They carry squirrel-pox which is fatal to reds and harmless to greys. In my city the greys have displaced the reds in the last twenty years - in the shire they are feeding contraceptives to every grey squirrel they can find.

But enough of "What I done on my vacation"

I tried for some 385 metre (1250 feet) beamshots but the camera's sensor refused to pick up hotspots I could see clearly.

This was the first test range. The green firs are 385 metres away according to Google Earth. The river Don (Which is as high as I've ever seen it) is between the first two power poles.

Here's the little tripod arrangement I used to hold the lights on target. It turned out to be too floppy for the job.

Anyway, here's a result from one of my most powerful lights, the EastwardYJ J06 with an XM-L. The third power pole is roughly 200m away. I could clearly see the hotspot on the trees at 385m but ever-increasing exposures didn't help.

So I gave up on that approach and moved off into the trees. I found a nice fire-break. The branch on the ground with the faint red writing on it is a measured 40 metres (130 feet).

So on to the shots - there was little moon and the nights were clear and very cold. The nearest light pollution is around 25km away.

Control - not a lot of light. I found my Zebralight H50 on low (around 3 lumens) was perfectly adequate for taking notes of which shot was which - and in fact for wandering through the forest.

So here's what 66 lumens, the H50 on high (With a lithium AA primary) looked like on the test range. The exposure was set for the much more powerful lights. It is not a thrower, nor is it intended to be. You can see that what beam there is is wider than the camera's field of view.

Varapower 2000 (SST-90 driven hard) on maximum - measured at over 1500 lumens. 4C NiMH in a 3D body.

You can clearly see the branch at 40 metres and the point where the ridge drops away at around 55 metres (180 feet)

KD RQ Raidfire Spear clone on high (Cree XR-E Q5 or R2). You can clearly see the pencil beam of the dedicated thrower - and the almost complete lack of spill. This is the throwiest light I have. Its output is not enormous but it'll push that pencil spot for over 1000 feet. If I don't say otherwise, all these lights are single 18650s.

Lumapower MRV High (Again an XR-E - a Q5 I think)

Fusion 36 dropin in a Mag 3D (Running 3D NiMH). I didn't find this one too useful for huge black dog spotting amongst the trees or on open ground - the throwers did it a lot better in the open ground (Usually the HS-802) and the LT3 on level 1 or 2 amongst the trees.

Piritlight SG-L8 high. Yet another Raidfire Spear clone - this one with an MC-E in it making about 550 lumens. It doesn't throw as well as the RQ but puts out a lot more light.

Romisen RC-T6 High - 6xXR-E Q5 (Or Q3 or something). Mine does around 840 lumens from memory. Throws out to about 35 metres. 2x18650

Solarforce Skyline 1 - Yet another XR-E thrower - a bit underpowered. This is with two CR123 primaries. Again a typical thrower with little or no spill.

EastwardYJ J06 (Cree XM-L T6)

Uniquefire HS-802 with an XM-L T6 and a 3A driver. The LED is mounted off-centre, well nobody ever accused me of being a neat worker.

Romisen RC-T5 4x Cree XR-E Qsomething 2x18650

Aurora AK-P7 High - this was my first P7 light and is still pretty respectable in output (around 430lumens)

Yezl S5 Cree XP-G R5 14500 high. A nice light, but it gets too hot. It is the same body as the Trustfire F22 which is a better balanced light - and I still miss mine...

My only XP-G R4 dropin. It used to be a five-mode but it turned out not to be capable of handling 8.4V and is now a single mode.

DX P7 dropin, high. This is the $23.49 one they've been selling since the P7 appeared.

M bin MC-E dropin high - this one is bright, the brightest MC-E I have.

Mr.Lite J4 XM-L and reflector mod. High. 14500

Golston 7W. A Chinese Lixeon 3 clone LED. Crazy bright in its time, 5-6 years ago. Runs on two 16340's. There are lots and lots of clones of this one around. Some claimed as much as 18W output.

Manafont XM-L T6 dropin high.

Ultrafire C303 High. XP-G R5

Aurora SH-034 High. 16340. Probably the best-made light of all the ones I own. Cree XR-E R2

Mr.Lite LT3 Mode 5 (XP-G R5 16340)

Romisen RC-C6 zoomie at high full zoom (16340)

Romisen RC-C6 full flood - this one is an XR-E Q3

Aurora SH-032 High

Ultrafire RL-118 - An Osram running on a 16340

Trustfire R5-A3 from the first batch with the silly high "low" level/ 14500/XP-G R5 high

Ultrafire C3 R5 14500

KD XM-L T6 dropin high

Trustfire TR-801 with the TIR optic from a Mr.Lite J4.

Trustfire Z1 high (16340 - Cree XP-E)

I can do the mediums and lows if anyone wants them.

nice Don!

man the xml drop-ins are awesome in that setting..is your kd drop-in still with the OP reflector?

Pity I hadn't made the exposure shorter, this just shows that pretty much all of them can do 40 metres.

It's completely stock apart from a KD coated lens instead of the original one that came with the body.

Wow! Impressive selection of shots here, Don. That must have been a lot of fun. And a lot of work too in order to take so many controlled shots.

This post is going sticky. Thanks for your time on this!

Great post really enjoyed looking at those beamshots. Thanks for posting them. The XMLs really just put out a ton of light, huge spill and still pretty good throw. I love using my nailbender XML/L2P light, but have to admit I have more fun with my MPP-1/L2. That thing just throws like crazy.

I reckon that throw is a lot less of an issue after 600 lumens which all the XM-Ls can hit with ease. In what is essentially a tunnel between the trees, they are actually too bright - the 3 lumens from a Zebralight H50 on low was plenty. Much over 100 lumens in that sort of environment just dazzles you. Though I must confess to having a huge grin and a 1500 lumen light with me as the assistant and I wandered through those trees at night.

yeah 40 meters for sure..I use a smooth reflector on my kd and it turned it into a pretty good thrower with a defined hotspot..much like the manafont beam profile..worthy upgrade..

Don - Thanks for all your hard work, I really enjoyed reading that, cheers

It was actually fun to do, if a bit chilly. I need to find a slightly longer range area though, for those lights 55 metres wasn't enough. I've never had much luck with beamshots with my DSLR but need to give it another try the next time I'm up there.

Which will be after I fix my exhaust.

Wow Don, thanks for all the beamshots/work. For those of us with little to no collection of lights, this helps out a lot. What host are you using for the Manafont XM-L drop-in?

Nice shoots Don.

Can you re-roder then with the Xm-L ,xpg and xre etc.

Thanks Don! I'm glad you and the assistant are having lots of fun. That area reminds me a lot of Alaska but with a whole lot less snow.

Solarforce L2m with a KD coated glass lens. If you've had the light a while, the coated lens gives you something like two brightness bins increase in light output. Just cleaning the plain glass one gave something like a bin's worth of increased output.

Thanks pal. Wanna guess what I'm ordering when I get home from work?

Can do, quite easily.

XM-L lights

EastwardYJ J06

Uniquefire HS-802 XM-L 3A driver

KD XM-L T6 dropin

Manafont XM-L T6 dropin

Mr.Lite J4 XM-L mod (14500)

XP-G Lights

Ultrafire C3 R5 (14500)

Mr.Lite LT3 (16340)

Ultrafire C303

Yezl S5 (14500)

Trustfire R5-A3

R4 P60 dropin

MC-E Lights

Piritlight SG-L8

M-bin MC-E dropin

P7 Lights

Aurora AK-P7

DX P7 dropin

XR-E Lights

Aurora SH-032

Aurora SH-034 (16340)

Trustfire TR-801

Romisen RC-C6 Zoom

Romisen RC-C6 Flood

Romisen RC-T5 (2x18650)

Romisen RC-T6 (2x18650)

Solarforce Skyline 1

MRV

RQ

Zebralight H50

SST90 LED

Varapower 2000

XP-E LED

Trustfire Z1

Osram LED

Ultrafire RL-118

Chinese Luxeon 3 clone

Golston 7W

36 Nichia GS 5mm LEDs in a Fusion 36 Mag dropin

Thanks Don

Welcome back Don! Its a good thing that you brought along only a small portion of your flashlight collection, or else your car might have bottomed out from all the extra weight! There’s nothing better than being able to use flashlights out in the woods and away from the ambient city light. Its quite obvious that you had a lot of fun with them. Thanks for the great pics. The Manafont XM-L dropin sure puts out an unbelievable amount of light for a P60.

Huge thanks Don for the awesome shots. They really put into perspective how powerful some of those lights are, especially the xm-l's. This will be a very handy reference. Muchly appreciated:)

Don, is that Manafont sku# 5720 ? How/what are you running it in?

I think I am going to have to get one of those

Don, also thank you very much. Your pictures are indeed a great point of reference for these lights

So while we're in the question asking phase of this thread , do you have the sku for the coated lens at KD? I'll owe you a beamshot with Texas coyotes in it.