Beamshots Part Deux, Updated 2/8/12

LED Flashlights – General Info
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I've been wanting to do this for awhile; test some beamshots of smaller lights in fairly controlled situation that give some real-world depth to the beamshots, rather than just wall shots. So here is what I did.

I picked out a spot in my driveway where two tree can be 'hit' by a flashlight beam. The close tree has a red-orange washcloth on the trunk as the target, and is about 33 feet (10 meters?) away. The tree behind it is another 32 feet farther, for a total of 65 feet from the flashlight. This allows you to see good flood up close (check the boulders and the upper leaves) as well as the throw of some of the smaller stuff like the Trustfire F23, by watching the white washcloth on the far tree.

Here is what you would be looking at in daylight

And these are the lights I tested, from left to right.

Most of us have an Ultrafire C3 in stainless, so I used that light on "HI" as the control shot you will see when you mouse-over the photos. Does that all make sense?

Alright, then away we go

First up, the Ultrafire C3 Stainless steel 5-mode with an AA Duracell on HI mode

Now, our first mouse-over. Regular image is the iTp A3 Eos on HI mode with a 10440 battery. This tiny little light thows out an amazing floody beam with a LI-on battery in it. I don't think anything else that big can touch it.

OK, cool, that worked. Lets try the third light of the night, the Trustfire F23, a nice little AAA thrower with a 10440 Li-on in it

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Moving right along, our 4th guest tonight is the Nitecore EZ AA with an XP-G in it, that I got from Boaz. This one has an Eneloop in it, I like the smooth beam. For consistency, the EZ AA is the original image, and the C3 is always the image you see when you do a mouseover. LOL, looks like my beagle snuck into the exposure.

Now one of my favorites, the Trustfire Z1, with an XR-E emitter and powered by a RCR123 battery

Next up, a Jetbeam BA10, powered by an AA Eneloop, really nice light with a good "Low" and smooth beam. One of my better quality lights.

This is the UniqueFire G10 on a regular AA Duracell. This light seems better than the beamshot looks, but this is what the camera saw

Now playing, the Ultrafire U-20, powered with a Trustfire 14500 battery

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OK, are we having fun yet?

This is the Xeno with a Neutral White XP-G The newer Xenos have XM-L's, but I really like this one with an XP-G. Powered by a Trustfire 14500. The Neutral white pretty warm to my eyes~

This light is the Ultrafire RL-113, powered by a Trustfire 3.7v rechargeable RCR123-it's bright

Now this one doesn't really fit with the rest, but since it's my thread I threw it in the mix anyways.

This is the S-mini, an XM-L light not much longer than a BA10, but powered by an 18650 battery.

So there you have it; 11 small lights, same conditions, same camera settings.

Since these lights are dimmer than my previous tested lights, I used different camera settings:

1/2 second exposure at F2.8 and ISO 400, white balance set to 5400. Any questions, feel free to ask!

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Thanks Trooplewis for all the great beam shots. I will get the z1 next after our blf tank007, I like the small size and the price too.

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Thanks for the great shots! Im thinkin about getting the bc10/20. i know the bc10 can take 16340s but does anyone know if the bc20 does?

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Nice work Troop. The xeno looks warm to me as well. Did you try the G10 with a 14500 as well?

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Very nice! Sticky'd. Thanks for your hard work trooplwis, these are very practical, useful beamshots.

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Thanks SB.

EDC, almost everyone who has put a 14500 in the G10 has had the driver go *poof* very quickly, so have not done that. Look here

I'd buy the UltrafireU20 instead, same size and style of light, and no issues with 14500's.

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Thanks trooplewis . Love the mouseover effect.

We should have a BLF standard exposure settings. One for small lights (AAA to AA size and equivalents). Another for bigger lights, with less exposure. This way a beamshot made by a member can be directly compared with another without having to account for different exposure settings.

We should add standard white balance setting too to take care of the tint.

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This is a good idea in theory, but I am afraid in reality this will never work. Different objects,different distances, different cams and so forth.

Nice beamshots BTW... ordered the Z1.

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I just got an Olight i2 in the mail today, may have to add that to the beamshots when I get a chance. Nice AA light, same setup as the iTp ireviewed, just bigger reflector and bigger battery.

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Another good one troop. Standardized settings would never work in the real world. What does work is comparing lights to a known standard using consistent settings. Good job, I like these threads you do. A lot of work goes into these.

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Awesome job man !

Thank you very much .

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I think the G10's getting a bad rep just because of that thread. They just assume the 1-mode is just as "delicate" as the multimoded one I guess. The 1-mode works very nicely on 14500's. Too bad you don't have that one.

Thanks for the hard work. Now I know which is what and what I don't need. :)

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You're welcome. I've never found a really good use for 1-mode flashlights, unless you have a pocket full of batteries. I think the only one I have is the Trustfire F23, a little stainless steel keychain light.

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Great job!

I do wonder about those neutral lights. I had expected them to show the red orange cloth the best but that is not the case. All of the light with NW tint show the red orange cloth worse than the cool tint.

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Great beam shots, thanks much! Are you planning to get a Xeno E03 with XM-L? Would love to see that added.

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I'll probably negotiate a Xeno XM-L when my better half needs a new purse or something similar...

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I always carry around an ITP w/ nimh's so I got 2 modes really...lol

A great idea! haha