Just went to take some photos of my newest acquisition, since I seem to be the first person who has received it.
The camera that was used is a Canon EOS 100D (Rebel SL1 in the US) set to HDR mode.
I used a tripod, but it was quite windy, so the quality varies. And I didn’t have a separate tripod for the light, so it was be held at slightly different angles illuminating roughly the same target area. The camera refused to focus for a control shot and in low mode, so only medium, high and turbo are shown. Lumens are what is stated in the manual, not actually measured by me.
Google Earth shows a distance of roughly 188m to the base of the transmitter.
The following pictures seem to have been taken from too close up to really show any significant differences between the individual modes. In all of them, the hotspot looks over-exposed.
Google Earth show a distance of about 27m (88ft) from the bench to the bushes, however I didn’t notice how far the lens was zoomed in, so objects appear a lot closer than in real life.
Medium 350lm
High 1700lm
Turbo 3000lm
And here’s a slightly more scenic picture, facing the other way:
Thanks - first owner, and my first ever beamshots!
Yes, it would be good to illuminate the tower from further away - but it was quite windy, and the flat ground by the bench from where I took the photos seemed the most suitable place. It’s also a useful landmark for checking the distances in Google Earth.
According to Wikipedia, it’s 55m (182ft) high. Not sure how you’d tell how much of it is illuminated, since you’d have to be able to define where the hotspot starts. But this photo from the article gives you a rough idea:
And here’s one taken from my balcony, about 930m away:
Both photos are taken from a similar angle as my beamshots.
Argh, I just wrote a comment that somehow disappeared… the closest I’ve got is the Olight SR52UT with XPL-Hi in NW (~160kcd), the other ones I’ve got are all in NW with even less throw (Convoy L6, Thrunite TN4A & Emisar D4 w/ Nichia 219c). But I’ll see what I can do tomorrow, and hopefully get some shots from further away, as well.
turn off HDR (because it has very big influence on bright and dark parts of photo camera software is modyfing these parts, so they don’t correspond to reality)
use manual exposure settings (i.e. t=1s/ f4.5/ ISO800 when using kit lens) manual exposure is crucial when it comes to comparing different modes or different flashlights. When in “auto exposure” camera tries to set the parameters so the scene look the same despite different illumination level (this is the case in your high and turbo beamshots).
-if having issues with AF, set it when the flashlight is on high, then turn it off (switch to MF, to avoid focus search) and you can make control beamshots or low level ones.
I’d have to shine the light across an area with lots of houses, and I felt reluctant to do so on a Friday night, when the streets are very busy.
Unfortunately, all of the shots that I took today came out very blurred (probably because I forgot the manual settings that had been mentioned, and I didn’t have my phone with me to check, so I used HDR mode again - and it was really windy!). I got a friend to help me, and we got as far as 270m (888 ft) from the tower, from the other direction. I had originally planned for 500m, but if we’d have crossed the road there would have been too much street lighting in the way.
Sadly, the light now no longer turns off (except by unscrewing the tail cap). It always comes on in lowest mode, and a long-click will only switch the light to a slightly lower mode (and sometimes clicking won’t do anything at all, and I’m stuck in the lowest mode)…
I’m sure someone else will post better pictures soon.
Your exposure settings has to be manual. Else your pictures would be overexposed and can’t represent the environment anymore. Basically it is M mode, and then adjust shutter speed that mimic what your eyes see. And use these settings for all picture.
Manual focus is also useful so that your camera won’t be struggling to stay focus.
Hopefully it won’t be as cold and windy next time - last night it was freezing and we wanted to get back as quickly as possible, otherwise I would have probably played around with different settings.
My friend (who is holding the light in the photo) didn’t even have a jacket with him, so I lent him my bathrobe!
