I’m new here and also from Germany so please overlook my mistakes
I’m looking for an EDC Headlamp, that is a flooder, has red light also (up to 100 or 200 lumens), can get very dim and is not too expensive. Turbo should have at least 1000 lumens.
It needs to have a magnetic bottom and a clip. (I guess most of the flashlights of this kind have this).
I would use it for working under my car, walking in the night or on my bike, astrophotography/astronomy and reading in bed (that’s why it needs to be dim. I guess I need around 1 lumen for reading and not irritating the wife? I am really bad at estimating brightness. It would be nice if the dim option is with both white and red light) Firefly mode would be nice too, but I know that not every flashlight can get as dim as 0,5 lumen or so.
The Armytek Wizard WR looks like one that suits my needs, but it is actually a little bit too expensive. (I’m looking for one around 50€. Lesser is better)
One thing that bugs me (besides that it is an Armytek light and not everything I read about Armytek is positiv) is that it doens’t have a mode between high and turbo. 400 lumens might be to dim, but 1200 lumens is too bright. I’m looking for something around 600 lumens as option. If there is no such flashlight for my needs with that option, it’s ok.
I am not against modding btw so I could mod the flashlight if someone tells me to change the LED or whatever.
If the extra red light option costs so much more, I’d rather have a high CRI 2000 lumens flashlight for the same price and clip a red reflector or something like that infront of the lens. I don’t know if this is possible (because I don’t know yet what to look for in google) but I guess you get what I mean and can tell me if this is possible.
Thanks in advance weirdos (this is what my wife called you, because she cannot belive someone has flashlights as hobby Little does she know how much more fun it is to talk about technology than about emotions :innocent: )
Because of your eyes that adapted to the night. Red light does not interfere with your seeing. I need relatively bright red light (100 lumens)
100 lumens with natural light would ruin everything and you would need some time again to see at night.
I guess (I don’t have scientiffic proof) that it does hurt your vision in the dark and you cannot see all the stars anymore that you have before you turned the lights on.
Hallo X-RAM, willkommen im Club der Lampenfieber-Fetischisten. :-)
Don‘t worry about your wife. There‘s help everywhere around here if you just need to find another new excuse for buying one more flashlight.
Jokes aside...
What you look for does not (yet) exist. I have a design concept for a small AA EDC tool lamp or headlamp that I am currently discussing with Sofirn, a popular Chinese manufacturer of affordable and nice flashlights. The objective is to have 300lm of ultrahigh CRI (98CRI R9080) white light and 30-50lm of deep red (660-670nm) light, both fully regulated by a constant current circuit.
However, this will still not meet your desired specifications as you want at least 1,000 lumens of white light on Turbo mode. If you want something like this you should better check for Sofirn‘s SP40 or Wurkkos‘s HD20 (dual emitter) headlamps, using FET direct drive to pull as much current as possible. The latter one will soon get launched on Amazon, too. Prices for both lights are well below $50. Please keep in mind that there are trade offs everywhere, like a not so dim moonlight mode or the absence of a red light mode. Maybe Armytek‘s Wizard WR is not a bad idea, after all.
200lm of red light is IMHO quite a lot and mostly close to the maximum of typical 615-630nm LEDs in flashlights. If you look for something preserving your night vision, better check for lights using a 660nm deep red LED, e.g. Sofirn C01R, Zebralight H502pr, Noctigon KR4 custom built with SST20-DR. In any case, you will definitely lose your night vision with a short burst of 100-200lm of red light. Using lights in ultralow modes (e.g. firefly/moonlight) is the only way to keep your eyes adapted to darkness. Even 1lm of white light is quite a lot when reading in pitch black darkness.
Sorry for my abstinence, I had much to do in the last days and no time to answer.
I know the brand and one of their flashlights. The thing is, I don’t know right now what I’m going to need as light output. Maybe 300 lumens is enough for me. I don’t have any comparison
Your flashlight looks quite good for me I think. Is the power regulated in steps or linear because sometimes you need more then low/mid/high.
Thanks as well for your suggestions in other headlamps and your opinion on red light. This helps a lot for a newbie like me.
So i made a mistake on the armytek. It is working ok. I was confused about missing firefly mode. Firefly only comes on 1 time from off after looong press. As soon as you ramp up brightness and return to low firefly is hidden. You then need to turn off light and long press again to get back into firefly. I thought light was broken as it wasnt on ramp mode.
The armytek wr has it all. Magnetic, low red .25 lumen, med red, high red, turbo red. It also has firefly white to turbo. Its has magnetic charger. It has tir dispersion optics. The headband is high quality. The charger sticks hard and wont giggle off.
Little does she know how much more fun it is to talk about technology than about emotions :innocent: )
