Need help choosing night-time video flashlight

Yea the Meteor is good for close range night photos or indoor photos but doesn’t have great range. I’m not sure what kind of range OP needs. The DX80 with specified 32k lumens would provide much farther range but it only comes in 70CRI 6500k CW, unless that’s what you prefer. You can also get the Haikelite MT09R and have TA mod it with 80CRI 4000k emitters, which throws pretty well for a high lumen flood light.

If buying the Meteor M43, I don’t recommend getting the XPL-HI version. I bought it for $180 and it is actually a slight bit dimmer than the $98 XP-G2 option and the 5D tint is more yellowish than the XP-G2 5D tint. The XP-L HI 5D on my D4 is so much more rosier than the same emitter on the M43 (probably different batch of emitters). I also heard there was a batch of 219c used in the M43 at the end of the year had some greenish tint.

Yes, it’s important to know that most high-powered flashlights cannot run at full brightness for more than a few minutes because of the heat they generate.

Quality lights will automatically decrease in brightness to avoid damage to the light or danger to the user. This will be a problem while shooting video.

,Thank you so much guys, you gave me a lot of information to think of.
What’s budder my most is the fact that no matter what, the best LED flashlight will not last more than a few minutes on full brightness mode… So, it makes me think, what if my son will carry a large 12v or 24v battery on his back, such as car battery or something close to it, and we will look for a big spotlight, like they use in theaters or movies, with bigger bulb or other LED options

Do someone here knows this field?

BLF GT will give you constant output for almost 2 hours with stock LED (Cree XHP35 HI). The body size and the battery capacity is enough for most of your requirement. If you bring some more backup batteries then it can be a full night long distance video light.
The only problem is the beam shape and probably the low CRI LED used. With little modification it can give you broader beam and very high CRI. For example:

- Broader beam, less runtime, MUCH brighter output: Change the LED to XHP70 CRI 70+

- Broader beam, less runtime, brighter output, very high CRI: Change the LED to XHP70 CRI 90+.

  • Custom broader beam, equal/slightly brigther, ultimate CRI : Change the LED to 4x E21A CRI 9080 and controlled Luminit diffuser film on the lens to get slightly brighter output with the best CRI available for such package.

The other option is to carry big battery powered stage spotlight. This is in my opinion is the best as you can stuff whatever LED and battery you want. Weatherproofness is another thing to think about though.

- Clemence

Dear Clemence, what’s CRI stand for?

Color
Rendering
Index

Or how well it reproduces colors compared to sunlight.

For LEDs:

70CRI+ is average
80CRI+ is good
90+CRI is excellent
95+CRI is extremely good.

Hi Abarr, already answered by Blueswordm. But you can further learn more from Maukka posts. If you need to ask anything about colour rendering stuffs you better start from him.

Below is the BLF GT runtime chart from Narmattaru:

FYI, if you can carry portable stage lighting, you better start with COB LED and gigantic TIR optics such as Ledil Seanna.
Citizen and Nichia are two of my favourite COB maker for ultra high CRI. They come in various output as high as 10.000 lumens stock rated. And we all know that we can at least double the output with some BLF spirit! :wink:

- Clemence

I’d throw in an alternative way of assessing, what is actually needed. Abarr, if you do not own any of the li-ion battery flashlights, I would buy a cheap thrower first, with a known hotspot illumination (measured in candelas).

Since your camera + lens combo is pretty limiting, the first thing is to check, if your camera + lens combo worth the efforts at all. I know, that stepping up for bigger optics is not a budget friendly thing, but first, you should check, if you can make the desired illumination at all.

An Astrolux C8 is probably a fine thrower flashlight for checking your target illumination, as its hotspot is similarly bright, as some floodier lights’ (difference is they have wider beam, and more total output), and if you are lucky, you can get it around $20 from BangGood. So I won’t think you would regret buying one regardless of it is usable or not for your outlined plans (it won’t give you the ideal beam pattern, and the desired high CRI, but the hotspot intensity will be a good reference).

I can fully agree on the importance of the CRI, as everybody emphasized it, but I think, you might want to check your possibilities the way I outlined. Seeing the numbers, I am afraid, that you need either ‘ground-breaking’ illumination, and/or some more sensitive camera + lens combo ( e.g. 400mm f/4) to make usable video footages.

Other notes:
Regarding of the availability of XHP70 and XHP70.2, XHP70 is easier to get in high CRI, but I haven’t seen merchants selling XHP70.2 90+ CRI yet. (XHP70 is older, a bit less efficient, can be less overdriven, needs TIR optics or orange peel reflector, but has better color consistency across the beam)

Probably the only suitable method for his camera + lens if he can find a 5-10° wide beam optics for that :slight_smile:

(EDIT: and I’d strongly suggest TIR /total internal reflection/ optics in this case, as it can align most of the LED’s light the desired way. Metal reflectors cannot align the light, which is not reflected, but are better at extreme focus, if they are big enough - Edit 2: Clemence already mentioned TIR :slight_smile: )

+1 Adam,

Abarr, Adam was right. If this is your first time dealing with such powerful long range flashlight then investing in something cheaper yet proven is the way to go before spending more. Who knows?
Besides, here in BLF we don’t own only a single flashlight :wink: .
From my experience, if you only have one precious flashlights, it will only make your works much more difficult. When you have at least two, then you’ll use it as intended, not baby them. Back then, I never dropped my one and only USD 10 flashlight for years. Now I often dropped USD 50 flashlights during outdoor shooting. :laughing:

- Clemence

I'm now using XTAR Walrus D08 for night time photography and video since I was given the opportunity to review the light a few months back.

I'm using the inbuilt Red light to spot the subject (if it's a living thing, Red or Green tend to not spook the subject too much), and use the High mode or Low mode depending on the scene. It uses 4x18650, so it lasted quite a while (a couple of hours) before needing a recharge or change of battery.

I'm still learning... I found that a camera (mounted on tripod) with large sensor and high ISO works well, and a little light does go a long way for night photography to bring out the details of the shot. I like to use very diffused light source instead of spot light coz my preference is to preserve the natural habitat of the scene as much as possible. But note that I'm no professional photo/video-grapher...

Hi all .
We decided to buy the meteor M43 and try it.
What kind kf LED & Tint do you recommend to buy with, and what kind of charger? Thank you all.

Well there is the NW V2 3A which is poor color rendering but more intense and more expensive or the NW 219CT which is good color rendering, and I would get the 219c even if it may turn out it is not intense enough, because I think maybe neither one will be intense enough for long range and you may need two different lights instead. You will want powerful unprotected button top cells as it says; for example 30q or vtc6 would be good choices. The charger can be a number of options. I would recommend you get one with 1 amp charging on all 4 slots at once, so that you can charge them all together as a group in 3 hours. If you want I am sure that you can see on here some examples or someone else will know which one you should get.

Hello ALL!

We bought the Astrolux MF04 XHP35-HI NW 2700LM.

I hope it will be good for our uses.

Thank you all for all the advices.

Is this link is a good one? for example

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-X-18650-3-7V-6000mAh-Li-ion-Rechargeable-Battery-with-4-2V-EU-Plug-Charger/182397647179?hash=item2a77bf394b:g:sWUAAOSwKVNYXOz6

I don’t know about the charger but there’s no 18650 battery with real capacity above 3600mah at this moment. Never buy or use Li-Ion battery from Ultra Fire, you could risk yourself caught on fire (literally). They have known to sell recycled battery and put ridiculous capacity on the label.
Go to the www.batteryuniversity.com for basic battery knowledge. And check www.lygte-info.dk for HKJ’s (BLF member) battery reviews there

- Clemence

Check this: Test of UltraFire SJ18650 6000mAh (Black) 2015
Advertised: 6.000mAh, measured: 1.198mAh

- Clemence

Hi Abarr, I’m glad you’ve chosen a flashlight to try!

There are many low-quality and counterfeit cells for sale. eBay is not a good place to buy batteries.

As clemence said, those batteries are not good. Currently, it is impossible for an 18650 cell to have a capacity of more than about 3500mAh.

The manufacturer suggests Samsung 30Q cells for this light. They are top quality cells, and I use them in many of my lights. It appears that the MF04 can use either flat top or button top cells.

You need to find a trusted seller who can ship lithium batteries to Israel. This is difficult because shipping regulations are strict in some parts of the world.

These four cells should be ‘married,’ meaning they will always be used and charged together and used only in your MF04.

For a charger, I can recommend the LiitoKala Lii-500. It charges 4 cells at once at a maximum of 1 amp. The charger is available at BangGood and GearBest.

Can someone recommend a trusted online seller that can ship Samsung 30Q cells to Israel?

Thank you so much, I’m learning here a lot.
Trusted is for sure a key word in case of batteries dealers and that’s way I need your halp. What kind of batteries except Samsung Q30 do you recommend? Is LG or GPS are good as samsung or Sony, for your experience?

Yes, they are about as good as the Samsung 30Q, not Q30.

Here is a list:

Samsung
LG
Sony
Sanyo
Pansonic

All of the companies produce good 18650s.

Here are some good 18650s you can buy since you live in Israel:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Free-shipping-Sunway-New-Original-INR1865025R-2500mAh-battery-3-6V-discharge-20A-E-cigarette-dedicated-Power/3173029_32835970487.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.18.b0664b68p71GL2

I can recommend the Sunway store on Aliexpress, as I have tested their batteries, and they are legitimate.