TK's Emisar D4 review

I find the picture looks more true to life on my calibrated monitor with the 5000K 219Cā€™s.

+1

looks like it needs white balance

Indeed! I royally goofed on the custom white balance settings! :person_facepalming:

Iā€™m going back to repair my post nowā€¦

On a non-tint related note, I measured 15.5A at start with my D4 (Nichia 219B sw45k installed) using Samsung 30Q.

Hi guys,

What Emisar D4 model & components would you recommend for lighting HVAC ducts 15 inch square 5-10 meters long from inside, and why that model? Main criteria is for the lighting to be even along the length, good for clear photos at any duct point, not only at the flashlight mount or the opposite duct end. Or may be you can suggest a better fit flashlight for such application, but it must be compact enough, 2-3 inches in diameter.

Welcome to BLF! :smiley: If youā€™re taking photos youā€™ll probably want the Nichia 219c version for the 90cri, though Iā€™m not sure how bright youā€™ll need to set it to see 10m. If you dont have batteries make sure the ones you get are capable of at least 15A continuous.

Can you explain, why this version is better suited that other, since Iā€™m a total nub in flashlights selection? Would it deliver even lighting along the entire duct length? Should it be standard white, or softer color? How long it can lit up the duct continuously on one battery with enough light for photos? What the flashlight temperature would be - too hot to touch by hand?

The Nichia LEDā€™s are generally regarded as producing the best tint (colour of beam) out of the emitter options; a very consistent, clean white. The Nichia 219c used in the D4 also has a CRI (colour rendering index, I.E how true to life it shows colours as, higher is better) of 90+, whereas the other Cree LEDā€™s have 70+cri. So its the best option for taking pictures of objects. Its a cool-neutral white (~5000k) which is close to daylight which should also help.

Now, my Nichia D4 hasnt arrived yet, so Iā€™m speaking purely off my knowledge of flashlights on this part (I could well be wrong on some things!! :stuck_out_tongue: ). The D4 is a floody light, meaning it has a very wide, even beam. This would be my only concern for your application. Flood lights dont throw as far (the beam doesnā€™t reach out as far), so you would likely have to turn up the brightness to compensate. The D4 will light up things 10 meters away, its just that Iā€™m not sure what brightness level youā€™d have to have it on. There are ways to calculate using the cd/lm rating but Iā€™m not entirely sure what intensity youā€™d need to take a photo. (Anybody know / able to comment?) Again, my light hasnā€™t arrived yet so Iā€™m personally not able to comment on the heat output / runtime.

Hope that helps!

I would recommend the Astrolux MF01 instead. Has very high quality LEDs which have very good color rendition, like a portable sun.

Has stable output as the cells drain, does not heat up to the same level as the D4, and has much longer battery life.

While being a lot thicker, it does have a tripod mount, so you can keep it stable.

I think for your purpose, the Haikelite SC26 with the XP-L HI NW or the Sofirn C8F would work better than the D4 because they are much throwier so it should more evenly illuminate the entire length of duct, whereas the D4 is very floody so you will get alot of glare around the flashlight at the duct opening and your camera will not be able to pickup anything at the end of the duct.

Thanks for the comparison. I opened the full size photos and compared them. The 9080 definitely makes the colors much more saturated, which I prefer.

Did you measure lumen output on the 219B 9080? I wonder if it is safe to constantly run turbo on the 219B because thatā€™s what most people do with the D4. Iā€™m planning to put some 9080 219B in my D4 too.

For evenly lighting the inside of a long narrow duct, Iā€™d select a light almost entirely based on its beam pattern, not its CRI. And youā€™re going to need a thrower, not a flooder. The D4 is a flooder.

A D4 will only really light up the near end. Even though it can throw light 10m without trouble, the near end will be so overexposed that you probably wonā€™t be able to see the far end at all.

So instead of a D4, you might want to consider the D1. Itā€™s much more throwy.

Itā€™ll be hard to find anything with the exact beam pattern needed for this particular use though. I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever seen anything with a beam which would evenly illuminate the inside of a duct. You would need a very particular beam pattern to make that work.

Maybe you could use a D1S (even more throwy) with some DC-Fix on the lens. Or maybe on part of the lens. That might make it able to reach both the near end and the far end at the same time.

Blue Sword, the Astrolux MF01 uses XP-G3ā€™s which are known for producing odd colors in the aura and spill, not exactly good for taking pictures inside a tube. Way overkill for that, Iā€™d think.

I mean, heā€™s still almost point blank at those distances heā€™s stated and after all, the light canā€™t go anywhere but down the HVAC tube, right? So no light is escaping. 30 feet long? Childā€™s play for these lights! And the Astrolux is 3 times the price as well.

Iā€™m just thinking he may want a light that has either a good choice modes or ramping. Iā€™m not real sure shinning a light down a enclosed duct with a couple of thousand lumens is gonna make a good pick that isnā€™t flooded with light. Using ramping you could get the light amount just right for the camera. I do this very thing taking close up pics with a variable brightness control ring Sunwayman V10R modded with a high cri led. Most pics only need 5 to 20 lumens close in, I can dial the light in to produce the best pic as to what the camera needs. Iā€™m just guessing 500 to 1000 lumens maybe the sweet spot.
Just my 2 cents :smiley:

Thatā€™s a good point. If the duct is clean, a lot of the flood area will probably bounce off the walls and continue along the tube. Throw will be artificially increased by the hall of mirrors effect. So something floody may be feasible in that case.

I was picturing a dirty old duct with gunk all over the sides, which would absorb the light instead of bouncing it along. Because the last duct I needed to look into was a clogged laundry exhaust. I needed something really throwy for that.

The area his trying to illuminate is only close to equal the area of a small bathroom. A 60 watt light bulb does pretty good there at around 500 lumens.

on the other hand moderator, you can adjust the camera settings to take the right exposure almost regardless of lumens in use. Even if 25,000 lumens were firing it upā€¦ a 1/50,000th of a second shutter would adjust. :wink: Tit for tat, as it were.

So what we are getting to is the big question, are the HVAC tubes typically clean or quite filthy? I would think that even very dirty weā€™re only talking about 30ā€™ away, a $3 zoomie can do that. So in the end a variable brightness as in ramping, and enough cell capacity to use the duration of the job at hand, be that a 15 minute inspection or a dayā€™s worth of those.

Maybe the newer D4S with 26650 cell would be a better answer over all? Fully capable of the distance, the brightness level, and the duration of use? Next step up may be something like the SupFire M6 with 4 18650ā€™s for capacity. (or a Q8 for that matter)

Another question comes to mind, would it be important to be able to highlight something in the tube at a distance, say if there were an obstruction on one side at 20ā€™ away, would it be important to be able to point that out for the photo? Then a spot might come into play. So a zoomie may indeed come in handy with the ability to go from a broad flood to a tight zoom to cover whatever arises. Something like the Jaxman Z1 for example. It uses an 26650 cell for run time, yet can do flood or spot or in between.

Edit: I should also point out that the camera will have different lighting requirements the length of that tube, dependant on the quality of the sensor, the quality of the glass in the lens, and the use of f/stop and ISO ability. The focal point for the shot will determine, after all other things are considered, how much light is needed at that point. (or, more precisely, the amount of light reaching that point will determine the settings neededā€¦ provided the equipment is up to the task)

I donā€™t have a way of measuring output, and I donā€™t have a clamp meter to measure current.

I built this D4 knowing that it wouldnā€™t be a powerhouse. Itā€™s running ToyKeeperā€™s AndĆŗril UI, which has a customizable ramp ceiling. Iā€™ve set it to 50 levels below turbo, which visually appears to me as roughly half the brightness of turbo. Even so, Iā€™ve been keeping it in muggle mode, which limits the highest output even more.

I admit that Iā€™ve run the R9080 D4 in turbo a few times for just a couple of seconds. :stuck_out_tongue:

My D9080s are from Clemenceā€™s most recent group buy. Theyā€™re NVSL219BT-V1 sw45kD220L2R9080 according to the boxā€™s label. Click to embiggen:

A discussion in the Q8 modding thread about Nichias in a Q8 led to djozz mentioning:

djozz also shared a link to his thread about testing 219B emitters.

I love the 4500K R9080 tint. In addition to a D4, I have one in a Zebralight H51w, one in a Lumintop IYP365, and a loaded triple board waiting for the FW3A. :wink:

I also modded one of my D4s with 219BT-V1 sw45k-D220-L2-R9080. :slight_smile:
The tint with the 10623 optic is beautiful. In my eyes itā€™s perfect. :partying_face: Itā€™s my daily driver now.
One easy thing with stock V2, to not worry about Amps and turbo is to use a low drain battery (GA, 35E etc). Of course it isnā€™t so bright, but doesnā€™t makes you nervous if you want to use turbo. :stuck_out_tongue:

Some whitewall shots, 5200K WB. All D4s are 1x7135.

Left: D4 219B 4500K R9080 10623 optic. Right: D4 219C 5000K R9050 10622 optic.

Left: D4 219B 4500K R9080 10623 optic. Right: D4 XP-L HI V2 5D-4000K 10622 optic.

Left: D4 219C 5000K R9050 10622 optic. Right: D4 XP-L HI V2 5D-4000K 10622 optic.

Note: In reality the Cree is not so yellow. Itā€™s a nice yellow-rosy tint, but in comparison with Nichiasā€¦ my phone :person_facepalming:

Great comparisons. The more recent batch of 5D XPL-HI in the flashlights I got from Intl is much more yellow than the older pure rosy 5D XP-L HI that I got from him.

Also that 219c 5000k looks wonderful, which Iā€™m guessing is probably from an older batch because Hank said half a year ago that his current batch at the time had a lot of green in the tint.