Very controversial topic. I have heard people say they are the greatest thing since sliced bread and I have heard that its the dumbest idea ever. Someone mentioned they use it when sailing to spot buoy’s in the dark. That seems credible.
So what the heck do you do with a light that is all throw and zero spill? What good is a flashlight where when you point it in front of you in the dark, you still cant see enough to not walk into something.
The Osram emitter on the other hand is heavy on the throw but still very usable on the spill.
Considering the recent increase in UFO sightings, perhaps the LEP can be used to communicate with UFO’s.
Lets face it, growing up we had one flashlight in the top kitchen drawer. Now we have dozens if not hundreds of flashlights. One more light we don’t use wont make any difference.
So if you have an LEP or plan to get one, what will you use it for in the real world. What will you be able to do with it where an Osram based light really does not cut it? The buoy example was quite good as in that case you need the multiple mile throw and the spill is of no use.
Only use case i could find for an lep is finding far off coons, but is so impractical, you won’t see me buy one tbh, gt94 better long as you can avoid scraping you gun with its huuuge size
When you have much lights (how many lights does one need?) Probably most will be unnecessary.
I really like the lightsaber effect, just for fun. But to be honest, i don’t use it very much, and as said an L21A with CULPM1 will work almost just as good.
One thing i do like about a LEP is it doesnt have any spill, so it wont instantly affect your nightvision.
I plan to get one for photography down in the Grand Canyon from the venue of a solo raft trip. I have always needed a light to illuminate features far away from the camera without affecting anything nearby. Images will include multiple light sources in the same frame and I’m hoping LEP will enhance the effort. Gas/glass lasers of old would be impossible to take to remote locations, given the bulk and cooling requirements. LEP just might work, and the price is right.
I think LEPs are useful for industrial applications, film production, stage technology, events/festivals, commercial light installations and areas like healthcare/medicine.
Not sure if I’ll ever have one for consumer use, I personally wouldn’t know what to do with it.
They seem fun though.
The race that I referred to was the Beurtveer race on the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands, 3 days continuously , from Workum to Amsterdan to Workum, day and night touching 7 ports underway, everything under sail, with traditional flatbottom cargo ships. Since it ‘replicates’ and old ferry route, no GPS is allowed for navigation, just maps and eyesight, at night there’s the stars to help out.
But I agree that if I had a modern C8 with a White Flat at the time instead of a 3D Maglite (about 20 years ago), I would have been king already
“So what the heck do you do with a light that is all throw and zero spill?”
1. amateur astronomy. shows someone “there it is” better than my green laser.
2. reading road signage where there is no lighting and the headlights have the wrong angle.
3. trespasser warning. this has been posted before. animal or human. so far, so good.
I don’t own a LEP (yet) and I haven’t seen one in real life either.
For me the portability is the most interesting thing. I have throwers but they’re big and I wouldn’t want to carry them around with me all the time.
I’m hoping that LEPs mean that one day I can EDC something with over 1000m throw (250kcd). Either as a second light or maybe adjustable to flood somehow. I don’t see why we couldn’t get 14500 or 16340 LEPs one day.
I’d also like to go on a night hike with a 2000m thrower (1Mcd) that easily fits in a jacket pocket, instead of needing a rucksack.
Probably a stupid question, but isn’t there a way to diffuse the beam of LEP flashlights to give them more spill?
Automotive companies are now using lasers for their headlights, so there must be a way to make these laser flashlights more practical. And apparently laser light is more efficient than LED, so there seems to be a benefit to move towards this technology.
A LEP is a thrower by default. If you want spill, get a 4*XHP70.2
The narrow beam of a LEP gets the most throw out of a modest power consumption.
I found the post about looking into a well very useful.
With a regular light you can’t see much because you are blinded by the reflection on the walls.
And hunting of course. Without waking up the whole forest.
I got the acebeam w30 4000k (yellow) specifically to look into wells mostly during daylight hours. These are 6 inch drilled wells where I want to see the water level that may be 20 to 100 ft deep. Typically there is 1 in pipe and wire and often wire guides that obstruct a lot of the bore. There are some things I want to see on the walls but mostly I just want a good reflection off of the water level. Once you get past 30 ft nothing else compares to an LEP because I can put all of the light on the water and not light up the walls. I also use it to look into shallow/dug wells that are usually 30 to 50 inches diameter and less than 20 ft deep with water anywhere from 2 to 15 ft deep. On the shallow wells I want to be able to look down through the water to see the bottom to look for dead mice or other “things”. It also works extremely well looking into any deep dark hole whether it’s a cave a tunnel an animal hole a multi-story chimney etc. Daytime or night time if you’re looking at eaves under a multi story house that are in shadows or on a cloudy day and you want to see small details such as Carpenter bee holes or other insect damage that is two or three stories up it is hard to beat a LEP. It is not useful for lighting your path 3 to 100 ft in front of you while taking a walk at night. It’s not convenient to carry on your person but I don’t need to do that. Do most people need one? No. I could justify the cost because I knew I was going to use it on a somewhat regular basis. It is an amazing feeling to have one in your hand.
Also if people want to understand why less or no spill can be very beneficial you should watch all three segments of Martin’s “bunker beamshots” on YouTube. He shows many lights that most people would assume would easily light up the end of the tunnel 130 to 150 meters away and you can’t see the end of the tunnel with many of them. The camera view is not like being there but he explains it very well.
