I have made some changes to a couple of lights lately, the HD2010 has very noticeable difference with it’s de-dome and the way I mounted the emitter. The M3 L2P took a jump, but then the de-dome and added chips don’t really seam to have made such a huge difference. This is why I’m confused taking the pics, I’m not seeing what I expected to see.
So I guess I need a meter to get some standardization going on to help me better understand what I’m seeing and then apply that to the photo’s.
By the way, those pics were taken with a point-n-shoot. Not just any point-n-shoot, the Canon G1X. My 5DMkII does much better even.
Even though I consider myself fairly new, I think that trying to judge throw “by eye” is really hard, because there are other factors that come into play. For example, I think that color/tint can affect how we perceive a light throws. Also, I think that, in another discussion, comfy pointed out that when you have a lot of spill, that can affect how you perceive throw.
Plus, we have variations in eyes/eyesight, e.g., my eyes suck, and I have terrible night vision. I have one light that measures about 66 Klux (my Jacob A60 dedomed XM-L) and one that measures 122 Klux (my shorty STL-V6 dedomed XM-L), both consistently. I also have a shorty DST with an MT-G2 (well, the same one, but before I dedomed it) and it was measuring something like 26 Klux.
When I take those outside in the dark, I could swear that the DST/MT-G2 is way brighter than the others, but they all look like they “throw” about the same at distance.
That kind of experience was what kind of pushed me to get a lux meter :)… along with “lessons” from Tom E, et al….
I use this light meter. The sensor is tripod mountable and goes to 200klux (not that you’d really need it that high). It doesn’t come with a straight cable like in the pictures, but rather a long coiled cable which I think is better.
Usually I post pictures with a SRK or something common for people to compare to, and then I also post my lux readings as well.
Also to expand on what ohaya said, when compared on a white wall, I can barely tell my TN31 has more lux than the Shocker, because they’re both saturated. By having more flood it makes it harder to distinguish the beam or hot spot, which is why aspheric throwers are big ‘wow’ lights because they appear to throw far, when in reality they just have a straight beam which stands out from the darkness and is easy to distinguish.
That last point is a good idea, a kind of “benchmark”. I do the same thing now, using my HD2010, which I don’t mod. I use that as my calibration, to make sure that my meter and/or something else is not throwing my measurements off. I think that we should all do that, have some light that all or a lot of us have, unmodded, so that we can really compare apples-with-apples.
is on the slow side, doesn’t natively do great macro’s and is large for a “point-n-shoot” camera. That being said, it’s the smallest camera that has IQ comparable to a full frame sensor. I have a 1DsMkII and a 5DMkII, the G1X comes astonishingly close in image quality and does very well in low light. The articulating screen is a big plus as well.
That said, I’d recommend a look at the new S1 as well. DSLR camera that’s just a wee bit bigger than the G1X, and you can use the lenses you already have for your 400D.
I carry the G1X with a 250D close-up lens and spare battery in a hip bag, can’t do that with the bigger interchangeable lens camera’s.
Are you referring to the Fujifilm X-S1?
Do you own an S1? I just read a bit about it and people say it’s an all-in-one and an alternative to a DSLR. The 26x zoom looks pretty good on it.
I would mostly be using it for family photos, day and night time landscape photos and occasionally night time beam shots and macros.
All up this looks pretty good with the decent video recording, and the mega zoom + 1 cm macros., I’ll research this further. Thanks DBCstm
Looking at it on Amazon @ $629 with that telephoto lens it does sound like a killer.
I was actually referring to Canon’s new Rebel SL1. It’s a mini DSLR that would use the lenses you already have and step up the image quality you’re used to with your 400D. No built in lens, you’d use the ones you already have or the kit lens.
The primary thing for taking beamshots is a Manual mode. For taking shots of kids you need a fast lens, be careful of built in zooms as they tend to slow down horribly when zooming and your shutter gets too slow for action.
The Canon G15 might also serve you well, it has a fast lens and does well in low light…also takes macro’s and is considerably cheaper than a G1X.
And now back to the regularly scheduled program….I saw a pretty significant tint shift in my XM-L2 T6 when I de-domed it, but the XM-L U2 didn’t drop so much, wonder why that is? The XM-L was pretty blue to begin with and it’s now just barely on the blue side of white, I really like it. The XM-L2 T6 was a NW to begin with and got considerably warmer, almost to the point that I want to correct it with Lee film but I don’t want to lose the output. How can I go about bringing the orange/yellow T6 back up towards white? Or is that possible?
I actually cut a cube of copper about 3/16” thick to stack the emitter on top of the copper star, reflowed them onto the star together then soldered the leads from underneath. I had to inset the pill deeper into the reflector as well, but now the problematic reflector is no longer close to the solder points and the de-domed XM-L2 sits up inside the reflector for a nice tight beam with a fairly decent spill. I can see a white barn lit up at 610 yards, but what the lux is way over there I have no idea. Looks bright enough over there to read a note by, but I can’t be for sure. Would be interesting to see what cd this light now has.
I’m thinking that the reason for what you saw is that it depends on the phosphor maybe, the thickness, etc. of the phosphor layer?
On the ‘Accidental MTG2 dedoming’ thread (Accidental MTG2 dedoming.), two people (myself included) noted that when the MT-G2 was dedomed, for us, the color/tint went cooler, rather than warmer, and we were both surprised.
As with the 2nd generation of Cree LEDs, not sure about the others, but XML2 and XPG2 seems to be really yellow after dedoming, even if it was CW 1A to begin with. Using the block to elevate the emitter was clever. Unfortunately there is no accurate way of determining candela by eye since your iris contracts and expands to let in less and more light respectively.
Click on the pic and open it up in Flickr, then right click on it to see it original size. That barn is 610 yds away! The camera settings were chosen to represent what I was seeing, I was comparing 2 lights. The fence in the foreground is 100 yds from the light. The trees that appear in front of the barn are actually 320 yds from the camera while the barn is 610 yds.
Settings: 0.3 seconds ƒ/2.8 ISO 1600 15.1 mm (35mm equivalent to 28mm) G1X
Well, there’s not much I haven’t done! lol Being new this has all been a learning curve. It now has an E1320 driver with 5 modes, memory, no blinkies and is running 3.82A at the tail. You’ve seen the star and emitter. I also bypassed the springs with 20ga wire. Is there something else I can do? Other than the Acrylic UCL AR coated lens that it already has? I’ve hounded MRsDNF to make a copper pill for me but no luck so far. Vesture of blood may do some for these lights, keepin my fingers crossed.
I might could add a couple more 7135s, just got my M3 head up to 4.22A, de-domed, with an E1320 driver that I added 2 chips to.
I have a 1/4” thick piece of copper that I’m thinking of cutting a round for a heat sink, since I can’t do threads I can do a different approach. Why couldn’t I use my dremel tool and cut the shelf of aluminum out of the pill, press fit this thick piece of copper in it’s place? I could reflow the star/emitter onto the copper first so it’d be like one piece, then press it into the sleeve of the pill and thread it back into the light.
Think that’d work? Then I could add like 3 more chips and get it up to 5A or so? This is an XM-L2 we’re talking about, so it should handle it.
Kinda like this? This one has a 1/4” ring of copper for the driver to set in, which I wouldn’t need here as I’ll have the aluminum pill with the threads left.
Replacing part of the aluminum pill with copper is definitely a good idea, the less aluminum it has to travel through to get to the body the better. OldLumens melts copper shot into gaps to make sure there’s maximum contact surface area, you could do that too.
And if you do that you could bring your XML2 to 6A comfortably. I recall someone here has a TN31 modded that gives 6.5A to a dedomed XML2.
