Looking for a very floody flashlight

I'm looking for a very floody flashlight preferably single 18650 cell version for use as a photography outdoor floodlight. Any noticeable hotspot is strongly unwanted. Ideas?

Some generic q3-5 zoom to throw are not enough, need brighter ones. Also don't mind some DIY to fulfill the purpose. Runtime can be short.

Thanks.

An 18650 Zebralight headlamp sounds like what you want - but they are not really budget options.

There are Ultrafire clones of the Zebralight that are a little cheaper and might be suitable.

The other thing to look at would be the Fusion 36 dropin for Maglites - you'll find my comments on it around here somewhere.

I know you want a 18650 light, but but this summer I visited some underground

pitch dark galleries for a week. The only one light which impressed all participants

on the tour, where my AA S1 driven by a 14500. Very floody and very bright and thus

good as background lightsource for photographs.

The next one to come close were my 504B with a R5 pill. Some hotspot but very large,

and lots of usefull spill. Use 18650 battery.

Also the R5 A3 is said to be very floody. I dont have it myself (yet).

I have a MTE 3-2 MCE (but it has 8 rediculously stupid modes) however it is VERY bright and very floody. Its one of my highest quality lights, with double o-rings everywhere and everthing came clean and lubed.

I just recieved the aurora ak-p7-5 2-mode light, very high quality, very bright and very floody. these are my 2 recommendations for great lights! more-so the aurora, the MTE has had flickering issues recently.

Another thought that has just occurred to me is an R5 dropin with the reflector removed. Beamshot in a minute when I've tried this.

Sadly it didn't work as the reflector is what holds the dropin in place.

So after a spot of lateral thinking I came up with the "Ghetto Floodlight"

Cost, one DX 5 mode dropin, 10cm PVC tape, 8cm copper wire stripped from Ethernet cable and an 18650

Here you go

Note the almost 180 degree beam

The other thing to look at would be the Fusion 36 dropin for Maglites

You do not want this for photography. The beam color is inconsistent from spot to edge and definitely still has a hotspot.

In fact you don't want LED lights in general because CRI is poor.

What you want is a wide band source (usually a bulb) with diffusers (umbrellas, etc).

If you really desire an led light, get a mce/p7+ light and some way to focus a zoom/aspheric element in front of it; it'll have very consistent flood and areal control.

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Actually I'm trying to build that latter light right now with a luminus, but prolly will take me forever if and when I get around to it. I need to go down to the HW store and find either some large pvc threaded fittings or close fitting ID/OD piping.

Already ordered 3 from DX and its 6 days already waiting for supplier... doh!

I guess i'll be best to get a P7 or MC-E based flashlight thats godly driven and use an addon diffuser? For 5min's at max shouldn't melt right (even if it is DX grade :D)?

Btw, which emitter from the above mentioned has less of a hotspot or it is entirely dependant on the reflector used?

Should work fine but you'll take a big output hit. Removing the reflector will probably do better and have less of an effect on output. the beam will still be delimited sharply by the head, but it should be pretty even inside that.

My Aurora K-P7 (Single 18650) does well with that - at 60cm, the beam is about a metre wide. There is a trace of a hotter area in the centre but that would probably fade out at over a couple of metres. The target would need to be within 3 metres of the light for it to give enough light that way though. Still a lot cheaper and lighter than the Colortron lighting systems (Massively overdriven Photoflood bulbs - bulb life 40 minutes on a good day) I used to sell in the camera shop I worked in in the early 80's.

I'd not worry too much about colour balance, that's what Photoshop is for! For that matter, The Gimp will do the job for free unless you want to do print work where its lack of CMYK mode will render it useless.

Will pull off some reflectors and see how it goes.

Smearing vaseline on the front lens (of the light, not the camera!) sometimes works well enough. I've done that on UV filters in front of camera lenses till I bought a Leitz Thambar and a Leica IIIc - long since sold. I've never spent that much on a car!

Unfortunately this is the normal there. One thing one needs when dealing with DX is patience.

Lots and lots and lots of patience. |(

So true, like at all the others LT, KD etc.