Help-purchasing a thrower

Basicaly, I have a neighbour that needs a thrower. Something that can throw at least 150 meters.

He has been having some problems with burglars(so he says...), and as he can't spot them in his fields.(farm) He has for the past weeks been shooting at the air, and waking up the entire neighborhood. Me included...

I got fed up, and borrowed him one of my cheap thowers. Ultrafire WF-008 Recoil Thrower.

He liked it, and want's to buy one.(and batteries and charger) He really liked my deerelight DBS, and really,really, really liked my 24W hid, but doesn't wan't to spend that kind of money.

I though before buying, that should ask you, if there were best options within this budget. 40€ or less. Light, batteries, and charger.

You might want to take a look at Solarforce lights, and get a smooth reflector for the dropin. The man to ask would be Don since he has a lot of throw lights, that can spot a fly at 200meters....lol.

Probably the best bet would be either the Uniquefire HS-802 - $25.51

Or the Piritlight SG-L8 - $29.50

I have a Piritlight with an MC-E in it - but you'll probably get more throw - if less overall light with the Q5 version which is also a lot cheaper. 40 Euros is around $50 so it should be possible to get batteries and a charger as well. Some say the Piritlight throws better, some say the Uniquefire.

These 18650s are probably among the best DX offer

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20392 - $9.68

And an Ultrafire charger - I've had one of these for a few years now and am happy with it.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1251 $12.30

There are some useful comments on these lights at Jayki's site. Uniquefire, Piritlight, RQ from KD

I was thinking of getting one of the smooth reflectors from DX Don for an R2 emitter, how do you think the beam will fair. Please remember that in my collection of lights my biggest are my ITP C6t and SF lights and they all have OP reflectors.

Problem with a P60 light is that the reflector can't be very big or deep. A smooth reflector will probably help, but most of them seem to be OP these days.

This one

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5955

has a smooth reflector though. Hopefully they all use the same threads and you just unscrew the OP reflector and screw this one on. I got a couple of empty modules that I'm tempted to stuff 1400mA drivers and an XP-G R5 into to see what I can make it do. I did order an XP-G and a 6 degree optic from www.dotlight.de (German postage is expensive!) to see how that'll throw.

But you can't beat a deep and wide reflector for throw. The rings are pretty much irrelevant in a thrower so while the white wall beam may not be pretty, it'll make no difference in actual use.

As to the difference: With an OP reflector in the Varapower I'm seeing 15500 lux at one metre (The batteries need charging), with the smooth reflector 16450

A single mode R2 with an OP reflector - it came with an Ultrafire WF-502B is giving me around 11,000 lux at one metre, I'd expect 11,500-12,000 with a smooth reflector.

Was going to check it with an 18650 zoom light but it just decided to burn its guts. The smell is worst at the switch end but I don't seem to be getting any light out of it just now. Time for some soldering.

The lights

WF-501B with M bin MC-E dropin, WF-503B with DX MC-E dropin, Ultrafire WF-504B with KD's mystery MC-E dropin, Solarforce L2M with DX P7 dropin, Uniquefire R5 with XP-G R5, WF-504B with R2, WF-502B with older R2, Solarfore L2R with R2 low voltage dropin (runs on two Eneloops), and a thrower, the Piritlight SG-L8 with an MC-E in it. I'm going to try different exposures for these and try measuring peak lux at fifty feet as well. I will be using a different camera so these beamshots will not be comparable to my usual tree shots.

Cool cant wait to see how the light fairs.

Unfortunately my methodology failed miserably - as did my record-keeping. Will try again tomorrow. My light holder wouldn't stay still, which didn't help. I think I got the exposure pretty much OK, but this attempt was a failure

Dont sweat it bud, tomorrow is a new day. What was the problem if i may ask?

Focus - forgot to turn off autofocus.

Logging - how many modes did some of them have?

Inability to tell the difference between some of them on low and the controls - which I forgot a few of which made it impossible to figure out which shot was which.

Apart from that it worked.

Sorta

Kinda

Oh well.....guess were all just going to have to wait for the fantastic photos to post.

If it isn't raining tomorrow night - actually tonight given that it is 1am here.