Thanks djozz
I was thinking of buying the parts to do a simple assembly, since it´s hard or impossible to find what I want.
I never welded a led in a flashlight. Is it simple? A possibility was buying a flashlight and just change the led afterwards
Thanks again
I am not against li-ion.
Is just I already have AA and chargers around and didn’t need to spend extra money. Other advantage is that I use same AA for flash, and that way I only need to carry one kind of batteries.
A saw the recommendation.
Does the L2M has zoom or takes AA?
What reflector would you chose for the P60?
Thanks
The configuration that Chicken Drumstick suggests: P60 host, that very nice Intl-outdoor Nichia219 drop-in, and Solarforce L2-CL1 lens, is a pretty neat idea, it will give an almost perfect even flood with high CRI. And no modding required.
But it is at ~35 dollars a bit more expensive than a cheap zoomie modded with a Nichia.
The P60-host is for Li-ion, and the Solarforce lens does not zoom, just flood, the lens is screwed onto the drop-in base and thus replaces the reflector.
Strobes have lots of power for extremely short times (up 250th of a second, typical DSLR) constant lights using LEDs work differently.
Unless you are ok with ISO800-1600 and the largest apertures possible you need a lot of power from a light, 1 or 2 AA lights cannot offer serious power to take shots.
If you know you are going to use zoomies for photography I suggest you get a charger for 18650s. If you do build and AA light that can output as much power, you will be carrying a lot of AA batteries, and you’ll be spending a lot of time charging them all. A decent charger for 18650 cells doesn’t cost that much, like Nitecore I2 or I4. Then you can get cells for $1 each plus shipping here: For sale Sanyo blue tops 18650's SOLD or here: For Sale Panasonic CGR18650 E Batteries $1 each (Sold) But I have lots of Sanyo's left!
I use zoomies for amateur photography. Keep the AAs for your flash and go for 18650s for the lights. There is no good reason not to.
I will use the flashlight for long exposures 20 seconds or more, so 250 lumens should be enough.
As for batteries I was thinking of 3 or 4 AA. Do you think that is enough?
Note: The usual strobe usually has a synchronization speed of up to 1/250th, but it can photograph at much higher or lower speeds
[quote=Mike C]
If you know you are going to use zoomies for photography I suggest you get a charger for 18650s. If you do build and AA light that can output as much power, you will be carrying a lot of AA batteries, and you’ll be spending a lot of time charging them all. A decent charger for 18650 cells doesn’t cost that much, like Nitecore I2 or I4. Then you can get cells for $1 each plus shipping here: For sale Sanyo blue tops 18650's SOLD or here: For Sale Panasonic CGR18650 E Batteries $1 each (Sold) But I have lots of Sanyo's left!
I use zoomies for amateur photography. Keep the AAs for your flash and go for 18650s for the lights. There is no good reason not to.
I’m trying to resist the 18650…
I need the flashlight to iluminate parts of the image. For instants in this picture the tree was iluminated with a flash, but I think it would be better with a flashlight
I do not know of a NiMh or alkaline AA-powered zoomie that can put out 250 lumen, especially not when the led is swapped for a high CRI one. It is entirely possible to design a -say- 4xAA light that does 250 lumen (or 1000 for that matter) but it just is not out there. So you will need a li-ion flashlight if you want a 250 lumen zoomie.
(I can still make you one :-) )
I’m trying to resist the 18650…
I need the flashlight to iluminate parts of the image. For instants in this picture the tree was iluminated with a flash, but I think it would be better with a flashlight
I recommend S2 and one 14500 size flashlight. Get thrower unless you want to paint landscape. Color of the tint is important. I will probably have one is cool white (softbox style) and one netural or warm for effects. Avoid XP-G2. I find green cast is almost impossible to correct.
Ditto this. I am a photographer as well. I hope this won’t sound too negative, but I don’t have much good news.
You’d need a hella powerful flashlight to light up an area for night photography. Multiple powerful flooders would probably be ideal to light from different angles to eliminate harsh shadows as much as possible. I’m thinking higher CRI MT-G2s in wide TIR optics for a more even beam pattern if such a thing exists for the MT-G2.
Other tricky parts would be runtime and the regulation of the output. I’ve got a little experience experimenting with night photography + artificial lights. I figure you’re looking at a best-case 20 minute setup to get all the settings right with framing, light angles and exposure settings. With a flashlight, you’d need some pretty ballin’ regulation otherwise you’ll be constantly changing shutter speed or aperture or ISO to get the same exposure from shot to shot. Also… For the amount of light you’d need, the lights are going to get super hot in 20+ minutes of running on high.
That’s all to say that going the flashlight route will be somewhat difficult to pull together and it won’t be anywhere near cheap. Offhand, I’m thinking maybe 3-4 totally customized MT-G2 lights using whatever host would fit a wide TIR made for the MT-G2 (and I don’t even know such a TIR exists).
In order to not be so negative… I have some alternatives. The most expensive, but the proper way to light an area for night shots is with multiple off-camera flashes. Could try picking up three or four Chinese 3rd party flashes capable of running in slave mode, and then rig up some sort of stand for them to place them around the scene.
Another cheapish thing to do would be to get a handful of cheap clip-on floodlights like these guys . Tricky thing there is powering them. So if you don’t have a generator or access to AC power, you’d have to drag a car with you to the location and get a very high capacity power inverter to run them since they’re 150watts each and extension cables would add to the stress on the inverter. Would have to leave the car running as well, and even then it may blow the fuse if the inverter is running off a 12 volt cigarette lighter. If the car’s alternator is up to it, could get an inverter that attaches directly to the battery. No guarantees that wouldn’t freak out the car’s computer though (if it’s got one).
I wish I could come up with a cheaper solution… But I’m afraid the only ways I know of to tackle the problem are prohibitively expensive. Simplest and easiest would be to buy an army of cheap flashes. Maybe older used ones at a camera shop? And then roll through trial and error to see which ones fire reliably in slave mode. That’s probably what I’d do.
In very short summary… Even as bright as some of the lights built on here are, the overwhelming majority aren’t bright enough for lighting an area for night photography unless you’re still exposing for several seconds on a medium ISO and fairly low aperture. Cheap used shoe-mount flashes in slave mode is definitely the best budget solution if you’re forced to use battery power. The clip on lights might get it done if you’ve got AC power available. An inverter or generator would make that route pretty expensive.
I saw some models from Led Lenser that zoom and have lots of power. They just do’t have Hi cri and are expensive. The Led lenser M14 does 400 lumens with 4AA. The nitecore E41 has no hi cri and no zoom… I just can’t find everything in one package…
Grantman321, I only want to light small parts, like the tree in this photo. Its a 30 seconds exposure
Ok, I see what you want to do now. The problem I have noticed with a lot of LEDs is that they don’t mix very well with daylight. Flashes tend to do so much better. I haven’t tested with a Nichia high CRI though. As you can see, most of my photography is done where the LED is the only light source, so I don’t really care.
Now overcast sky (6500-7500K) is one thing and sunny daylight at noon (5500K) is another thing in terms of Kelvin, both are daylights in fundamentally, even if they are not the same on white balance settings.
Strobes are around 5500K, not all over the place like LEDs and they don't shift to green or pink like LEDs either.
I have not seen anyone trying to professionally use LEDs in photography, but I have seen some continuous lights for video where clearly you had the same issue as with flashlight, greenish light and blueish light.
ahhh gotcha. my bad. Well. In that case, I reckon it depends on how floody you want the light to be, or if you’re looking for a narrower beam to paint individual parts of a scene. For something like in the photo you linked, I’d go with a higher-CRI MT-G2. If you wanted it super floody, I’d suggest a solarforce L2 with an extension tube and add their “close up” lens on the end that Chicken Drumstick linked above. Should give a nice even beam then, and MT-G2’s put out some pretty light. You could also bring a regular P60 reflector (may have to be bored out to fit an MT-G2) with you as well if you want the beam slightly narrower. I’d use a smooth reflector… since you’re doing longer exposures, rings or weird spots in the beam won’t matter one bit, so go for a little more throw over the more even beam an orange-peel reflector would have. It’ll still be rather floody - just not as floody as with the convex lens.
I’ve never used a 219 though, but I hear their light is pretty as well. An MT-G2 will put out a boatload more light, though. I’d pair that with a zener-modded Qlite from mtnelectronics.com (or you can order a qlite or 105c from anywhere and do the zener mod yourself if you’re handy with a soldering iron). Going that route just got significantly easier since you can order 16mm noctigon mcpcb’s with MT-G2s already mounted from intl-outdoor.com. Or to make it the easiest of all, have someone here make the P60 for you (like Bushwhacked). My main reasons for suggesting an MT-G2 are: A. you can always use the driver to have lower modes if you need less light, but you can’t go higher than high if you find you’re having to paint the entire time the shutter is open to adequately light the foreground. B. I find the color of MT-G2s to be very natural-looking at night, particularly in Q0 5000k flavor.
A more expensive option if you wanted a zooming light might be the Jax Z1 . I don’t have one, but they’re apparently super nice and come with an extension tube already (will need 2 lithium ions to run an MT-G2 generally speaking), and you can get them as a host and just stick the led and driver in. With the Jax, I suppose you could also use alkaline batteries with a carrier since the battery tube is larger. Not sure how to rig up two carriers back to back, but I assume this has been done by others multiple times. It wouldn’t be a very cheap light, but it would sure be nice.
You can gel the light to match the color temperature you want, and nowadays gels are cheap. On the otherhand, you can’t increase the cri
There’s folks out there doing it. This guy seems to be pioneering it more than any others I’ve seen and he details his methods and equipment quite a bit. He’s using either a 90-lumen Surefire (P60) or a 350-lumen O-Light M-10 for indoor light painting of architecture and still life, and large LED panels for outdoor light painting. He also uses various diffusion attachments on all of his light sources (he sells diffusion tubes for the Surefire or O-Light on Etsy) including a big homemade diffusion screen for his larger LED panel light.
Both of those links are pretty interesting… highly recommend giving them a read. After looking at all that (I’d only seen the night landscape photos before, just now read through his website today)… I think my recommendation of a solarforce with an MT-G2 and the convex lens would be a pretty solid way to go. Might even be a good idea to get one of their diffusion tubes too to soften the light even further. That seems to be the most versatile setup I can come up with in terms of a very portable light source with nice tint, the ability to adjust the brightness using modes, decently regulated output, and have cheap, readily available attachments for softening & hardening the light as needed.
Edit: Also, after reading through that guy’s explanation of his gear, I’m thinking a Nichia 219 would be too narrow of a beam for the sort of outdoor shots the OP is talking about. Harold Ross is using panel lights for his outdoor light painting… so basically a large, unwieldy mule with a dozen or more LEDs, and even then he’s built a diffusion screen to go on top of it. Shoot… an MT-G2 might even throw too far in that case. Might be okay with the convex lens though. Or maybe just go straight mule with it.
Edit Edit: fixed first link
Edit Edit Edit: here’s more and bigger shots of his work
I like all these outdoor 'lightpainted' photographs, thanks for linking! :-)
