I would like to buy a flashlight for my son and need some recommendations.
He walks his dog at night, in a field that’s 5 acres (about 250 meters long at the longest point), and would like to light up the field like daylight.
So I would like the flashlight to:
Be as bright as possible for the money - in front of him and around him as far as possible
Be able to let him zoom in if he hears rustling in the woods beyond the field
Have USB-C charge directly to make it easy for him
He will probably use it for 5-10 minutes at a time, and can charge it every few days, so I’m not too worried about drop of lumens unless its a cliff edge.
Oh and the most important thing - $40 is about the most I want to spend because I’m getting a more expensive present for him as well.
The other one is handheld, floody and supposedly up to 200m, but that would be on turbo and not for long (if it actually does 200m). Both lights here use 18650 batteries and are pretty popular:
Light up the field like daylight? At what distance and what area covered? That’s a pretty tall order for a large area. A simple headlamp will do a reasonable area. The brighter the light, the shorter the runtime between recharges. I have a cheap Boruit headlamp similar to the rj-5000 which is plenty bright for camping trips. It’s really more light than I need. Power it with some quality Li-ion batteries such as NCR/Panasonic 3,400 mAh 18650 batteries and you have a good combination. One pair of batteries always lasts an entire weekend trip. Mine was based upon CREE XML-T-6 LEDs. The new ones use more advanced CREE LEDs.
The Sofirn Q8 Pro is a pretty good value for the money for a light that can light up a large area. It’s about $70 (with batteries) after coupon codes. You’re not going to be able to get what you’re describing for under $40.
Light up 5 acres like daylight? Did you ever see the stadium lights for a 100 yard football (American) field? Not very portable. But, maybe you were using a bit of hyperbole ?
You will need to revise your expectations, especially for $40. Maybe 6 times that cost with multiple batteries and fan cooling might get you 30% of what you ask for.
Having said that, maybe a Convoy M21D with XHP 70.2 would be a decent choice. It ticks most of your boxes, except the unreasonable ones.
High powered flooder flashlights are not going to have a zoom option. But if you get one powerful enough, the turbo mode will basically do what you want. It wouldn’t be $40 though, more like $300-$400 and I say that with something like the Acebeam X50 or Acebeam X75 in mind. I’m sure those lights have the kind of performance you are envisioning.
If you don’t want to spend that kind of money you need to give up the idea of the ultra-floody beam profile (unless you are willing to compromise on the distance the beam can reach with daylight levels of brightness)
Actually, I reckon the sofirn C8L would be my pick - I did pick it You have contrasting requirements - huge flood with 250m range. This light is considered a thrower but has a wider beam than a typical thrower. For example, the C8L should easily light up 250m on high.
I’ve been enjoying mine checking out water fowl on water, wallabies, possums and bandicoots on night time walks. I don’t use turbo - there isn’t much actual light difference between high and turbo. Turbo seems to be greatly diminished results - lots more draw from the battery, the light gets hot quickly, and visibly the difference isn’t that much (in my newby opinion).
Sofirn are selling them for $47, but they have an extra 15% off - that brings you to $40. The sofirn store in US is out of stock right now:
Sounds like the Sofirn SP70 might be a good choice. Just a big, broad spotlight. When I take it out in the neighborhood it basically will light up a whole street.
I had the SP70 and got rid of it. Not particularly impressed. I’m much more impressed by the smaller SF47 with 4 SST40’s and 9000 lumens which I’ll never get rid of.
The SF47 is a great light! It has good mode spacing, great output, a nice design. If I could change one thing it would be to make the LEDs 5000k instead of 6500k. I’m not sure why Sofirn hasn’t continued to offer it, or why they haven’t offered it with different emitter options.
