Floody Throw Light Recommendation

[checkerfred]

@2100

By the way i’d have to point one important thing out.

All the lumens and throw specs listed in here would be be available in TURBO mode only.

That means in small and light lights (what we call pocket rockets), on the extremely powerful lights listed here, max output would be available for a very short 30-60 seconds burst at most. Double that in winter perhaps? Recovery times are also not gonna take less than 5 minutes, unless you splash it with water.

On less powerful lights, eg the Convoy L6, that effect is going to be less noticeable, you might get 3 minutes in Turbo before ramp down due to temp regulation or your hands give up. Since you’ll be mounting it on your kayak it’d be via regulation. If there is no temp regulation or it isn’t working well, you might have a dead light soon after forgetting to turn it down after a few times.

Take for example the Convoy L6 and Haikelite MT09R, both are of the same weight. One is like 20k lumens with each XHP70.2 driven to close to 7k lumens. The other is a single XHP 70.2 driven to just under 4k lumens. In reality, after the initial turbo burst on the MT09R, you’d need to wait out for quite a while for it to cool down first before attempting the burst. You’d need to search the reviews and see how long it’d take for it to cool down say 15 deg C before it’s good to attempt another turbo burst.

That’s my thinking too…bigger lights are probably overkill for my needs, BUT I’ll get longer run times at low to mid range, even high if I need it and it won’t give the heat like turbo mode would.

@2100

The throw distance between the Convoy L6 and Haikelite MT09R is in the same ballpark in reality.
You mentioned that you need to see obstacles under the water as well, i guess that’d range between 3 metres to 5 metres, wrt your line of vision while sitting in the kayak? I am of the opinion (you’d need to confirm that yourself in youtube vid reviews wrt your own needs and mounting situation) that the hotspot on the MT03 and MT09R is too big and while mounted on the kayak just 1-2 feet off the water, the hotspot would hit water about 5 metres away thus spoiling a lot of your night vision? Yes, if you are using a pair of binoculars and looking at a 300 metres big target you are going to see it illuminated, but trying to see it with unaided eyes is going to be tricky.

The keyword here is keeping the hotspot off the water or ground for ground distances that are below say 20 metres?

I believe the spill from the more “regular” 3000-6000 lumens lights would still be able to serve 3-5 metres illumination range. In fact, even the spill at 1000+ lumens is more than sufficient for prolonged usage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78e-eBi488Q?t=160

Yeah probably 3-5 meters in my line of vision…just to know if I’d have to portage over a log or blow down or if I can push over it. I have a Fenix TK22 and when I mount it to the very front it does ok, but I want something better. So yeah, like you said the key is I want to keep the hot spot off the water and let the outside illumination of the light make the water visible. I’ve watched hours and hours of reviews but it’s hard to see what it would look like wrt to my needs. I’m really thinking of buying several to try out and I can keep some and give the others to my dad and father in law.