Lightpainting flashlight guide

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Here is a list of some lightpainting flashlights. This list is still in progress.

Important features will include consistent build quality while affordable, as well as a complete selection of color temperatures from yellow, warm white, neutral white, cool white, and a very useful constant strobe.

Convoy S2 +

This flashlight has a lot of options and customizations that might be confusing for some.
Manufacturer offers models with Color temperatures between 2700K-6500K.
If you need a constant strobe 10Hz, you should get model with the “3/5 modes”. While the “12 modes” have a very wide range of modes from moonlight to High, battery check, nike strobe etc, it will have a 8/16 Hz variable strobe. So make sure you pay attention to that.

Another confusing part will be choosing how many “7135’s* to get. I recommend 8x7135 for full power or 4x7135 for half the power. With more power there is more battery drain, more heat and less runtime. You could also choose 6x7135 which is a middle way.

I will post links and screenshots in a little while.

Thorfire BLF Q8 - If you can find one, it had Neutral white emitters. and 5 different strobes. I mentioned the Thorfire older version because the current Sofirn Q8 is being sold as Cool White only.

Emisar/Noctigon - Anduril Flashlights - Toykeeper designed a special firmware for flashlights and a few of the features are designed specially for lightpainting.
I believe Emisar’s are hard to find and discontinued as of the time of writing but have excellent support and

Flashlight buying guide
 by stephenk. He is an expert and a long time member on BLF.

P.S.

I am no expert on photography or lightpainting but here and there, I get asked to recommend an affordable flashlight for photography, lightpainting etc…

A friend sent me a bunch of links of flashlights to choose from for lightpainting . I went through the list and it is just total trash and waste of money. There seem to be no easy to find list.

Try googling “lightpainting flashlight” and you will be surprise by the recommendation from Mr Google and Mr Amazon are just atrocious.

So my hope is if I create a simple list, maybe other people in need will be able to find it and buy the right right tool for the job.

2

The S2+ is a bad example. It has PWM and you will get a dashed line or at least inconsistent brightness.

3

Convoy 5A/6A driver is linear FET and has no PWM right?

4

Thanks for pointing out the PWM, are you referring to the 12 mode biscotti driver or 3/5 driver as well?

I haven’t noticed any PWM on 100% with the 4x7135 or 8x7135 but I don’t have the right tools to measure the PWM.

5

100% has no PWM, all other levels have it. Firmware does not matter.

6

Depending on how you use the light, some PWM might not make a difference.
If the shutter is open a long time and you are not waving the light around like crazy, I’d would imagine anything faster than 5K or so would be invisible.

If you want strobes, several Anduril lights have adjustable strobes.

All the Best,
Jeff

7

Thanks for clarifying that. I figured the lower modes will have visible PWM for sure.

Anduril is so cool but I realized that with all the Anduril flashlights coming out there is no way for you to figure out what version of Anduril they flashed on it, and forget about expecting to get consistent quality of parts and components, I remember Toykeeper and Tom E posting about it. I have an Anduril flashlight that I bought early enough to get the one with good components but with an ancient Anduril because the manufacturer refused the changes and now I can’t figure out what version it has because it doesnt have version check and it is also missing factory reset,

I also wanted to have a list of flashlights that are in similar price range than the junky flashlights being suggested by Google and Amazon,
I put the Thorfire Q8 which is a total outlier for such purpose but will keep adding Anduril lights as well. Thank you

8

FWIW, light painting is the main reason why Anduril’s momentary mode can do strobes. Go to the strobe mode you want, configure the speed / brightness / whatever, then turn the light off. Click 5 times to enter momentary mode. Then it’s ready to paint.

In Anduril2, it’s slightly easier… no need to turn the light off. Just go to the strobe you want, then click 5 times for momentary mode.

Some lights are also designed to make it easy to customize things in detail. Specifically, Emisar/Noctigon lights include pads for reflashing the firmware, and there’s also a flashing kit available. That way, you can use whatever version you want, or customize it yourself with interesting modes or patterns.

9

I’ve written a flashlight buying guide for light painting photographers. There are quite a few lights on this list that have probably never had a mention on BLF.

There are also links to some of my recent reviews aimed at light painting photographers in my signature.

10

That’s pretty awesome, I added this to the list, :+1:

I remember using your advice on BLF a lot in the past, thanks for chiming in :slight_smile:

11

Thanks. I’ve not been on BLF too much in the last year or so, but feel free to message me for any advice related to light painting, etc.

12

Wow,
Some seriously artistic images there!

When you are showing lights with faster PWM, How are you moving the light fast enough to show the pulses?
After about 2K, I can’t wave my old arms fast enough to make anything other than a streak.

Again really nifty images.
All the Beat,
Jeff

13

I generally find that PWM is hardly visible in light trails at more than 1kHz, though if you move fast enough it can be seen at up to 4kHz. The closer the light trail is to the camera, then the more likely you are to notice PWM.

14

you might want PWM or configurable strobe (FW3A has 2 versions), though, for some things

wle

15

PWM can be useful for some effects in light painting (such as light tunnels in this video - https://youtu.be/qxjXZymBCYk ) . However, in general I think there is more preference towards smooth light trails. The Lightpainter flashlight from Light Painting Paradise is the best flashlight for strobes - 3 strobe modes, trigger mode, 8 brightness steps (50-1200lm), and 8 strobe frequency steps (up to 66Hz). The host might look familiar!

16

Hmm… still not sure exactly what light painting is . lol

17

It’s a long exposure photo (usually at night or a dark location) where you either illuminate a scene, or draw something with a light source in the scene. There are a range of different light painting tools which can create different effects.

18

If I may be so bold as to show some of stephenk images…
This is light painting.

Lots of light painting guides on youtube.
All the Best
Jeff

19

Light painting is like traditional painting… except instead of a paint brush, people use a variety of lights. And instead of a canvas, the medium is film or a camera’s sensor. Frame a shot, open the shutter, then quickly paint a scene.

At some point, I’d like to try doing some light painting with the lightsaber I’m making… but first I need to fix my test host, do a bunch of updates to the firmware, and properly build my full saber for real use instead of just testing.

20

Have you checked out the Antsonamelon RGB Critter? Hopefully I will get a copy for review before it is shipped in Q4 2020.