Thanks for your comment. I don’t expect to be able to see too far with my “herping light”. Maybe as far as 20 to 30 steps away is good enough. When I see something “suspicious”, I will get closer to investigate.
Some snakes have really crazy camouflage!
Thanks for your response. Maybe I should call it “herping light”. I don’t need to see too far, something from near to about 20 - 30 steps away is good enough. I use my Mi Nextool for herping, and when I see something suspicious, I’ll go full blast (2000lm) for confirmation.
Not really, here in the tropic, there are more snakes up on trees than on the ground in the forest. Of course, there are many different habitats but I am talking about the typical rainforest.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I do want to find snakes high up in the trees, or further away from the trail. I ordered mine on Shopee. I just checked out convoylight and realized that it offers free shipping.
Always wear gumboots when I go to the forest.
Thanks. Yeah, I do prefer cool white myself!
That is what imagined, flood would be a better choice, but you already ordered the light so you have no choice but to wait and see. you could turn a thrower into a flooder relatively easy, all you need is a diffuser, a piece of frosted glass would work pretty good, or something of that nature.
Whoops. That was a typo. I meant 150.
you’d need LED efficiency of 180 lm/W or better
Indeed, and the XHP70.2 is around that mark at 5W. This test of an XHP70.2 P2 bin shows 964lm from 5.53W or 174 lm/W. P4 bins (7% higher) are available and should be about 187 lm/W at the same power level. The datasheet lists an even higher Q2 bin, but I’m not sure they actually exist.
I received my L21A a few days ago. When I turned it on and cycled through the modes, it went from SOS, to Biking(?), to Beacon(?) then five different brightness modes. Is that supposed to be the default mode?
Can’t say I am fond of the weird beam profile but I’ll test it in the field first before I conclude anything.
Edit: After many hours of trying, I finally managed to select the group i want. I am using group 10 now. I will test it out in the field. (1%, 10%, 35%, 100%)
You’ve mentioned this GT-FC40 twice (I think) and it doesn’t seem to stick. Maybe third time’s the charm. 
Another vote for GT-FC40 but I would prefer 4500k, in Convoy M21B or M21F. I also have 5500k version, but strongly prefer 4500k for color recognition.
I also have SFT40 and SST40 - these 2 are great LEDs but the 6000-6500k versions have among the lowest of CRI’s and therefore not good for color recognition. Also definitely NOT the SFT40 in Sofirn IF22a, which I have - pencil beam with no spill to speak of.
OP if you like some more info on GT-FC40: Convoy M21B, M21E, M21F w/ GT-FC40 4500k: 3 CRI-95 324m throwers w/ Nichia-like tint -->3 HOME RUNS. Unique & unmatched but +/- tint lottery. I am a hard-core shutterbug and there are pictures there comparing how different LEDs and lights look on trees and leaves.
If the thread is too long, 3 main reasons for GT-FC40 4500k:
For me, GT-FC40 in Convoy lights give unique and unmatched combination of high CRI, output, and throw + flood balance. In fact the only light in my (small) collection that does this. It imitates Nichia beam color, but does it with much higher output.
I take evening walk daily and my neighborhood has lots of trees/plants. IMHO/IME, white light (high CCT right?) is bright and impressive, but it turns all shades of brown and grey into grey, and all shades of leaves into greenish green. A high CRI LED like GT-FC40 will show all those greys are actually shades of brown and grey, and all the green leaves have different shades. Compare them back to back and, hopefully, you’ll see what I mean.
Thank you. I have no issue with the throw, the CRI and color temp. I really dislike the hotspot though. I wish it were more like the Mi Nextool or the Fenix FD41.
Does the “4000k” version measure at 4500k?
M21G was suggested due to Kurt’s runtime requirements. It comes with Orange Peel reflector when the GT-FC40 LED is selected. The smallish diameter, OP reflector, and large LED would hopefully make for a nice balanced beam, although I don’t have one to say for certain.
Intensity decays proportionally to the inverse of distance squared, so going from 0.25 lux to .5 lux actually multiplies 1/sqrt(2) to the distance, not 1/2. Similarly, a light with 500m FL1 throw has an intensity of 0.25*(500/125)^2=4 lux at 125m, not 1 lux. Setting the threshold from 0.25 lux to 1 lux actually halves the throw, not a quarter.
Your calculations would work if we lived in 2 dimensions, where the “surface area of a sphere” (proportional to inverse-intensity) scales linearly with radius, but alas…
Oh I see now. Simon changed the web site listings so that now the two options for GT-FC40 are 4000k and 5000k. I don’t think they are accurate.
On the box itself, and on the old listings, the 2 options are “4000k-4500k” ( both mine and his, or rather one of his samples, measure ~4500k) and “5000k-5500k” (mine measures ~5300k, his measures ~5500k). Both great CRI, Ra 93, R9 76-78. As mentioned to OP I much prefer the warmer look of 4500k.
M21G sounds great. And 2 batteries for longer duration. I don’t have it either, only M21B, F, and E.
You’re welcome. You meant the MI Nextool on the left is more floody and has larger, diffuse hotspot, and the one on the right, L21a with SFT40, has a thrower beam profile, very bright in the middle and blinding you at closeup?
I believe @Hoop and someone else predicted that (and I agreed with them). SFT40 is not a good choice for what you were asking for initially, good color recognition. It is also not a good choice for close observation because of its throwy character (hotspot blinding). I have 2 lights with SFT40, like it, but this LED especially the 6000k version has among the lowest CRI (~70) of all LEDs.
Give a LED with high CRI a chance. I would look for a light with “smallish” reflector, “largish” LED, and high CRI so there is a more balanced beam with beautiful color rendition. The Convoy M21F with GT-FC40 4000-4500k is my vote.
Kindly reminder that the initial request was
and not “…something with better color rendition”.
And you keep trying to steal 25% of brightness from OP’s next flashlight.
I’ve never been to the jungle and never seen snakes elsewhere except a zoo (at least tropical ones) so I am probably wrong. But what if high CRI won’t help telling naturally brown snake from naturally brown tree ? That’s their point to be the same color/texture as the environment they live in.
As for beam profile… maybe it’s safer to buy something like M21H (with xhp70.3 r70 
) and a bunch of TIRs with different angles and choose a suitable beam yourself.
Thank you! Exactly! I find that CRI is not that important to me. As for color temperature, I personally prefer cool white. It’s the higher intensity (with decent runtime) that I am looking for. I will have a look at M21H with XH70 on youtube.
Yes, exactly. The Mi Nextool is more floody with diffused hotspot. Whereas the L21A has hotspots has two zones with two different intensities which I find a little annoying. I’ll test it out in the field to see if I can live with that.
Thank you for your suggestions. I will check out M21F with GF-FC40.
Based on the Convoy M21F vs. M21H video, I think I prefer the M21H.
Based on this comparison video, I think I prefer the M21H with XHP70 better
If you’ll go for M21H keep in mind that stock 12 deg lens is quite narrow, so for your use case 24 or even 36 deg lens should be ordered in addition.
And if you need a longer runtime M21H has twin brother M26D with the same head and bigger body for 26650/26800 batteries.
