Strongest DIMMABLE Flashlight?

PropsGuy · 2019-07-03T16:03:58.000Z

Okay, I’m back.

Looking for INFINITELY VARIABLE BRIGHTNESS or as close as I can get.

Lightbringer: hacque? ……

Ultrafire DV-S9 = not nearly bright enough. Need Lumens > 10,000. Workshop lamp? Unworkable due to power source, portability, cord, and prop needs. Also, mechanical solutions like an aperture are unworkable.

Main feature is portability. The prop is carried in scene. It sits on the ground like a lantern. Shines straight upward in a reveal shot. That light coming to full brightness needs the tension of ramping, vs immediate switch from dark to light. The prop is portable, small, and has to function without a noticeable cord or actor interaction.

Hope that gives folks a clearer view of what I’m going for here.

Brightening before dimming is also a no go. Action = no light ramping to full light.

BlueSwordM - that’s a really cool light. But, can’t wait three weeks for parts and it doesn’t run off a battery, so requires more engineering.

Best case scenario = off-the-shelf unit + minor bending = done. The reason I chose a flashlight is for size and configuration.

Emisar D18 Flashlight looks like it might work. FW3A is also too small.

Boaz - I don’t need the tightest beam. The body of the prop will provide some flagging at the edges to tighten the look of the beam.

FW3A is def too small. Thanks for that link - checking them over now…

mrheosuper · 2019-07-03T16:07:56.000Z

Haikelite mt09r iirc it has stepless dimming

PropsGuy · 2019-07-03T16:26:53.000Z

mrheosuper:

Haikelite mt09r iirc it has stepless dimming

Looks promising, thanks!

It also looks like I might have to bypass some switch circuitry… :weary:

Lightbringer · 2019-07-03T16:36:04.000Z

PropsGuy:

Hope that gives folks a clearer view of what I’m going for here.

Ugh.

Not to get preachy, but I see this over and over and over again. The damned thing should be made a sticky if not a must-read.

Someone posts a quick short question, then there are lots of suggestions, lots of shoot-downs, then finally a “What I really need is…”, with the result being lots of wasted suggestions and ideas, and lots of frustrated people muttering to themselves, “Y’know, you should’ve just said so in the first place.”.

The same thing happens when people leave their location field blank. “Where can I buy…”, people suggest Amazon and other places, then get, “Oh, I live in X, and there’s no Amazon there.”, or, “They don’t ship Y to my country”. Like, wtf??

The key to getting useful answers is asking a useful question which keeps people from needlessly spinning their wheels.

Firelight2 · 2019-07-03T17:00:20.000Z

Main feature is portability. The prop is carried in scene. It sits on the ground like a lantern. Shines straight upward in a reveal shot. That light coming to full brightness needs the tension of ramping, vs immediate switch from dark to light. The prop is portable, small, and has to function without a noticeable cord or actor interaction.

Do you want it to go from dim to bright while sitting on the ground without being touched by an actor?

If so something like an Emisar D18 would work, but you might need custom firmware programmed for it.

Anduril firmware is open source, but you might need to program in a special mode. Something like you press the button then after a set period of time it starts ramping until it hits max and stays there. That way it would work without being touched.

Henk4U2 · 2019-07-03T19:50:56.000Z

Lightbringer:

The key to getting useful answers is asking a useful question which keeps people from needlessly spinning their wheels.

My old math teacher always said that by fully understanding the question you are about halfway the answer.

lawallac · 2019-07-03T20:21:21.000Z

What type of beam are you looking to get? That x80 is very bright but it’s not going to give you much of a defined beam. There always seems to be a bit of a trade off lumens vs lux.

teacher · 2019-07-03T21:15:07.000Z

Henk4U2:

Lightbringer:

The key to getting useful answers is asking a useful question which keeps people from needlessly spinning their wheels.

My old math teacher always said that by fully understanding the question you are about halfway the answer.

Well said by you both!! And the “old math teacher” also…. . :+1: .

Relampago · 2019-07-04T03:33:01.000Z

When it comes to props, the hard part is limited budget and buying your own equipment. I get the attempt to narrow down to a precise purchase. Maybe the new Astrolux M18.

nightlyfe27 · 2019-07-04T05:39:51.000Z

Have you made a decision?

PropsGuy · 2019-07-05T16:11:11.000Z

Lightbringer:

PropsGuy:

Hope that gives folks a clearer view of what I’m going for here.

Ugh.

Not to get preachy, but I see this over and over and over again. The damned thing should be made a sticky if not a must-read.

Someone posts a quick short question, then there are lots of suggestions, lots of shoot-downs, then finally a “What I really need is…”, with the result being lots of wasted suggestions and ideas, and lots of frustrated people muttering to themselves, “Y’know, you should’ve just said so in the first place.”.

The same thing happens when people leave their location field blank. “Where can I buy…”, people suggest Amazon and other places, then get, “Oh, I live in X, and there’s no Amazon there.”, or, “They don’t ship Y to my country”. Like, wtf??

The key to getting useful answers is asking a useful question which keeps people from needlessly spinning their wheels.

That’s really helping me. :rage:

I didn’t come here to fight with the community, but you’re coming off as a jerk. The reason I didn’t give a blow-by-blow of the action is to avoid people coming in trying to tell me how to make a film, how to light, how to do ALL kinds of things I DON’T need advice on. Like questioning the flood or focus, how many lumens, size, etc. Saves having to explain everything to people who don’t know much about film production. I have three forums active on these issues right now and I’m working 16 hour days so forgive me if I’m not as thorough as you’d like.

I need a small torch at that lumen strength that I can make dimmable from dark to full brightness - that’s it. I certainly don’t need a lecture. Thank you.

Relampago - muchas gracias.

It’s looking like we will probably go with the Emisar D18. Now I need to deep dive Anduril and see about custom scripts before we pull the trigger.

This thread is deteriorating, so I’ll just go ahead and say thanks to everyone who responded, you’ve all been a great help to the effort. I’ll be posting more asking about Anduril, and I’ll post a final production thread with the finished product once it’s complete.

Relampago · 2019-07-05T18:07:32.000Z

I’ve got a D18, it’s a killer light. It’s quite bright and the craftsmanship is excellent. Anduril is my favorite ui, the lightning mode is awesome. Could be useful on other projects as well.

PropsGuy · 2019-07-05T19:04:14.000Z

Relampago:

I’ve got a D18, it’s a killer light. It’s quite bright and the craftsmanship is excellent. Anduril is my favorite ui, the lightning mode is awesome. Could be useful on other projects as well.

Awesome! Have you messed around with altering firmware, or flashing updates to the chipset? That’s the next stage of the project. Starting another thread to work on stripping down the UI to a single function - ramping, and port the controls to a remote.

Let me know if you have any insight!

Relampago · 2019-07-05T19:51:29.000Z

I haven’t messed with the firmware but the creator is ToyKeeper and she’s on the forum. You could probably send her a pm and she’ll most likely help you out.

PropsGuy · 2019-07-05T19:55:14.000Z

Cheers, yeah, I wanted to wait on that. I’m sure TK is very busy and I’d like to get a feel for how it all works before I approach her, so I don’t waste too much of her time.

scosgt · 2019-07-08T05:03:53.000Z

PropsGuy:

Cheers, yeah, I wanted to wait on that. I’m sure TK is very busy and I’d like to get a feel for how it all works before I approach her, so I don’t waste too much of her time.

$25 on Amazon
Ramps up and down and super bright. Comes with batteries and charger.
Not fancy. Just works

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NVBV7R7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

korpzgrinda · 2019-07-08T19:36:25.000Z

those batteries look suspect, is the kit working well for you?

PropsGuy · 2019-07-08T23:29:50.000Z

scosgt:

PropsGuy:

Cheers, yeah, I wanted to wait on that. I’m sure TK is very busy and I’d like to get a feel for how it all works before I approach her, so I don’t waste too much of her time.

$25 on Amazon
Ramps up and down and super bright. Comes with batteries and charger.
Not fancy. Just works

Amazon.com

Looks promising. Are you sure it ramps up from dark? Have you used one?

scosgt · 2019-07-08T23:51:40.000Z

PropsGuy:

scosgt:

PropsGuy:

Cheers, yeah, I wanted to wait on that. I’m sure TK is very busy and I’d like to get a feel for how it all works before I approach her, so I don’t waste too much of her time.

$25 on Amazon
Ramps up and down and super bright. Comes with batteries and charger.
Not fancy. Just works

Amazon.com

Looks promising. Are you sure it ramps up from dark? Have you used one?

I have two. It always starts at bright which is basically a turbo mode. If you hold the switch down, it ramps down, at the lowest it blinks twice. That mode is super low, but it is lit. After about two seconds it ramps back up to bright. I don’t know if there is a way to make it start low instead of high.

PropsGuy · 2019-07-09T12:23:44.000Z

scosgt:

PropsGuy:

scosgt:

PropsGuy:

Cheers, yeah, I wanted to wait on that. I’m sure TK is very busy and I’d like to get a feel for how it all works before I approach her, so I don’t waste too much of her time.

$25 on Amazon
Ramps up and down and super bright. Comes with batteries and charger.
Not fancy. Just works

Amazon.com

Looks promising. Are you sure it ramps up from dark? Have you used one?

I have two. It always starts at bright which is basically a turbo mode. If you hold the switch down, it ramps down, at the lowest it blinks twice. That mode is super low, but it is lit. After about two seconds it ramps back up to bright. I don’t know if there is a way to make it start low instead of high.

That won’t work for me. It MUST start dark for the FX to work. This product has the same problems I’ll have to overcome with the Emisar - overbuilt control systems that do all kinds of things I’m not interested in.