So, I got fed up with using flashlights that used conventional batteries (I use a flashlight every single day of my life for work), and I’ve been super pleased with the Cree XM-L2 U3 and it’s seen a LOT of miles on my side for the past year…
It finally died and now I’m looking for a replacement. I’m interested in going brighter if they exist at that size. Any suggestions or, for the price, can I not do better?
Hell, I’d be willing to part one together and make it myself it it would get me a better unit.
I have a v6 3d in a Convoy M1 driven by an H17f driver; it's awesome. Great runtime at lower volume, baf at wot, highly configurable, very useful beam, and I love the tint.
Good questions! Also, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll check out the Emisar shortly.
As far as the use, I am a cabling tech and use a flashlight constantly. I’d say it’s for moderately close up work but I really did like the ability to step up the brightness on the Cree. I even started using it in my macro photography because it was so bright. So I’d probably say the answer is “both” so I need a light that is adjustable somehow. The battery I used with the Cree was the 18650 of some species or another. I found out the hard way (like I’m sure a lot of you here have as well) that the battery dimensions vary greatly in the 18650 family. I’m not particularly married to any one battery. I just liked the fact that I could charge it via USB port which I’m working to make all my electronics these days. So I’m open…
I’m not too worried about color rendering. Even in my photography, I don’t care about color temperature at the time of shooting because I’m always going to pass my work through Lightroom and adjust the coloring anyways so there’s not much need for it. I’d be more interested in a similar size / form factor, USB rechargable, and adjustable brightness that exceeds the Cree.
Thanks everyone for the welcomes!! I really love this forum! Flashlights are near and deer to my heart so this is an awesome place to learn.
As far as the duration of use, hard to say. Some days it’s just spots here and there and some days it could be a couple hours in a dark hole. I usually carry an extra battery in the event of a long stay though. I will definitely look into the Samsung battery, thanks L4M4!!
I absolutely can compensate for CRI in Lightroom. It’s not as easy as adjusting temp and tint but certainly can be done. Still, your point is quite valid and well taken. I will make a point of looking for those specs from now on! It would at lest make me work less in post if the need arises.
Still, the most important things to me are what were stated above. I’m more concerned with those features than color. Yet, I’m sure I’m going to pick a quality source anyways —just because I can!
When I take photos, I use my phone camera. I don’t even own a real camera, or a high CRI light source. So, I’m not a photography expert. But, I’ve been messing with computers practically my whole life, and I know what data is. CRI is about real original data. It cannot be processed in.
The CRI of your light source determines what real color information you CAN get into your camera. If your light source has a low CRI, then you simply aren’t getting all the information from your subject. So, you may be able to add “pretend” CRI effect or adjust colors manually or something else. But, you can’t make the real original color information from your subject magically appear in the image file if it doesn’t exist. That’s like taking a photo with a cheap point-and-shoot camera and running a “pretend” HDR effect on it. You may be able to fool some people with it, but it isn’t really HDR.
For up close work, a floody light is going to serve you best. If you want to build something yourself, don’t put any reflector or optic in it to focus the light. And since you’ll use it for photography, maybe even add diffuser material to the lens to reduce artifacts and even out the light coverage.
