I’ve been wondering for some time now. 
Why are so many people interested in having a large throw, is it of use very often? There must be a limit, it must’ve already been passed?
Flood is hardly ever mentioned, for me that’s just as important.
Actually, I think flood is the prevalent favorite, but people who want throw are very adamant about it.
I was thinking of starting a census on throw/flood according to geography. I’m in Ontario Canada, and once you head north to cottage country, you can have all the throw in the world, but it won’t go farther than thirty feet before it hits a wall of trees, whereas in the southern farmland regions, throw might be more advantageous.
Arizona…lots of open space. Perhaps if I lived there, I would want throw.
Minnesotans might want more flood like Ontarians.
Lots of forest, or lots of open land, I think a lot of it depends on geography.
I don’t know what the preferred beam type would be in Norway as compared to Finland. Texas, maybe half and half.
What do you think? Does my theory hold water?
Most want use need both. Modders push the limits. Throw numbers measure there limits. Set goals etc.
Not sure if there are peramiters for measuring flood.
+1 8)
You can use a throwy light at short range, but you can’t use a floody light at long range. I don’t use a flashlight for general lighting, I use a flashlight to look for something. I want to be able to “point” the majority of the light to where I am looking. You can also be more efficient with a throwy light. 5 lumens focused to a beam can go further than you expect. 5 lumens from a mule just disappears, really.
Big throw is fun to build. I gives you a goal.
If I’m out in the boat on the big water, I want throw with a tight narrow beam with very little spill. Spill on the water will ruin my night vision. A tight narrow beam will pick up the reflector of a distant buoy long after its visible illuminatin has disappeared. Whereas when I’m going out the door of my cottage, I want wide flood, like an MTG. I need to be able to see left, right and center…completely, as there is usually a bear standing right there. Nothing worse than illuminating straight ahead and then tripping over a bear that’s sitting two feet to the side. I’ve done that many times and it always scares the crap out of me. Actually, it usually scares the crap out of the bear too.
I live in Arizona and I am primarily interested in throwers. My family has a cabin on some acreage up in the White Mountains of Eastern AZ and with the hills, pine forests and the large open meadows in between, a light that projects long distances is the way to go. The complete, absolute darkness of the high mountains on a moonless night will make even a modest stock Defiant XML light look like a beast. I recently traveled up to the Grand Canyon at night (12-11-15 it was a “new moon”) and brought all my lights to test at what I consider the ultimate testing area! We started with the smallest, weakest lights and worked our way up to the current “kings” of my collection. We found a great peninsula of land jutting out about 40 feet with a steep drop off about 150 feet on the sides and a drop off of nearly a mile in front of us. Let me tell you, none of the top throwers even got close to hitting the bottom. Maxtoch 2x~~, Olight M2x Javelot(stock), and TN31(stock) all just disappeared into the gaping darkness~~ you could just see the beam go out a ways and then stop like a light saber. I thought with such a perfectly dark night and the immense wide open space, the lights would really stand out but it felt more like standing on the edge of the universe and shining a penlight to try and see the other side. Made me realize just how insignificant we are when we’re face to face with nature! I took my wifes camera with tripod and attempted to document this but it was so dark and since there was nothing for the lights to hit, it quickly became apparent that pictures weren’t going to happen….
You don’t hear much about flood because it’s mostly brute force, good thermal transfer, and high current, nothing too mysterious. Getting massive throw is trickier, so more threads about how to achieve it. At least that’s my take on it. If you look at the majority of lights people on the forum own I bet floody lights outnumber the true throwers (high candela for their size).
I hope not 
Throw is more impressive as flood. If you have a great thrower most people would say Wow- this is cool, like a lightsaber.
But be realistic: Who needs to know, what happend 300-400m away?
Most of the existing lighting in out daily lives is flood. The sun, street lights, lamps etc. We see it all the time, usually from sources that can greatly out produce the flood of a flashlight. Not often do we get to see or use throw. Flashlights being small and limited in the total amount of lumens that it can produce, can appear more impressive in throwing situations.
Only those who can appreciate how hard it is to produce a lot of flood in a small light would be impressed with it.
Right on da money!!! As much as I like my S2+ I usually grab a C8 if I’m only gonna carry one light outdoors.
Add a vote for throwy lights. Laser like aspheric pencil beams I don’t want. Floods I don’t want either unless it’s strapped on my head.
My ideal beams:
Convoy S2 Smooth Reflector XP-G2
Convoy C8 XM-L2
Ps. I think that Orange Peel reflectors are a cheap way of making a bad reflector worse.
Get a bigger emiters die if you want more flood.
You can always put a diffuser on a thrower and get a flood (or even bounce of ceiling). Not as easy the other way around.
I find flood more useful for my photography, throw more useful to see further when exploring.
I think throw is considered more fun because the further away you can illuminate something, the more impressive it is. A wall of bright 10K lumen light can be pretty impressive too, especially in a dense forest, but a tight throwy 10k lumen spot beam shining at something in the distance will always have a higher wow factor.
Make yourself high quality zoomie and forget on reflector lights cause with zoomie(50mm zommie for example) you'll have all in one.
Mighty and unbeatable throw for flashlight size and excellent flood mode that consist of pure hotspot. Field of view in full flood mode about 80-100 meters on 100 meters, 30-50 meters on 50 meters etc. Depends on used zoomie.
Of course I am talking about modded zoomies here. So if you don't know how to mod forget everything I wrote cause they will suck at performance.
Can you recommend any good one’s or do you make them from scratch, there aren’t that many zoomies out there at all compared to the fixed lens type? 
I must be very tired, i read that as zombies
Interesting, tell me more.
Can you specify/recommend a model?
Are you referring to the Brinyte B158?
I do like zoomies and I would love to modd my first… modd.
I lent a work colleague a TN31, TN36 and a TK75.
“Wow, so much light out of the TK75” was the reply I got.
The TN36 throws out a wall of light. The TN31 throws out a laser beam. The TK75 as we all know does a good bit of both and because of this it seems super impressive.
I went out of a walk a while back and got to use the TN36 in a wooded area. I was amazed at how good it was. I quickly got used to having everything lit up and after about 15-20mins felt uninspired by the light so swapped it out for the TK75. After a matter of seconds I switched back to the TN36 as the flood light was so much more usable.