I decided to buy a flashlight for wildlife observations, through binoculars, or a telescope, with the subjects 100m - 400m away. I’m new to flashlights and am not quite sure what kind of flashlight will suit me best. I had a long list of buying options, from the following brands: Olight, Fenix, Acebeam and Klarus. I removed the flooders, since those are definitely not what I need. Now I’m not sure if I should get a proper thrower or something between a thrower and a flooder.
There are my buying options:
Olight Javelot Pro, Klarus XT32, Klarus X30R — all 3 are 2x18650 throwers
Acebeam K70 — still a thrower, I believe, but 4x18650
Acebeam K65 — less throw, more flood
Acebeam X65 Mini and Fenix TK75 — again, less throw, more flood
Acebeam X45 v2 — the floodiest option, I believe
All these are priced between 200-320$ (180-280 €). The specs of the X65 Mini caught my attention: 12000 lumen, 1400m beam distance. The K70/65 have 2600/6200 lumen and 1300/1000m beam distance. To my understanding, the X65 Mini should have provide a wider beam, which travels further.
What would be your choice ? Thanks for your time
Remember that lighting at distance takes a heafty light. 1000 Meters is a VERY long way to cast some light.
Now if you are being realistic about the 100 to 400 meters then get a Q8 and come good cells and be done. Nice throw, Long run time and it will make people ask you what you have. It should get you to the 450 meter range and will not set you back more than a Benjamin for the light, cells and charger.
Thanks for the answers. I’m in Europe, and can order only from the EU, due to high shipping costs/ import fees. Sorry I forgot to mention that. Local animals to observe are rabbits, foxes, deer, boars, maybe even bears. Also, I’m interested in nocturnal birds like owls. Not sure if they would avoid the beam or not. If I won’t be able to see anything, I’m sure I’m still gonna have fun with a nice powerful flashlight.
At my local stores (Romania) there are flashlights from the following brands available: Nitecore, Fenix, Acebeam, Led Lenser, Klarus, Olight. The ones that are in my price range, and I believe would fit me best, are mentioned in the first post.
The Q8 might throw to 400-450 metres on paper, but in real life it’s not that good for sporting wildlife at even 300 metres. I did many night time forays with mine last winter. It’s a great torch but it’s no thrower.
Look into beam shots of the following, Fenix LD60 (if available locally, a real gem in our opinion, been discontinued for a while) LD75C and TK35UE all of which I have and find exceptionally useful. Both the 60/75 have somewhat of a hotspot, the 35UE not so much. From our experience with animals successful viewing/identification is often dependent on what is coming into view from the sides as much as what you ‘currently’ have directly in front of you-generally what we see in front does not stay there for very long. A real thrower for viewing wildlife I would imagine would be akin to trying to get that planet into view with your telescope without a sighting scope on the barrel or trying to find a life list warbler in cover with your big dollar spotting scope only-pure luck pretty much-hope you find what will work for you.
I agree that the beam of the W30 is wide enough to light up any animal at 100-400m, but I also want to be able to see things around a bit. A bit of spill would help to detect(find) the animals, since the eye reflections are easily visible even at low intensity light.
The Fenix LD75C was initially on my list, but I removed it in favor of the TK75 2018. ThatCrazyFlashaholic 67 on Youtube confirmed me that the flood of the TK75 is quite similar to the one of the X65 Mini, but the latter has more throw. The LD60 is available at a local store, but I wouldn’t buy a discontinued, old model. I understand it’s a good flashlight, but I like to think that for the same price I can get a newer light with the same, or better performance.
My bad….