flashlight forums?

[scrappy]

I am looking for more information on flashlights. What forum would you recommend?
Thanks
Terry

[mvyrmnd]

candlepowerforums and budgetlightforums are probably the two best.

CPF is fine as long as you play by their rules. I haven't had much to do with BLF, but know a few guys who like it there.

Or ask your questions here - I'm always happy to help

[tattoosteve99]

candlepowerforums and budgetlightforums are probably the two best.

CPF is fine as long as you play by their rules. I haven't had much to do with BLF, but know a few guys who like it there.

Or ask your questions here - I'm always happy to help

+1  mvyrmnd has helped me out a few times already.

[mvyrmnd]

Cheers. My avatar ain't what it is for nothing!

[Gareth]

Always worth asking here.  As well as mvyrmnd we have a good few other light nuts.

[badwolf]

I was going to say CPF, I don't frequent it, just know of it, they have a small MT section and I recognise some member names. They do make a reference to MTO in one post. Like Gareth said, always worth asking here, plenty of bright sparks

[scrappy]

thanks guys. I mentioned it somewhat before in another thread. I bought a 75 watt HID flashlight for $150 off ebay after seeing pictures of this light next to the brightest fenix and the HID is far brighter at throw. it will shine across a street and light up a building or a cross a field. I bought the light and it spills tons of light and throws poorly. My fenix throws at least five times further. So I sold the HID for a 60 to 70 dollar loss. I am still interested in one if there is a model or seller that has one that really throws much further than the fenix. The idea is that they can focus the light and it puts out more than 7,000 lumens so it should throw further, I wonder if I got a melon or if they are all junk. (the light was still decent but nothing like the pics).

[Sazabi]

Scrappy:  Why couldn't you return the light for a full refund?

[mvyrmnd]

Can you post a link or photo of the light? We can work out why it might not have thrown as far as it should.

Throw usually boils down to two major parts ( and a million, highly technical parts that only über-nerds understand); the light source and the reflector.

The smaller and brighter the light source, the further the throw. This is why the XR-E out throws the XP-G and the XM-L - the die is much smaller than either of those but can produce similar outputs, giving it a higher "Surface Brightness"

Saablusters DEFT pushes that even further by overdriving the minuscule XP-C to produce over 200 lumens to achieve extremely high surface brightness.

In a good HID bulb, the arc is very tiny, but produces thousands of lumens, meaning it's surface brightness is an order of magnitude better than LED. In a bad bulb, or an underdriven bulb, however, the arc points might be too far apart and even though the same number of lumens are produced, the arc is much longer, dropping the surface brightness, and therefore the throw.

Then we get to the reflector... Which I'll type from a proper keyboard later, as my thumbs are about to fall off!

[Gareth]

Well I've certainly learnt something.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Feel free to post any questions you might have.  Along with Mvyrmnd, I'm one of the light geeks here.  While my collection isn't nearly as impressive as his, we think a lot alike.  We'll help out as well as we can. 

[mvyrmnd]

Now... reflectors! This starts to get quite complicated...

LED's throw best in a deep reflector, as most of the output from the emitter comes out the front.

When you look at the beam from an LED light, the spill (the soft light around the hotspot) is actually light that's been emitted straight out of the front of the LED, and had not been collimated by the reflector. The hotspot is the light that's come out at a wider angle and been gathered (collimated) by the reflector and all aimed in the same direction. Because of the relatively narrow output angle from the LED, the reflector needs to be very deep in order to catch as much light as possible. A shallow reflector results in more of the LED's output shooting out without touching the reflector.

A HID bulb, on the other hand, has most of it's output coming from the side of the bulb. The reflector, then, doesn't need to be as deep, but does need to be much, much wider. The larger the diameter of the reflector, the more light can be collimated, the better the throw.

I've got a modded 35W HID spotlight that out throws a 75W HID light I've tested it against, purely because mine has a 7" reflector, instead of thr 4" reflector on the 75W.

So if you've got a 200 lumen XR-E flashlight, with a nice, deep reflector, it could very well create a brighter hotspot (and therefore throw further) than a 75W (7000 lumen) HID in a 3" reflector.

[vicky19901314]

I am looking for more information on flashlights. What forum would you recommend?
Thanks
Terry

i would like to help you.

[scrappy]

Thanks for the info. From what you said, my guess is the reflector is too small. It is just that I saw some pics that made the light beam look amazing. Here is the light.

[scrappy]

Another pic

[mvyrmnd]

Photoshop is a wonderful thing, isn't it? 

I wouldn't expect that HID light would throw too far, just looking at the size of it.

[scrappy]

Photoshop is a wonderful thing, isn't it? 

I wouldn't expect that HID light would throw too far, just looking at the size of it.

Thanks for the info
That will save me from buying another

[Essexman]

Whatever happened to flashlightforums.com that was set up by Mr Bulk??  Last time I looked it was jammed full of spammers

[Gareth]

Whatever happened to flashlightforums.com that was set up by Mr Bulk??  Last time I looked it was jammed full of spammers

Wow, I just had a look over there and it does indeed seem to be stuffed with spam.

[Essexman]

Whatever happened to flashlightforums.com that was set up by Mr Bulk??  Last time I looked it was jammed full of spammers

Wow, I just had a look over there and it does indeed seem to be stuffed with spam.

Such a shame. Mr Bulk space needle was the first mag mod I ever made. Lux 5 LED direct drive off 6AAs, sooo cool.

[mvyrmnd]

Whatever happened to flashlightforums.com that was set up by Mr Bulk??  Last time I looked it was jammed full of spammers

Wow, I just had a look over there and it does indeed seem to be stuffed with spam.

Such a shame. Mr Bulk space needle was the first mag mod I ever made. Lux 5 LED direct drive off 6AAs, sooo cool.

I'd never visited there, but after a quick browse this morning it does very much look like a ghost-town. Except the tumbleweeds are made from snouts and hooves.