OcUK Torch Beamshot Thread

[2StepSteve]

I have a 4D maglite. I bought it for walking the dog, and I often go places that are very quiet and a bit dodgy. The dog and I could handle most things, but I like having a weighty weapon at the same time.

Shame it is absolutely rubbish as a torch. I bought one from the supermarket for a fiver and it is far better.

Thinking of spunking £30-£50 on a good torch, what's the recommendation?

If you want to hang on to your maglite and make it much brighter for a tenner have a look at this thread: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=277748 - is a cheap drop in module which blasts out 100% flood flight. It is no good for lighting up things that are at a distance but anything below 50m it is great for the price paid, colour is blue-ish but not as bad as the photos and far far better than your current maglite lamp. Trouble with many of the new flashlights these days is they are quite small and not very weighty unless you put your budget up.

The stock Maglite range of lights are very poor in terms of light output, not sure what maglite are playing at they seem like they can't be bothered with LED technology. But they still are great for whacking someone over the head, even my 2D maglite is brutally hard + heavy.

Do either of these have the switch on the side rather than the end? Like P7 do you have to hold the button in on them for the turbo mode?

Side switches aren't very common on flashlights these days. There are a couple around but not many.

The Quark comes in two flavours the regular or tactical. The regular cycles through the modes but pressing the clickie and the tactical is 2 mode programmable.To reprogram the tactical takes around 25 seconds. The regular vs tactical debate comes up quite often. But for me I prefer tactical because the regular is only able to start in dimmest or max mode, there is no memory so once the light has been turned off for more than 2 seconds it will default into dimmest or max mode. Highly annoying IMO.

 

[MikeHunt79]

Haha, the question is when does a modified maglight become another torch...

Who knows, it looks pretty much standard from the outside, but inside it pretty much another torch. Plastic lens and reflector have been replaced, along with the bulb mount. I'm also using a soft start circuit, as running a 12v bulb at 18v is on the edge of blowing the bulb. Overdriving the bulb gives a high colour temp and is also more efficient, but this is at the expense of bulb lifetime. I've also added some copper wire to the battery spring, as steel is relatively high resistance...

Also I have the option of using 35w and 65w bulbs, in fact I use the 35w bulb the most now as it's still loads of light and things don't get so hot.

So essentially you have the battey case of a maglight and a whole new torch attached to it?

Pretty much, I'm using the existing switch and the head still focuses this beam so if I gave it to someone who had used a Maglite before then they would know how to use it.

Here's some beam shots, I'm around 3m from an wall which needs to be painted. I've taken both shots with the camera on the same settings so you can see the brightness difference...

100 lumen CREE led torch:

5D modded maglite (35w bulb I think):

Even with the 35W bulb I'm sure it's more than 1000 lumens but I have no way of measuring this.

 

[Marky]

I know this is a computer forum and all - but this is possibly the nerdiest thread on this forum

Torch enthusiasts? Jheeeezz

 

[Schnippzle]

I know this is a computer forum and all - but this is possibly the nerdiest thread on this forum

Torch enthusiasts? Jheeeezz

Pretty awesome though

 

[Gilly]

2StepSteve, thanks for the link but you need to be a member. Is it worth it, or could you provide me the cliffsnotes?

Ta

I know this is a computer forum and all - but this is possibly the nerdiest thread on this forum

Torch enthusiasts? Jheeeezz

Are you kidding me?

We had a whole forum devoted to looking for aliens! There's a whole other one devoted to taking pictures!

Torches are awesome. Don't argue with me on this, just accept

 

[Deluxe1]

Thinking of spunking £30-£50 on a good torch, what's the recommendation?

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-136/**NEW**-MG-P-dsh-Rocket-SST-dsh-50/Detail

MG Pocket Rocket SST-50 800+ Lumens

Its not a weighty torch but will put out a lot of light and should come in under £50 with delivery from the US.

Ordered from here before and took about a week to come,if you did order this then it would be best to run it off a AW18650 rechargeable which is another £13 and the charger is £18.

 

[Guest2]

Gilly - depends if you want a larger torch or smaller/lighter one. Also what batteries would you want it to run on.

I went for a 2 aa torch and its quite light and provides more than enough brightness for my needs. Why would anyone want a 500+ lumen light unless they either collect torches or work in search & rescue or something

 

[fail at the internets]

OCUK members love their torches. Torch threads crop up frequently.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

I have a 4D maglite. I bought it for walking the dog, and I often go places that are very quiet and a bit dodgy. The dog and I could handle most things, but I like having a weighty weapon at the same time.

Shame it is absolutely rubbish as a torch. I bought one from the supermarket for a fiver and it is far better.

Thinking of spunking £30-£50 on a good torch, what's the recommendation?

Why not get a brighter/longer running torch but one that's still tough, can can lots on knocks and one you could still club someone with?

Check out the Fenix TA30.

http://bestofferbuy.com/Fenix-TA30-...ource=gbase&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=gbase

 

[Tomsk]

I have a 4D maglite. I bought it for walking the dog, and I often go places that are very quiet and a bit dodgy. The dog and I could handle most things, but I like having a weighty weapon at the same time.

You could get a LED upgrade for your maglite. They're 3W LED and reasonably good.

Thinking of spunking £30-£50 on a good torch, what's the recommendation?

Depends what you want.

Do you want multiple power levels, strobe modes etc?
I can't recommend any torches that do the above, because I don't have any. When I switch a torch on, I want it to give a good beam of light immediately without having to find the correct setting.

I recommend a Fenix L2T. Runs off 2xAA and has two power levels (I leave mine on high power) which are set independently from the on/off button.

 

[Deluxe1]

I have a 4D maglite.

Thinking of spunking £30-£50 on a good torch, what's the recommendation?

If you want to keep the maglite then you could get this:

http://www.shop4torches.co.uk/acata...300M_600_Lumen_Maglite_D-Cell_LED_Upgrade.php

Video of it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx5_oAKOZAg&feature=related

 

[mogwai]

I have gone for the Quark AA2 Turbo.

 

[mingeroonie]

Do work torches count?
I have a couple of these in my van,
Along with a couple of These

Dont know if they are any good in respect to the links posted above, but they do for work, and they are free

 

[2StepSteve]

2StepSteve, thanks for the link but you need to be a member. Is it worth it, or could you provide me the cliffsnotes?

Ta

Hmm it seems the seller has sold out on ebay of these right now.. keep an eye on what sinounionechnologyld has selling, as more will likely come in.

It is basically a 36 5mm LED module that drops into the head of any 2D and above maglite replacing the original lamp.

 

[Mark A]

I have a 4D maglite. I bought it for walking the dog, and I often go places that are very quiet and a bit dodgy. The dog and I could handle most things, but I like having a weighty weapon at the same time.

Shame it is absolutely rubbish as a torch. I bought one from the supermarket for a fiver and it is far better.

Thinking of spunking £30-£50 on a good torch, what's the recommendation?

My vote would be the Fenix LD20.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fenix-LD20-Pr...ing_LightsLanternsTorches&hash=item4cf04c8969

Much brighter than a maglite and can easily fit in your pocket. Run it on some decent AA rechargeable batteries and you should get 2 hours out of it on max brightness. But you can always take a couple of spares if you're out for longer. Or put it on medium brightness and get about 5-6 hours and it'll still be brighter than a maglite.

 

[Gavin]

loving that search light thing. That really looks like a cool toy! Wonder what powers it though.?

 

[Radiation]

I was just thinking how some camera flashes are so bright, could it be possible to build something that basically strobed one so fast it looks like its always on?

 

[2StepSteve]

I was just thinking how some camera flashes are so bright, could it be possible to build something that basically strobed one so fast it looks like its always on?

Funnily enough this is how most budget LEDs torches work to control brightness in modes other than max. It's called pulse-width modulation (PWM) typically see the bad ones with 200hz PWM and the better ones that are over 2khz. The slower PWM lights can be very noticeable giving a strobe effect to movement, some notice this effect more than others though.

 

[Marky]

Pretty awesome though

Are you kidding me?

We had a whole forum devoted to looking for aliens! There's a whole other one devoted to taking pictures!

Torches are awesome. Don't argue with me on this, just accept

Yeah but a torch is a torch - it does one thing

However, anything you say I accept anyway Gilly - So therefore, Torches are Awesome once more!

 

[Tomsk]

Here's mine from a year or two ago.

IIRC the roller door is about 30m distant and there are no other light sources.
1. 3D maglite with filament bulb
2. AA LED maglite
3. Nuwai 5W LED
4 & 5 Fenix L2T at low and high power
6. generic multi-LED (3 x AAA)
All taken at the same exposure settings and no post processing other than resizing of images.