I finally had the opportunity to take three of my "Heavy Iron" lights for real world "exercise". Believe it or not, I've had my VSS-3A since about 2007, My NightSun since about 2013 and my Starburst since about 2014 and this is the first time I've had the opportunity to see them perform horizontally at a ground-based range instead of pointing into the sky at clouds. There are posts specific to these lights so I won't go into much detail about them but wanted to share the beam shots. All lights are being powered by my 9-cell, 30V/100Ah LiPePo4 pack and are running at least 28.5 Volts to the light input.
Thanks to member Froggy Taco for providing the venue and pics from his great camera. The target trees are at 990 Yard and 1230 Yard distances. Each light was shot hitting the target trees. There are also shots closer in for the NightSun since this light is usually used at distances of from 500 to 1000 feet when installed on helicopters. I did my very best in trying to end up with posted pics that represent what we saw. I would probably have used the next brightest version of the pic for normal ambient light viewing. Froggy used 1.0, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.5 second exposures at f/7.1. I then picked the one most representative and used it. The camera used is an Olympus OM-D E-M1 with an Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8 lens. The temp was about 52 with light winds so you might see some particulates in the beams.
The first two daytime pics are of the range. However, the pic is from a shoot a couple years ago and this time, we were about 100' left of the position from which these pics were taken so relationships of objects is a bit different. Also only the middle red circle is relevant as it is the 990 Yard target tree. The 1230 Yard target tree is the more fuller, darker, taller vertical foliage tree just to the left of the left red circle. (I forgot to get a new daytime shot) The white objects in the foreground are stacks of shipping containers for scale.
I will say that I was Very impressed with the performance of the 500 Starburst. We shot the two Spectrolabs on night 2 of the two-night shoot and to me, I thought the Starburst performance was very close if not the same as the VSS-3A but these pics show differently and they were the longest exposures I had to choose from.
And yes, the trees and beams are as bright as you see here, no exaggeration.
Spectrolab 500 Watt Starburst at 990 Yards
VSS-3A 990 Yards Spot Beam
Spectrolab 1600 Watt NightSun at 990 Yards
Starburst at 1230 Yards
VSS-3a 1230 Yards Spot Beam
NightSun at 1230 Yards
Here's some picks of the VSS-3A in Spread Beam/Flood mode:
VSS-3A 990 Yards Spread Beam
VSS-3A 1230 Yards Spread Beam
Thanks to member Froggy Taco for providing the venue and pics from his great camera. The target trees are at 990 Yard and 1230 Yard distances. Each light was shot hitting the target trees. There are also shots closer in for the NightSun since this light is usually used at distances of from 500 to 1000 feet when installed on helicopters. I did my very best in trying to end up with posted pics that represent what we saw. I would probably have used the next brightest version of the pic for normal ambient light viewing. Froggy used 1.0, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.5 second exposures at f/7.1. I then picked the one most representative and used it. The camera used is an Olympus OM-D E-M1 with an Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8 lens. The temp was about 52 with light winds so you might see some particulates in the beams.
The first two daytime pics are of the range. However, the pic is from a shoot a couple years ago and this time, we were about 100' left of the position from which these pics were taken so relationships of objects is a bit different. Also only the middle red circle is relevant as it is the 990 Yard target tree. The 1230 Yard target tree is the more fuller, darker, taller vertical foliage tree just to the left of the left red circle. (I forgot to get a new daytime shot) The white objects in the foreground are stacks of shipping containers for scale.
I will say that I was Very impressed with the performance of the 500 Starburst. We shot the two Spectrolabs on night 2 of the two-night shoot and to me, I thought the Starburst performance was very close if not the same as the VSS-3A but these pics show differently and they were the longest exposures I had to choose from.
And yes, the trees and beams are as bright as you see here, no exaggeration.
Spectrolab 500 Watt Starburst at 990 Yards
VSS-3A 990 Yards Spot Beam
Spectrolab 1600 Watt NightSun at 990 Yards
Starburst at 1230 Yards
VSS-3a 1230 Yards Spot Beam
NightSun at 1230 Yards
Here's some picks of the VSS-3A in Spread Beam/Flood mode:
VSS-3A 990 Yards Spread Beam
VSS-3A 1230 Yards Spread Beam
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