Small floodlight

[blindedbythenight]

Looking for suggestions for a handheld relatively lightweight floodlight that is as bright as possible and able to illuminate as much as possible. Does this kind of thing exist? Am I posting in the right place? Apologies if not.

 

[Poppy]

Niwalker Nova MM15

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

Looking for suggestions for a handheld relatively lightweight floodlight that is as bright as possible and able to illuminate as much as possible. Does this kind of thing exist? Am I posting in the right place? Apologies if not.

Depends what you mean by small, flood and area.

if you are wanting to light up something like a football stadium good enough to play football on in the dark, then you are unlikely to find it handheld or pocket friendly.

But there are plenty of compact floods lights. What sort of subject are you wanting to light up?

High output normally means big power consumption and lots of heat. And usually not always a compact design.

 

[LeanBurn]

One of the smallest floodlight you can get is the Sunwayman T16R. It has a pure flood beam 380L (for about 3 mins then goes to 180L) runs on CR123 and is the size of your thumb...lets start there.

 

[Light Bringer]

I'd recommend an aspheric like an SK98 (18650; SK68 for AA/14500). Puts out a nice wide evenly-lit circle of light.

Unscrew the front lens, and you got a simple'n'easy mule.

Amazon specials (at least from a coupla years back) will draw less than an amp, but still had an XM-L emitter. Lately, this race-to-the-bottom might only snag you a LatticeBright chip.

Either way, you can swap out the driver if you want more current (and more light!).

I only use mine on high anyway, so was going to swap out a 1-mode 1750mA driver. Wouldn't put more than 2A through it for any extended period of time.

 

[blindedbythenight]

Wow thanks for the info. I only really want something small but bright enough to illuminate a big room. I will look into your suggestions. Cheers

 

[blindedbythenight]

Niwalker Nova MM15

Ooh bit in love with the nova mm18. Can't quite justify the price though sniff sniff

 

[blindedbythenight]

One of the smallest floodlight you can get is the Sunwayman T16R. It has a pure flood beam 380L (for about 3 mins then goes to 180L) runs on CR123 and is the size of your thumb...lets start there.

This looks cracking. Can't find any online vids of it though :-(

 

[Poppy]

A little cr123 battery isn't going to give you a lot of run time.

you really need to answer the questions put to you by chicken drumstick, and be specific, if you want us to give you meaningful help.

How big is big?
What is the length of a string?

How bright is bright?
What are you trying to illuminate, and why? Power outtage, sitting comfortable, and not tripping on things, or wedding banquet hall, if the lights go out, and you want the party to continue.

How long do you expect to need to be able to light the area? (if it is brightly lit, and is more than an hour or two, then changing out the batteries may be required.)

Oh yeah.... what is your budget. You couldn't get the MM15, so you can't get the smallest, brightest, floodiest. You are going to have to lower your expectations.

 

[Light Bringer]

Seconded on answering CD's questions...

Would need to know expected runtime. Eg, light up the room for 5-10min when grubbling around in a dark attic? Lighting up the room for hours when the lights go out? Both current draw and heat factor into this. I can push my '98 with its XM-L to 3A or so for a few min, but wouldn't want to go beyond that. Too much heat would end up bottled up in the compact body and probably stress out the LED. 1A would be more comfortable. Less, for longer runtimes (and less heat, unless it's winter and you *want* to use it as a hand-warmer).

The '98 is my weapon of choice when heading into the basement to go poke around in the dark. A nice floody beam lights up everything in front of me. If I want the equivalent of a lantern, I unscrew the front lens and use it as a mule. I rarely if ever slide out the lens to use the batsignal. Might you need that? If so, then an aspheric is a must. Nb: you can cut available light to a half or less on full zoom. Use ceiling bounce in a dark room to see this for yourself.

And as Poppy asks... budget, budget, budget! What are you willing to spend?

 

[1DaveN]

Wow thanks for the info. I only really want something small but bright enough to illuminate a big room. I will look into your suggestions. Cheers

If you're trying to light a room or similar area, have you considered something like the Fenix CL25R or CL30R lantern?

 

[blindedbythenight]

Apologies, I fired off the question on my phone (as I am now) and as such kept it short...too short. Also apologies as I don't know what aspheric is, I am at heart a big torch fan but clearly without the knowledge of you guys, so I will try to explain as best I can what I am after...
I own a few famous brands including several LEDlensers and I am a huge fan of their ability to go from spot to flood. I have the LEDLenser P7 which is 200 odd lumens so I suppose what I would like is something that has the permanent flood ability to be able to light up a 100 metre odd garden,the "throw" has to be in flood mode not concentrated beam. The nitecore tiny monster looks like ticking some boxes in that respect. Sorry I am rambling again...in short I am happy to spend whatever as long as it fits the bill though truth be told my better half may do for me if I spend more that £100 on a torch (otherwise I would have gone and got the Ledlenser px21 long ago). I need it to be flood enough to illuminate large parts of a football pitch at a time, brightness wise 800 odd lumens pkus would be good. Size wise coke can or smaller (tiny monster). Battery...prefer aaa or aa and as such dont care how often i have to change them. I have in my head something palm sized that can light up a small ish garden anything over and above that is brilliant. Hope that is more helpful? Cheers

 

[KeepingItLight]

Thanks for giving some more detail.

There is "sticky" post by a fellow named TEEJ that explains a bit about throw. Lighting up something that is 100 meters away can be much harder than you might expect.

Most CPF members have learned to take the ANSI FL 1 distance ratings with a grain of salt. Those ratings give the distance at which only 0.25 lux reaches the target, and this only in the brightest part of a beam. Slightly away from center, the lux can fall off rapidly. I take the beam distances given by a flashlight maker, and divide them by a factor of 3 or 4. Dividing by 2 gives the distance at which 1 lux arrives at the target. Dividing by 4, gives the distance at which 4 lux arrive.

If, therefore, I really needed to see across a 100-meter-wide garden, I would shop for a flashlight that is rated to throw 400 meters. To get that kind of throw in a zoomie set for flood is virtually impossible.

There are several popular "monster flooders" that run on 3x or 4x18650. They put out a wall of light at 3,000 to 8,000 lumens, but, generally, do not throw very far. Based on brute force alone, however, you may find that one of them can fit your needs.

The Convoy L6 is inexpensive enough that you should consider buying one just to learn about what is realistic. You should be able to get one for around $55 USD. CPF member MHanlen tested the neutral-white version at 3,278 lumens, 70,011 candela, and 529 meters. Remember to divide the meters by 3 or 4 to get a realistic estimate of beam distance. The cool-white version is rated at 3,800 lumens, so it should throw a bit farther. The L6 has a relatively wide beam; it is not a dedicated thrower.

 

[Poppy]

You might look at the fenix TK35UE
or the Thrunite Mini TN30.

as possibilities.

I don't know of any AA lights that will light up half a foot ball field.
For an 4*AA light the thrunite TN4A is popular, but it is more a thrower than flooder.

 

[Poppy]

I agree with keepingit light.
I was going to suggest the L6, but thought that it might be TOO big for what you want, but on the other hand. It should meet your lighting needs, nicely, and be within budget.

 

[glockboy]

You can try the Nebo Big larry for AA, Lil Larry for AAA, it cheap enough to get a few of it so it light up everything.

 

[KeepingItLight]

One of the brightest AA flashlights that I know about is the Nitecore EA81. I have never used this flashlight, so I cannot recommend it based on personal experience. The EA81 does, however, look good on paper. It is rated at 2,150 lumens, 53,300 candela, and 462 meters. Size-wise, it may fit your requirements. The downside is that is requires 8 batteries!

Whenever you have a device that uses more than one battery, it is important that batteries are matched. They should all be the same brand and model, purchased together, from one vendor, and, hopefully, all be from the same manufacturing lot. Thereafter, the batteries should be used as set. Do not use them in other devices. As the batteries age, periodically you must check to see that they remain matched for capacity. Never mix batteries that have different states of charge, i.e., never mix fully-charged and half-charged batteries. Always charge all your batteries as a group.

In order to help keep batteries matched, you can buy an inexpensive battery charger/analyzer such as the Opus BT-C700. Note: the BT-C700 works only with NiMH batteries (AA and AAA).

One of the attractions of Li-ion rechargeables is that you do not have as much hassle. The Convoy L6, for instance, uses two 26650 batteries. The pair still have to be matched, but at least there are not 8 of them!

 

[buds224]

Manker E14 / Astrolux S41.....remove the optics and you get tons of flood. Very small out of the box, can be upgraded to an 18650 tube if you need more run times and is still relatively small compared to other 18650 lights.

 

[Richub]

Also consider the Fenix E35 Ultimate Edition: Runs off a single 18650, has a nice cool white flood beam, and delivers up to 1000 lumens, bright enough to light up any room in a house.
In Europe they cost about 45 euro, that would be around $50 in US dollars.

 

[blindedbythenight]

Thanks folks for all the advice, I have concluded that the slightly more specialist batteries beyond AAA and AA is a step up I will make when I have more disposable cash and for now I will stick to trying to find the brightest AA torch with a decent flood or at least a fair amount of spill, the nitecore and thrunite suggestions are in my sights at the moment, though I have read some negative reviews about thrunites, mainly based around the batteries not delivering sufficient power. I will perhaps pose another question starting a new thread now that I have narrowed what I want. V appreciative of all the info though, many thanks.