It was foggy - Beamshot Review (Picture Heavy)

It was very foggy out tonight so I didn't let it go to waste. All shots taken with the camera locked on manual and identical settings so the comparisons are pretty accurate.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a demo of beam shape and spread (flood vs spot, sidespill, etc), NOT a relative comparison of "power" (which would have required a different angle and different targets). Some of these lights look a lot closer to each other in power (lumens) than they really are, for example the difference between the Black and Decker V1 and V2 spotlights is WAY larger than they appear and the Sunwayman D40A emits one hell of a lot more lumens than the similar shaped beam from the Nitecore PD EX11 v2.

Poor incan MiniMag.

Looks like you had some fun . Thanks for posting the pics

I loved the pics. Thanks.

NeedMoreLight said:

I loved the pics. Thanks.

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agreed, there isn't much that is cooler than seeing a flashlight beam in the fog. thanks zespectre!

RyeBread said:

Poor incan MiniMag.

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Yeah, i say that all the time. I clearly remember how astounding the were when i was a kid

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tobrien said:

agreed, there isn't much that is cooler than seeing a flashlight beam in the fog. thanks zespectre!

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glad you enjoyed. my wife was laughing at me the whole time. (which is okay, she's happy to see me enjoying my hobbies)

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zespectre said:

glad you enjoyed. my wife was laughing at me the whole time. (which is okay, she's happy to see me enjoying my hobbies)

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yes sir! I think she was actually laughing at the stock mini-mag and fulton

Great pics. I have done that before and you get a great perspective of the beam.
Thanks

Lights and Fog

One of the strange things I noticed and which I've commented on in the past is that some lights seem to handle fog way better than others. The topic has been batted around a bit before and we never really did come to any solid conclusions as to why that should be so.

For example, my c2004 Gerber LX3 with a Luxeon III emitter pushing maybe 70 lumens still competes very strongly as a "fog cutter". Maybe because of the color, maybe because of the optics, I don't know.

The Black and Decker V2 blows through fog like nobody's business. Is it because of the incandescent wavelength? Because it has a lot of "spot"? Because it has about a gajillion lumens behind it? I don't know. It's little brother is nowhere near as good in fog.

The sunwayman is a LOT of lumens in a "biased-towards-flood" beam that made me think it should result in a ton of blinding bounce-back. Nope, it did light up fog to the sides but the center punched through pretty well overall.

I wish I could figure out how to study this further. I find it a fascinating scientific question.

Re: Lights and Fog

Found the photos... re-attaching them.

Re: Lights and Fog

Re: Lights and Fog


many thanks for re-posting zespectre! Awesome pics and such an interesting blast from the past, to see those 2013 era flashlights again.

You are right, I also noticed the good performance of the Luxeon III.

And it is a very interesting question what type of beam does well in fog.

I noticed another light, the Streamlight did rather better in your example. There is a Streamlight designed specifically for fire-fighters which is supposed to give good light when the air is polluted (dust, ash particles, etc.). I used to have it but gave it away as a gift. It had a specially long and sharply concave reflector which produced a strong and narrow beam, so probably had high lux readings.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how more modern flashlights do under foggy conditions, is it the ones with narrower beams that do best? Maybe if I get fog around where I live I can test a few lights and see what happens.

One scary experience I remember up in the mountains is trying to find my way under very foggy conditions. I had probably a fairly bad flashlight with me, and all it did was to produce light that reflected in the fog, making it even harder to see up to any distance. A kind of "mirror" effect.

Of course it was a while ago when I didn't have good flashlights. Maybe color can also help, perhaps amber color would be better? (supposedly does well in snow for example, which might create similar visibility problems to fog).

To be continued, but again thanks for taking the time to repost the photos and bring this interesting topic back up to light.

Re: Lights and Fog

flashy bazook said:

Maybe color can also help, perhaps amber color would be better?

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The best color would be selective yellow. It's not at all related "penetrating fog" or anything like that, it's just that it's so much easier for the human optical system to process. The various other yellows and 'ambers' start removing too much green. Since we're talking flashlights and not forward lighting on a car, in a pinch amber would still be better than plain white light, but selective yellow would be the best.

P.S. Thanks for fixing that overquote, that was Scroll City!

Re: Lights and Fog

Alaric Darconville said:

The best color would be selective yellow

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There is a huge "fog" thread where good evidence to the contrary is chewed over. OTOH its beam shape that counts - project it close to the ground or high above the eye. Sharp cutoff. It would be interesting to test with an adjustable diaphragm in front of the light, to widen & narrow the corona.

Re: Lights and Fog

flashy bazook said:

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how more modern flashlights do under foggy conditions, is it the ones with narrower beams that do best? Maybe if I get fog around where I live I can test a few lights and see what happens.

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I think less light is the key in fog or smoke, simply because less light will be reflected back at you. Also, holding the light lower to the ground below eye-level will result in less light being reflected directly into your eyes and allow you to see what is being illuminated. There's a reason fog lights on cars are usually dimmer than the regular headlights and sit lower to the ground (usually at the bottom of the bumper).

Re: Lights and Fog

My own experience seems to indicate that the first and primary factors for cutting fog are beam shape and angle of incidence vs your viewpoint, close behind that seems to be color.

To wit, the best fog cutters I've ever owned projected a remarkable precise rectangle beam with tightly defined edges and were mounted fairly low on my vehicle in relation to my eyes at the drivers position. They were a vaguely amber/orange color but not any of the extremes you see these days. The end result was that the beams seemed to "cut through" the fog in a tight pattern and then reflect from whatever they hit. That reflection made it back through the fog to my eyes without illuminating the fog bank as one big white cloud.

Now to be fair, you frequently couldn't actually see what the object was with any definition. It was more of a warning system like "hey, there is a big orange/yellow blob there that is something you probably don't want to hit". It wasn't until you got closer that you could tell it was a deer/person/car/et-al.

I can tell you this, a floody blue-white beam close to eye level (say a headlamp) is the absolute WORST for fog! Damn near broke my neck on a trail using a light like that one time in dense fog.