Handheld torches and spotlights.

[Aido]

Until now I have never seen the need to hold 10 000 000 candlepower in my hand. But since this weekend sees me venture into the bush after dark on a mission for the first time since scouts ( Dolphins were popular then) I thought I might have a look at some of these rechargeable / 12v spotlights that have become popular in the past few years.
I have got a 6 d cell Maglight that has performed well for over 10 years but its spread of light is feeble by comparison to what is on offer these days. Its penetration and length of beam is still unsurpassed though.
Considering grabbing one of these in the next few days to see how it goes.
SCA Spotlight - 10 Million Candle Power, Rechargeable, Orange - Supercheap Auto

Any thoughts?
I'm not a shooter and I don't see the need to punch a hole in the roof for a gimble mount so I thought something like this might do for wildlife spotting.

 

[buddhi]

Until now I have never seen the need to hold 10 000 000 candlepower in my hand. But since this weekend sees me venture into the bush after dark on a mission for the first time since scouts ( Dolphins were popular then) I thought I might have a look at some of these rechargeable / 12v spotlights that have become popular in the past few years.
I have got a 6 d cell Maglight that has performed well for over 10 years but its spread of light is feeble by comparison to what is on offer these days. Its penetration and length of beam is still unsurpassed though.
Considering grabbing one of these in the next few days to see how it goes.
SCA Spotlight - 10 Million Candle Power, Rechargeable, Orange - Supercheap Auto

Any thoughts?
I'm not a shooter and I don't see the need to punch a hole in the roof for a gimble mount so I thought something like this might do for wildlife spotting.

i have one of these... havent had any dramas yet.

 

[Aido]

cheers Budhi
Got anymore datails? What have you used it for? Why did you purchase it? Run time on charged batteries? What is the actual output like? How would you rate it?
My only experience is instore blinding mates or being blinded by them from the demo model.

 

[buddhi]

I bought it to take shooting with a few mates, but i have used it for just normal stuff around the house too. i recon i got about 30 mins or so the battery on the highest setting. but when we took it shooting we used the direct 12 adapter, so it was good for all night.

It has a H4 bulb in it thinking of changing it to a HID, more run time and way brighter. But the light output was good enough to go shooting.

Well i didnt pay anywhere near the 80 bucks they have it on the website, i think it cost me about 40-50 bucks, on special. So at that price i think it was very good value for money and it has lasted a lot longer than i expected.

 

[KraftyPg]

We use a hand held marine light, fully sealed and somewhat shock proof (we try not to test it often) which uses a standard H4 of 100 Watts and is perfect for most situations where you find yourself needing some distance of light where the driving lights aren't used. On the water at Lake Tyres we can see from the glass house across to the boat ramp with enough spread that we can see anything we might hit to the sides. In the bush it's probably to powerful given that lanterns are good enough for the immediate area and long distance through low trees is hard enough no matter what lights you have.

As far as candle power goes don't be suckered in to the higher numbers being better, candle power is a bullshit figure very hard to prove that light manufacturers use these days to make crappy lights sound better. Even 10,000,000 candle power is crap if the light itself is crap and candle power doesn't directly corospond to a wattage figure so you can compare one to another.

I'm not saying the supercheap one is no good but we paid $35 for our marine light, it plugs into a ciggie connector and it runs standard globes that can be replaced from any store as far as it's candle power goes who cares it's 100 Watt (can put a 130 in it but they get too warm and don't handle on off as well) and it can shine over 150 meters across water. We can't tell if someone is playing with themselves at the boat ramp at Lake Tyres but we can pick up every marker and buoys with no mistake.

 

[roundy]

I'd be checking the run time before purchase.
I got one of those massive candle power torches from bunnings (around $100 mark) for spotlight gidgi'ing, it was awesome bright ,lighting up houses across the river for about 15mins then died and took a couple of hrs to recharge.
Took it back and got another dolphin

 

[the_bluester]

I have a dolphin style LED torch. It is not a spotlight by any definition but puts out a decent spread of light and has gone for hours on a 9V dolphin battery so far.

10,000,000 candle power is somewhat optimistic. The reading I have been able to manage suggests that a million candle power will be a similar light output to about a 35W halogen lamp. So a 10 million candle power light would be around 350W.

It is hard to compare as the two units are not interchangeable but you get the picture!

A bloke I know has a torck with a single 3W LED in it and it is as bright as my dolphin style job which has 23 LEDs from memory.

 

[Aido]

I knew the candlepower marketing spiel was w@nk. But just interested to see others thoughts on these sorts of products.
Would love to purchase one and then take it back claiming that it only produced 9 500 000 candlepower!

 

[KraftyPg]

See if you can find someone to write you a receipt for 10,000,000 candles as well and then you can say you proved their false claim.

 

[Old.Tony]

Personally I find the light from my "10 million cp" spotlight overpowering. I still use it - as a portable power supply. Mine also has 3 super-bright LEDs in the handle - I use *those* more than I use the spot (which is also just a 100W Halogen globe).

 

[Nevyn]

LED torches are the go! It's all about lumens and run time now!
Led Torches Australia Pty Ltd
Youtube is full of vids demonstrating LED Lensers and Fenix "flashlifhts". This is the way I'll be going, I'm sick of buying cheap because they just don't last for me and the led torches can fit in the glovebox.

Cheers Brad

 

[Old.Tony]

LED torches are the go! It's all about lumens and run time now!

Absolutely spot on there. I had bought a couple of Dolphin-like torches to have around the car & van for when we needed light late at night in the bush, then Aldi came out with a LED-based dolphin-like torch. It's so superior to the others that I don't bother touching them any more.

LEDs may not yet have the power to burn the retinas out of bunnies, but they don't get hot or consume 1.21 gigawatts of energy every time you fire up the flux capacitor either.

 

[Nevyn]

Bloody Aldi......... Is there anything they don't sell???

 

[KraftyPg]

LED's are definitely worth considering for most small lighting jobs and if you're that way inclined making one to suit your needs is easy. We've made LED prawn lights, LED personal lights and tail lights and as Tony said they don't use much power but they also have the added benefit that they rarely blow.

I was going to replace the interior lights in the Nav with those pre-made LED kits from DSE but am now considering an overhead console which comes fitted with LED lights so I probably wont bother replacing what is there yet. But there will be LED light inside the cab one day.

 

[Aido]

Bloody Aldi......... Is there anything they don't sell???

Flux capacitors - but I still scour the cattle dogs hoping that one day, just one day they might!

 

[equipt]

I worked in security for about 4 years and relied on my 5 cell mag light every night and i had a back up Surefire light, both where normal globes. Then I got 1 of the earlier LED lights an Inova x5 I think from memory, it was ok for close range stuff, but had bugger all distance to it. I now have 2 LED torches, 1 is a Dorcy 80 lumen 2x AA and is a great little torch that I got from BCF for about $30 I think, and the other is a Akoray K-106 Cree Q5WC I got it from DealExtreme: Cool Gadgets at the Right Price - Site-Wide Free Shipping (Page 1) for about $16AUD, it only took about 5 days to arrive and runs off 1 AA battery or you can get special rechargables for it that cost me about another $15 for 2 and a charger. It is rated at 230 lumens which I think is a bit much, but it is the best light I have purchased for the smallest $$$$. It has 5 modes as in high, med, low, strobe and stuff like that and it is definatly worth a look.