Need a light that goes out to 1600 yards?

oldbrownhat

oldbrownhat

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Being a bit of a "lightoholic" (nearly said "flashoholic" but that could be misconstrued), I visited one of the vendors of Fenix flashlights, of which I have a few. Made you-know-where but very good quality.

One of their new lights is the HT30R LEP, which uses a laser to "excite" a phosphor, which is then focussed through a lens, providing a VERY narrow, 500 lumen beam with almost no spill that reaches WAY out there. I'd never heard of this technology. Review here.

At $280.00 it's pricey and I certainly don't need one, but mounted on an accurate rifle it could help discourage marauding coyotes (or rustlers) at night at the far end of the back pasture.

Edited to add: Could be useful for SAR, along with their regular lights.
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That's a bright light, but the one I want is that laser light that can burn through tough barriers like paper & cardboard and would really be fun to have while sitting near the back of the classroom. I have yet to see one of their ads that shows it burning through anything but paper, but it's something I want to take with me back to my Junior High days after my Delorean gets fixed.
 
IIRC BMW and Audi have been fitting LEP lights to their European market cars. I'm not sure if they are coming here, as the thought decent lights on a car make the US DoT folks clutch their teddy bears in fear at night.
 
Gotta say, that's REALLY slick. And tech stuff drops in price with time. I may grab one of these in a year or two when it sheds a large chunk of the price. I am impressed, thanks for posting this up.
 
Sevens said:
Gotta say, that's REALLY slick. And tech stuff drops in price with time. I may grab one of these in a year or two when it sheds a large chunk of the price. I am impressed, thanks for posting this up.
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There may be less expensive LEP lights out there even now. Fenix stuff is pricey but very well made, as the review indicates. I have three or four, including this nifty right-angle one with a magnetic base:

Fenix-LD15R-flashlight_720x.jpg


They have a lot of lights :D including gun lights, intrinsically safe, camping lanterns and underwater lights for divers.
 
Back in the '70s, I was an avid bass fisherman. It was during this time "they" came out with the Q-BEAM. Back then light was measured in candle power. This beast was 500,000 candle power

I wouldn't know a lumen if it sat on my lap and kissed me on the cheek. So those numbers don't mean anything to me.

I don't know how far it's light reached but it turned everything in it's path to sunshine for as far as I could see.

They were very popular with boaters and campers. I think they were improved to more than 1.5 million candle power.
 
walkin jack said:
Back in the '70s, I was an avid bass fisherman. It was during this time "they" came out with the Q-BEAM. Back then light was measured in candle power. This beast was 500,000 candle power

I wouldn't know a lumen if it sat on my lap and kissed me on the cheek. So those numbers don't mean anything to me.

I don't know how far it's light reached but it turned everything in it's path to sunshine for as far as I could see.

They were very popular with boaters and campers. I think they were improved to more than 1.5 million candle power.
Click to expand...

In the linked review, this new flashlight has a candlepower of 600,000. As for candlepower versus lumens, this piece explains the difference.

Candlepower Compared to Lumens | Lumens vs. Candlepower
 
walkin jack said:
Back in the '70s, I was an avid bass fisherman. It was during this time "they" came out with the Q-BEAM. Back then light was measured in candle power. This beast was 500,000 candle power

I wouldn't know a lumen if it sat on my lap and kissed me on the cheek. So those numbers don't mean anything to me.

I don't know how far it's light reached but it turned everything in it's path to sunshine for as far as I could see.

They were very popular with boaters and campers. I think they were improved to more than 1.5 million candle power.
Click to expand...

I had a similar light just a few years ago. Had a honking big LA battery and weighed about 5 lbs. Output was something like yours, with a metal halide bulb I think. Slightly greenish cast to to the light but narrow beam and lotsa throw.

Don’t know how candlepower (an obsolete tern now I think) and lumens compare, although some flash light websites give equivalents; I think Fenix does. A “100 watt” lightbulb is about 1200 lumens, but of course that’s an omnidirectional beam, not concentrated as in a flashlight. In a flashlight that can be really blinding. I know that my big Fenix light has about 5,000 lumens on full blast and I can light up objects 300 yards away no problem. Was quite effective at 40’ on a guy who was driving up and down the street and into driveways a few years ago. Reversed out of mine very quickly! Poor sod was probably just lost but at 2:30 am you’d think he’d call whoever he was trying to find rather than driving onto people’s property.
 
DWalt said:
Everything you need to know about light measurement. I used to teach this stuff to college students many years ago. I have forgotten most of it.
The Ultimate Guide to Light Measurement
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I sold commercial and industrial lighting systems for 36 years before retiring almost 11 years ago, and knew all that stuff too. I have purposely forgotten all of it.
 
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Very interesting. Can't use it for searching for drugs under a car seat but for far off stuff it looks pretty cool. And it's cheaper than another Smith.
 
LVSteve said:
IIRC BMW and Audi have been fitting LEP lights to their European market cars. I'm not sure if they are coming here, as the thought decent lights on a car make the US DoT folks clutch their teddy bears in fear at night.
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"In the fall of 2014, the BMW i8 was the first production vehicle to be equipped with the innovative new lights"

"Laserlight headlights use 30 percent less energy than LED lights while providing the same photometric performance for the same size headlight."
Dr. Abdelmalek Hanafi
Manager Dynamic Laser-Light Program BMW Group

"...The LED headlights shine far into the darkness, since there is no oncoming traffic. He then eases the BMW X7 up to 50 mph and suddenly night becomes day. The BMW laser lights illuminate the entire road for almost half a mile..."
​
That's all very well, as long as "there is no oncoming traffic". Nor anyone closer than 1/2 mile in front of you.

Article here
 
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