I use a Coast TX10 for light painting with the camera at night.
Good little torch and a lot brighter than the torches I used to get by with 40 years ago.
Led Torches
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I use a Coast TX10 for light painting with the camera at night.
Good little torch and a lot brighter than the torches I used to get by with 40 years ago.
Lighthouse Elite
CREE 140 lumens, 3AAA, zoom, modes are bright/dim/strobe
End clicky, slightly difficult to use one handed because its inset, but that is so you can stand it up candle fashion. I've had it for a year, gets used a lot (note teeth marks on duct taped body (of the torch, not my body) ). Throws a white light with no centre dark spot. Had to replace the string, need to find some black instead of white, though. £8.00 shops/online.
Usually do a fair bit of night hiking.
In the winter it's usually dark before i'm able to get out in the week and in the summer it's just to hot to walk during the day.
So i'm usually out at least a couple of nights a week doing between 7 and 12 km on the mountain behind my house.
Luckily one of my other interests is torches, so the 2 tend to go hand in hand.
It's tough to recommend a light based purely on output as what you are doing, how fast you are travelling (e.g. running hiking) what the terrain is like, how much light you prefer using, and what your goal is (i.e, it's not good taking a 4000Lm wall of light if you plan to stare at the stars at your destination), all make a massive difference to hat sort of output you want.
You then have to consider beam pattern and light tint, battery life, weight, how comfortable it is to carry/wear.
For me personally i used to prefer to go out and use as low a light output as possible.
In my mind i was preserving night vision so was able to enjoy the views around me and nature as much as possible.
Thing is i'm hiking and i found that my hiking was suffering because i was stumbling a LOT.
It came to ahead after a few nasty falls, so i sat and thought about my goals, as i didn't intend to stop and watch wildlife or stare at the stars so what exactly was i preserving my night vision for?
From then on i've experimented with well over 100 torches.
I've tried head torches, hand held torches, i've clipped them and hung them off various bits of clothing, even tried clipping a light on my shoes (worked great for casting shadows over obstacles, but not consistent enough to be useful).
Now i use a Zebralight H600 99.9% of the time.
I have it on it's highest out so around 600 lumens depending on which version i use.
As it's a headtorch the beam doesn't need to be as floody as a hand held because the beam follows the path your head makes.
I can, do and have hiked with lower outputs, but as i don't intend to stare at the stars or stay and watch wildlife i don't see any point.
My thinking is, i have more than enough batteries to do the hike at full power so why bother turning down the output?
With torches 10 to 15 years ago you really had no option other than preserving your night vision as the outputs were terrible and they ate batteries like a piranha at a BBQ.
It was tough to hike over really tough terrain safely with the torches dire output, often the moon shone brighter so folks turned them off when cloud cover was low.
Now days though 238 grams and i have a head torch with over 1000 lumens output (turbo mode) and 3 x 3400mAh 18650 batteries that give enough power to have it on it's highest output for well over 8 hours, so why risk tripping and falling over to mess about with lower settings?
As i say IF you're not intending to use your night vision for something latter.
In the winter it's usually dark before i'm able to get out in the week and in the summer it's just to hot to walk during the day.
So i'm usually out at least a couple of nights a week doing between 7 and 12 km on the mountain behind my house.
Luckily one of my other interests is torches, so the 2 tend to go hand in hand.
It's tough to recommend a light based purely on output as what you are doing, how fast you are travelling (e.g. running hiking) what the terrain is like, how much light you prefer using, and what your goal is (i.e, it's not good taking a 4000Lm wall of light if you plan to stare at the stars at your destination), all make a massive difference to hat sort of output you want.
You then have to consider beam pattern and light tint, battery life, weight, how comfortable it is to carry/wear.
For me personally i used to prefer to go out and use as low a light output as possible.
In my mind i was preserving night vision so was able to enjoy the views around me and nature as much as possible.
Thing is i'm hiking and i found that my hiking was suffering because i was stumbling a LOT.
It came to ahead after a few nasty falls, so i sat and thought about my goals, as i didn't intend to stop and watch wildlife or stare at the stars so what exactly was i preserving my night vision for?
From then on i've experimented with well over 100 torches.
I've tried head torches, hand held torches, i've clipped them and hung them off various bits of clothing, even tried clipping a light on my shoes (worked great for casting shadows over obstacles, but not consistent enough to be useful).
Now i use a Zebralight H600 99.9% of the time.
I have it on it's highest out so around 600 lumens depending on which version i use.
As it's a headtorch the beam doesn't need to be as floody as a hand held because the beam follows the path your head makes.
I can, do and have hiked with lower outputs, but as i don't intend to stare at the stars or stay and watch wildlife i don't see any point.
My thinking is, i have more than enough batteries to do the hike at full power so why bother turning down the output?
With torches 10 to 15 years ago you really had no option other than preserving your night vision as the outputs were terrible and they ate batteries like a piranha at a BBQ.
It was tough to hike over really tough terrain safely with the torches dire output, often the moon shone brighter so folks turned them off when cloud cover was low.
Now days though 238 grams and i have a head torch with over 1000 lumens output (turbo mode) and 3 x 3400mAh 18650 batteries that give enough power to have it on it's highest output for well over 8 hours, so why risk tripping and falling over to mess about with lower settings?
As i say IF you're not intending to use your night vision for something latter.
