Hey,

So I was cruising around ThinkGeek, which has some pretty kickass shit to buy, and I found this flashlight. Seems like it'd be a good rig to use for light painting, so I thought I'd share. What do you guys think?

It has an infrared or ultraviolet model, plus RGB LEDs and a 440 lumen white LED.

Check it out:

http://www.thinkge...gets_newest_1a9a_4

$89.99 for infrared
$119.99 for ultraviolet.



-Yim



(Edit: added photo)

I would think this model http://www.thinkge...product/13d6/#tabs would be better for that. White illumination instead of UV or IR, unless you're using a camera that can see in either of those spectrum.

Personally, for light painting I just use the cheap LED glowsticks. And for flashlight, I use a much lower brightness light. I'd hate to accidentally trip a 24,000 candlepower light into turbo mode while sneaking around an active location. Of course, it's all about personal tastes and needs. This is why they make different models.

$90- $120 would be a very steep price for something that only puts out 400 (claimed) lumens. And flashlight makers exaggerate their lumen specs all the time (because they can ).

Then again, I know nothing about what infrared or ultraviolet features on something like a flashlight are supposed to accomplish.

For light painting, I recommend a super high output incandescent, or an LED flashlight with LEDs possessing a good color rendering index (CRI).

The closer the number is to 100 in that index, the better.


Me? I now use one of these and am liking it:

I picked up and had the chance of using Saturday: http://www.dx.com/...21720#.U03XGfldV8E



It is magical and $34.
It also says it's 3800 lumen on the barrel but...

I bought a 4 7's and love it, got it in a neutral white for light painting.

Interesting thread!

For my part I use Fenix flashlights, the model I own is the TK-15

http://www.fenixtactical.com/

I use this flashlight to explore and to take long exposures in the dark. I think it's a pretty decent flashlight, and you can buy accessories such as color filters and light diffusers. I never leave home without it.

Diffusers work pretty well to get the colors you want. Some LEDs can be slightly weak in red or teal photons, but this is easily corrected with more red balance in your filter or in your postprocess.

I find that "With RGB LEDs" means "Crap 5mm LEDs overdriven to look ok. Too dim for lighting things, but you can draw light traces with long exposures." A filter on a real power LED is likely to serve you better. You guys might like to try something like this:


A dirt-cheap DX Special aspheric ("Flood to Zoom") LED projecting through a custom filter, Aurelie posing, a few years back. The sharp lines are caused by the small LED+optic, with a very strong, multilayer custom filter*. Most of my LEDs worked well with color filters, but I never use especially bad LEDs.


An incandescent '50W' spotlight with a multilayer rainbow filter, me standing in a drain junction room. I found my HID arc-lamps to be missing enough spectrum to not work well for full rainbows, although blues and greens came out well.

*Custom multilayer filter: Put clear packing tape on the bezel of the light. Carefully color with sharpies in the patter you want. Test it, then do about three layers to increase the color strength, JUST like the first one. Messing up your lines makes muddy colors. Put a final, non-colored layer of packing tape on top. If you get clever with sticky-side-out tape wrapped on the bezel first, you have a removable custom filter.

I posted, and then totally neglected this thread.

I was impressed by the light I posted, and (in part) wanted to see some reactions so as to determine if I should consider getting one. I can see now there are way better options for light painting.

Don't most camera sensors pick up IR lighting?

Either way, interesting to see how people who react to this one. I'm not terribly familiar with lumens (however I am with candlepower). 400's not very good, eh?

-Yim

Posted by Yimmy I posted, and then totally neglected this thread. I was impressed by the light I posted, and (in part) wanted to see some reactions so as to determine if I should consider getting one. I can see now there are way better options for light painting. Don't most camera sensors pick up IR lighting? Either way, interesting to see how people who react to this one. I'm not terribly familiar with lumens (however I am with candlepower). 400's not very good, eh? -Yim

400 IS good, it's just that many people in this forum are of the mindset that higher is better and they need their pocket flashlights to shoot a cone of light clear across a football field.

My led headlamp is 160 lumens and is more than enough for my needs. It's also focusing, so if I NEED to, I can send a beam about 250m. Not often, but sometimes in big dark buildings it's useful for scanning from a distance over uneven footing.

I'm sorry, but I just don't NEED a pocket sun. Especially if I only get 1-2 hour battery life with it. :p

posted by gr8fzy1: pocket sun.

I'll repost when I'm finished laughing.

This is interesting! I actually bought a "black light" head lamp at Bass Pro Shop for about $30. Probably not as bright, but might accomplish the same thing a lot cheaper. I think it's made for fishing, or maybe some specific type of hunting?

I use a surefire with a cree LED. DX.com have great deals on flashlights and i know people who say they are all great.