Source for highest power LED under £50

Rivers & creeks

Rivers & creeks

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I need a very high power LED beam for a non sailing application, it's going to be used for a demonstration of the reflective properties of mirrors but it has to be waterproof and battery powered. Has anyone got a specific recommendation? If it can change colours or have secure colour caps on that would be even better, in which case the budget can go to £100 as we won't need two. I did come across this one but it's only 550 lumens and I was looking for thousands of lumens:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BOT8TJA/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2BOFDS5D6RILB&coliid=I1SVAECEPBLUPP

Thanks for any recommendations.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
I did come across this one but it's only 550 lumens and I was looking for thousands of lumens:
Click to expand...

Wow, thousands of lumens will cost a lot more than £50. Lumen ratings are often ridiculously overstated, especially on eBay items. For a decent LED torch, consider the Fenix or Olight ranges, which are good quality and honestly-stated light outputs.
 
550lumens sounds like roughly a 5watt LED.
The problem with getting much higher wattage in a small space is cooling the LED chips.

If you want different colours, you might do better to look at coloured LEDs rather than filtering.

Is it lumens you need or lux?
Plenty of cheap lasers around.
 
pvb said:
Wow, thousands of lumens will cost a lot more than £50. Lumen ratings are often ridiculously overstated, especially on eBay items. For a decent LED torch, consider the Fenix or Olight ranges, which are good quality and honestly-stated light outputs.
Click to expand...

OK - I was looking at eBay ones which say 8000 lumens - are they pulling a fast one?
 
lw395 said:
550lumens sounds like roughly a 5watt LED.
The problem with getting much higher wattage in a small space is cooling the LED chips.

If you want different colours, you might do better to look at coloured LEDs rather than filtering.

Is it lumens you need or lux?
Plenty of cheap lasers around.
Click to expand...

Lasers won't work in the demonstartion.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
I need a very high power LED beam for a non sailing application, it's going to be used for a demonstration of the reflective properties of mirrors but it has to be waterproof and battery powered. Has anyone got a specific recommendation? If it can change colours or have secure colour caps on that would be even better, in which case the budget can go to £100 as we won't need two. I did come across this one but it's only 550 lumens and I was looking for thousands of lumens:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BOT8TJA/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2BOFDS5D6RILB&coliid=I1SVAECEPBLUPP

Thanks for any recommendations.
Click to expand...

I love the Led Lenser torches and own several. Their most powerful is 1600 lumens and that is bright but will bust your budget. http://www.ledco.co.uk/content/productView.aspx?prodId=14
The only one withing your budget is a 550 lumen one http://www.ledco.co.uk/content/productView.aspx?prodId=11. The cheapest I could find this one is http://www.uktoolcentre.co.uk/Shop/...ogleShopping&gclid=CK_TgKqek8ICFSaWtAodPUcAsw

The torch you show from Amazon will only have a short battery life and they quote just over an hour on full power. That could make this very expensive to run as the batteries would constantly need changing.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
OK - I was looking at eBay ones which say 8000 lumens - are they pulling a fast one?
Click to expand...

Let's say a slight exaggeration! I bought one of these "8500 lumen" torches on eBay, and it is very good, but probably no brighter than a 1000 lumen Fenix, etc.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SKYRAY-Ki...ightsLanternsTorches&var=&hash=item1c3c70b8d1

Edit: Concerto's comment about batteries is valid. I went for a torch which uses 4x18650 rechargeable batteries, and have a spare set ready charged to swap over.
 
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The effective brightness is also affected by whether it is focusable or not. Have a small cree torch that you can focus into a tight beam and that throws light further than another torch that is 3 x as bright in lumens terms.
 
I don't understand how coloured filters are supposed to work with LEDs. I'm very sceptical. I would expect the light to be severely attenuated, and produce unexpected and incorrect colours.

The reason being, LEDs emit light in very specific wavelengths, not a broad spectrum like incandescent lamps and the sun.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
I need a very high power LED beam for a non sailing application, it's going to be used for a demonstration of the reflective properties of mirrors.....
Click to expand...

Why do you need all this elaboration to show that mirrors reflect?
What's wrong with a candle or the sun or something?
 
Lazy Kipper said:
I need a very high power LED beam for a non sailing application, it's going to be used for a demonstration of the reflective properties of mirrors but it has to be waterproof and battery powered. Has anyone got a specific recommendation? If it can change colours or have secure colour caps on that would be even better, in which case the budget can go to £100 as we won't need two. I did come across this one but it's only 550 lumens and I was looking for thousands of lumens:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BOT8TJA/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2BOFDS5D6RILB&coliid=I1SVAECEPBLUPP

Thanks for any recommendations.
Click to expand...

I had, until it got lost/stolen, a cheap 4xAA single Cree torch that had a remarkable tight long-distance beam (looked the same as http://www.towsure.com/product/Streetwize_Ultra_Bright_Cree_LED_Spotlight but I paid £6.99). Not waterproof though and probably honestly specced at 200 lumens.

I looked some time ago at the various '8000 lumen' etc ones on Ebay and Amazon, and the specs don't add up - most have 5 or 6 Cree LEDs and each genuine Cree LED maxes out at about 1000 lumens, so the 8000 lumens quoted for a five-LED torch is clearly wrong. I also strongly suspect that the "Cree" LEDS offered in cheap torches are not actually made by/for Cree, but are probably less efficient knock-offs.

The other thing to note is that all the cheap '8000 lumen' torches don't run on ordinary cheap AA/C/D batteries, as at full power each LED takes about 3 amps, most have multiple Li-ion battery modules that cost about £5-15 each depending on quality/capacity, and these are not supplied with the torches. They are though probably pretty powerful, if not 8000 lumens, but battery life at full power will likely be pretty short, with 15-18 amps draw from tiny batteries.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
I rang them and the distributor actually recommended this one http://www.nitecore.co.uk/Shop/Products/MH-Series/12345-Nitecore-MH25.html#Features

960 lumens, filter caps are about £4 and interestingly for boating it takes a red cone diffuser, when set to SOS strobe it makes it a cheap sort of LED Odeo flare, without the range but good for final finding by RNLI? Hmmm, one for the boat as well maybe?
Click to expand...
An advantage of this one is that it takes 18650 batteries that will also fit a lot of the cheap cree torches on ebay.
No mention as to whether it is zoomable though.
 
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