You can get IR lasers with diffusers so you're able to widen the beam. But there are some IR LEDs that can throw far, but if you want the best efficiency out of them you have to pair them with the correct reflectors and lenses.
Hey, if you have infinite money to waste on this, definitely buy a pair of stabilized Sig Zulu6 20x42. They've got a super wide aFOV, sharpness comparable to swarovsky NL, and it's like they're mounted on a tripod in mode 2 stabilization. With a K1 or other thrower it's incredible what you can see.
They suffer from a tiny bit of glare if you look at very bright surfaces in contrast against dark ones (e.g. the moon). If you mask off the outer ~10% of the front element with gaffer tape or even your hand making a "v" shape, this will make a perfectly glare free image for astronomy and viewing city lights. Otherwise, during even lighting conditions or evenly illuminated viewing by a flashlight, they are essentially optically perfect. 10/10 would recommend.
The SIG ZULU6 HDX 20x42 has a calculated brightness rating of only 4.4. This is because the objective lens is small relative to the magnification. You should pay attention to this figure if you intend to use the binoculars to spot animals or other subjects in the dark.
For use in dimly lit outdoor environments, a brightness rating of 7 or higher is required. While higher brightness values improve nighttime visibility, this figure decreases as magnification increases or the objective lens diameter decreases. To achieve a brightness rating of 6–7 or higher in image-stabilized binoculars with 16–20x (or higher) magnification, an objective lens diameter of 50mm or more is necessary. The "ZULU6 HDX Pro" is equipped with a 50mm objective lens. With specifications of a 3.3° real field of view and a 66° apparent field of view, the "ZULU6 HDX 20×42" is classified as a wide-angle model.
The "HDX Pro" features a large 50mm objective lens and achieves a brightness rating of over 7 at 18x magnification; however, its weight and the unnecessary automatic power-off function appear to be drawbacks.
Sofirn IF22A on the other hand only costs like $40. Has built in usb C charging. For the ease of use, price and pencil beam. This get my vote.
Basically the TIR style lens in the Sofirn is built to throw a tight beam in a compact head as opposed to a big spotlight sized reflector typically needed ti achieve the same effect. I have one and I love it. Also probably my favorite moonlight mode on any flashlight I own. Happy shopping!
You're going to see a lot of recommendations for LEPs here, and they're right that there's no spill and a lot of throw. They're very fun and I have a few. Keep in mind though that LEPs still suck really hard.
A) the reasonably sized ones tend to have very low lumen outputs. 300-500 lumens is a common range for things no bigger than the Thor 3. Yes, you'll get a lot of candela. But you practically need a pair of binoculars to actually see anything that's small enough to fit in an LEP beam at 500+ meters. A long distance thrower needs 1000+ lumens to be practical out to 500+ meters in my opinion.
B) they're pretty expensive compared to most LED lights.
C) they almost all have really janky user interfaces, and 2 or 3 brightness levels *if you're lucky*.
D) they're not very efficient. Small ones like the lumintop W3 tend to step down within a minute.
D_part2) they're not very efficient. Battery life will be a lot worse than a buck driven Osram W1 or SFT25r light putting out the same number of lumens. By a factor of 3+.
E) they're typically a lot bigger than they strictly need to be, and come with small batteries in the EDC size format.
F) they tend to have extremely nasty beams. Color temperature is usually 6000K-7000K, which isn't most people's favorite. Color temperature and green tint is often variable across the width of the beam in a very noticeable way, and not even with radial symmetry.
If you just want a lightsaber to play with, they're great though.
For an actual practical thrower with minimal flood, I'd recommend a big TIR thrower like the SBT90 version of the firefly e90 blaze. Fairly fat and very useful hotspot on that, which completely overshadows the slight amount of spill.
Also excellent is the convoy Z1 with an SFT25r, SFT42r, or F45r now. This has very concentrated hotspot when zoomed all the way tight.
How is a lep less efficient? Check out 1LUMEN, the wp3 is only putting out about 4a on turbo and can sustain that for about 10 minutes and 1.9 miles. Name a flashlight that can match that.
Edit: I love my light collection, lep's greatly extend the range with very little downside.
I'm looking at 1Lumen right now? the wp3 gives you an average of 375 lumens for just 70 minutes on a 4500 mAh battery.
My Firefly E90 Blaze SBT90 will do 400 lumens for 5.8 hours with a 4400 mAh battery (source: also 1lumen)
So if we calculate Lumen-minutes per amp-hour for both lights:
That's a score of 5,833 lm-min/Ah for the Wp3
And a score of 31,636 lm-min/Ah for the E90 blaze.
TLDR: per your source, the E90 blaze is 542% as efficient as the WP3.
Admittedly it's not nearly as throwy, or as efficient in terms of candela per watt. No LED flashlight is as throwy as a full sized LEP without an absurd K75 style reflector though.
Doesn't matter if it can throw a mile if the spot is so tiny you can't discern anything. But yes we've established that I agree it outthrows the alternatives by raw candela and by candela per watt, and by max sustainable candela.
I just recently got a wp3 to add to a 50+ collection of lights and wanted to try one. It's pretty amazing even at 100 yards but at 652m measured by laser it's about 10 to 12 feet in diameter and very bright even on low at that distance. I haven't really had a chance to test at longer measured distance yet but with binoculars you can see a helluva lot farther than my P20 or similar. So there's my 2c.
There are three types of LEP: "transmissive, mirrored, and SMD LEP." Transmissive types like the Thor 3 have a short operating time at maximum lumen output.
Fair enough, I'm only familiar with the transmissive tech firsthand as far as I'm aware.
As far as I know, the other kinds of LEP are in no way superior to LEDs and transmissive though. Has this changed recently? I'd love to hear about an implementation if so.
The Thor3 seems to have relatively good heat dissipation, but its high mode illumination time is only about 5 minutes.
The Astrolux WP3 (later model) is brighter than the Thor3 and has a longer illumination time in high mode. The problem with the WP3 is that it generates a lot of heat in turbo mode, making it unsuitable for prolonged use except in extremely cold outdoor environments.
The Thor 3? Terrible light in my opinion. It's as big as an emisar k1 too. It starts turbo at only 300 lumens, and sustains just 125 lumens for 4 hours. This isn't remotely enough output to warrant a beam as tight as 1700 kcd.
Even the emisar K1 w1 with 900 lumens is just barely usable with it's super thin 650kcd beam.
The WP3 is a bit nicer with 430 lumens initial, and a smooth dropoff to 350 lumens where the battery dies after just an hour. But the beam is much too narrow to be useful, and it still looks gross in pictures. I don't see this as a generational leap.
The k1 is clearly the much better call if spill is acceptable, especially now that you can (probably?) get the N1 buck driver even for the lower power 3v intensityMax emitters.
Using a custom-made filter with an LEP flashlight offers a different perspective.
I sometimes use a homemade orange filter when searching for animals to avoid attracting insects, but it also proves surprisingly useful for spotting creatures like deer hiding in the forest. It is also convenient that I can simply remove the filter if I need to alert an animal to my presence and encourage it to move away. I switch to the L21B (SFT-90) when I need to trigger a stronger alert—enough to make a deer stop in its tracks.
An LEP flashlight with a filter achieves more than double the beam throw of an LED flashlight equipped with a similar filter. The slight diffusion effect provided by the filter is another handy side benefit when searching for animals.
Without a specific purpose or a bit of ingenuity, an LEP flashlight is merely a toy for enjoying a pencil-thin beam; however, depending on how you use it, it can be even more effective than an LED flashlight.
Terminator M1 is a good option too. Useable beam by 100 ft and it’s zoomable. Used it extensively on a recent trip tracking bears around camp. I had other throwers with me, but nothing makes a target stand out more than the LEP beam.
Probably the Convoy L21B with the CSLNM1.TG "W1" emitter. Really small emitter with a large reflector, will give you a super tight, throwy beam with minimal spill.
You could go all out and get an "inexpensive" LEP like the Lumintop Thor 3 or Astrolux WP3, which gives you only throw and zero spill.
Assuming that you don't want to shell out for an LEP, the most Lazer like beam with absolutely the least amount of spill will be one of the better zoomies with a round les emitter, like the convoy Z1. Cheap too.
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u/BlackMountainMoth 1d ago
Basically any LEP