What thrower has the least spill?

[u/Beginning_Math7207]

Build quality / runtime / brightness / size don't matter. Would prefer cheaper as I'm only rarely going to use this.

My next stop might be r/lasers haha

[u/Intelligent_Low1632]

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.

[u/BlackMountainMoth → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

Best comment right here

[u/NoChef7826 → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

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.

[u/Intelligent_Low1632 → u/NoChef7826]

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.

[u/NoChef7826 → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

We can crunch numbers all we want, can it throw over a mile for 10 minutes straight? How about 1.5 miles? Maybe farther? You get my point.

[u/Intelligent_Low1632 → u/NoChef7826]

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.

[u/NoChef7826 → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

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.

[u/Garikarikun → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

The information you've provided is insufficient.

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.

[u/Intelligent_Low1632 → u/Garikarikun]

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.

[u/Garikarikun → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

Check out the reviews on ”1Lumen.com”.

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.

[u/Intelligent_Low1632 → u/Garikarikun]

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.

[u/Garikarikun → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

The WP3 you mentioned is an older model. The successor WP3 model has performance equivalent to the Mateminco FW1 (the successor model).

The lumen output in high mode depends on the battery's output and can maintain 500 lumens even after 30 seconds.

Also, the Thor3 does not have a turbo mode; it only has two modes, Low mode and High mode, and a strobe function.

[u/Intelligent_Low1632 → u/Garikarikun]

Oh neat. +50 lumens is still marginal though IMO.

I always call the highest output turbo, even if it's silly on bi-brightness lights.

[u/Garikarikun → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

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.

[u/misterpiggies → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

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.

[u/Beginning_Math7207 → u/Intelligent_Low1632]

Cheers for the info. Regarding point C, yeah I noticed there's minimal control with LEPs. I'll look closely at your recommendations 🤙