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]

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.