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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Spotlighting (1 Viewer)

nickupton

Well-known member
Can anyone recommend a good flashlight for spotlighting birds at night? Preferably one that is widely available. Cheers.
 
Can anyone recommend a good flashlight for spotlighting birds at night? Preferably one that is widely available. Cheers.

Try here:

http://www.solwayfeeders.com/ProductsResultsList1.asp?cat=20

I took the attached woodcock pic using one of these on Christmas Day (well, night!). I'd also invest in one of the filters - we used an amber one (though not for the pic). We saw 22 woodcock and a jack snipe in an hour.

Alternatively, type the word 'lamping' into google, there are loads of places that sell lamping kits.

Jonathan
 

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Great pic of the Woodcock, again i would recommend searching for "lamping", but i have seen such torches in many places these days, just a matter of coming across one.
 
Try Alana ecology Be aware that lamping is a common hunting technique frequently used by poachers. In certain areas you may attract a lot of attention. Likewise many crepuscular birds and nocturnal animals are extremely sensitive to bright light. Shining a torch directly into their eyes can leave them temporarily blinded and therefore susceptible to predation by foxes etc..
 
Try Alana ecology Be aware that lamping is a common hunting technique frequently used by poachers. In certain areas you may attract a lot of attention. Likewise many crepuscular birds and nocturnal animals are extremely sensitive to bright light. Shining a torch directly into their eyes can leave them temporarily blinded and therefore susceptible to predation by foxes etc..

Indeed, although mainly it is who gamekeepers use lamping as a form of legal vermin control these days rather than poachers, and it would be useful to inform local farmers, keepers etc of your activities so as they do not contact police.
 
Hi,

I'm interested in buying a spotlight to take on holiday to Costa Rica later this year. It needs to be bright, rechargable as we would be on foot in rain forests and lightweight due to the amount of photography gear we are intending to take.

I've seen some LED types for sale, but I'm not sure how bright these are. How long does the charge typically last on the cheaper models such as that mentioned on Johns link above?

Anyone have alternate recommendations?

Thanks
Martyn
 
Any recommendations for a small/light weight version - 1 million candlepower?

...I also want to use mine overseas

Cheers

Fernley
 
The energizer type LED headtorches are surprisingly effective for general illumination and detecting light reflecting back from the retinas of most mammals however the cold blue/white light they give out is very artificial and can make yellow, reds and oranges look odd.

The larger, rechargeable torches are good for around 90 minutes with their performance gradually decreasing over the period.

In practice the LED headtorches last around 8 hours and give out a brilliant light for around 4 hours and a good light for the remainder. For backpacking this is definitely the way to go. (only 3xAAA batteries required). Ideally a normal maglite type torch with a focusable beam would be a useful addition it'd also give out a more natural light making id of anything you find easier.
 
It's not rechargable but the Princeton tec surge - available online from diving shops - is amazingly powerful for it's very small size.
 
LED torches

Some of the earlier posts in this thread asked about LED torches / flashlights. I have recently bought one and I think it's very good.

One of the disadvantages of most LED lights is that they give a cool, white light which when used outdoors can make things look a bit two dimensional. I purchased a Dereelight CL1H V4 because it's available with an optional 'warm' 5A Q2 LED which gives a yellower output, which is far closer to a conventional spotlight. As far as I can tell Dereelight is the only manufacturer to offer that.

The light is the length of a pen and weighs only 120 grams without batteries. Yet the output is very impressive. I have tested it next to a friend's rechargeable Maglite (which I know from personal experience is powerful enough to find owls in the tallest of forests) and we struggled to see any significant difference when shining it into trees. I have also compared it to my usual spotlight, a cheap one with an inbuilt rechargeable battery and labelled as 500,000 candlepower. Whilst the torch isn't as bright as that spotlight, it is perfectly adequate. You wouldn't choose it to scan for Barn Owls over open country (though there are LED torches available that would have greater reach), but it does the job very well in forested areas.

As well as the obvious advantage in size and weight for travelling, using such a small light handheld with binoculars is easy. No more holding a light in one hand and binoculars in the other - you can place the torch alongside the binoculars.

Depending on the driver unit you choose to purchase you have a choice of what batteries to use, including both rechargeables (18650 size) and non rechargeables (2x CR123). Battery life should be something like 1.5 to 2 hours on high output. There are three different brightness settings - 100%, 30% and 5%. At 30% the output is still quite strong, but battery life is closer to eight or ten hours. Using the high setting to find animals, and then dropping back to the 30% setting to watch them, has worked well so far.

Cost was around A$95 for the torch. That's about GBP45. Rechargeable batteries were around A$16 each and the recharger A$22. I think that's very good value for what it does.

I got mine from www.torchworld.com.au . Or the manufacturer's website is http://www.dereelight.com/cl1hv4.htm

Murray Lord
 
Hi there, I am also looking for a hand light that I can use in the Kruger National park, mainly for owls. The Deerlight CL1HV is available from flashaholics.co.uk for £55.00 just a little more than I wanted to pay, but you also have to buy the battery for £12.00 and the charger for £17.00. Now I'm back to the "Sealey Rechargeable Spotlight 1-Million Candle Power" that John Eaton has recomended, but possibly a bit harder to hold with bins and camera. but the price is good, is it realy 1000000 candle power?
Lorne
 
you can get lamps with 1 - 5 million candlewatts now pretty cheaply (say £10 - £25) from general stores and of course the internet. I've got two. haven't used them for a while, I think one is 2 million and one is 5 million. There's not much difference between the 2 but I think the 2 million is actually better/ brighter. The main problem is that the charge time is about 20 hrs and it only last for half an hour! I know a BF member who recently spent about £150 on one that lasts 3 or 4 hours. I can find out the model if necessary - he's offered to lend it to me to look for Scottish wildcats!

Hi there, I am also looking for a hand light that I can use in the Kruger National park, mainly for owls. The Deerlight CL1HV is available from flashaholics.co.uk for £55.00 just a little more than I wanted to pay, but you also have to buy the battery for £12.00 and the charger for £17.00. Now I'm back to the "Sealey Rechargeable Spotlight 1-Million Candle Power" that John Eaton has recomended, but possibly a bit harder to hold with bins and camera. but the price is good, is it realy 1000000 candle power?
Lorne
 
If you want to go with the compact lightweight LED torch approach, but want to spend less money here are a couple of options:

1 Go for the same Dereelight but go for non rechargeable batteries (CR123). That would mean you would have to buy the 3SM rather than the 3SD control unit.

2 Buy a new Fenix TK20 which also has a warm tint but runs on AA batteries. It won't be as bright as the Dereelight (150 lumens versus 210 - can't really comment on whether that's bright enough for what you want to do). About GBP 35.

3 Go to ebay and search for "mte ssc p7" and you will find a torch that comes with recharger and batteries for about GBP 50 incl postage from China. From reviews it's not wonderfully designed (eg gets very hot after a while, output level declines as batteries wear out etc) but it's really bright - brighter than the Dereelight I got - and good value.

4 Try torchworld.com.au who I bought my torch from - they are cheaper than the price you quoted (but don't sell rechargers for 18650 batteries). Not sure how much they would charge for postage to the UK though.
 
If anyone has the Sealey spotlight can they advise how much it weighs. I am looking for a new spotlight, but tend to find with all the optics gear, tripods, sleeping bags, boots and everything else, weight is an issue when I get to the airport. Any other recommendations on spotlights would be appreciated.

Thanks Mark
 
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