Anyone tried using LED flashlights as photography or video lights?

<p>I bought a couple of high output LED flashlights off that auction site, each came with 2 x 18650 batteries and a charger for about $12. The flashlight is zoomable from a fairly wide angle to a small beam; the build quality is unbelievable for such a low cost item and the light output is impressive. You can do a search for XM-L T6 18650 and a huge variety of flashlights will pop-up. </p>

<p>I thought they might work well as video or continuous lighting for stills as they are much easier to handle than the cluster-LED lights I have including a LED ring light. Their self-contained batteries also makes it easy and lasts hours. </p>

<p>Then I poked around the net and (not surprisingly) came across a bunch of people either doing it, or curious about it - notably the video linked below showing how flashlights can be used effectively and creatively:<br>

<a href="

- 7:48 run time</p>

<p>My primary interest is using them as video lights and their diameter makes it easy to attach to any 1/4-20 spot using plumbing pipe screw clamps, so soon I'll be experimenting.</p>

<p>Have you used or considered using LED flashlights for any of your photography or video work? </p>

<p><a href="

</a></p>

<p>LED lights, in general, are highly effective for video illumination. However the light from a flashlight is generally narrow and poorly distributed. There are inexpensive LED lights which sit on top of a camera much better suited for this purpose. Flat panels with hundreds of LEDs are very popular for wider area illumination, and make a very portable "interview" light kit for mobile operations. Although flat, the individual LEDs are focused so you get a controlled distribution between 15 and 35 degrees, depending on the design.</p>

<p>An LED flashlight might be very useful for "painting" larger objects at night. This is often done for landscapes, particularly "milky way" photos. The bright, tight beam is ideal for this application. I haven't done it, but acquaintances have. A lot of night landscapes have been published, and probably painted with an LED flashlight. It might be hard to find a flashlight with an incandescent bulb these days.</p>

<p>Perhaps the item below would satisfy your Rube Goldberg urges.</p>

<p>https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/857242-REG/genaray_led_2100_36_lamp_compact_led.html</p>

<p>I use a zooming LED flashlight similar to the one described when shooting Ebay sale items, where daylight needs supplementing for example to light inside an SLR lens mount or through a lens. I've also used it where a tight beam is needed to light small glass and similar items. One problem with mine is that the strong blue cast needs correcting in post processing.</p><div></div>

<p>I use small (AAA) coloured LED flashlights for amusing effects in macro - I bought two reds and a green, and replaced the LED in the green one with an ultrabright blue LED, so I can now colour balance (if I move the lights closer to and farther away from the subject). A teensy bit fiddly, though. A small, moderately bright LED can be very useful for small macro subjects compared to trying to get a huge flash in there.<br />

<br />

I've done snippets of video by bouncing bright 18650 LED flashlights off nearby white surfaces. Colour balance was a mild issue, but it's not hugely complicated to fix in post, and at least it avoids the flickering problem that using house lighting can have when you're shooting at very high frame rates. Lights like the Thrunite TN36 or (cheaper but less floody) TN30 are extremely bright (they'll double the light content of my kitchen compared with my mains lights, bounced off the ceiling) at least until they overheat - which is okay for short segments; shone directly they'll have the problems that any smallish light source has, complicated by being multi-emitters. I've not given them what I'd call a professional work-out, though, partly because I'm in no way a video professional. Watching out for light output varying as a thermal cut-out moderates the current (or on a cheaper flashlight as the battery voltage drops) might be worthwhile, though again you can fix it a bit in post-processing.</p>

<p>Have used them for light painting, they're quite bright and very effective.<br>

HOWEVER -- I would recommend using extreme caution with those rechargeable batteries and charger, for two reasons:<br>

1. You don't know how well the batteries are made. Even if they have the name of a major battery manufacturer on them (Sony, Panasonic, etc), they may be counterfeits. Better safe than sorry. Battery manufacturing defects are one reason lithium batteries can explode during charge. Suggest you make your first few charges on a concrete floor, away from flammable materials.<br>

2. Those flashlights use the case as a heatsink for the LED. As the manufacturers keep trying to boost the output, they use higher and higher power LEDs. The housing on the latest flashlights we bought for work (marked Ultrafire WF-502B) get uncomfortably hot after a few minutes of use. The lithium batteries inside are exposed to these high temperatures, and another cause of lithium battery explosions, is being operated at high temperatures, causing thermal runaway.</p>

<p>Absolutely agreed, Peter. High temperatures are bad for the LEDs, too. Flashlights like the TN36 get painful to hold (in full power mode) quite quickly, even though they throttle down at some point (which might be around 80 degrees C, IIRC). I did get continuous running out of one in Yellowstone while sticking my hand out of the car window and using it as a replacement for the hire car's useless headlamps. Decent lamps have a big copper heatsink, but it's still trying to dissipate upwards of 100W (going off the ampage requirements on the cells) through something the size of a coke can. I don't really understand why nobody made a version with a CPU heat sink built into it, which ought to be able to draw cold air over the cells and blow hot out the sides - I've tried pointing a fairly powerful desk fan straight at one, and it didn't make a dent in the overheat.<br />

<br />

Anyway, yes, short bursts, especially if it's a smallish light and you're not in an icy gale. You're probably okay for a couple of minutes, but after that I'd get nervous - and some flashlights have a time-out anyway. Candlepowerforums is full of helpful geeks on this subject.<br />

<br />

To add to Sony and Panasonic (a lot of whose cells get rebadged by others), LG, Efest and Samsung (yes, I know, and I work for them, but I promise the Note7 doesn't use an 18650) have a good reputation for decent cells. But there's cheap and dangerous stuff out there - often also with nothing like the advertised capacity. Buy from a reputable source.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em> "I would recommend using extreme caution with those rechargeable batteries and charger"</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Excellent suggestion and caution, Peter. </p>

<p>In fact those were the first things I checked since they are series connected cells (7.2V) and I wanted to make sure they were protected batteries, and indeed they were with a cutoff voltage of around 2.75V to prevent excessive discharge, and overcharge cutoff at 4.2V. </p>

<p>I also disassembled the charger to see if it was built to safety standard, and what was in it, and good thing I did because the charger circuit is designed to only charge protected 18650 cells - it contains no protection circuitry of its own and only provides constant current charge, so now I know not to stick my unprotected cells in this charger. </p>

<p>The only dubious assertion is the exaggerated, or an outright lie of the battery capacity - it says 5800 mAh but in reality is more likely a quarter of that (or less). I weighed them on a balance against my Panasonic unprotected cells and they were substantially lighter, which is to be expected considering its price. </p>

<p>As for thermal concerns, I disassembled the flashlight and learned that the LED is quite properly heat sunk to a thick aluminium collar which is in turn conducted to the flashlight head and barrel - the battery compartment has an inner metal sleeve so it's thermally isolated. The head does get quite warm under continuous use, but nowhere near the "ouch" temperature that might harm the battery. A properly protected cell should also contain thermal protection but I don't know if these cells have that. </p>

<p>Overall, I can't help but be blown away by the price; $12 USD with free shipping from China, and they made money on it! </p>

I have several Innova brand small LED flashlights I mounted on a spring clamp microphone stand on a table pod ,which I sometimes use as a spot for closeups. Two power settings. When bounced into a flat they also fill a need at low cost (and good for hunting in dark dusty corners for lost screws..) I also have some very low cost flat LED lights which I can use for video. Not much experience in lighting indoor video, but LED seems like the way to go. The prices for purpose built video LED are getting cheaper all the time and battery life is getting longer.<div></div>

<p> I have a couple of Surefire tactical flashlights. While the bulbs get hot, the CR123 batteries do not get more than warm, even after extended use. It pays to buy name brand lights and batteries.</p>

 

<p>I keep a small LED flashlight (aka ‘torch’) in my bag – it is useful as a aid focusing (lens’ focusing in dark environs) and occasionally I have used it for Light-Painting, instead of using a Speedlite set-up, e.g.:</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/14263952-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="486" /><br>

EOS 5D 50mm F/1.4 + 12mm Tube: F/13 @ 20s @ ISO50 (Tripod) </p>

<p>WW</p>

<p>Cell phone cameras have been using LEDs for years. Some are better than others. The ones designed for photography have a color temperature near 5500 K and decent uniformity. Some LED flashlights are very blue and some are not uniform. The only area where LEDs consistently come up short is in stopping motion. They can't compete with a Xenon flash tube for that. </p>

Interesting set up Les. LEDs have so much potential as white light source and focused beam for portable uses. I did this next table top by bouncing my white LED Innova small torch against a black background. Or maybe it was dark blue, cannot remember I have several sheets of pseudo fome core with colors I got at Target for cheap. I like the effect though. It could easily scale up as you have worked out above.<div></div>

And finally, my last experiment inspired by some photographer who shoots models against city lights. This was pure experiment lying ground level with LCD panel horizontal on wet pavement. I used to own a red VW Convertible like this small model. Cute car but actually a sore thumb to keep running, another story. And howsabout them bokeh bandits in the distance :-)<div></div>

<p>Thanks for posting images, Gerry, Les, and William. Really interesting stuff. </p>

<p>Les, I see in your rig what appears to be a 12V/7Ah battery going to a switch, then to the LED driver with a dimmer pot, and the LED on a passive heat sink with no fan - did the reflector come with the LED? or was it from another flashlight?</p>

<p>The plano-convex lens against the LED will give it the widest beam; making it variable distance will narrow the beam as it's pulled away until the beam width is nearly the diameter of the LED, so I suspect pulling the lens just a bit from the LED will allow elimination of the reflector if it's not glued to the LED. </p>

<p>That's a very cool rig you've put together and looks really functional. I have a couple of Costco Gazillion-lumens Halogen torches that run off 12V/7Ah batteries; very inefficient and gets extremely hot, so I'm thinking about modding them to LED. <br>

</p>

<p>I own a bunch of 3 AAA cell torches and am planning to use them for something. - Maybe it will work out.<br>

I just did a first test shot: camera set to ISO 2500, f4, auto I get 1/180sec for a magazine cover not evenly lit by my single non focusable single LED torch in about 1.1m distance. <br>

Conclusion: Multiple torches should work for headshots in desperate conditions. - I don't care about emitted color spectrum; I'm doing B&W. <br>

Thanks for all the battery safety hazard warnings posted here. - I'll keep them in mind if I ever dare to dabble with more powerful LEDs.</p>

<p>Les, my multi-million candlepower flashlights contain standard H4 automotive headlight bulbs, so an LED upgrade can be as simple (and inexpensive) as buying a drop-in replacement which has self-contained driver, heat sink and fan. That would in itself be a substantial upgrade in light output. </p>

<p>I looked into high(er) powered DIY upgrades and it always got increasingly complicated as you go up in power - heat dissipation, power requirement, mechanical considerations - so I might just try the automotive LED replacement route - the low/high beam settings should be adequate for my needs. </p>

<p>I've never liked SLA batteries; expensive, unpredictable service life, weight, so I'm considering a mod to use 18650 batteries. <br>

</p>

<p>Good point, Les, and the prices have dropped considerably making DIY more feasible and flexible. </p>

<p>I have a bunch of healthy 18650 cells salvaged from laptops - not enough to build a Tesla S but enough to wanna use them, and BMS modules are cheap on eBay, otherwise I'd go for LiFEPO4 batteries too. </p>

 

<p>I use an LED flashlight with DIY colored filters. Here's an example. There's a pnet member (I think he's in photo.net) who does this incredibly well, but I can't remember his name. <br /> <img src="http://www.leonin.net/img/s/v-2/p1663541183-4.jpg" alt="" /></p>