Anyone use high power bike lights?

HansK

HansK

Veteran
Has anyone tried using a high powered bike light for a portable light source? These lights have 12W to 40W of brightness and can last up to 3 hours.

Here are two popular brands:

http://www.bikelights.com/Products/Products.htm
http://www.niterider.com/products.html

The light patterns tend to be spot but could be diffused.

I'm interested since these lights are really rugged and portable. Plus, long battery life.

UPDATE: Adding this photo of one of my lights mounted on my DVX:

167083042.jpg


The battery pack is rather small and easily fits within a waist pack for backpack.

I might have some time to do some lighting tests and will post those.

- Hans
 
Re: Anyone use high power bike lights?

Wow! I've never seen those type of lights.

I'm gonna have to make a stop by the local bike shop for closer inspection. Hmmm...
 
Re: Anyone use high power bike lights?

Two words....very blue!!

I have one for riding and have tried shootong with it and when you WB to it any light in the background turns VERY red, especially sulfer lights that are around any city at night.

But you do get about 4 hours runtime on a single charge.


dolby
 
Re: Anyone use high power bike lights?

[quote author=dolby link=board=lighting;num=1087336288;start=0#2 date=06/17/04 at 11:40:52]Two words....very blue!![/quote]

Ah, interesting. What type of light are you using? I have two types, the old standard buld type and the newer one with a HID bulb (in photo above).

Will do some night tests this weekend using the HID and post the results.
 
Re: Anyone use high power bike lights?

I have a Night Rider HID. It's very bright and has a pretty tight pattern.
When I replaced the bulb, I had the choice of getting a flood but since its main use is mountian biking I got the spot. BTW bulbs cost about $80.
I also have a Nightrider Trail Rat which is a halogen. When I get my camera back I'll try shooting with it.

dolby
 
Re: Anyone use high power bike lights?

i have a very cheap bicycle light which saved my ass yesterday on a shoot... dark situation in a club, no sun-gun available, only thing i have at home is this halogen light piece of plastic. i taped a white-diffusion square on it.. and it did the job. i had to hold it with my left hand while my camera with my right hand.. it worked quite nice.. i usually hate the effect of an on-camera light (bleach and flatten the foreground and eliminates the background). my gizmo light always came from as far angel as possible from the camera line of shooting, filling up a little to avoid total darkness.. it really gave the extra missing 2 stops!
 
Re: Anyone use high power bike lights?

We just started talking about these HID lights for on camera lighting in another thread. You can find it under LED Lights under "Hardware". Im just learning the details of this type of bulb but so far it seem like its about 4X the output of a halogen bulb of the same wattage. I know it looks like it gives "white" light but I wonder what the color temp is exactly and if its full spectrum. One thing for sure is it will make your batteries last alot longer which could lead to smaller batteries that clip on the back of the light instead of these bulky and heavy battery belts that seem like old technology. Worth looking it to for sure. Please contribute any info you have to the thread. Thanks.

-Brett Erskine
 
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