>I've got 4x 6500 Lumen projectors that I use at work, and I DEFINITELY can't light anything on fire with them. (I tried)
Your projector most likely uses an UHP bulb (or several). This flashlight uses a incandescent bulb. Incandescent bulbs have a lot of IR output which allows them to catch things on fire (as you see in the video). UHP, HID, and other bulb technologies don't, so despite having equal or greater lumens you can't light stuff on fire.
>How does 3000 Lumens (Maxablaster) make 4100 Lumens look weak sauce again?
First of all the Wicked Laser flashlight in question doesn't put out 4100 Lumens. Real world testing shows that the formulas used to estimate the lumens of the bulb in that flashlight are about 2x as high as they really are at the power level the light is using.
Second, the light coming from the Wicked Lasers flashlight isn't very well collimated. It's one thing to make a lights that seems bright from 3' away. It's another to make one that seems bright from miles away. Being able to put a visible spot on a cloud 4 miles away or light up buildings from 6.2km away is a lot more impressive than lighting stuff on fire from a few inches away regardless of the lumen output.
Finally, There are far more powerful lights (in terms of lumens) made by other members on the CandlePower Forums. There is one light with 14000 bulb lumen. So, it's certainly not the worlds brightest flashlight.
>1. No, I didn't. I'm worried about the one lying around the house at someone else's house. Especially people without kids, who have no concept of how kids get into everything you never expected them to get into.
>2. My car's headlights won't catch their faces on fire and burn out their retinas.
1) Do you think people who buy $300 flashlights leave them just sitting around where small kids can "play" with them? I have my doubts about that one. Why would your kids be at someone's house who doesn't have kids when you're not around to watch them? Are you using Michael Jackson as a babysitter or something?
2) A 35W 4200k HID bulb puts out ~3200 Lumen. Lot of cars have 2 of these installed in them (mine does). I think you and some other people need some perspective. A 4100 lumen light isn't that bright. It won't set your kids face on fire. It might warm their face as will any other light of similar brightness. You'll notice they didn't show it lighting a white piece of paper on fire. It was very dark paper (probably a comic book). A laser pointer is much more dangerous from an eyesight and retina perspective.
Look at the bright side. (pun intended) When Wesley Snipes carries one of these around in the next Blade movie to burn vampires at least we'll know it's plausible.
What? I'm confused. So you're saying that the heat being made by the bulb (emission in the IR portion of the spectrum) doesn't count as light coming from the flashlight?
BTW, 200W 120V bulbs don't light things on fire because they don't have a reflector concentrating the beam in one direction.
It doesn't really matter since that 1 million candlepower number is very likely a bogus marketing number (like almost all spotlight candlepower numbers). The 4100lm is probably an accurate bulb lumen number.
First of all, it's not that bright. A pair of 35W HID headlights on a car put out more lumen than this thing. A 35W HID 4200k bulb will put out about 3200 Lumen. There are people playing around with lights with 400W HID bulbs (10x this thing) and brighter.
That's hard to say. It really depends if it's an incandescent or HID. If it's a HID then no. HID bulbs are quite efficient even compared to the latest LEDs. However, judging from the low price price I'd say it's not a HID.
This thing is total weak sauce compared to some of the home-brew / modified flashlights people have over at the Candlepower forums. In fact one of them (Maxablaster) is featured in this month's Popular Science on the How2.0 page. Apparently Guinness will only consider production flashlights for their records.
Regardless, I'd link to some of them, but the forums there have enough time staying up as it is and they don't need the extra traffic. Here's a beam shot of the Maxablaster shining on some clouds 4 miles up. http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spotoncloud2dp4ta1.jpg
Slashdot Mirror
Your projector most likely uses an UHP bulb (or several). This flashlight uses a incandescent bulb. Incandescent bulbs have a lot of IR output which allows them to catch things on fire (as you see in the video). UHP, HID, and other bulb technologies don't, so despite having equal or greater lumens you can't light stuff on fire.
First of all the Wicked Laser flashlight in question doesn't put out 4100 Lumens. Real world testing shows that the formulas used to estimate the lumens of the bulb in that flashlight are about 2x as high as they really are at the power level the light is using.
Second, the light coming from the Wicked Lasers flashlight isn't very well collimated. It's one thing to make a lights that seems bright from 3' away. It's another to make one that seems bright from miles away. Being able to put a visible spot on a cloud 4 miles away or light up buildings from 6.2km away is a lot more impressive than lighting stuff on fire from a few inches away regardless of the lumen output.
Finally, There are far more powerful lights (in terms of lumens) made by other members on the CandlePower Forums. There is one light with 14000 bulb lumen. So, it's certainly not the worlds brightest flashlight.
>2. My car's headlights won't catch their faces on fire and burn out their retinas.
1) Do you think people who buy $300 flashlights leave them just sitting around where small kids can "play" with them? I have my doubts about that one. Why would your kids be at someone's house who doesn't have kids when you're not around to watch them? Are you using Michael Jackson as a babysitter or something?
2) A 35W 4200k HID bulb puts out ~3200 Lumen. Lot of cars have 2 of these installed in them (mine does). I think you and some other people need some perspective. A 4100 lumen light isn't that bright. It won't set your kids face on fire. It might warm their face as will any other light of similar brightness. You'll notice they didn't show it lighting a white piece of paper on fire. It was very dark paper (probably a comic book). A laser pointer is much more dangerous from an eyesight and retina perspective.
By the way, keep your kids away from your car's headlights too.
Look at the bright side. (pun intended) When Wesley Snipes carries one of these around in the next Blade movie to burn vampires at least we'll know it's plausible.
I'm sure he leaves it on all the time too just trying to ruin your view of the stars on a cloudy night.
BTW, 200W 120V bulbs don't light things on fire because they don't have a reflector concentrating the beam in one direction.
It doesn't really matter since that 1 million candlepower number is very likely a bogus marketing number (like almost all spotlight candlepower numbers). The 4100lm is probably an accurate bulb lumen number.
See! :-P
Yeah, that's it. I wanted to avoid slashdotting the servers there, so I didn't provide a link.
http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maxabl6200mbdd2yi3.jpg
http://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maxabl6200mbu3ru4.jpg
And the light itself
http://img82.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maxablinverterdr3qi1.jpg
First of all, it's not that bright. A pair of 35W HID headlights on a car put out more lumen than this thing. A 35W HID 4200k bulb will put out about 3200 Lumen. There are people playing around with lights with 400W HID bulbs (10x this thing) and brighter.
That's hard to say. It really depends if it's an incandescent or HID. If it's a HID then no. HID bulbs are quite efficient even compared to the latest LEDs. However, judging from the low price price I'd say it's not a HID.
Regardless, I'd link to some of them, but the forums there have enough time staying up as it is and they don't need the extra traffic. Here's a beam shot of the Maxablaster shining on some clouds 4 miles up. http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spotoncloud2dp4ta1.jpg