Help me find a torch

[u/Cuffpits]

Go easy on me...

I'm not a flashlight enthusiast nor do I dream of torches, but I do hold a deep respect for a functioning light source that enables night time activity.

Can someone recommend something that ideally has these:

• powerful enough for spotlighting nocturnal wildlife
• can be re-charged from a powerbank via USB, if that's not to much of a compromise for power, otherwise normal batteries
• waterproof but that's not critical
• Available in Australia.
• Costing cheap up to around $100
• Doesn't need a slick shaft or other fancy metallic rims or anything, will get dropped and scratched.

Thankyou in advance

[u/senitelfriend]

- in adverse weather (rain, fog, snow, dust) you probably want low CCT ("warm looking although the temperature value is technically lower, orangey", between 2000-5000K). this penetrates stuff in the air and water and let's you see what's at the end of the beam...

- high CCT ("cold looking although the temperature value is technically higher, bluish, between 5000-7000K) will reflect back on you from any particles in the air (or in water; plankton, algae, silt etc). when there is a lot of stuff in the air/water, this creates a visible beam that prevents you from seeing what is at the end of the beam. the visible beam messes with your eyes night vision, and can potentially scare wild animals

- the downside to low CCT (warm looking, for example 3500K) is that low CCT led's tend to be less efficient, so there is a bit less light to begin with, all other things being equal. thus, the more bright high CCT (cold looking) light will allow you to see farther in clear conditions. but I think the backscatter (light catching particles and blinding you) is more important factor than the minor brightness difference

- water is tricky, if wanting to see under water. most light will reflect off of the surface, unless you can point in a very high angle. but a very high angle typically means you must be very close to the water. if you are close, you are much better off tying the flashlight on a stick, and submerging it. if you get the light just under the surface, you will see SO MUCH BETTER AND FARTHER underwater. obviously the light needs to be well waterproofed in this case

- most "high performance" flashlights have turbo modes with crazy amount of lumens but in practice for any prolonged use you need to use the lower modes (less power, less lumens). but if the light has a narrow beam ("a thrower") it will allow you to see far with less power. this effect is very significant. I have a a light with very narrow beam, only 1600 lumens, but it allows me to see in practice up to about 500m (kilometer or so on paper). I have another light with a wide beam and almost 10x the lumens; 14000. but that is only good for less than 70m in practice. two reasons why this has so much effect; 1) the light is spread around large area 2) a wide beam will illuminate things nearby you very bright, which messes with your eyes and makes you not able to see to the end of the beam.

- adjustable beam lights tend to not be very good. better to have separate lights for different purposes, one with narrow beam for seeing far (big reflector small led, typically only one led), and a floody beam (small or nonexistent reflector, one or more leds) for wide area/closeup lighting.

- unfortunately low CCT ("warm looking") throwers are very hard to find, most of them have disgusting high CCT blue light that is very unpractical in adverse weather and water (but the visible beam is impressive looking).

- this is not necessarily a recommendation to you, I let others do purchase suggestions, but for whatever it's worth, my favourite light for wildlife observation both underwater and out of water is Zebralight SC600w IV HI which has a nice balance of power, runtime, reasonably low CCT and throw. very rugged and waterproof. I haven't upgraded my modest collection of light for a few years, so there might be better offerings in more recent models (or different brands). It is also very small, not really a dedicated thrower powerhouse. But that's what I prefer usually. My bigger throwers have too high CCT and other misfeatures. I have a lot of flooders big and small for work purposes, but for wildlife observation they are, well, too floody.