Light testing - the results

[Zipperhead]

One thing that I missed was that I had left the cameras colour temperature on auto (because it makes such a good job of all my other pictures that I'm not going to screw with it).

It would have been interesting to set it to a fixed value to get a better comparison of colour - but I don't know if that would make much difference in the real world.

If you took RAW that wouldn't matter.

Good thinking. I took raw+jpeg for all of them. I'll have a look tonight and see if it makes much difference.

[Jurek]

Excellent work - and I know it would've been work to collate and present all that information into a valuable resource such as this.
Well done to all involved, and thanks. 

[Tom B]

Thorough and methodical work  -  most impressive!
Many thanks 

[Jules]

Fantastic piece of work.  Thanks  to you all

IQ Cyo for me I  think.

[PrettyBoyTim]

I'm very impressed - and excellent job, all of you!

And special thanks to Charlotte for getting it all organised and providing the energy for the dynamo-powerd lights... 

[DrMekon]

Fantastic piece of work.  Thanks  to you all

IQ Cyo for me I  think.

Is that a bakfiets in your profile pic? My Cyo is on my bakfiets, and it's a 60 lux. If you were worried that you'd miss the 40 lux nearfield thing, don't. With the combo of the low mounting position and the box, I don't get any sense of things disappearing from view as my front wheel approaches.

HTH

[delthebike]

I'm sure the testing went well but I can't get by the first picture at the moment. 

[clarion]

Yes - I feel that will be a perennial...

I'm not surprised by the result for the Smart.  It's a damn bright light for the unit.  Top marks for that, but the suddenness of the edge means that you will miss peripheral stuff because of the contrast.  So the value of the bright centre circle is compromised.

[Chris S]

Tremendous piece of work. Well done Zipperhead, Charlotte and everyone involved. Glass of milk and a digestive for all  .

Not sure why one of the Cyo pics is completely dark - did I miss something somewhere?

That Lupine is just nuts!

[delthebike]

Not sure why one of the Cyo pics is completely dark - did I miss something somewhere?

Shutter speed would be my guess. 1/10^th second and the others seem to be over half a second.

[Chris S]

Not sure why one of the Cyo pics is completely dark - did I miss something somewhere?

Shutter speed would be my guess. 1/10^th second and the others seem to be over half a second.

Ah yes - thanks. So, I did miss something  .

[David Martin]

Yes - I feel that will be a perennial...

I'm not surprised by the result for the Smart.  It's a damn bright light for the unit.  Top marks for that, but the suddenness of the edge means that you will miss peripheral stuff because of the contrast.  So the value of the bright centre circle is compromised.

I used to have one of those. Very nice light indeed. The centre spot is very bright, but there is some fairly even spill off from the sides (as seen). What you end up with is a light where stuff 20m away is visible, then at 10m the pothole disappears, then reappears at 2m. Perfectly usable and probably my favourite light set as I much prefer the colour of halogens.

As has been said, setting th ecamera on RAW should allow direct comparison of the colours. The colour temperature will be an arbitrary approximation as they are not complete spectrums. Processing in PS with a fixed colour temp will allow them to be compared directly.

For ease of comparison, is there a standard reference lamp or do I have to find the identical lens and target material (I think I have the same camera body - D80?)

Which light meter did you use? I have an old weston Mk III kicking about so could measure EV for the AyUps pretty easily (as my Seecrit Bunker is longer than Charlottes - oo aah missus).

..d

..d

[Zipperhead]

For ease of comparison, is there a standard reference lamp or do I have to find the identical lens and target material (I think I have the same camera body - D80?)

Which light meter did you use? I have an old weston Mk III kicking about so could measure EV for the AyUps pretty easily (as my Seecrit Bunker is longer than Charlottes - oo aah missus).

Yup, D80 with 18-135 (I think).

My light meter is a Minolta Autometer III.

[David Martin]

For ease of comparison, is there a standard reference lamp or do I have to find the identical lens and target material (I think I have the same camera body - D80?)

Which light meter did you use? I have an old weston Mk III kicking about so could measure EV for the AyUps pretty easily (as my Seecrit Bunker is longer than Charlottes - oo aah missus).

Yup, D80 with 18-135 (I think).

My light meter is a Minolta Autometer III.

OK, I'll see what I can do. 5m from target, light readings at beam centre and 1m to the side. What was the target?

..d

[LEE]

Seems that for us dynamo-heads the B&M Cyo gives the best Bang for your Buck currently.

Supernova E3 looks like a 'turbo-charged' Solidlights and is likely to be even more dazzling to oncoming vehicles (Solidlights throw light everywhere, a nice but wasteful use of the light)

The Schmidt Edelux is, I hear (and the photos seem to confirm) , a Cyo in a better quality case.

I paid about £140 for Solidlights a couple of years ago.  The Cyo is £70.  I expect to see many Cyos on 2009 Audaxes.

Now then, about wiring 2 Cyos together...

[Charlotte]

OK, I'll see what I can do. 5m from target, light readings at beam centre and 1m to the side. What was the target?

This:



Blown up to 2m x 2m 

[Noodley]

I have no idea what any of this means, but it looks fairly impressive nonetheless. 

[vorsprung]

I have no idea what any of this means, but it looks fairly impressive nonetheless. 

what it means

1) None of the "new" LED lights tested- and most of the ones of interest are included- are quite as bright as a really expensive lupine betty halide
2) The Cyo (fairly cheap generator powered light) is surprisingly good
3) Lights "new" in the last 6 months are better (just look at the photos) than lights "new" a year ago

[Charlotte]

What that in itself also means is that we have a variation on Moore's Law:

The output of bicycle lighting systems will double in power every two years.

[Jaded]

Good thinking. I took raw+jpeg for all of them. I'll have a look tonight and see if it makes much difference.

Good call.

Excellent work all, btw! 

[Ian H]

Now then, about wiring 2 Cyos together...

I've done this with Inoleds, in parallel off a Schmidt. The result is twice as bright, with no noticeable extra drag, nor any increase in speed before the lights 'fire'. They have both to be the exact same model for this to work.

Was there any attempt to test the rolling resistance of different lights? Did any feel noticeably different?

[Sergeant Pluck]

Thanks for all the time you've spent on that Zipperhead!

Among the battery lights the Dinotte 600L doesn't do too badly - I'm going to discount the Smart as the light is too centralised.

I was very impressed by the better dynamo lights.

[Charlotte]

Was there any attempt to test the rolling resistance of different lights? Did any feel noticeably different?

No. 

Of all the hub dynamo lights I've ridden with, I've never been able to discern a drag with anything other than twin E6s up a hill.

Maybe the next test should involve a load test.  Complicated, though...

[PhilO]

I have no idea what any of this means, but it looks fairly impressive nonetheless. 

what it means

1) None of the "new" LED lights tested- and most of the ones of interest are included- are quite as bright as a really expensive lupine betty halide
2) The Cyo (fairly cheap generator powered light) is surprisingly good
3) Lights "new" in the last 6 months are better (just look at the photos) than lights "new" a year ago

Except that the Lupine Betty 6 is a '"new" LED light', not a halide... 
7 off P4s, to be precise. 

Excellent work, all! It's got me wondering how my home-brew lights would compare.

[David Martin]

OK, I'll see what I can do. 5m from target, light readings at beam centre and 1m to the side. What was the target?

This:



Blown up to 2m x 2m 

OK.. I can probably borrow a digital projector for that to save on paper.

























*waits*

..d