Sorry, I got the price wrong on the FW3S, Neal is selling it for $115. Oops. My opinion regarding the value is mostly unchanged, that's a fair price, but I would just go for the FW3 at that point.
I’ve found that the LEP is mainly good for telling your buddies “hey check this out!” The LED is far superior for most daily use type tasks. That being said….I still kinda like the LEP. It’s just so much more fun.
As you pointed out: For delivery drivers looking for an address at night the LEP works well. Another use could be attached to a rifle with scope for night shooting. The scope would allow better definition at the longer range and the LEP provides the light in a limited area so not to scare game and other before the shot.
You hit the nail right on the head. LEP's are perfect night hunting tools, that's what I use mine for and have taken many coyotes and fox that would've been hard to do with LED lights.
Clearly explained comparison. For me LEP's are useless due to the tiny area of coverage. Yes, LEP reaches farther, but that's farther than my eyes can see without binoculars.
Depends on the LEP you chose. Mine is about 370 kcd, so that allows me to see far without binoculars and yet does not 'white-out' what I'm focusing it on at just several feet away, the more powerful LEP lights don't even allow you to see things that close because it has too much glare. For everyday use, the LED is the way to go but when hiking in the woods where I want to see far at times, I carry both. My Weltool W3 Pro LEP is small enough to carry easily along with my LED of choice.
Best lep use is as a rifle or pistol attatchment. Super far throw is great for powerful scopes. Say you have wild hogs tearing up a field or coyotes killing cattle. Itll help stop that from far away at night when theyre most active. Great for farmers where their livelyhood is at stake. Or where night hunting is permitted though night hunting is heavily regulated in most locations. Pest elimination is its best use.
Definitely if you have to do so on a budget, however thermal scopes would really shine there as they don’t emit light that would potentially scare away the pests you’re trying to hunt.
I wanted a LEP for the longest time. Yesterday I received my 1st LEP in mail yesterday. I got Fenix HT30R and I love it. Your right LEP are not for everybody but I already loved them before I even had 1. Everybody has a flashlight but very few have LEP's everywhere. I am a flashlight enthusiast and I love throwers. I'm a truck driver so I put all my flashlight to use also!
I have the Weltool W3 Pro LEP and it's a small light that can fit in my pocket easily. Without binoculars at 'far' distances, I can see things clearer than my best LED can do. As you mentioned though, it's a light I can't walk through the woods with to show me the way because there's no spill. For normal use, I carry the LED, but for when I want to see far and through the trees better, I carry both the LED and LEP.
Great comparison. Personally I think a LEP(like an LED with TIR lens) to a certain level is more a cool toy than a useful instrument. But yes: as you mention there are some occasions when the possibility to illuminate a specific object without making attention at the surroundings is desireable.
LEPs are toys and quasi-weapons. why do flashlight channels pretend they are recommending flashlights as tools? "flashlight enthusiasts" are men who buy flashlights as toys. LEPs are a freaking blast, sorry poors.
I consider it a tool as someone who has to patrol and check areas that are a mile or more in length to ensure security. Also for maritime usage - if a vessel has its transponder off and you need to identify it, 20x binos coupled with an LEP are tools that certainly do the trick. Also (overt) surveillance in general. Couple an LEP with something like a Nikon P1000 and you can literally spot, photograph, and identify something or someone a mile away. Pretty insane tools/capability! Not even to mention $5-$10k drones that can identify a thermal signature being 12 miles away from the operator!
LED is much better for all around use. But living in a colder climate, you don't always want to go outside, or even open a window and risk letting the cold air in. I've discovered that LEPs are much better when you need to shine light through glass, with an LEP you will see a hotspot on the glass with little to no glare, you can still clearly see what's on the other side of the glass. Shining an LED through glass (even a good thrower) you won't see anything but glare.
If your need is to see far with something you can carry in your pocket, you need a LEP. And when in a dense atmospheric environment (snow, fog, etc.), an LED becomes practically worthless but an LEP is nearly completely unaffected. When I use my MS18 in a heavy snowstorm/fog/pollution/rain, you can't see anything beyond a few feet. But my W4 Pro or any of my other throwers perform nominally. Specialized lights will serve specialized purposes that can't be met with a big box store light; usually related to either lumens or candela/throw. It depends entirely on use case and desire to meet the need. For those just starting out, the hybrids might be a good choice such as the Nitecore P35i. I don't have the Mateminco but this video makes a good case for it.
Excellent comparison! Perfectly and thoroughly equips me to know which to choose for what. Sometimes we get caught up in wanting the latest greatest tech for the brightest light possible, but it really matters what we are using it for. I was intrigued with laser, but I can see the LED is so much more practical for my use.
I can think of one situation when i want a lep. When en a boat at night and i want to illuminate a channel marker for example, without having to deal with spill light illuminating the boat and surrounding water.
I work as a Locomotive Engineer and love LEP's for a particular use quite a bit. (Niche) That is lighting up switch points to determine which side is gapped. Usually, a switch has a small gap to one side, indicating your direction of travel going over the switch. A regular or thrower light does not give the level of illumination at that smaller spot that is needed. Pulling a train or engine even at a slower speed takes a minute to get it stopped. Thus, knowing if you must stop and realign it is critical, especially if it's a trailing point switch. I'm usually using them between 50-250 Ft
This is incredibly niche but trainmen would love these flashlights, we often look down straight lengths of track a mile long and being able to just verify the track is clear could save a lot of night time walking.
Are LEPs superior in defeating photonic barrier? A use case would be trying to see inside a car cabin when the headlamps of the car are shining toward you.
This is very useful info. I've been casually interested in the LEP technology for the past couple years now since I first became aware of it I think through this channel, but have never seen or used it in person. I believe it is the perfect light source for what I need, which ironically is for inspection of many extremely large optics on the world's highest power laser used for inertial confinement nuclear fusion research. The problem is that the beams of the laser need to be spatially filtered, which involves focusing the terawatt beams down to a point a few micrometers in diameter in an enormous vacuum tube, but any spill from the inspection light scatters off the inner walls of the tube, making isolation and inspection of damage to the optics at the ends hard to see. So an LEP should be perfect here. Not niche at all.
As someone keenly interested in photonics and having read a fair bit about the National Ignition Facility, this is the coolest niche use I've come across
Definitely going to watch the video, but I think I can break down my thoughts as LED thrower with optics that don’t spill: great for spotting stuff without blinding or disrupting things outside the spot. LED thrower with spill: good for ranged spotting with peripheral awareness honestly, since getting an Olight Javelot Mini, I think a thrower with spill is the most useable light for environments where you already have street and ambient lighting to see by. You get a light that can help you spot at a distance, use in self defense, and still get extra light to see by at your feet. LEP: at the moment, most I’ve seen are too concentrated to be useful at “practical” ranges. They’re probably amazing for anybody who needs to spot at a distance, though. Honestly, if LEPs weren’t so focused, I think they could easily replace LEDs without spill as practical spot lights with long run times. Considering how few lumens they put out while still tossing light hundreds or thousands of meters away, LEPs offer the potential of designing a thrower that has the run time of a close range flooder with good heat sinking. I genuinely think that’s an attractive proposition. Imagine a 200 lumen spot that hits out to 300 or 400 meters, that lasts a continuous 3, 4, 5+ hours without stepping down, because the light doesn’t produce that much heat. You could have a compact, long range thrower flashlight that you could pair with a compact flood without worrying about running out of juice because the turbo on so many throwers lasts maybe 2 minutes, tops, then steps down. Onto the rest of the video.
I picked up an Acebeam Terminator M1, providing the best of both worlds! The ability to adjust focus on LEP is great, and of course the LED @3500 lumens for most use cases is great. I also love the fact that it can go as low as .5 lumens, which is fantastic. Worth a review if you can get one! Great video, love the channel! Subscribed!
This would be amazing with a scope. I have a really bright light on my rifle with a 1-6x LPVO, but at distances where I need to use the 6x, the beam becomes too faint and dispersed. This LEP would be absolutely amazing for long range illumination where I need more than 4x magnification. These are absolutely amazing lights for weapon systems. Pretty much the only real use I could think of. Perhaps self defense as well. I'm sure it would deter an attacker or at least allow you to make an escape. But the most useful purpose I could think of for this LEP would be a weapon light. And also only for stuff beyond medium ranges. Would be pretty useless for anything mid range or closer, but the hybrid ones would work better for multipurpose.
I asked a question about the "laser" on another of your videos, and you directed me here. Thanks for that - I didn't know about LEPs. I'm unlikely ever to buy one, because while that kind of throw might be fun to play with, I don't need it for walking the dog at night, and they are relatively expensive - but I am interested, and I have a couple of questions. 1. Are they dangerous? There was a news story in the UK a few years back where a helicopter had landed in a field behind somebody's house to pick up a medical emergency at night. The kids in the house were playing with a green laser and shone it at the helicopter - but they are powerful and dangerous to eyesight, so the heli had to leave, and I believe the patient died as a result of not being picked up. It strikes me that this could completely blind a driver - perhaps not permanently - but enouigh to cause a crash. Is there any legal regulation of LEPs? 2. Is the white light a 'pure' colour, or is it composed of other colours, like daylight is? If seen on a colour spectrum, is it a single wavelength, or does it spread, rainbow-like, across the spectrum? 3. Are the light waves all in phase-lock like in a true pure-colour laser? For example, can it be used to make holograms? From what you say, I gather that there is a laser in the flashlight, but its light is used internally to excite the phosphors that produce the beam. In the other video, you called them "lasers" - is that an inaccurate term, like "driveway", "tin foil", or "white chocolate"? You did a good video, by the way. I know something now that I had never encountered before. Thanks for posting it.
Glad the video was helpful! 1) There is debate about the safety of these lights, I don't believe any studies have been conducted. However because the white beam is essentially the same as an LED, it should not be more dangerous than a igh-intensity spotlight - it's never a good idea to shine a high-intensity light into someone's eyes obviously. It shouldn't be an issue beyond a close range though, the intensity is nowhere close to a laser pointer. There is no regulation around these lights, or any flashlights that I am aware of. 2) Again like other LEDs, the light does cover a wide spectrum, but falls off fast towards the red end, and has a strong spike in the blue when viewed on a spectrograph. LEPs in particular are very strongly green and have very little red content. All color besides the specific blue wavelength is produce by the flourescent phosphor. 3) Because the beam is producced by a flourescent source, the light is not coherent, and it cannot be truly considered a laser beam. It is an inaccurate term, but because the beam is generated using a real laser, it is important to distinguish it from standard LED-produced beam. (Technically, the laser diode is also a "light-emitting diode", the only difference between those two devices has to do with the optics that generate the light, not the actual electronics. The most correct term is simply LEP light)
@@ethan-lumencraft- Wow! That's a much fuller response than I was expecting. It gives me a new insight into the subject - as it will for all others who read your description. Thank you.
I can't but compare all todays flashlights to the ones from my youth. Those have come such a long way in 25 years - I bet you'd either have gotten a military contract or been burned as a witch if you had one of those back then. I bought a small, palm sized LED flashlight with a 14500 cell a while ago (~300lm), it is brighter than the Maglite that uses two D-cells(100lm!!)....30000lm is insane!
What are your thoughts on headlights as a use purpose? I feel like when the technology gets better, maybe they can figure out the area illumination issue. But realistically speaking, isn't the biggest downfall of LED headlights the fact that they have very weak throw?
Great comparison, a few notes. LEP is great for perimeter watch/reconning LARGE acreage plots of land from distance. Also great for hunting/tracking, identifying targets more accurately/discreetly than floodier lights. Tactically the LEP > LED. One more note, the LEP version has the flood option as well, why didn't you highlight that 🤔 Cheers
For throwing, Laser is way better. Try to use my AcebeamK75 in a forrest at turbo, you wont see far away, the glare from the closest trees will blind you. Same in any environement that has anything built at close range. LEP is way narrow and wont have this problem.
I’m not sure you’re comparing LEP versus LED as much as you are Candela. As you said, the optics could change that LEP light to be similar to the LED you demonstrated. I use an LEP 70k candela light at 100 yds when practicing night time target practice, as it focuses better on just the target. In this situation, I don’t need much peripheral light. It stays cooler than the LED and am confident that as technology developed will bring more value. Also it can have benefits in an adversarial situation such as a someone breaking in your home where you can use the intense light to disorient the intruder. I have been in pitch dark rooms and then you turn on a bright flashlight with a large spread of light, if tuning this on an intruder it will most likely disorient them, but possibly you as well. With a tighter focus light, this is less likely to be the case. Of course with either light, the proper lumen output light should be used for thr scenario. That’s why I use a 200 lumen 70k candela light for my bedroom. That’s not to say that you couldn’t do that with any other flashlight, but with a very intense light, it may take longer for them to get their visual acuity back, and then you can move to another position reducing need to use a firearm. All this to say that in most cases, the LED light that you had is probably more practical, each light serves its own purpose. I’m confident that they will start producing LEP lights to compete with LEDs of current market.
Lep flashlight is alot more dangerous than led specially when it lens is removed because due to the high concentrated beam can blind you and can also set things on fire
That’s why I love my lumintop antman. It’s an average size 14500 light that gets about 600m throw it’s a really pocket friendly thrower and I always have my rovyvon s3 on me too
my cousin once had this awesome small led flashlight it was knurled aluminium body i think he got from costo because you can adjust it telescopically from flood to a pretty decent tight beam as the head had a sliding motion back n forth to make the adjustment
For my use case, during the day, led flashlights are nearly useless. Anything under 300k cd is invisible. When looking inside cars to check them for things, i meed the penetration through windows, and bright enough interior to bounce back out of the car. Also, LEP alow very long runtime for distance. If you are outside for a few days, that efficiency is important. An led headlamp on low mode, and then an LEP for checking the horizon and clearing for eyes and creatures, as well as emergency signaling with extreme range. A good pointer that can "thread the needle " and penetrate trees or look around at night close to buildings without hitting peoples eyes, and whatnot. Defense. As a medium between using bullets or illegal eye damage, id rather use a flashlight than a gun. If it stops someone at range from further conflict, great. If it doesn't, they will be well illuminated for shooting (in defense of course). I'm willing to argue in case of eye damage that the person on my property etc. Was a lethal threat and was stopped wirhout using a gun via eye damage, rather than just popping off shots at something I can't see well especially from a distance in the dark.
too bad for the price they do not use quality aspheric lenses from the look of the beam i can see it has chromatic aberration where the white light going through the lens is diffracting the spectrum and this reduces its throw or the quality of collimation (ie tighter beam)
The LEP is clearly just for fun i have the fenix ht30 i haven't found enough open space yet to let that stretch its legs i take my fenix pd 40 with me on my walks at night and the ht just for fun
These good LEPs go through tinted windows like they're not even there. So if a shady looking SUV pulls up at night with blacked out windows, in about two seconds the people inside can be lit up like a zoo exhibit.
The credibility of your "Best" lists is kind of non-existent when they all come from one store. I found the wait times for lights to be over 3 months at NG. Your reviews are still very good, thorough and objective.
Thanks for the feedback, I haven't actually looked at that list myself, the decription and links are autmatically populated on video upload. We may have to go through and update some links, since some recommendations are pretty old now.
@@BariumCobaltNitrog3n We've finally gone through and updated the list, and fixed some old broken links. All of the lights there are ones we have tested and recommend ourselves most are affiliate links and have coupon codes as well.
Thor 1 or ant man for home inspection where you need to highlight something in an attic or basement for a hone buyer/owner. I like how small they are and they are like a laser pointer but show them what i am discussing
Could lep be used in an at sea rescue. For the person in the water? What spectrum of light can an lep be seen in? A light beacon that shoots 2 miles in the sky.
I’ve had a 5w blue laser for a couple years and always noticed how well it can excite phosphor in an LED chip. Today I just learned there are now laser excited phosphorus flash lights… is that also what they do in “laser” car headlights?
@@ethan-lumencraft- well that's kind of dumb since this laser stuff puts out significantly less light per watt, and the purpose of a headlight is to light up the road rather than just the face of another driver coming towards you...
@@chengong388 I believe the idea is that the headlights have an array of LEPs, which can be selectively cancelled to prevent light shining into another driver's face. It's really interesting tech
And that's why I've perfected a custom clip inside the bezel diffuser which i use on my fw2 and i get to have both worlds and plus this smaller head diameter LEP is actually edc-able and fit's into any pocket. 90% of the time I'll use it as flooder but i always have available those 1300m of throw at any given moment easily.
@@RustyShakleford1 It's aluminium like the entire body. Now i edc the Lumintop Ant-man titanium LEP, much smaller still throws over 900m and I've also made a clip on diffuser for it
Great vid. One great thing I noticed with the LEP is, you can see beyond that nearest big tree really good, but the LED illuminates the whole tree and drowns out whatever is behind and beyond the tree.
@@Auziuwu I actually noticed it 2or3 years ago, as soon as I received my first LEP. We've got 2 large Willow Oaks about 80ft behind our house and the glare from my LED flashlights off both trees, made it virtually impossible to clearly see what's going on in pasture and at the barn, without either walking past them or way off to the side. At the time I had been debating on trimming more branches off both of them, even though they were trimmed high enough and didn't block my view in the daytime. A day or two later, I had just received the new LEP. I was trying it out on my deck and quickly realized that I could see the barn and the pasture really good. So now since I have a few LEP's, I keep my Thor 3 on a hook by my back door.
Good points but i can tell you without a doubt for my long range precision rifles for hunting at night if you would see what my Weltool W3 Pro Tac lite looks like through my March Optics scope at a distance of 600 yards I can tell you it will blow any LED thrower out of the water without a doubt. I have many high end LED lites in my stash and believe me....for that application, I wont even think twice. Another point....There is high end LEP's and there is trash just saying. Thanks for sharing your great video and good points.
I live at the edge of a forest and walk there with my two poodles 4 times a day, the last one at ~10...11 pm. I had numerous encounters with aggressive dogs on the loose, coyotes, bears and creatures which moved very fast - like big cats, and each time it was quite unnerving. I've heard confusing reports on using military-grade flashlights as a safe & legal alternative to 'bear-bangers". Could anyone spill more light on the potential of using LEP to stop wildlife attacks without harming anyone?
Another LEP use: check out the L-5 imaging channel for some good shots, but a lot of guys in Search and Rescue (or for hunting, etc.) use these with an optic of some sort, as you mentioned. LEPs/hybrids make a lot of sense with a long range monocular or something out West in wide plains/mountains where vegetation doesn't get in the way, or off the coast from a boat or something. Personally it's 90% woods where I am, so I also prefer LEDs myself. My L19 2.0 is about as throw as I can use, it's such a beast lol.
LEP would be ideal for mounting on a gun to give you a wicked kill zone blinding you target. You guys are pretty nuts on gun so just thought to mention it might help with some sepos next urban hunting expedition . LMFAO
No idea, but I've wondered if an LEP would be good for a hiker as an emergency beacon. I imagine if you're stuck on a mountain / injured and can throw an SOS 2.5 miles into a town nearby where you see activity - that might be useful. Or maybe just illuminate a cloud or something.. Dunno.
I wonder if LEPs could add some kind of diffuser along the edge of the lens to give some spill... but then the lumens are so low it doesn't help much... I guess a hybrid mix makes sense.
Would be cool if someone made a light that had two heads - - One LED head with 1500-2500 lumen and a hotspot of 30-50k candela - One LEP head with 500-900 lumen and a 2.5-4 degree 500k-1M candela. That would be a beast.
That's a good question, I don't know exactly why, but generally speaking more intense emitters have a smaller surface area, which means they are less bright. It's likely that these manufactuers are using small emitters for higher intensity instead of prioritizing output,
I mean you have to wonder when the light wouldn’t even be useful anymore. Some of the best scopes ($3k+) only go out to 50x magnification, which makes a target at 3.1 miles appear as if it’s 100 meters (length of a straightaway on a track) from your naked eye without a scope. If you’re making shots from that far away you probably won’t be running any form of light on your rifle! And for general spotting, well, stability certainly is an issue at those distances.
A well-constructed hybrid would make for a great weapon light if mounted vertically in line with the gun’s bore (as is typical for pistols, even more ideal for tactical shotguns): the laser would act as a bull-dot laser sight illuminating the specific target area.
