Swirl Finder flashlights

Calendyr

Calendyr

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Hello everyone,

I am trying to find some specs for Swirlfinder flashlights and despite my best efforts I just can't find any.

Can someone give me the light output in either Lumen, Watts or candlepower for the common swirlfinder lights like the Brinkmann's Dual Xenon and Brinkmann's dual LED?

Right now the only of the 2 that seems available is the dual LED but I am very skeptical about an LED flashlight being able to provide enough light to find swirls during the day.

Do any of you use the 1 million or 2 million candlelight spotlights to find swirls? If so does it work well?
 
I have both the Xenon and LED Brinkman flashlights and don't use them nearly as much as my Fenix HP11 LED headlamp. The Fenix HP11 has an output of 277 Lumens and has 4 levels of brightness. I use the 133 and 277 lumen modes for paint corrections.
 
I use the Stanley light, 567 lumens.
Works great for $20.00 and is rechargeable.

Never thought about using my phone flashlight app.
 
tuff max uses cree bulbs....top of the line..300 Lumens

dual xenon...not sure of light output...but too much messing around with rechargable battery and finicky bulbs...kinda like halogen..cant touch the bulb etc.

Led is cool too..not like the xenon will heat the paint, but led is very low heat output.
 
CriticalDetails said:
I have both the Xenon and LED Brinkman flashlights and don't use them nearly as much as my Fenix HP11 LED headlamp. The Fenix HP11 has an output of 277 Lumens and has 4 levels of brightness. I use the 133 and 277 lumen modes for paint corrections.
Click to expand...

I never thought to use a headlamp. Would never have to worry about working in crap light conditions and probably waaaaaay easier to follow your progress while you work.
 
primo spaghetti said:
tuff max uses cree bulbs....top of the line..300 Lumens

dual xenon...not sure of light output...but too much messing around with rechargable battery and finicky bulbs...kinda like halogen..cant touch the bulb etc.

Led is cool too..not like the xenon will heat the paint, but led is very low heat output.
Click to expand...

You can touch the bulb, you just can't leave any greasy residue on it. If you wear gloves that are clean there is no problem. The reason you can't touch halogen (and maybe Xenon, not sure) bulbs is that the oïl from your hand will break down the bulb and when you eat it up by turning it on the bulb will fracture. So as I said, glove and no problem.

I don't see a problem with putting a tiny bit of eat on the paint for a few seconds to see if there are swirls present. The sun is far hotter and the paint survives just fine ;)
 
When you guys talk about the iPhone light, I am assuming you are talking about the LED at the back of the phone.

Is it enough in daylight to find swirls? Or are you talking about using it in low light condition?
 
HateSwirls said:
I use the Stanley light, 567 lumens.
Works great for $20.00 and is rechargeable.

Never thought about using my phone flashlight app.
Click to expand...

I will have to look into that. That is almost twice the power of the brinkmann's LED light. I assume that can be purchased at home depot or similar stores?
 
I have run the light made by Armytek. They make outstanding products and have a great reputation. I purchased Armytek Predator 670 lumens and happy that this light met all my needs. Variety of modes attracts me because I can choose any mode I need (for home, walking, my car). It's multifunctional light.
 
Is it the no. of lumens that matters? I see all these 1000+ lumens battery powered LED flashlights that are very inexpensive. Do they work for swirls?
 
If memory serves me right, I believe that anything above 500 lumens fall under the heading of "Weapon Light". They are considered weapons because they will cause temporary blindness (and sometime permanent damage to the retina). Please use great care with those lights

I would say that for a handheld or head mounted lamp that anything above 300 lumens is an overkill as it will flood your work area. If you are working with mounted LEDs (on a tripod) then you will want high lumen to make it an effective illuminating light source, but if you want something close to appreciate light defects then I would recommend 200-300 at the max...... AND a light source that can be dimmed. The Brinkmann has 1 bulb vs. 2 bulb (not exactly dimmable but works well, but my headlamp has a variable dimming setting from 4-200 lumens at the push of a button. Depending on the paint color, the state of the clear, the reflection of the pearl or flake in the paint I can infinitely adjust my headlamp to see what I want to see.
 
Dr_Pain said:
If memory serves me right, I believe that anything above 500 lumens fall under the heading of "Weapon Light". They are considered weapons because they will cause temporary blindness (and sometime permanent damage to the retina). Please use great care with those lights

I would say that for a handheld or head mounted lamp that anything above 300 lumens is an overkill as it will flood your work area. If you are working with mounted LEDs (on a tripod) then you will want high lumen to make it an effective illuminating light source, but if you want something close to appreciate light defects then I would recommend 200-300 at the max...... AND a light source that can be dimmed. The Brinkmann has 1 bulb vs. 2 bulb (not exactly dimmable but works well, but my headlamp has a variable dimming setting from 4-200 lumens at the push of a button. Depending on the paint color, the state of the clear, the reflection of the pearl or flake in the paint I can infinitely adjust my headlamp to see what I want to see.
Click to expand...

So you're saying more is not necessarily better. I'm just not sure what to get to check for progress on my white (pearl) car and no garage.
 
Looking at swirls and scratches etc... is all about the contrast of the reflected surface. What you are trying to get (off the reflected surface) is a contrasting reflection off of the edge of the defect. If the light source is too intense, the reflection off the panel will make your iris (in your eye) contract to the point where the acuity of your vision will be impaired. Your eye will not be able to detect the subtleties of the defects (effective blindness)

Bigger is not always better!! As I mentioned in my previous post, if you are working with a light source far from the panel then you will have to raise the lumens to what become "effective lighting intensity", but if you bring that high lumen light source too close to the panel, you will overload your eye.

In my experience 200-300 lumens in a range of 6" to 2 feet is more than enough. Having a dimmable light source becomes important so that you don't constantly have to stop and move the light source back and forth as you are trying to work. Your work distance will be changed if you are laying on your back, standing or sitting on a stool working, so having the ability to adjust your light intensity to a certain work distance before you start the panel and work with the light through the correction becomes a major positive.

The above statement is if you have a headlamp but if you choose to use a post-correction evaluation using the Brinkmann you will have to play with the distance to find the best illumination. If you look at the instructions on how to use the Brinkmann they advise keeping the light source around 1 foot from the panel (not to create the effective blinding effect I have been talking about), but this distance will change depending on the base color, the type of clear, the defects you are looking at etc......

On a pearl with no garage.... use the sun! Have a pop-up canopy so you can work in the shade and use the sun to your advantage. Please note that if you are working in the middle of the day and it is overcast (and can't use the sun) that the filtered sun will create the same effective blindness, so I would wait till later in the day and use an hand held or headlamp light source. Your light source on a sunny overcast day won't counteract the lost acuity from the pupil constriction.
 
^^^
thanks for all the great info. The sun and polarized sunglasses seem to be about the best I've been able to use so far.
 
I tried a few LED lights without much success, halogen works really good for me.
 
I use the Coast HP 550 1000 lumen single LED flashlight and the Brinkmann Tuff Max Dual LED. The Coast light really is nice.
 
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