Whilst trawling through my immense collection of random spare bits I came across my old fashioned filament bulb front light. Last I can recall using this was about 6 years ago when I was commuting to school via the WoL path and canal. In fact this was back before the towpath even had it's paved surface. In the depths of winter I'd be riding in twilight - it was never totally pitch black but when overcast and wet it wasn't far off. This was also before I knew of the joys of full mudguards, or slick tyres, or had anything like my current knowledge of maintenance, with the result that even with a 15 min commute I still destroyed bikes and components very rapidly. Best moment was when a neighbor donated a bright yellow womans hybrid thing, that I quickly painted white, which then resulted in people thinking I'd stole it - didn't bother me for too long as one day just as I reached school the back wheel bearings completely seized in an instant. One minute rolling fine, the next the axle was grinding away the dropouts....emergency thread drift protocols activate! Back on topic!!
....Yes, the light. Here it is pictured next to my workhorse commuter light and my retina burner Cree XML T6 light. The workhorse light is the LED from a 3-watt Raleigh RX 1.0 light, the driver and battery holder from an unbranded light of similar construction, plus the body from yet another light. The reason for this hodgepodge is worthy of a thread in itself; trying to get standardised mounts across 4 bikes, 3 lights and a helmet is a nightmare but I pulled it off.
It used to run on standard NiMh cells that were never up to much; the self discharge was a pain by itself, never mind the effect of cold. Workhorse light runs on Sanyo Eneloops - the much improved low self discharge NiMh cells, the Cree runs from a Li-ion pack. Here the CatEye is on some random C cells I borrowed from a nearby radio.
So, how does the old stalwart light perform by today's standards?
For the following 3 photos I used a fixed manual exposure, all 1 second at F8 and ISO 200, this chosen to expose the Cateye about as bright as it looks in a dark room. I have slightly altered the brightness further in photoshop as well.
Step forward Mr Cateye:
Workhorse light; do your best:
The XML T6 has now been surpassed by a new version but I think it will still deliver. I had to have the light on its side hence the beam being sideways because of the diffuser lens:
Now, let's look down the photon-barrels. Funny thing about this exposure is it's the absolute lowest my camera can go; the shutter was only open for 1/4000s, the aperture was as small as possible, plus I still had to dim it in photoshop - this is the smallest amount of light that can be captured by the camera:
It looks like the venerable cateye is barely on because that's genuinely how little light it's producing in comparison.
So I think I'll put filament bulbs in with floppy disks as things I'm extremely glad to see the back of.
I might just bring the old Cateye to the 'I like big Lux and I cannot lie' evening planned for this Tuesday.
Coming tomorrow: Beam comparison shots in a location slightly more interesting than part of my bedroom.
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