[JZC730]

I am currently trying to find a nice light to find swirls in my E90 335i.

I used to go fishing in the night using this brinkmann on the URL below.

http://www.amazon.com/Brinkmann-800-...8696600&sr=8-8

Will this have too much lumens (2900) to find swirls? It also can get very warm... It gives out a yellow light but includes red, blue, and orange lense filters.

Any advice would be nice.

[Envious Eric]

you want something that puts off like close to the color index around 4700....thats not lumens by the way

but at the same time, you can have too much light and it drowns out the swirls (reflection of light as it bounces around inside the scratch (basically what a swirl mark is...a tiny scratch)

I had a 80 lumen that worked pretty well, then I jumped up to a 120 and it worked better (showed more deeper defects), and that just took a dump on me so now I am looking into the surefire line of lights...little more pricey, but durable!

[JZC730]

Originally Posted by Envious Eric

you want something that puts off like close to the color index around 4700....thats not lumens by the way

but at the same time, you can have too much light and it drowns out the swirls (reflection of light as it bounces around inside the scratch (basically what a swirl mark is...a tiny scratch)

I had a 80 lumen that worked pretty well, then I jumped up to a 120 and it worked better (showed more deeper defects), and that just took a dump on me so now I am looking into the surefire line of lights...little more pricey, but durable!

Do you really need a 100-300 dollar tactical light to find swirls ?

I guess my brinkmann is no go?

[Envious Eric]

I keep breaking the other $30-40 ones I have been buying, figure that if I break the surefire, its got a warranty!

try out the brinkman since you already have it...see for yourself

[TOGWT]

Reference: Lighting Source-Sunlight, Colour Temperature – 5000 – 6500.0K, Optical Colour- Blue/White, Colour rendering index (CRI) 90 - 99 %

Lumen (luminous flux) - is a measure of the power of light perceived by the human eye (A 23 watt compact fluorescent lamp emits about 1500–1600 lumen (lm).

An inspection lamp with a CPI of 90%+ would be ideal.

3M™ PPS™ SUN GUN™ Colour Matching Light - the Kelvin rating on the bulb is 4700.0 K Kelvin .The Lux (light intensity) rating standard mode - 1416.7, high intensity mode - 2968.8 and can be used throughout the refinish process, the percentage of light vs. natural day light is CRI (Colour Rendering Index) = 99.35%

The Brinkmann 800-2660-1 Q-Beam is rated at 2900-Lumens

[Detailers Domain]

the Fenix TK11 would be a good light
the Brinkmann are inexpensive and do a good job

[Detailed Image]

Here is an awesome article from Marc Harris of Auto Lavish who provides a tremendous amount of information about each of the Brinkmann spot lights we carry. This should answer a lot of your questions - Using Handheld Lights for Paint Inspection: Brinkmann LED vs. Xenon.