2015 Lights Shootout


A picture is worth a thousand words right? And with bike lights, beam pattern photos tell a very good story. We've mastered the art of photographing bike lights by using a fully manual camera and photographing in a controlled, duplicatable setting.

Much care is taken to ensure that each light is fully charged, set to the highest setting, set at the right height, three feet off the ground and aimed at the same spot.

One can really see difference in beam size and width. The bike in the middle is set at about 25 yards and can show far the light can throw. The width, consistency and color of the beam are key information that can be learned from these photos as well.

The camera settings we used are the following:

  • Camera: Olympus OM-D
  • Setting: Full manual
  • ISO: 200
  • Exposure: 1.6 seconds
  • Aperture: F4.0
  • Focus: Manual
  • White Balance: Daylight
  • Quality: Jpeg High

Click on the backyard beam pattern photos below to enlarge.


This article is part of Mtbr and RoadBikeReview's 2015 Lights Shootout. To see all the bike lights tested CLICK HERE.