It used to be 6s but when XM-L showed up, people decided to do 4s, because photos were way overexposed with 6s setting with multiple emitter setup. And WB set to daylight. So I'd stick to 4s.
I've always thought that there was one missing parameter for these test shot settings ....... lens focal length (35mm equivalent for consistency), which I think is hardly ever or never mentioned?
If everyone uses different focal lengths for their test shots, a wide angle setting can make a medium width beam look like a spot, and a telephoto setting make a good thrower look like a medium width beam etc. I have my suspicions that some commercial companies use such effects to "enhance" their product claims!
Of course all this is often dependent on the background scene used in the test shots ...... it's sometimes hard to be sure how much "forest" you are seeing in those popular "out-in-the-woods" shots. To be fair to many on here, Troutie and others seem to take great care in using a consistent scene, so at least you can make relative comparisons between different lights.
Test shots with metre rules or metre marks and a stated distance to a wall/ceiling does help if you like doing the calculations
Maybe it's time to add a preferred focal length to the settings?
I don't find wide angle shots to skew the beam pattern much. You can tell from the image how wide the photo is and can pretty accurately tell if its spotty or flood. The issue with focal lengths would be depth perception.
A longer lens will make distances seem closer together than a wider lens. This will distort the throw (or distance) of the illumination. Generally, you would want to stay closer to a "normal" lens which is similar to your eyesight. Full frame camera's (35mm) would be around 50mm. Crop camera's similar to my Canon XSi with a 1.6 sensor is ~30mm.
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