BLF GT94 vs HID. LED has surpassed HID in my opinion.

[richbuff]

Re: BLF GT94 vs HID. LED has finallly surpassed HID in my opinion.

I presume that the original post, and most posts in this topic thread after that, pertain to GT94 with (lightish-mediumish) orange peel reflector, because most all of the people who posted about receiving this light about five weeks ago reported theirs having OP reflectors.

This just in: The second sample of BLF GT94 that I ordered on October 31 just came in, it has a Smooth reflector.

I have to wait six more hours for the dawn of the new flashlight day, to see if there is any visible difference of the amount of light on a medium size target 750 meters away. My guess now is that there will be no subjective difference in beam profile/beam performance to my eyes, one reason being that my first one with OP is more like a light-medium op reflector.

However, if most all of the posts in this topic thread pertain to GT94 with light-ish OP reflector, I want to make note here, that the Smooth reflector batch has materialized, which may possibly result in different throw spec measurements.

 

[Magio]

I presume that the original post, and most posts in this topic thread after that, pertain to GT94 with (lightish-mediumish) orange peel reflector, because most all of the people who posted about receiving this light about five weeks ago reported theirs having OP reflectors.

This just in: The second sample of BLF GT94 that I ordered on October 31 just came in, it has a Smooth reflector.

I have to wait six more hours for the dawn of the new flashlight day, to see if there is any visible difference of the amount of light on a medium size target 750 meters away. My guess now is that there will be no subjective difference in beam profile/beam performance to my eyes, one reason being that my first one with OP is more like a light-medium op reflector.

However, if most all of the posts in this topic thread pertain to GT94 with light-ish OP reflector, I want to make note here, that the Smooth reflector batch has materialized, which may possibly result in different throw spec measurements.

Nice! Do you have a lux meter where you can get some measurements? And yes mine does have an OP reflector.

 

[richbuff]

Nice! Do you have a lux meter where you can get some measurements? And yes mine does have an OP reflector.

I don't have a lux meter, I just don't have enough experience to be skilled at using it properly. It was reported someplace else on the internet that installing the smooth reflector in the GT94 results in 13% more lux.
There is a very small visual difference between the orange peel GT94 versus the smooth reflector GT94 in side by side comparison with target at 750 meters. The main cellular tower is just a little bit clearer, crisper and brighter with the smooth reflector, with both battery carriers reading 16.70 volts with digital multitester. For the longer ranges of this light, the smooth reflector is better. At shorter ranges, the orange peel reflector is ok.
On short range wall, the orange peel reflector has smoother beam transitions.
I recorded GoPro video of the long range comparison, and in playback of the video, no difference can be seen. The same with snapshots.

 

[Bush Rat]

I agree 100% for us civilians and even basic search & rescue LED has indeed surpassed HID. Saw I video of the MF05 LED out throwing or close to it the LX70 with big head. :laughing: And those warm up times don't help...

The problem is HID is stuck at a ridiculous antiquated 75watts and now only available to the rich, we should be up to the 200watts HID now, that I could see spending 4000 on, until then HID imo is dead as road kill. From all the posts here it seems that kind of power is impossible for a streamlined package so that to me makes LEDs high heat look good on paper. They update so fast thanks to the low cost if your 50,000hr LEDS reach 80% output in just 500, who cares?

LED is also so streamlined given how china makes such good stuff affordable, HID is a turn off completely with proprietary battery packs too.

My hope is LED will throw as far as the Maxabeam but give 10x the lumens.

 

[Magio]

They update so fast thanks to the low cost if your 50,000hr LEDS reach 80% output in just 500, who cares?

Thats a really good point. Running these LEDs at high power setting I'm sure does decrease their lifespan but by how much? If I recall correctly the SBT90.2 is rated at 60000hrs. If the heat decreases its lifespan by 90% that's still 6000 hours or 3X the lifespan of HID.

Also your point about cost is a good one. You can always build something for an insane amount of money and then claim it beats everything else, but who can afford it? I would say a light that cost $500 and has nearly the same performance as a $4000 light has a huge advantage. So even if the cheap light over heats and destroys itself after 6000 hours you can buy 8 of them for the cost of the one $4000 lol.

 

[marinemaster]

Honda Civic and Nürburgring in the same sentence.. HA HA HA...ROFL

 

[ateupwithgolf]

Honda Civic and Nürburgring in the same sentence.. HA HA HA...ROFL

Type R owner here
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/...-r-smashes-nurburgring-front-drive-lap-record

 

[marinemaster]

Thats "front wheel drive" not to be confused with a proper rear drive sports car.