MG PLI MC-E *review + beamshots*

I was lucky enough to get a MG pli mc-e! (pre-release, from Shiningbeam)

(I'd been checking daily, waiting on the MC-E l-mini and missed it b/c I presenting at a conference. Brain was sympathetic at hooking me up with the mc-e MG PLI). It is adjustable see subsequent posts re: adjustment

Packaged included clicky (presumably forward), lanyard, boot caps, o-rings, belt holster. Totally decent set of accessories.

The pli is heavy. The battery tube is square, so 4 flat surfaces, one inscribed 'MG Brighten your world,' the other with a small + and a small - at opposite ends. There is an aggressive strike bezel, edges properly ground and rounded so it won't cut the holster.
Double o-ring seals, very nice. The fit is excellent, the o-rings set such that the caps slides into place - this is important as the tail-cap spring is very prominent (presumably to accept the smaller 17xxx cell, there will be no issues with any 18650 cell) and really has to be compressed - however the fit + orings is so well placed there is no issues with threading at all.
No knurling at all. Very positive grip with the head/tailcap features, square tube. The light doesn't feel great in the hand, may take some getting used too. Minimal design / decorative features, overall impression is that the light is very plain. Body appears to have good heatsinking, prominent cooling fins around the engine area.

3 mode, low - med - high. (No strobe, no sos)
reverse clicky, 1/2 press to change modes.
The light does warm up quickly on high, but subjective impression is that it has heat does not rise during extended run-time. No cooling was used (light on table for beamshots), appears to have more then sufficient passive cooling for this output.

It's quite a different beast from the l-mini (or Ultrafire HCU-h7--Saberwolf modded mc-e mini-edc). Shiningbeam writes the pli is geared toward cycling. From some white-wall hunting, the deep reflector is effective at throwing the flood. It puts that multi-dye 'wall of light' a good distance out front. It's an intermediate light, projects a volume of light to mid distance.
Same 'white' as my jetbeamIII Pro ST, very white.
Fairly tight beam, no hot spot, but a large corona.
Slight darkspot (no donut, no traditional mc-e hole). It is adjustable, from a 'large hotspot' to a pure flood, see subsequent posts re: adjustment

Just took some beam-shot comparison pics, going out for a bike ride now (had to wait for night time) review upcoming.

Lights used for tonight

MG PLI mc-e (bin?)
JetIII ProSt
MCU-C7 (Saberwolf modified 'mini-edc,' a warm MC-E pocket sunburst, my favourite ligth!)
xZoom (Dx's flood to zoom light), an aspherical zoom light, p4 emittor, 18650, 1 mode
Packhorse modified IST, aspherical lens, 2 modes (~1050ma and 50ma, 18650)


MG Pli (high), (Jet off), (mcu off), xZoom (spot), Ist (high)



Pli, Jet, both on high. large bright corona of Pli dwarfs hotspot of Jetbeam. Lights angled up from hoizontal, ~3ft from off white wall



MG Pli (mc-e), JetIIIproSt, MCU mc-e, xZoom, Packhorse's Ist
with the mc-e's, we can see the Pli has a much more focues beam then the hcu which really fades near the edges. The Jetbeam (on max) is overwhelmed. The xZoom on full spot is incredible, that tiny spot won't be outdone, however that's all it's got. Ist is less focused and has a corona of some usable spill. All lights ~2.5feet from off white wall, comparison's are OK, absolute tones are not.



mc-e's, the deep reflector of the pli really showing off here with a concentrated bright center

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu203/linger_li/100_1627.jpg

[over-size image replaced by link - DM51]
(**edit - I'm sorry, thank-you for interveening for me. resized pic reosted)



Jetbeam (left), Pli (right). I love'd the jetbeam, thought it was a great thrower, until I met the PLI. Comparing the JetIIIst and the PLI mc-e isn't easy. PLI is an excellent multi-die light that puts this 'wall of light' +20, +60 feet out. You can't see from the piture but the PLI lit up the whole backyard. The jetIII has a small spot that goes far, the PLI lights up the whole area. It's beam seems to have some staying power, so instead of showing a spot on a tree it lights up the whole tree and the one on each side of it too. I will try to get distance figures tomrorow.

Re: MG PLI MC-E

Excellent beam shots :twothumbs

Actually PLI is adjustable on beam, you can loose or tighten the head and that'll change the output beam pattern. The threads of the body tube is long enough, you can easily loose up half turn without problem.
The modes are low>mid>high, exactly like the MC-E RX-1. The emitter is the M-bin WC MC-E.

Re: MG PLI MC-E

thanx, will try this now!
Best,
L

Re: MG PLI MC-E

this looks awesome, anyone know what the pricing on this guy is going to be?

Re: MG PLI MC-E

Bike / walking tests - WOW. I'm very impressed with the PLI and large volume of light it manages to throw out.

If I can force manual settings, I'll get some better beam-shots tonight.

re: adjustable beam - OK, i've taken the suggestion and turned the bezel a bit, I'm just not to sure how much of an impact this is supposed to have.

Turning bezel, does succeed in eliminating darkness near center of beam. I was outside so perhaps not the best place to try this.,,,however also, I was outside and didn't notice that much of an effect so how much effect could their have been?
I'm undecided on the 'adjustible' feature of the pli.

Re: MG PLI MC-E

Could you tell me how can I get one ?

Re: MG PLI MC-E

Holy poop, Barman! the day finally arrived...

I read the title of this thread and went :wth: is he talking about?

Adjustable beam explained

The PLI goes normal (big corona) to pure flood.

The adjustment, as lightbug explained to me, is rotating the bezel b/c there is a lot of room on the threading. This draws the reflector up higher, eventually past the emittor. The result is a pure flood beam.

fully tightened (maximum reflector) there is a slightly darker center as a bright halo surrounds.
begin twisting, that the dark spot turns into a 'lit x' with a brighter cross pattern
keep twisting, progressively less bright center
fully open there is no brightness in the center, just a uniform flood / moon beam. (bezel still very secure)

This is a bit of a re-conception on adjustment; instead of focusing more light, it simply removes the focused light from play. It's very interesting. The PLI is so bright, the flood beam may be exceptional for riding. What got me was I was expecting the lost lumens to appear somewhere else, instead of just removing the bright center with-out re-distributing that output anywhere.

Re: MG PLI MC-E

greenLED said:

Holy poop, Barman! the day finally arrived...

I read the title of this thread and went :wth: is he talking about?

Click to expand...

Heh, edited thread title. I knew I was lucky as hell to get one pre-release, so i've felt compelled to put as much information back out there to the cpf community.

I've tried beam-shots of the adjustment but they had not turned out yet.

Re: MG PLI MC-E

TAIGERSX said:

Could you tell me how can I get one ?

Click to expand...

They'll be carried by Shiningbeam

Re: MG PLI MC-E

Any ideas as to pricing?

Re: MG PLI MC-E

sol-leks said:

Any ideas as to pricing?

Click to expand...

High 50. It should be listed by tomorrow.

Re: MG PLI MC-E

Wow cheaper then the other mg mc-e light on shiningbeam? Wow this light sounds like a winner.

yeah, should be cheaper than the MG RX-1 (the big thrower that's up there)

Lumen output for each mode and the respective runtimes for the different battery options would be greatly appreciated! The output, size, and function of this light seem excellent for most general applications, I'm just waiting to make sure it is reasonably efficient before pulling the trigger.

Just in case someone isn't aware, this light is now listed on shiningbeams site. I think this might be just the light I've been waiting for.

TSD said:

Lumen output for each mode and the respective runtimes for the different battery options would be greatly appreciated!

Click to expand...

The specs claim this light is constant-current regulated to 2500mA on a single 18650 cell, down to 2.8V.

I also want to see some evidence to back this claim before I'll consider buying the light.

As far as I can tell, there are a lot of 18650 P7/MCE lights out there which claim to be 700+ lumens, and claim to be regulated, but in reality are neither.

TSD said:

Lumen output for each mode and the respective runtimes for the different battery options would be greatly appreciated!

Click to expand...

Anyone able to do this?

I'll see what I can manage tonight. No lux / lumen ratings as I don't have a light box, but I may be able to pull some info off my camera with repeated beam shots over time.

TSD said:

The output, size, and function of this light seem excellent for most general applications,.

Click to expand...

I agree. I was thinking it would be a ~350 lumen light before I recieved it. Hopefully you still have the pleasent suprise when you buy yours and find the real thing out-performs your expectations.

TSD said:

I'm just waiting to make sure it is reasonably efficient before pulling the trigger.
Just in case someone isn't aware, this light is now listed on shiningbeams site. I think this might be just the light I've been waiting for.

Click to expand...

hmmm. I'll see what I can do. I've used it riding two nights now and during the end of the ride it seems as bright (compaired to passing car headlights) as it is at the start. Of course my subjective impressions could be way off.

I just ordered mine, I'd like to know the actually lumens and lux as well.

TSD said:

Lumen output for each mode and the respective runtimes for the different battery options would be greatly appreciated!

Click to expand...

I mentioned I'd try a regulation run-time test. I charged two brand new AW's up and set up a MG PLI vs. JetIIIProSt.

I set a camera to manual and thought I would have fixed levels allowing a comparison across shots in the series. Both lights set to maximum and tail-standing on a desk, camera laying on it's back for ceiling beamshots.




Unfortunately, after 10minutes I wasn't comfortable with the passive cooling.





I switched them to medium to continue the test, deciding I'd switch them back up to high through-out the test.
PLI ultimately drops out of regulation, spectacularly (**edit: my observation was exactly as posted on Shiningbeam websight. PLI has amazing regulation, it maintained a constant high output as long as possible, then dropped straight to low. It accepted my button press and switched back up to medium but would not return to high). The PLI dims to low and blinks every few seconds (as if notification was needed to say the battery was low).

Unfortunately now that it's over, all the pics look the same....bust

Tomorrow maybe another shot.
Best,

"Unfortunately, after 10minutes I wasn't comfortable with the passive cooling. I switched them to medium to continue the test, deciding I'd switch them back up to high through-out the test.
PLI ultimately drops out of regulation, spectacularly...dims to low, blinks every few seconds (as if notification was needed to say the battery was low)"


Thanks for putting time into this! Were you able to estimate any runtimes from the tests you performed? If I understand you correctly, it sounds like you are saying you weren't able to determine runtimes this round because you were switching back and forth between the high and medium levels to guard against overheating concerns. However, I wasn't sure if you added up the intermittent periods you ran it on high or medium to estimate how long it would last if it were left on continuosly. Also, the last sentence above caught my eye, but I wasn't completely sure what you were saying. Sounds like when it can no longer sustain high, it jumps down to low mode. Did it take a while before dropping out of regulaion, or did it occur rather quickly?

If you decide to tackle this again, you might find it easier to focus on just the runtimes. Without a lightbox or other metering device, it might be too much of a headache to estimate regulation. Just a thought, thanks again for the effort you're putting into this!

One more thought: Shiningbeam has stated that "the inner guts of the PLI are the same as those of the MG RX-1 MC-E," which has been shown to run for about 1 hr on high. From this, I think it is safe to assume that the PLI runs for an hour or less on high, and probably less due to the decreased heatsinking.