Beamshots of 14 powerful xm-l flashlights(including TK70)+1 xp-g for comparison.

ergotelis

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May 31, 2007
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734
Location
Greece/Hellas/Crete
Here it is, a round up with the most powerful led flashlights right now.

-According to google maps the distance is 120 meters from our position to the tree, the rocks behind are 180-240 meters.
Here is the link of the distance:
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Unknown+road&daddr=Unknown+road&hl=en&ll=35.334274,25.046838&spn=0.002451,0.005284&sll=35.334063,25.047224&sspn=0.002451,0.005284&geocode=Fa4qGwId1jB-AQ%3BFewmGwIduy5-AQ&mra=mift&mrsp=1&sz=18&t=h&z=18
-There was some dust in the air, the pictures you see are as close as to what we were seeing.
-camera settings: 0,6sec και F4,0 iso 800.
-Batteries, AW, Redilast and ex-cell(panasonic 3100mah with circuit). FOr ΤΚ60 and τκ70, 4 Vapex D nimh 10,000 mah.

Now the contenders,some measurements i took@30sec plus some comments:

-Olight M3X
Very focusing, 58,000 lux and 770 OTF
Positive: Great lux, efficient circuit( 8,12V from 2 18650 batteries,drawing 1,33amp and powers the led with 2,93amp!!!)
Negative: bad threads, a bit of tunnel effect

-Eagletac M3C4
Massive small flashlight with magnetic ring! 41000 lux and 780 OTF
Positive: Nice rotation ring, great quality, great throw for the size!
Negative: Has some weight for its size, parasitic drain without the extra switch, cannot take flat-top batteries!

-Trustfire X7(original sst50 modded xm-l)
Thrower ~100,000 lux, 1000 ΟΤF
Positive: throws a lot far away, what else? And a decent quality for trustfire.
Negative: big guy, 3 batteries of 18650, disco modes, PWM levels

-Fenix TK70
The beast of 3 xm-l, 2290 OTF, 102,000 lux
Positive: Lights up everywhere, nice build quality, encourages to use it as a self defense weapon or to break a glass!
Negative: weights with batteries 1389 gram, huge! Also, i don't trust any D nimh cells.

-Fenix TK60
Baseball bat of 4 D nimh! 790 OTF, 45,000 lux
Positive: Great runtimes and built quality, has nice beam too!
Negative: This is huge too, same here, i don't trust D nimh batteries!

-Defier X3
The best looking xm-l flashlight! 600ΟΤF, 24600 lux
Positive: excellent built quality, nice design, easy and simple operation!
Negative: One big and enough, the circuit, come on guys, you screwed it up! PWM modes(fenix tk35 medium is higher than X3 low and lasts more than double!!), 196 hz which is very low for me(it is visible somehow) and the low mode is not that low.

-Olight M31(original sst50 modded xm-l)
The thrower effect! 75500 lux 970 OTF
Positive: Throws that far away, xm-l got the current needed to show its performance!
Negative: PWM levels too, a bit of tunnel effect!

-Fenix TK35
The best camping flashlight! 23600 lux 860 ΟTF
Positive: current controlled levels and well balanced, powerful,small, excellent efficiency!
Negative: Plastic tailcap, for god's shake!Can't you make an aluminium? Also, bad quality control, a lot has been heard about green, yellowish,blueish tint and different performance.For example, mine is very powerful, selfbuilt's sample was a lot less powerful.

-Thrunite Catapult V2
Nice Τhrower! 45000 lux 740 OTF
Positive: Νο tunnel effect for a thrower, lights up fine the area around the hotspot! and excellent built quality, this thing is unbreakable!
Negative: I think it has to be driven a bit harder to get some more lux, also the threads are not that tight if it is a bit unscrewed!

-Defier XT
Compact xm-l flashlight, 11900 lux 500 ΟΤF
Positive: Nice and compact powerful flashlight.
Negative: As X3, the PWM circuit.

-Ray x60(original xp-g 1,2amp modded xm-l 2,45amp)
Compact xm-l thrower 29200 lux 690 OTF
Positive: Nice xm-l small thrower with good design.
Negative: Stock is just a good flashlight, to make it great you have to mod it.

-Armytek Predator(original xp-g modded with xm-l) 11500 lux and 473 OTF
Nice flashlight i guess most of you know its positives and negatives, modding with xm-l was very difficult, but still feasible. THe UI-circuit is perfect, the clip has a bad position.These are the two comments i have to make for this one.

-Xeno F8V5(original xp-g 1amp modded xm-l 2,1amp)
Aggressive P60 host 9500 lux 580 ΟΤF
Positive: Great design and build quality, one of the best P60 hosts around
Negative: As in Ray, you have to mod it too to make it better!

-Nitecore IFE2(the only xp-g)
With the continuously variable ring, 260 ΟΤF 3500 lux
It is just for comparison here.

-Skyray 3 x xm-l
Cheap powerful flashlight for general lighting, 1610 ΟΤF 17900 lux
Positive: Good built quality for monkeyfire, the best $/lumen, regulated full!!!
Negative: PWM modes, one button for all operations, Disco modes, poor heatsinking?

Some photos with their mods too:

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Last edited:

ergotelis

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Re: Beamshots of 13 powerful xm-l flashlights(including TK70)+1 xp-g for comparison.

Beamshots:

olight M3X

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Eagletac M3C4

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Trustfire X7

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Fenix TK70

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Fenix TK60

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Defier X3

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Olight M31

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Fenix TK35

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Armytek Predator

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Thrunite Catapult

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Defier XT

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Ray X60

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Xeno F8V5

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Nitecore IFE2

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Skyray 3 x T6

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nodoubt

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Mar 15, 2008
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wonderful job.....as i expected, the olight m3x kiks butt !
ive had my sights set on it for a while now......
looks like it out does everything but the tk 70.....
 

ergotelis

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M3X has a lot of throw plus a very good circuit for high. Levels are with PWM, but that is ok in this case, this thing is a thrower, i guess you will use it in low only in emergency. The other thing that i didn't like at all is its threads. They are awful bad. The head threads are perfect+square, while on the tube they are really bad...Also, due to very bright hotspot and big corona lighting area, there is some tunnel effect, which might not help in search situations. As for TK70...nothing to add! :D
 

candle lamp

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Good job! ergotelis, :thumbsup:

Thanks a lot for the wonderful beamshots.

All the lights have smooth reflector?
 

ergotelis

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Good job! ergotelis, :thumbsup:

Thanks a lot for the wonderful beamshots.

All the lights have smooth reflector?

Thanks a lot and yes, good point, all have smooth reflectors, except the nitecore ife2, the xp-g light(though it doesn't have a big difference with the smo one version).
 

tre

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Wow really nice beam shots. Also, thanks for all the Lux and lumen measurements. What do you use to get OTF lumen measurements? Did you measure at turn on or after 3 minutes?

You SST-50 lights you modded with the XML are amazing. I assume you have some heat issues using the XML in the X7 and M31?
 

ergotelis

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Wow really nice beam shots. Also, thanks for all the Lux and lumen measurements. What do you use to get OTF lumen measurements? Did you measure at turn on or after 3 minutes?

You SST-50 lights you modded with the XML are amazing. I assume you have some heat issues using the XML in the X7 and M31?

For the OTF measurements, i use an empty white room and measure the ceil bounce. Some lights that i have are measured from professionals, so i think that by comparing them, i get quite accurate numbers! :)
Also, the measurements are taken@30sec. So, it is not turn on or 3 minutes, it is somehow in the middle, enough time to heat up the led.
For the sst50 modded lights, yes, i was expecting to have excellent numbers, but heat is an issue. So, in the X7 i changed the driver with another(4amp driver vs 4,7amp the stock) and in M31, i used an olight M3X led pcb, which is a very big pcb and provides very good heatsinking, in order to solve the heat issue. In M31, it gets 4,3amp and holds up really well with this heatsinking. Cleaned all contacts-heatsink parts and used arctic ceramique. Though they still get quite warm after some time, but it is ok, they don't seem to have any problem, heat is transfered really well(and if i burn any, these leds are cheap, i will put another :p , unlike the $25 sst50!!)
 

HIDblue

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Great beamshots and pics. Thanks for all your efforts. That TK70 is a beast. What kind of D cell batteries did you use?
 

bill_n_opus

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Thank you for the great effort and beamshots.

Question: why do you not like NiMh D cells?
 

ergotelis

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Thank you all again guys!
I use some Vapex D nimh cells.
There are no good lsd(low self discharge) D cells, D nimh batteries loose capacity very easily, they have a lot of internal resistance and afterall, they need training(charge and discharge) after a period of time that they remain unused, in order to regain their capacity.
 

2100

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Thank you all again guys!
I use some Vapex D nimh cells.
There are no good lsd(low self discharge) D cells, D nimh batteries loose capacity very easily, they have a lot of internal resistance and afterall, they need training(charge and discharge) after a period of time that they remain unused, in order to regain their capacity.

HOBBY CHARGER! :naughty:
 
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