**EDIT - Exactly one month before 17th May 2013, James was diagnosed with liver cancer. He put up a good fight but unfortunately the cancer cells won the fight. He has since left this world on 17th May 2013. May he rest in peace and God bless his soul.
Rest In Peace CPF member tankahn**
The thread in this link is dedicated to James
Hi guys,
I am back again doing another series of night trekking photos with my newly acquired McGizmo lights in almost the same fashion as the one I did the last time on HDS lights. Refer link.
Unfortunately, my macro lens was "confiscated" by my wife so I am unable to do more close-up macro shots of insects and flowers. I ended up doing simple photos of grasses and leaves and I hope that this is enough for you outdoor folks.
And again, here with me on the trip to the island northeast of Singapore is my good friend James. Seen here admiring the scenery before him, and a shot showing the general colors of the island foliage in the day. Just greens and browns, nothing extraordinary from a tropical country.
In this trip we decided to bring along only our high CRI, neutral white and warm white lights. Even though we have an arsenal of such lights combined, for this thread I have chosen only to portray mainly beam shots of the high CRI Haiku and Mule made by McGizmo. I did however do a comparison of the high CRI Haiku to the HDS 100 high CRI clicky and Zebralight SC51c high CRI. I apologize for not including the other neutral and warm lights in the comparison here.
Here are the lights we brought along on the trip,
Top L to R: HDS 100 high CRI with 17670 tube, HDS 100 high CRI with standard 123 tube, Solarforce (belongs to James and I have no further details on this), McGizmo Haiku high CRI, McGizmo Mule high CRI, Zebralight SC51c high CRI, Quark warm white Turbo 123, Surefire 6P with Malkoff M61w (4000K version).
Bottom L to R: Zebralight H51Fc, neutral white Quark X AA2 Tactical, Zebralight H60w, Zebralight H51Fw.
I apologize that I had forgotten and missed out my Malkoff MD2 with an M61HCRI emitter on this trip for the comparison.
For now I will start with a comparison of the Haiku high CRI (Nichia 119T) against HDS high CRI clicky (SSC P4) and Zebralight SC51c high CRI (Philips LUXEON Rebel). IMHO, I find that McGizmo Haiku with a Nichia 119T high CRI emitter produces the most neutral color reproduction amongst all three lights. The SSC P4 in my HDS clicky tend towards a slightly warm and rosy color reproduction whereas Zebralight SC51c has a very slight yellow/green tinge to it, but in actual use the yellow/green tint in the SC51c is not noticeable. In fact, I love all three high CRI lights very much. Without saying, they appear slightly dimmer than all the neutral white lights due to a lack of efficiency that is expected of any high CRI emitters, but they more or less compensated back by bringing me the nicest color reproduction amongst all my neutral and warm tinted lights (do note that I am not comparing color reproduction to cool white lights here).
Below: Beam shots for McGizmo Haiku high CRI
Spot beam pointing towards the bush in the background with spill beam illuminating the sign.
With Surefire F04 diffuser (tree about 20 meters away)
Without Surefire F04 diffuser
As you can see, due to the very small die size of the Nichia 119T emitter, there isn't really much of a flood, but it is enough for general illumination.
This is James about 30 meters away being illuminated by the spot beam of the Haiku high CRI.
Close-up shot of the Haiku high CRI with a Surefire F04 diffuser.
Below: Beam shot of the McGizmo Mule high CRI
Due to the lack of a reflector in the Mule, what you will get is a wall of superb smooth flood without hotspot. This photo below serves to show you how much flood coverage one gets out of the Mule. Suffice to say, the Mule is not made for throw. As you can see, the flood covers almost an approximate 160 degree angle from the ground to the top of the low hanging trees. The camera isn't able to capture the full range of dynamics but the Mule is capable of illuminating slightly further than what you see in this photo here. I can clearly make out details up to about 15 meters on a dark scene like this without any other light pollution other than the moon.
See how the Mule illuminate these two leaves without a need for any diffuser?
Smooth illumination on the ground before me.
James was holding on to the Mule while I took this shot showing the spider camouflaged against the tree. I wouldn't have been able to spot this spider if I were using a cool white light because the colors would be too flat to see much of a detail.
Close-up of the spider with a tiny ladybug about a millimeter small near it's hind leg. See how smooth the beam is?
The smooth and rather neutral tint of the Mule high CRI makes it a very nice light for use on specific tasks such as close-up photography. James was helping me hold on to the Mule as I needed some side illumination for this shot.
And my traditional shot of our barbecue before we retire to sleep.
Below: Beam shots showing the difference between the Haiku high CRI and the Mule high CRI. Both using Nichia 119T high CRI emitters.
McGizmo Haiku high CRI
McGizmo Mule high CRI
Conclusion
When I bought both McGizmo Haiku and Mule high CRI, I wasn't sure how they would perform in my frequent trekking and camping trips. As these photos show, they did extremely well and I am amazed at how well they show off colors in the jungle without much of a color tint. Yes, they are warmer than your average cool white light for sure, but they are somewhere in the ballpark of about 4500K to 4700K I would say.
Since the Mule is a purpose-built light without a reflector, I have to say that I was kind of wondering what other uses I could put it through other than close-up photography like what you see here, but I am happy to know that the Mule with an ultra smooth beam pattern and without a hot spot is real nice to use even when trekking as it illuminates a very wide area. Most of the time my hands are stationary and I have no need to swing the Mule around because there is no need to do so as it just seems to light up in almost any direction that I am facing.
Throughout the trek, I alternate between the Mule and the Haiku, and while the Mule is a nice flood light, the Haiku gives a nice and decent low level throw which is more than enough for 90+ percent of what I need my lights to do on such a trip. I had brought along the Surefire 6P with a Malkoff M61w for the extra punch but I hardly use it on this trip (I deliberately left my Surefire UB3T behind on this trip). I am delighted to know that the entire trip was powered mainly by the McGizmos which is capable of handling any illumination needs that I would want.
I was also amazed that a single AW 16340 is able to provide enough juice to power any of the McGizmo without a need to swap out the battery until much later before we go to sleep at 4 am in the morning. I believe it is due to the lower draw current that McGizmo has programmed into the 3S circuit of the high CRI units, can't remember the exact figure but I think it's either 500 or 550 mAh.
Overall, I am way impressed by these high CRI lights and I am happy that I bit the bullet and bought them, that too includes the Haiku XM-L cool white which I am EDCing daily.
That's it, I hope you guys enjoy the beam shots as well as reading through my experiences with the McGizmos.
Rest In Peace CPF member tankahn**
The thread in this link is dedicated to James
Hi guys,
I am back again doing another series of night trekking photos with my newly acquired McGizmo lights in almost the same fashion as the one I did the last time on HDS lights. Refer link.
Unfortunately, my macro lens was "confiscated" by my wife so I am unable to do more close-up macro shots of insects and flowers. I ended up doing simple photos of grasses and leaves and I hope that this is enough for you outdoor folks.
And again, here with me on the trip to the island northeast of Singapore is my good friend James. Seen here admiring the scenery before him, and a shot showing the general colors of the island foliage in the day. Just greens and browns, nothing extraordinary from a tropical country.
In this trip we decided to bring along only our high CRI, neutral white and warm white lights. Even though we have an arsenal of such lights combined, for this thread I have chosen only to portray mainly beam shots of the high CRI Haiku and Mule made by McGizmo. I did however do a comparison of the high CRI Haiku to the HDS 100 high CRI clicky and Zebralight SC51c high CRI. I apologize for not including the other neutral and warm lights in the comparison here.
Here are the lights we brought along on the trip,
Top L to R: HDS 100 high CRI with 17670 tube, HDS 100 high CRI with standard 123 tube, Solarforce (belongs to James and I have no further details on this), McGizmo Haiku high CRI, McGizmo Mule high CRI, Zebralight SC51c high CRI, Quark warm white Turbo 123, Surefire 6P with Malkoff M61w (4000K version).
Bottom L to R: Zebralight H51Fc, neutral white Quark X AA2 Tactical, Zebralight H60w, Zebralight H51Fw.
I apologize that I had forgotten and missed out my Malkoff MD2 with an M61HCRI emitter on this trip for the comparison.
For now I will start with a comparison of the Haiku high CRI (Nichia 119T) against HDS high CRI clicky (SSC P4) and Zebralight SC51c high CRI (Philips LUXEON Rebel). IMHO, I find that McGizmo Haiku with a Nichia 119T high CRI emitter produces the most neutral color reproduction amongst all three lights. The SSC P4 in my HDS clicky tend towards a slightly warm and rosy color reproduction whereas Zebralight SC51c has a very slight yellow/green tinge to it, but in actual use the yellow/green tint in the SC51c is not noticeable. In fact, I love all three high CRI lights very much. Without saying, they appear slightly dimmer than all the neutral white lights due to a lack of efficiency that is expected of any high CRI emitters, but they more or less compensated back by bringing me the nicest color reproduction amongst all my neutral and warm tinted lights (do note that I am not comparing color reproduction to cool white lights here).
Below: Beam shots for McGizmo Haiku high CRI
Spot beam pointing towards the bush in the background with spill beam illuminating the sign.
With Surefire F04 diffuser (tree about 20 meters away)
Without Surefire F04 diffuser
As you can see, due to the very small die size of the Nichia 119T emitter, there isn't really much of a flood, but it is enough for general illumination.
This is James about 30 meters away being illuminated by the spot beam of the Haiku high CRI.
Close-up shot of the Haiku high CRI with a Surefire F04 diffuser.
Below: Beam shot of the McGizmo Mule high CRI
Due to the lack of a reflector in the Mule, what you will get is a wall of superb smooth flood without hotspot. This photo below serves to show you how much flood coverage one gets out of the Mule. Suffice to say, the Mule is not made for throw. As you can see, the flood covers almost an approximate 160 degree angle from the ground to the top of the low hanging trees. The camera isn't able to capture the full range of dynamics but the Mule is capable of illuminating slightly further than what you see in this photo here. I can clearly make out details up to about 15 meters on a dark scene like this without any other light pollution other than the moon.
See how the Mule illuminate these two leaves without a need for any diffuser?
Smooth illumination on the ground before me.
James was holding on to the Mule while I took this shot showing the spider camouflaged against the tree. I wouldn't have been able to spot this spider if I were using a cool white light because the colors would be too flat to see much of a detail.
Close-up of the spider with a tiny ladybug about a millimeter small near it's hind leg. See how smooth the beam is?
The smooth and rather neutral tint of the Mule high CRI makes it a very nice light for use on specific tasks such as close-up photography. James was helping me hold on to the Mule as I needed some side illumination for this shot.
And my traditional shot of our barbecue before we retire to sleep.
Below: Beam shots showing the difference between the Haiku high CRI and the Mule high CRI. Both using Nichia 119T high CRI emitters.
McGizmo Haiku high CRI
McGizmo Mule high CRI
Conclusion
When I bought both McGizmo Haiku and Mule high CRI, I wasn't sure how they would perform in my frequent trekking and camping trips. As these photos show, they did extremely well and I am amazed at how well they show off colors in the jungle without much of a color tint. Yes, they are warmer than your average cool white light for sure, but they are somewhere in the ballpark of about 4500K to 4700K I would say.
Since the Mule is a purpose-built light without a reflector, I have to say that I was kind of wondering what other uses I could put it through other than close-up photography like what you see here, but I am happy to know that the Mule with an ultra smooth beam pattern and without a hot spot is real nice to use even when trekking as it illuminates a very wide area. Most of the time my hands are stationary and I have no need to swing the Mule around because there is no need to do so as it just seems to light up in almost any direction that I am facing.
Throughout the trek, I alternate between the Mule and the Haiku, and while the Mule is a nice flood light, the Haiku gives a nice and decent low level throw which is more than enough for 90+ percent of what I need my lights to do on such a trip. I had brought along the Surefire 6P with a Malkoff M61w for the extra punch but I hardly use it on this trip (I deliberately left my Surefire UB3T behind on this trip). I am delighted to know that the entire trip was powered mainly by the McGizmos which is capable of handling any illumination needs that I would want.
I was also amazed that a single AW 16340 is able to provide enough juice to power any of the McGizmo without a need to swap out the battery until much later before we go to sleep at 4 am in the morning. I believe it is due to the lower draw current that McGizmo has programmed into the 3S circuit of the high CRI units, can't remember the exact figure but I think it's either 500 or 550 mAh.
Overall, I am way impressed by these high CRI lights and I am happy that I bit the bullet and bought them, that too includes the Haiku XM-L cool white which I am EDCing daily.
That's it, I hope you guys enjoy the beam shots as well as reading through my experiences with the McGizmos.
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