Surefire P60 Better Than HCri?

I had been spending some time looking for a good hcri light to do some cooking with outside. Then I realized that an original P60 might be great. How are these original Surefire modules for cooking? Do they render colors well or not? I will be running it off an 18650 so I suppose it wont be full output but how should it be? I don't have one yet to test out.

If you are planning on using the stock SF P60 with a 18650, then I must warn you that the beam will not be very nice at all. That lamp is not designed for the voltage of a 18650.

Instead I would suggest to use HO-4 lamp or EO-4 lamp from lumensfactory. The HO-4 is the less brighter of the two and even with that you will have a little less than an hour of lighting.

So I would highly recommend a nice high cri led if you are planning on doing this often. I have a high cri version of the armytek predator and its beam has an awesome tint. But I also wonder if this will be practical for cooking ? Maybe you are better off with a headlamp. Consider the Zebralight H51Fc. Alternatively you may want to try SureFire's new headlamp called Saint Minimus Vision.

There's also the newer ES-9 "Energy Saver" lamp; it's an attempt to clone the venerable P60 in output, beam characteristics, and everything else you'd notice -- but powered by a pair of 3.7v cells. Perhaps two of AW's newest 3100 mAh 18650s in a Fivemega "12p" body, if you plan on doing this a lot and want scads of runtime?

I have a 6R conversion kit, but nickel based cells are rather less common than they once were, and finding chargers and cells is getting hard. Surefire's discontinued the kits, and the wear components (namely batteries). You could probably use a four-cell host with four 2/3A sized ni-mh cells, but you'd be on your own sourcing them, and a suitable charger.

I'd at least attempt the 18650 trick once, but it'll be hard on the bulb (the halogen cycle requires a specific temperature range); if it looks too yellow or orange, you're going to kill the bulbs prematurely.

Pay more if you are willing to
A2 is much much much better than 6P
Always-hot-white beam and regulated instead of P60 dropin with sickly orange-yellow when batts almost dead

A p90 off 2 imrs will give you bright white, broad spectrum light that puts LEDs to shame.

How hard is it to do all this boring you guys seem to count on?

AnAppleSnail said:

How hard is it to do all this boring you guys seem to count on?

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I am guessing one could use a 17670 in a 6P host that is not bored. So a bored host with a 18650 would be preferred but not necessary.

Yes I just happen to have a bored 6p host sitting around.

The P90 option is a good one. I had one of those but always felt them inferior, I actually gave the damn thing away. So perhaps a P90 will do the trick and allow for up to 9 volts. Can run a few rechargables off of that as well.

" A p90 off 2 imrs will give you bright white, broad spectrum light that puts LEDs to shame. "

Time for a WTB thread. I don't mind the P60, just got it today. Running it off of an 18650 it seems ok initially at least. Rendering colors fairly well. I really won't be using this too too often, but enough so that I don't want to be burning through CR123's. I just hate using primaries.

Be careful with 9V, it included the voltage sag by internal resistance
So a true 9V-across-bulb will fry it

ElectronGuru said:

A p90 off 2 imrs will give you bright white, broad spectrum light that puts LEDs to shame.

Click to expand...

Right now Guru I run my P90 off protected AW16340's and a P91 off the IMR's. You must be doing alright with IMR's driving them. I'm guessing you have no reservations that the IMR's may be hard on the P90, I'm just asking as I have quite a few more IMR cells than protected AW's and have been trying to work up the nerve to try it.

At any rate, 8.4 volts driving the P90 is pure gold.

Lamps and batteries can be counter intuitive. In this case, both lamps are designed for use by 123s, which sag more under the p91s load. Because of this, the p90 is under less risk of being over driven by IMRs. Because Sf expected the 90 to be driven harder, relative to its rating, by the 123s.

I'm no incan expert, but what about the MN02 lamp in the E2E? About 2 hours of runtime, and at least from my limited experience, my MN02s (and MN03s) have seemed whiter than my P60s. It's only about 25 lumens, but for short range work, I'd think it would be adequate. Not an issue if you don't have an E2E, but if you do, don't overlook the platform for good incan lighting.

I run an EO-4 Lumens Factory bulb on 2 AW 16340 IMR cells and it is a nice (almost) white light. The hot spot is round. It's a nice combination. I used to run a P60 with a single 17670 cell for use around the house. It is not bright, a little yellow in color, but good enough not to stub my toe. The LF EO-9 with IMRs is a better choice. Since you are using rechargeable batteries, run time at home is not much of an issue. Keep some spare batteries with you. You may find a headlamp more useful for cooking.

Yes, P60 is better than HCRI.

Incandescent is surely better, but ZL H51Fc is a great close work light, great cooking light. Food looks like food should to me under that light. 4000k 85< CRI, works good, clips nice to underside of baseball cap, light enough to forget it's up there, bright and diffused enough to forget you're using a flashlight.

This is one of the reasons I'm ditching my cool-white Malkoff dropin for a LF EO-4 lamp. In fact, with that change, I will be the proud owner of zero lights that aren't neutral, incan, or high cri with the exception of my TK41, which is destined for an emitter swap. Consider, as the others have suggested, the possibility of a warmer or HCRI led for runtime reasons, but if you're doing like me and just playing peekaboo with the grill, then you can't go wrong with a decent incan.

I have a 9P with a P90 bulb that's driven by two AW17500's. Beautiful white light and guilt free lumens.

Given the 2+ hrs of runtime, I use my M6/MN15 combo. Very effective. Very, very white.

I have a bored 9P with a solar force 35mm extender. P90 on 2 IMR1860 is beautiful and goes about 1.5 hrs before the yellow starts tacking over. Very beautiful color and tint, but the beam needs diffused.

Comparing the P90 vs Nichia 219 4500cct 92 CRI I slightly still prefer the P90. The Nichia is maybe too white if there is such a thing. P90 looks like natural light IMHO.

YUP, P60 still not out of the game.