I'm beginning to wonder if my 123x2 XM-L NW is defective. According to Selfbuilt and other reviews the 123x2 produces about 500 using RCR123's, yet when comparing the Quark AA XP-G R5 with the AAx2 and 123x2 XM-L all side by side, outputs are roughly 100, 200, and 300 lumens respectively. And that's immediately after powering on, not after 3 mins for the XM-L. I bought the 123x2 expecting to get a lot more light out of it based on what people said about it, but I'm somewhat disappointed with its output. In fact, when I let it run for over 3 minutes, it doesn't drop output at all. I can see it gradually dim over those 3 minutes by about 10% which is noticeable if I turn it on/off/on quickly. But it defintely is not pushing anything close to the claims of others. I have the T5 neutral white emitter in mine, but that should only affect output level by about 10% lower than the T6 cool white, which seems correct when comparing moonlight, low, med settings to my other Quarks. But on Max it definitely is not pushing 400-500 lumens.
:duh2:
I think you are confusing intensity (lux) with output (lumens).
Here are some things to consider;
- Physically, XM-L's die is twice as big as XP-G's
- At same drive current, XM-L T5 bin is 63% brighter than XP-G R5 bin
Those two facts result in XM-L version being 63% brighter than XP-G version, but XP-G's hot spot will be half the size of XM-L's. That means that, while XM-L's overall output will be higher, the hot spot of XP-G's will be more intense and, thus, it will appear as if XP-G is brighter.
The easiest and fastest way to neutralize the intensity differences and check for differences in overall output is to perform the ceiling bounce test. To perform the test, you will need to be in a room, preferably with white ceiling. For best results, turn off all interior lighting and block exterior lights coming in. Now, point both of your lights towards the ceiling and turn them on, one by one, and check the ambient illumination that is provided by the reflection of the light from the ceiling. Depending on the output of the lights, your surroundings will look brighter or dimmer. If everything went correctly, your XM-L Quark should provide more illumination than your XP-G Quark when both are running on turbo modes.
Try it out, and you'll notice that XM-L Quark will be brighter.