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[Kiessling]

Monstrous Real Life Shootout


Title says it all. Since a lot of us – including me - want real life outdoor shots in addition to the more scientific approach of the classic white wall beam shot, I tried to compile a pack of those with all the major lights I currently own. In the backyard of my new apartment there is a shed, and it is fairly dark there, too, so I went for it last night [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

It is a shootout of medium distance, the target area is about 15 yards away. A shot of my first story window:


And here we have a close-up view of the target area:


The lights were aimed at the bottom of the shed, but sometimes my hand was not as steady as desired, I am getting older [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif[/img].

I am just presenting the beamshots of various lights without reviewing the units, I added a few comments when necessary, otherwise the pics should speak for themselves. At the end of this post I have compiled some rather subjective conclusions in no special order. Before looking at the pics you should know some details about the setting:

- The colors in the target area are suffering from the fact that it is not 100% dry, meaning they come out a bit darker than usual. This compromises the visibility of the weaker coronas in front of the shed in the grass a bit.

- To get an impression of the width of coronas and flood beams watch out for the trees left and right as well as for the factory building behind the shed

- My camera was set to brightest setting at 640ASA (yeah, while moving to my new home I discovered the long lost manual of the camera [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img], and it is at least semi-adjustable), but it is still working in some kind of auto-mode

- All pics are brightness-enhanced of 12%, they do pretty much reflect what you see except that weaker coronas are underrated.

- Ambient light was present, but not too much. You could have walked without a light in the backyard, but not too comfortably so.

- The colors reflect pretty well what your eyes actually see.

- All lights were either running in regulation or had new batteries fed to their greedy emitters …


The whole shootout is cut down into different sections with a pic of the contenders at the beginning. Let’s start with the most important section …

[Kiessling]

1. LED lights ==================================================




1.01 Arc LS1rev2


1.02 Arc LSH with R2H driven at 363mA done by Chop.


1.03 Arc LS 5W Fraen LP BB750 done by Jets22.
This light produces a wonderful medium flood with the LP optix on a 5W LS. When looking closely at the L4 shot below, you notice that this Arc is dimmer. This might come from the fact that the optix loose more light than a reflector and / or that a single CR123 cannot provide the juice to fully power a BB750 …


1.04 Firefly in stock configuration. By DSpeck.


1.05 McL4, a R2H modded in the KL4 head by McGizmo, driven by a BadBoy600 on a 3V single cell body. Produces a good hotspot with a satisfying corona. Hotspot is less tight than the one of the PR heads, but much more intense than the L4. Runtime is about 45 minutes constant on.


1.06 SF L4


1.07 McLux PR-T-BK with SWAK/BB611 on black 1x123 McLux body
Done by McGizmo.


1.08 McLux PR TWAK DB917 on E2e-BK, Don’s Porsche.


1.09 McLux PR R2H DB700 on McLux 3x123 body
Done by McGizmo.

Note that my camera was unable to catch the huge corona of the PR and PR-T heads that is beginning to be rather weak at this distance. Nevertheless it is still there and of some limited use even at 15 yards.


1.10 McLux PR-T W4V / BB500 on E1e This is a very interesting little light, I had to force Don to do it for me … he said it would not be perfect on one cell. The kick-ass feature here is that it can run on one or two 123 cells and still be in regulation without the penalties of the reduced efficiency of the wizard boards. I do love the 5W LS [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]. It runs regulated about 30min on 1x123 and is plenty bright with still good heat management. A very good little light IMHO, very versatile, too.


1.11 Golden Dragon McLux: PR head with X3T / BB750 on 2x123 pack … my favourite of all the time… tremendously strong medium flood with a perfect beam (one of the older PRs with more orange peel) in pure white … hmmmm …
Read more about this marvel here

For all those who are not familiar with the McLux, look at …
www.skunklights.com
www.dmcleish.com
this thread


1.12 Schulzendorf Gamma1
A 1W LS with NX05 on 2x123, resistored. A tad brighter than the Arc LS1, but a bit on the creamy side of the lottery. Read more about this light here



1.13 LedLenser V2 Law Enforcement
A 1W LS with a Fraen optix on 3xAAA in a round holder. Pushbutton switch with “reverse” momentary-off. Good knurling, but not watertight and no lens to protect optix.
Read more about LedLensers here


1.14 SF L6


1.15 MR Bulk’s LGI LE
An especially bright LD LS with an NX05 on 3 x AA in a Legend host, only a hand full were built. Reached about 900 lux and was a real killer light a year ago. Still a very good performer and runs of cheapo batts [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]


1.16 LedLenser V2-16 Chip
A 16 x 5mm LED stainless steel flood light on 3 C-cells. It is brighter than the KL2 but a bit on the blue side. Read more about LedLensers here


1.17 MR-X
An X3T in a 2D-Mag driven by a special circuit at 1.5A. Uses a hotlips heatsink abd runs of 6 x AA, either L91 lithium [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] or NiMhs or even Alks … and it has a Direct-Drive Indicator LED … and … by hotbeam.

[Kiessling]

forget it, pics are not showing better than in the original thread, bummer. maybe tomorrow ...