UPDATED: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A vs. Incans (Beamshots)

[RichS]

I've become very partial to the tint and illumination incandescent lights give, so this recent production of warm tint LEDs has had me very pleased to say the least. I was blown away by the tint of my Deree Q3 5A drop-in, and knowing the quality of Malkoff's drop-ins I just had to see how his new M30W compares..

These latest round of warm tint LEDs are making me start to question if they might have surpassed incans in the color rendering department.. Based on the below beamshots, I'd say yes in most cases unless you are talking about super-hotwired incans...

Initial Reactions - M30W
My initial reaction with the M30W is.....wow! The Malkoff drop-in delivered like I never imagined. The beam is so buttery smooth, with absolutely no Cree rings to be seen. It has a very hot center spot, with a perfect transition from spot to spill. You get all the benefits of the efficient and bright Cree LED without the dark surrounding rings you are so used to seeing with the Cree. You also get a much larger, more even flood than the Dereelight Q3 5A pill. It is almost impossible to see where the Malkoff flood ends.

Initial Reactions - Dereelight Q3 5A
The Dereelight Q3 5A is no slouch either, and it retains the prize for the most throw. You can see in the below white wall shots (antique ivory actually) that the Dereelight module has a hotter spot than the Malkoff. In fact, the Deree module does this while using the OP reflector. If I used the SMO reflector in this light it would be even more intense, although it would also be much ringier than it already is. That is where the Dereelight module has it's downside. There is a very visible and large dark ring around the hotspot, and although the side-spill is bright, it is much smaller and not as even as with the Malkoff M30.

Conclusions
My first conclusion is - I can't see ever going back to using standard LEDs again after seeing the vast increase in quality illumination provided by these new warm tint LEDs. The few extra lumens provided by the standard tint LEDs just doesn't make up for the lighting quality provided by the warm tint. Secondly, if I have true need for that extra throw, I'm reaching for my Deree Q3 5A SMO. Otherwise, I'm reaching for the Malkoff every time. The Malkoff provides enough throw for most situations, while evenly flooding the entire surroundings with warm, quality light. No rings, artifacts, just beautiful light!

Beamshots
I'm using two SureFire C2's for the hosts, and I threw in a couple of shots with a standard Q5 LED (Fenix PD20), as well as a few incandescents (SureFire G2, A2/Strion, LF HO-9) for color rendering comparisons. I'm not sure what bin the Malkoff is, but I've read other places that it is the Q2 5A, not the Q3 5A. The Malkoff is a 1-stage module. The Deree is the Q3 5A, and is the 3SD 1.2A driver. I used a freshly charged 17670 with the M30W and Deree Q3 5A. The camera (Fuji F30) was in manual mode with ISO 200, whitebalance set to daylight, and shutter speed set to 1/3 second.

SureFire C2 Hosts - Malkoff M30W (Left) / Deree Q3 5A (Right)

Deree Q3 5A (Left) / Malkoff M30W (Right)

Malkoff M30W (Left) / Deree Q3 5A (Right)

Malkoff M30W (Left) / Deree Q3 5A (Right)

Malkoff M30W (Left) / Deree Q3 5A (Right)

Malkoff M30W

Deree Q3 5A (High)

Fenix PD20 Q5 (Turbo)

SureFire G2 Stock P60 Incandescent

A2 w/Strion Bulb

LF HO-9 in Leef/SF C2 Host

Malkoff M30W (Left) / Deree Q3 5A (Right)

Malkoff M30W (Left) / Fenix P2D Q5 Turbo (Right)

Malkoff M30W (Left) / SureFire A2 w/ Strion Bulb (Right)

Malkoff M30W (Left) / LF HO-9 in Leef/SF C2 Host (Right)

Malkoff M30W (Left) / Daylight (Right)

Thanks for looking!

-Rich

 

[Sgt. LED]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

:thumbsup:

Great job! After the experience of the W it is hard to enjoy my others as much.

 

[etc]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

thanks for pics

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

Gotta find a way to get a Malikoff!

 

[Gunner12]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

I can't wait till get money to be able to get a warm white LED.

Thanks of the review and beamshots!

 

[TexLite]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

Nice review.

You can adjust the Dereelight to make the dark ring disappear.Unscrew the pill out of the reflector and place a small o-ring around the Cree ring.It does not have to fit the ring snug,you just want a compression interface between the pill and reflector.Screw the reflector/pill back together until the top of the ring is somewhere close to the base of the reflector.With some adjustment and experimenting with placement it will actually produce a very nice beam.

-Michael

 

[Norm]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

Nice review.
You can adjust the Dereelight to make the dark ring disappear.Unscrew the pill out of the reflector and place a small o-ring around the Cree ring.
-Michael

Michael, thanks for the hint you just helped me fix the only thing I didn't like about my Dereelight. :thumbsup:
Norm

 

[RichS]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

Nice review.

You can adjust the Dereelight to make the dark ring disappear.Unscrew the pill out of the reflector and place a small o-ring around the Cree ring.It does not have to fit the ring snug,you just want a compression interface between the pill and reflector.Screw the reflector/pill back together until the top of the ring is somewhere close to the base of the reflector.With some adjustment and experimenting with placement it will actually produce a very nice beam.

-Michael

Great suggestion, thanks! I really want to try this with my Deree pill as it has awesome throw for such a compact drop-in. What size o-ring are you using for this?

 

[LED61]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

RichS, would it be possible for you to do a comparison shot with the A2 and strion socket ? It´d be interesting to see how this warm top notch LED goes against a nice overdriven incan!!! Great job BTW!!!

 

[RichS]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

RichS, would it be possible for you to do a comparison shot with the A2 and strion socket ? It´d be interesting to see how this warm top notch LED goes against a nice overdriven incan!!! Great job BTW!!!

Sure - I can do that tonight. I actually thought about using the A2 w/Strion instead of the G2 in the initial post, but you also get the light of the three LEDs when activating the incan bulb in the A2, which slightly affects the tint of the beam/spill. I could also use an LF HO-9 for the comparison, but it's going to have quite a bit more output than the LEDs it's being compared to. I'll probably just add both as a comparison.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

Sure - I can do that tonight. I actually thought about using the A2 w/Strion instead of the G2 in the initial post, but you also get the light of the three LEDs when activating the incan bulb in the A2, which slightly affects the tint of the beam/spill. I could also use an LF HO-9 for the comparison, but it's going to have quite a bit more output than the LEDs it's being compared to. I'll probably just add both as a comparison.

Remove your LED ring. Simple to do and safe. In fact the A2 that was passed around during the Lightmeter Benchmark testing a few years ago was provided by McGizmo without the LED ring. See sticky thread in Batteries, electronics, etc forum.

Bill

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

I had a different reflector from a DX module that died with my Q2 5A held up to the back of it.

I've gone back to the original reflector but AM DEFINETLY going to try the oring trick!

 

[leukos]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

Rich, any chance of adding outdoor beam shots to your review? Preferably at some evergreen trees or something other than a white house?

 

[RichS]

Re: Review: Warm P60 Drop-ins: Malkoff M30W vs. Dereelight Q3 5A (Beamshots)

RichS, would it be possible for you to do a comparison shot with the A2 and strion socket ? It´d be interesting to see how this warm top notch LED goes against a nice overdriven incan!!! Great job BTW!!!

OK - I took some shots of the A2 w/ Strion bulb as well as one with 2x18500 and an HO-9. I'm sorry to say for all you incan guys (of which I've been accused of being).............

It's official - the M30W LED wins the indoor rendering contest!! Not only is the beam pattern - smooth spot-to-flood transition - and large flood area better for indoor use, but the tint reproduces the colors of the wall and objects better than my incans inside. This is based on how the image looks compared to what I normally see the room looking like on a sunny day. However, of the incandescents the A2 comes pretty close, probably due to the over-driven Strion bulb and the accompanying LEDs for helping with the rest of the spectrum and flood.

Now, my guess is that use outdoors will be a completely different story. But its too late to get out and do this test tonight...more to come on that comparison...

 

[TexLite]

Michael, thanks for the hint you just helped me fix the only thing I didn't like about my Dereelight. :thumbsup:
Norm

Your Welcome.Glad to be of help.Its one of the only things I didn't like about the Dereelight as well.

Great suggestion, thanks! I really want to try this with my Deree pill as it has awesome throw for such a compact drop-in. What size o-ring are you using for this?

#7 O-Ring.1/2"OD x 3/8"ID x 1/16".Its large as far as circumference,but gets good and tight right around the optimal focus range.

I had a different reflector from a DX module that died with my Q2 5A held up to the back of it.

I've gone back to the original reflector but AM DEFINETLY going to try the oring trick!

Will probably work with the DX module as well.I've done it other mods like Fenix's and the recepients made mention of the improved beam quality.


One thing to note on the Dereelight guys,after you have the reflector at the right focus,if its off center a little you can shift it (pressing firmly against the side) sideways just enough to be perfectly centered without changing the focus.

-Michael

 

[frosty]

It's not until you compare these warm leds with the standard Q5's that are in everything, that you appreciate how bad the tint is on something like that P2D.

It will be really interesting to see whether the major manufacturers jump on this 100% or whether it will just be an interesting sideline to LED development.

I'm sure it won't be long before these are available in a Q5 bin.

 

[LED61]

Thanks Rich for those beamshots.

Looking forward to those outdoors. Please include the Strion outdoors.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

I used an o-ring of about 1/16th thickness that goes around the Cree ring sorta snug.

Made the Q5 and R2 better by a good bit.

Not so much difference on the Q25A...

Further experimentation is in order!

 

[WadeF]

Great beam shots! You maybe able to improve the beam of the Dereelight, but you might lose some throw in the process.

 

[RichS]

I added a daylight shot using all the same camera settings as a reference point for color and lighting. The Malkoff definitely gets closest to it, followed closely by the Deree Q3 5A and the A2 Strion.