SunForce 25 Million Candlepower HID Rechargeable Spotlight

[BlueBeam22]

I just bought the SunForce 25 Million Candlepower rechargeable HID spotlight, and I am totally shocked by it, as it out throws my AmondoTech Titanium Mega Illuminator/Costco HID! I would have never expected there to be a metal halide HID light that could possibly even equal the Mega Illuminator in throw; I only bought this SunForce because I wanted to have a light with a blue beam that could out throw the POB (which it does easily), so I am very surprised that it can out throw the Mega Illuminator, even though it is by an extremely small amount.

Its beam is as narrow as it gets with a very bright little pinpoint hotspot, and tight small corona around it. It throws unbelievably far, and easily lights up objects in the 1000 yard range. It out throws every other large spotlight I have ever owned. The beam it makes in the sky is remarkable; it is like a blue laser like parallel ray of light that extends up forever, and kind of reminds me of an advertising searchlight just because it is so tightly collimated. It puts a perfect round spot on distant objects, and its beam pattern kind of reminds me of how the beams from short arc xenon lights look, based on the pictures I have seen (of course the 25MCP will not realistically compare to a short arc xenon).

The beam color is very deep blue and appears in the 6500K-8000K range. I believe it is a 35W HID. It has two switches; the top one toggles the light on and off for standard use, and the lower switch operates the light directly from a 12V source when you have its 12V DC car charger plugged into the DC port. Otherwise, the lower switch does not operate the light. Use only the lower switch to operate the light from its 12V DC cigarette lighter adaptor cord, and make sure the DC cord is plugged into the lower port.

This light has a runtime around 40 minutes, and it uses twin 6V SLA batteries. It has a charge status indicator that lights red when it is charging and green when it is full. It can be both charged and run directly from its 12V DC car cigarette lighter adaptor cord, however the charging indicator will not light with this method.

It feels featherweight to me compared to some of my other large lights, and is even lighter weight than the Vector Power On Board HID even though its physical dimensions are larger. It has an 8'' reflector, and is not as large as the Mega Illuminator, which is why I am so amazed that the 25MCP appears to out throw it. It also out throws the Professional's Favorite 20 Million Plus candlepower spotlight.


Pictures:

Beamshots:


Control:

Shining at a house down the street:

Shining at nearby tree to show beam pattern:

I highly recommend this SunForce HID spotlight to anyone looking for the longest thrower possible, and I think it is the new budget king of throw in spotlights. The SunForce 40 Million Candlepower HID spotlight got a review as being "more of a flood than spot light" which is the reason I never bought that one as I am only interested in extreme throw if I am going to carry around a large and heavy light, and I have been very satisfied with the Mega Illuminator in that regard. I think this SunForce 25 Million Candlepower HID could possibly be the longest throwing 35 watt HID ever available.

The difference in throw between the Mega Illuminator and SunForce is very small and not easy to notice, but no matter what I shine the two lights at it appears to me that the SunForce is putting a slightly brighter spot on the object (such as a distant tree). I tested them against each other extensively tonight, and the result was always the same, in favor of the SunForce. That being said, I would still recommend the Mega Illuminator over it from a practicality standpoint, as the Mega Illuminator has a much longer runtime and its 4200K bulb gives much better rendition which can make it more useful. The Mega Illuminator also has a much larger and brighter corona around the hotspot. The only instance that I would recommend the SunForce over the Ti Mega in would be if you need something lightweight and easy to carry, but otherwise I think the Mega Illuminator is still a better, more reliable, more useful light, and I think it is still a better choice than this SunForce.

Overall I think the SunForce 25 Million Candlepower HID spotlight is an excellent light and a great buy. I love the way its super tight blue beam looks. It is great for cloud bouncing, and I think this light is a perfect choice if you are just looking for an HID to have fun with. Otherwise, the Mega Illuminator is a more useful light IMHO.

 

[Showolf]

Another amazing light, and fantastic review as always! The fact that it throws more than the MEGA Illuminator is incredible, even if it is indeed by a small amount... Good luck with your new CANDLEPOWER CANNON!!!!

 

[Flashanator]

Nice Pics BB!!! Great light.

Hmmm I find it hard to believe it could out throw your Ti-mega with a smaller reflector, what looks like a shallower reflector, & less light with that higher colour temp.

But if you say so... :thumbsup:

 

[Roberts30]

Where did you purchase this light and how much? I want one! :twothumbs
(I bet your neighbors wondered what in the world was going on when you beamed their house)

 

[Showolf]

I am a good friend of BB, and his word is gold when it comes to light quality & performance... I have found his input and comments to be "SPOT ON" > No pun intended...LOL! I don't know how he does it, but I am glad he finds such great performing lights. I also will be purchasing one of these as my super thrower in the very near future... Thanks again BB, and have great fun with yet another sweet spotlight!

 

[BlueBeam22]

Another amazing light, and fantastic review as always! The fact that it throws more than the MEGA Illuminator is incredible, even if it is indeed by a small amount... Good luck with your new CANDLEPOWER CANNON!!!!

+1 on what makes it such an incredible light. It is very nice to have something smaller and lighter weight than the Mega Illuminator that can out throw it, as it is very convenient to carry on walks. The SunForce 25MCP absolutely blows away the POB HID, IMO.

Nice Pics BB!!! Great light.

Hmmm I find it hard to believe it could out throw your Ti-mega with a smaller reflector, what looks like a shallower reflector, & less light with that higher colour temp.

But if you say so... :thumbsup:

Those are exactly my thoughts on this too, Flashanator. :thumbsup: The reflector is smaller and shallower than the one in the Mega Illuminator, and it has to be putting out a few hundred lumens less at such a high color temperature. I have done some more testing on it, and it for sure out throws the Ti Mega.

Where did you purchase this light and how much? I want one! :twothumbs
(I bet your neighbors wondered what in the world was going on when you beamed their house)

I bought it at NorthernTool.com for $89.99.

I am a good friend of BB, and his word is gold when it comes to light quality & performance... I have found his input and comments to be "SPOT ON" > No pun intended...LOL! I don't know how he does it, but I am glad he finds such great performing lights. I also will be purchasing one of these as my super thrower in the very near future... Thanks again BB, and have great fun with yet another sweet spotlight!

Thank you Showolf, and I do hope you get one of these for yourself, as I have yet to find a light more enjoyable than this one if you just want something that can put light on targets at the greatest distance possible.

 

[Patriot]

It looks like a nice light Houston. Impressive that it could out throw the Ti-Mega with an inch smaller reflector. It's a little hard to tell in the pictures without a representative beam to compare with but it looks quite nice. I thought the idea of 2 x 6V SLA's was a little odd though and wanted to ask if it could be 2 x 12V SLA's instead wired in parallel?

If you ever get the chance you'll have to do some side by side comparisons with a tripod mounted camera.

Thanks for showing it to us.

 

[CUL8R]

BB22,

OK you talked me into it! I just ordered one to try out.

Jim

 

[BlueBeam22]

It looks like a nice light Houston. Impressive that it could out throw the Ti-Mega with an inch smaller reflector. It's a little hard to tell in the pictures without a representative beam to compare with but it looks quite nice. I thought the idea of 2 x 6V SLA's was a little odd though and wanted to ask if it could be 2 x 12V SLA's instead wired in parallel?

If you ever get the chance you'll have to do some side by side comparisons with a tripod mounted camera.

Thanks for showing it to us.

Thank you for your reply, Patriot.

I just looked at the instruction manual, and it states that the light uses two 6V, 4Ah SLA batteries, and a 12V 35W HID bulb. It also states that the lower switch can be used to run the light directly from its 12V cigarette lighter adaptor.

It is very impressive indeed how it out throws the Mega Illuminator. I took it back to the fields across the street from my neighborhood last night, and it was able to light up trees over 800 yards away more brightly than the Mega Illuminator was able to, which I was very impressed by.

BB22,

OK you talked me into it! I just ordered one to try out.

Jim

Congratulations, CUL8R. I hope you enjoy it, and please post how you find its performance.

It is such an amazing spotlight, and I hope it becomes more popular here on CPF.

 

[Patriot]

Thant's amazing performace Bluebeam. Thanks for the verifying the battery arrangement too. You've become quite the big spot light guru.

 

[BlueBeam22]

Thant's amazing performace Bluebeam. Thanks for the verifying the battery arrangement too. You've become quite the big spot light guru.

Thank you very much for your post and kind words, Patriot! I really enjoy collecting and testing the large reflectored SLA battery powered spotlights. :thumbsup:

I weighed the SunForce on my scale, and it only weighs about 7 pounds - just over 1/2 the weight of the Costco HID/Ti Mega, and quite noticeably less than the POB HID! I am so impressed by its light weight and throw surpassing that of the Ti Mega.

The SunForce 25MCP truly seems small and featherweight to me compared to the larger Costco/Ti Mega and Professional's Favorite 20 Million Plus Candlepower spotlights.

I just took this picture for you to see, Patriot, as I thought you would like to see a direct size comparison between it and the Costco/Ti Mega, since you have that light. Sorry if it is a little dark, the only light source was a camera flash.

 

[SunFire900]

BB22,

OK you talked me into it! I just ordered one to try out.

Jim

What the heck happened here? Sudden thread death?

Jim, did you get your SunForce? What are your feelings about it? The price is definitely right for an HID thrower like this, or so it seems.

I just hate to see threads die like this. Please let us know your thoughts.

 

[BlueBeam22]

Here is a side-by-side beamshot of the SunForce 25MCP and Mega Illuminator shining at some trees down the street around 100 yards away. Notice the SunForce's tighter beam, and how the two are extremely close. The SunForce has always out thrown the Mega Illuminator by a small amount in all of my tests.

Please let me know if this photo is displaying over 800x800 pixels. It should be 800x600 as that is how large it is displaying for me, but I will resize it immediately if it is displaying larger than that.

 

[ScottFHall]

I bought one of these Sunforce 25 milion candlepower HIDs--it's great!

It has been changed a little compared to your yellow one. Now, it's just got one on-off slide switch on top of the handle and there are two recharge inputs in the side sort of close to where the rocker switches on your's are--one for ac (wall wart included) and one for automative dc (cigarette lighter charge cord also included). A nylon strap in included--I added two chrome rings so that it would hang correctly. Sunforce ought to include rings or swivels.

Sunforce has eliminated one of the pair of stand legs (leaving just one which is sufficient to prop it to various angles). To get into the lens area, you have to take out one little little philips head screw and then make a slight clockwise turn on the black ring and lift upward--not the usual "unscrew the ring counterclockwise" approach that is what one expects intuitively. Once inside, the design is simple and pretty spacious--you could definitely fit a keyswitch into the housing if you want to add keyed battery cut-off and make it look almost as ominous as Ralf Ottow's Maxablaster

The reflector is spun aluminum, acts like a heatsink therefore, and vents have been stamped into the housing for airflow/cooling. I used a small exacto knife to clear just a couple of polyethylene fins that were still slightly blocking some of those vents. This and the chrome rings are the only quality improvement measure I had to undertake to make this light perfect.

Access to the batteries is very good--a screw-locked slide door is at the back.

The whole light has changed color, too, which is an improvement and prevents the housing itself from glowing--it's grey now with black trim. In all, this Sunforce light looks cool and it is one heck of a long throwing spotlight!

 

[ScottFHall]

And here's my unretouched beamshot and several other pics of the Sunforce 25...

 

[BlueBeam22]

Amazing photos and beamshots, ScottFHall! Thank you very much for posting them and posting your impressions on it. Looking at how tight its beam is in your sky shot tells me that the new style should be at least as good a thrower as the original yellow one. I love my SunForce and hope you get a lot of enjoyment and use out of yours.

 

[ScottFHall]

Thanks BlueBeam22, I expect it will last. It seems built well. Today, I gave this light its first mod to help ensure it can last down here in the Florida winter heat

As you can see in these pics, I got a few parts and a project box and built a little outboard muffin fan cooler with green running light, on-off switch, and a separate supply of rechargeable batteries inside. I then a made a slight hole in the bottom of the flashlight case and added some velcro. Voila--the temperature inside must be down and I didn't even have to hack into the internal circuitry. Why do this? Well, who knows who in China engineered this thing? Maybe it runs hot and this makes sense to do? It certainly looks good and adds just a little weight.

Besides more possible tweaks on this light, I've got a project coming up based on a 100 watt high pressure sodium lamp and ballast I have sitting here. It's rated at 6,000 lumens. I'm thinking--even though it throws that sickening pink-orange color--I want to put a parabolic reflector around the lamp to see if it will throw a beam to any great distance with strength and visibility. If so, I guess I'll build it a casing and give it a name--The Pink Menace or something like that.

 

[DM51]

Welcome to CPF, ScottFHall. Your photos are excellent, and you have picked the right place to post, as Bluebeam22 is very knowledgeable about these lights.

(@ Bluebeam22 & other Spotlights & HID regulars - I think ScottFHall is going to fit in very well indeed here!)

 

[BlueBeam22]

Thank you for the update ScottFHall, your photos are very nice and so is your additional fan. Please do post updates if you decide to modify it with your 100W sodium HID lamp. I would be interested to see whether that makes a thrower or more of a flood light.

DM51, I truly appreciate your kind comments. Thank you very much!

 

[uknewbie]

This looks rather good to me. Particularly the ability to run it directly from your car's 12V DC supply :thumbsup:

Anywhere ship to the UK for less than £1 million I wonder?

Or anyone in the UK sell them?