still an entry level HID searchlight (non-walmart) will set you back 200-300 dollars. thatd be a high end LED light right there. so theres got to be something that makes HIDs expensive, right? im not saying price is an issue, i just want to understand why theyre more expensive in the first place rather it be material cost or supply/demand, ect. maybe they charge by the lumens which is typical for the most part in the LED world.
With competition being what is is in the Asian HID market it's probably safe to say that the profit margins are similar to that of LED. Obviously they're usually made in smaller production runs due to smaller demand. The bulbs themselves are more expensive than diodes and ballasts are almost always more expensive than simple circuit boards, which HID's also have. HID's typically use larger li-ion batteries and more of them. When considering the cost of 8-12 high quality li-ion cells, there's a sizable investment in the battery alone. Therefore, most of the cost differences can be attributed to the bulbs, ballasts, battery and lower production numbers. There is also more raw material used in the average HID light simply because it's larger.
When you step up to the Polarion level there are many things that influence the price. The Osram and Philips bulbs are much more expensive, as well as the ballast and high quality circuits used. Again, these larger lights are using a higher cell count than the typical 1-3 cell LED light. If you consider that the 35-50W L50's and Xe50 Cost $750-$1000 in plastic bodies, then you can begin to see how a X1 built with a machined aluminum, hard anodized, waterproof body could jump up in price a lot. Making a large light waterproof is not an inexpensive task and that becomes readily appearent when you look at the cost of underwater equipment. Also, let's not forget the low production number, custom LED lights approach or equal the price the most expensive HID's. Take Electrolumens for example, if you look at his line up you'll see that it's just as expensive to produce high ouput LED arrays as it is to produce high output HIDs.
When the quality get's a little bit better from say, a $1000 light to a $2000 light, the price goes up exponentially. Take the Mac's Custom 35/50W HID for example
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=228059 the parts and materials alone cost so much that at least at this point in time he doesn't feel that he'd be able to sell it at a profit worth his time.
Lights with price points like the Polarion can be compared to $2000 binoculars, professional cameras bodies, and high end firearms. In this case a $1000 binocular certainly offers and exellent view, a $1000 camera body certainly has great features and will last decades, and a Kimber 1911 certainly will be accurate and reliable. It's that next step, that continuation of improvement, and the extra attention to detail that costs so much more. Compared to the example of optics, cameras and guns, that I used, the Polarion is even more exclusive since they're the only ones creating a light of this caliber. If you only took into consideration the warm up time of the Polarion, it's unlike any other HID out there. What's that attribute alone worth to the soldier, firefighter, LEO, or caver? Appearently enough that Polarion is able to sell them for a profit.
Regarding the difference between the X1 and PH40. I'm not quite sure really. I know that there are some differences, mainly their depth rating and machining involved. The P series almost certainly start with a larger aluminum blank. Besides these more obvious things I think Polarion has made a slight marketing blunder as of late. The X1 used to be a 35W light and changed to 40W when the PH50 was introduced. Then it was determined that Polarion was going to instead produce a PH45 instead of the PH50. In either case, the higher wattage, beyond the X1's 40W could partially explain the additionial cost, the problem is that the PH50 is discontinued and the PH45 never came into existence. In short, the X1 in 40W and the PH40 are both 40W lights. This make the X1 look like a real bargain or the PH40 seem a bit out of line. Since the X1 is the light that changed to 40W from 35W while the price remained the same, I'd tend to look at the X1 as the bargain. My guess is that they're going to adjusted their prices when someone with marketing wisdom takes a look at their product line up. I've been pointing out the X1's apparent value for over a year now in various threads.
Sorry that my thoughts were not a bit more linear in construction but I wasn't quite sure what I was going to write untill I got going. In any case, I hope that I brought up a few points worth considering.
Paul.
