Eyefryer vs. HID! Pictures too!

[Kenshiro]

This is a review for the EYEFRYER, which was made by bwcaw of the CPF.

He has made a total of 3 (correct me if I'm wrong bwcaw!), and King Aragorn himself has one.
Aragorn also stated that it was the brightest non-HID light he'd ever seen, which intrigued me. So I sent out a message to bwcaw and got a sample, and I assembled an elite light force for him to challenge.

How did he fare?

Well.....
First the players!

No, wait.....
First let me intorduce you to the Eyefryer.
The Eyefryer is a two-piece light unit consisting of a battery pack (from a Makita worklight handle) and a spotlight body. They are connected by a coiled wire, and the battery has a strap attatchment so you can hang it over your shoulder. The battery itself is a 14.4V NiMH Makita original, which of course fits into the original Makita charger as well.

Here's some shots of the Eyefryer.

And now, the players!

From left to right: Eyefryer, Vector 1M Spotlight (Banana Vector), KumKang HID, McCulloch X990, and Vector 3M CP "Mega Sport Spot".

Here we go!

 

[Kenshiro]

1) Beam Shot Comparisons (Short range)

First, I'll show you some beam shots of the EF against some of the lights above.
At close range, the EF is quite bright and has a tight beam. However, the beam does suffer from divergence at longer distances. Remember, the EF is still a prototype, and bwcaw is still working on it.

Here are the pics.

From the top left clockwise: Ken 2&EF, Vector 3M single beam&EF, Vector 3M double beam&EF, KumKang HID&EF

Although the EF performed it's best at close range, it was still the least brightest of the group. However, it should also be noted that it uses the least powerful bulb as well. It uses a 55W halogen bulb taken from a police siren light, and both the Vector 3M and the Ken 2 use 100W bulbs.
As many of you know, the Vector uses 2X100W "blue xenon" bulbs, which are not only bright, but also give out a more "whiter light". The "single mode" mentioned above is when it uses only one of these bulbs (100W total), and the "double mode" is when the Vector uses two of these bulbs simultaneously (200W total!).
Anyway, comparing the single mode beam with the EF, you can see the EF come close. Almost the same brightness at half the power. Now that's the mark of a very good bulb. But then again, you must remember that the EF is overdriving the 55W bulb with 14.4V.
(You can also see that the Ken 2 with a 100W bulb puts out more light than even the 200W Vector!

)

Anyway, I won't post too many close range beams because I believe the outdoor shots to be a better measure of the lights.

Basically at close range, the light output of the EF seemed to be almost the same as the "banana Vector"(which uses a 75W bulb).

In the long range tests, however, it did suffer a bit because of the focus issue mentioned above.

So, let's go outdoors!

 

[Kenshiro]

EDIT: I now have the names of the suspects listed in their shots.

2) Whoa, now the outdoor shots.....

Here's where I'll honor Mr. Ted Bear by doing a bit of "Ted Bear teasing".
I'll give you 9 photos, and you guys guess which ones they are!
Heh heh.....

However, I'll give you the 9 players involved. So it'll be less "guessing".

They are:
* Eyefryer
* McCulloch X990 -Spot mode
* McCulloch X990 - Wide mode
* Ken 2
* KumKang HID -Spot mode
* KumKang HID - Wide mode
* Banana Vector
* Vector 3M -Single mode
* Vector 3M - Double mode

Good luck!
Here goes!

I'll post the answers later on.

Enjoy!

And let the comments begin!

 

[DavidW]

I don't have a guess but I'm sure interested in #8. Do you have runtime plots?

 

[FalconFX]

I'm willing to guess that 6-7 and 8-9 are either the McCulloch X990 or the KumKang HID... probably in that order also...

 

[KartRacer31]

AHHHH your killin me man, please tell us the answers! And some more info on the testing, IE how many feet away are the trees, etc. And what is the Ken 2, I'm not familiar with that light, and I don't see a pict of it up there. I love these shootouts, keep up the great work!

 

[Kenshiro]

KartRacer31,
The target is 100 yards away.

Shot in complete darkness, any light you see in the photos is generated by the light itself.

Note some have a green tint and some have a bit or red. Mr Ted Bear and I were experimenting with the white balance, to see which setting provided the most accurate data. We used a manual setting, which seemed to cause certain color shifts for different lights. I fixed the color balance a little bit in photoshop, just enough to make the pics look more balanced to each other. But not too much.

The Ken 2 is a prototype that I'm working on. I'm pushing the envelope to see just how bright non-HID lights can be (and be portable as well).

 

[bwcaw]

Thanks Ken for posting beamshots and a pics of
the EYEFRYER. I have always wanted to do this, but I lack a digital camera. Thanks again!

 

[KartRacer31]

Kenshiro - I'm very intrgued by your Ken2 light. I did a search for Ken2 but didn't find anything, did a search for Ken 2 but a million posts came up. Can you direct me to a thread about it, or tell me about it. And I guess you're going to keep us in the dark about the reasults for a while

 

[geepondy]

Just where is it that you guys take these pictures?

 

[Mr Ted Bear]

Porter Ranch Park
Los Angeles, Ca

 

[KartRacer31]

Ok, Here are my picks for the brightest to dimest: 8,9,5,7,3,6,4,2,1. Who is in what order I'm not sure. However from what I've seen on these boards about the X990 it must be at the brightest or second. I'm not familiar at all with the Kum Kang, but I would figure that it's bright too. And the Ken2 seemed to be bright in the beam shots. The only one of those lights I own is the yellow Vector 1mil. That thing is pretty dam bright, so whatever is brighter than that is realy superbright! (and I figure it's only about the fourth brightest in that group.) I figure the Vector 3mil twin beam light using one beam is the weakest, and on two beams it's not much better. The reason is because from what I hear it has a very difused beam, so it's cranking out the light at close range (like a flood light), but it's not getting the throw for the 100yards. Well that's it for my very uneducated opinion. So enough of my misguided ramblings lets hear the facts!

 

[Kenshiro]

Hmmmm,
I'm not getting the response that I thought I would get.

Maybe it's because I didn't post it on the general forums.

I'll give it till tonight, after which I'll move this to that forum.

Anyway, for all of you who waited, I've edited the pictures so that you can see the answers now.

Let the true comments begin!

Also, just in case you're wondering how bright all these lights really are, here's the same scene illuminated by a SF 10X in high output mode! Exact same settings of exposure and F-stop.

Be sure to look for the details in the leaves of the trees, as well as the shadows and background. Which light can actually illuminate the dark shadowy areas?
It so tempting and easy just to see the middle of the picture, but if you look at corner areas and the darker shadows, you can see that with some lights you can actually distinguish the smaller trees in the background, others that seem brighter, you can't.
Just be sure to look at the whole picture. Not just what is immediately noticable.

 

[treek13]

Wow that Kenshiro Mod2 has a very impressive beam. Nice work on that one Kenshiro.

Pat

 

[Nerd]

What happen to the poor m6? I can barely make out the details... I tot it's just a patch of blackness.... had to use photoshop to brighten it up before I realise there is anything....

 

[rlhess]

Wow, Ken,

Is that overhanging tree closer in or is your Ken2 mod really that much brighter? That's confusing me.

By the way, my "banana" measures only about 100,000 cp. The Vector 3M is not all that much more impressive considering size/weight as compared to the "banana."

Also the Brinkmann MaxMillion only measures 65,000 cd.

Cheers,

Richard

 

[FalconFX]

Kenshiro,

One thing the SureFire 10X can't do is throw a good beam. It's just way too dispersed to ever be used as an all purpose spotlight. I'd take my X990 over it any time. And with runtime, raw power, similar cost and good focus, the only things that can beat it is either a mod, an NH or an MB, or something that costs more than $1K...

BTW, how much does the Kum Kang HID cost?

 

[Kenshiro]

Richard,
Rest asured all the lights are from the same distance.
The characteristic of the Ken 2 is that in the "bright spot", everything seems to be lit up pretty evenly. there is no "super-bright center" as you find in other beams. In contrast, the X990 and KumKang have a brighter center beam("pencil beam"), surrounded by a less bright beam.
It's still in the prototype stage, but the total light output seems to be about equal among the three. It's just that the HID lights have that nasty center beam and a higher color temp. which make them seem slightly brighter.
Here's a simple illustration of what the beam patterns look like:

1 is the X990 pattern, 2 is the KumKang pattern, and 3 is the Ken 2 pattern.
To explain it briefly, the two HID lights have a very small, pencil-thin center that is very bright. The KumKang has a slightly brighter center(this will show up in upcoming photos), but for all intents and purposes, you can call them equal. Each light then has a secondary surrounding beam, but the patterns are different. The X990 has a brighter surrounding beam, but is smaller. The Kumkang has a larger one, but is slightly dimmer. It is still very bright though. This surrounding beam pattern will also show in upcoming photos. These secondary beams are then followed by peripheral light(spill light).
The Ken 2 doesn't have two main levels of light. Instead, it simply has one primary beam(kind of like a "turbo head" on a surefire) followed by peripheral light. Though less bright than the center beams of the HIDs, this primary beam is much brighter than the secondary beams of either light. Hence the results that you see.
The drawings are not drawn to scale or anything. They simply show the relative beam patterns of each.

FalconFX, the price for the KumKang is about $750. More info will follow.

 

[KartRacer31]

Kenshiro -
Wow, awesome reasults. Thanks for taking the time and effort to put this together. I love this stuff! Please tell me more about your Ken2 mod. What does it look like, how long will it run, are you going to sell them, or can I make my own? Very impresive mod.

I'm also impressed with how my $17 Yellow Bannana Vector did up against those big boys. I took the 75 watt bulb out of mine and put in a 100w. Made a little bit of a diff, would like to see how this inexpensive upgrade would affect the reasults. Do you think you could pull one of your 100w bulbs from your 3m vector and throw it into the bananna for a quick test shot?

I love when a cheep light or a mod can beat the big expensive lights. I figure for the price of a KumKang I could get about 44 Bananna Vectors!

Very interesting comparison to the surefire 10x. I can't believe it didn't light up the subject at all. I don't own a 10x or an m6 but I hear so much about them I just assumed they would hang with these big boys. How does the m6 compare to the 10x?

 

[Kenshiro]

Here's another photo of the X990 and KumKang HID head-to-head.

The top left photo is simply a shot to show you the great beams of these lights. The top and bottom right photos show the lights shot into mid air. The wider "secondary beam" of the KumKang can be seen in these photos. You can clearly see more of the tree on the left than you can with the X990. This can also be seen in the bottom left photo. But as mentioned eariler, the X990 has a brighter secondary beam. You can see that the KumKang's secondary beam is still quite bright.
The KumKang's beam also seems to have a slightly more defined center, but to our eyes, they seemed pretty much dead-even. All in all they're pretty close. After all, they're basically using the same spec bulb and ballast. The KumKang has a slightly higher color temp. though (bluer beam).