Agent_Jaws
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2008
- Messages
- 54
I finally got some parts assembled and wanted to share with you all what the result was. What I wanted to do was to have a light with a throw like my incandescent 6P, a flood like my Surefire L4, but with a significantly longer burn time. What I did was take my 6P, picked up a custom body similar to a 9P, and added a LED drop-in. Here is a parts list for anyone interested:
Surefire 6P head and tailcap
FM 2x18500 body
Malkoff M60L lamp
These were the areas I was most concerned with (in no particular order):
Throw - The M60L throws much, much further than my Surefire L4 and about as far as my 6P incandescent. Malkoff claims that the M60L will "easily illuminate objects at 150+ feet", what they should do is emphasize the part that says "easily" because it does just that. I tested this on a tree top closer to 200 feet from my house and it did a great job of bringing it to life. That is realistically the limit of my semi-detailed vision range anyway so lighting anything beyond that, outside of larger objects, would be a waste for me.
Flood - I tested this inside my closed garage, so basically a room about 10x25 feet with some workout equipment and random crap strewn about. The L4 did a slightly better job of flooding the room with light, but realistically both lights were about even to my eyes. No matter where in the room I pointed either light, both provided enough flood to see clearly. The hotspot on the M60L is definitely smaller, however there is plenty of spill to go around and I wouldn't be afraid to use it in the same manner as my L4.
Runtime - I haven't tested this as I only just put it all together a little bit ago, but seeing that the Surefire L4 is rated to run regulated for about 1 hour, and the M60L is rated to burn for about 4.5 hours on 2 primaries, I expect much better runtimes than with the L4. Of course my 6P was running the P60 lamp that also promises about 1 hour of burn, so the M60L should easily win this. Couple that with the fact that I am running it with 3 primaries instead of 2, I am looking for runtimes in excess of 6 hours per set of batteries, which is outstanding.
Construction - This is about durability, and based on the unit I got I would rate the construction of both the FM 2x18500 body and the Malkoff module as top notch. I have a slight gap between the head and body but overall the unit is solid and I'm not worried at all about anything breaking. The M60L module looks and feels like something that you'd expect to come from a leader in the industry, not from a smaller builder. Overall I'm pretty impressed with the setup, except I need to figure out what to engrave on the flat part of the body now :D
Versatility - I love the versatility of the home brew light over the L4. With this configuration I can run 3 x primaries or 2 x 18500 rechargeables, with either the M60L or even a P90/91 lamp if I wanted. With the L4 I just have an L4 running primaries, but the home brew gives me much more versatility. I don't mind at all not having multiple outputs when I can pluck 4+ hours of runtime on rechargeable batteries. The idea of swapping lamps or batteries without HAVING to swap the other is one thing that really attracted me to this set-up. Plus, the overall size is still small enough to EDC if I wanted, and I think a 2x18650 body would've been too long for that.
So to summarize:
Throw like a 6P? :thumbsup:
Light a room like an L4? :thumbsup:
Guilt-free lumens? As soon as I pick up some batteries and a charger :D
Extended runtimes? Well at least 300% increase over either the 6P or L4, so :thumbsup:
Downsides? I kinda miss my clicky cap, but that can be remedied easily. Primary batteries also rattle a tad in the body, so I'm trying to conjure a way to safely pad them and silence the light :thinking:
Overall? Friggin Awesome! :twothumbs
Pic:
I suck at the manual camera settings but meh, L4 beam:
M60L beam:
For the life of me I couldn't get any good outdoor shots, but hey, my camera broke after Iraq so I just grabbed a loaner :D The beams are both tremendously brighter in real life, it's my crappy camera work that makes them look like *** but you can compare the intensity of the hot spots at least.
Surefire 6P head and tailcap
FM 2x18500 body
Malkoff M60L lamp
These were the areas I was most concerned with (in no particular order):
Throw - The M60L throws much, much further than my Surefire L4 and about as far as my 6P incandescent. Malkoff claims that the M60L will "easily illuminate objects at 150+ feet", what they should do is emphasize the part that says "easily" because it does just that. I tested this on a tree top closer to 200 feet from my house and it did a great job of bringing it to life. That is realistically the limit of my semi-detailed vision range anyway so lighting anything beyond that, outside of larger objects, would be a waste for me.
Flood - I tested this inside my closed garage, so basically a room about 10x25 feet with some workout equipment and random crap strewn about. The L4 did a slightly better job of flooding the room with light, but realistically both lights were about even to my eyes. No matter where in the room I pointed either light, both provided enough flood to see clearly. The hotspot on the M60L is definitely smaller, however there is plenty of spill to go around and I wouldn't be afraid to use it in the same manner as my L4.
Runtime - I haven't tested this as I only just put it all together a little bit ago, but seeing that the Surefire L4 is rated to run regulated for about 1 hour, and the M60L is rated to burn for about 4.5 hours on 2 primaries, I expect much better runtimes than with the L4. Of course my 6P was running the P60 lamp that also promises about 1 hour of burn, so the M60L should easily win this. Couple that with the fact that I am running it with 3 primaries instead of 2, I am looking for runtimes in excess of 6 hours per set of batteries, which is outstanding.
Construction - This is about durability, and based on the unit I got I would rate the construction of both the FM 2x18500 body and the Malkoff module as top notch. I have a slight gap between the head and body but overall the unit is solid and I'm not worried at all about anything breaking. The M60L module looks and feels like something that you'd expect to come from a leader in the industry, not from a smaller builder. Overall I'm pretty impressed with the setup, except I need to figure out what to engrave on the flat part of the body now :D
Versatility - I love the versatility of the home brew light over the L4. With this configuration I can run 3 x primaries or 2 x 18500 rechargeables, with either the M60L or even a P90/91 lamp if I wanted. With the L4 I just have an L4 running primaries, but the home brew gives me much more versatility. I don't mind at all not having multiple outputs when I can pluck 4+ hours of runtime on rechargeable batteries. The idea of swapping lamps or batteries without HAVING to swap the other is one thing that really attracted me to this set-up. Plus, the overall size is still small enough to EDC if I wanted, and I think a 2x18650 body would've been too long for that.
So to summarize:
Throw like a 6P? :thumbsup:
Light a room like an L4? :thumbsup:
Guilt-free lumens? As soon as I pick up some batteries and a charger :D
Extended runtimes? Well at least 300% increase over either the 6P or L4, so :thumbsup:
Downsides? I kinda miss my clicky cap, but that can be remedied easily. Primary batteries also rattle a tad in the body, so I'm trying to conjure a way to safely pad them and silence the light :thinking:
Overall? Friggin Awesome! :twothumbs
Pic:
I suck at the manual camera settings but meh, L4 beam:
M60L beam:
For the life of me I couldn't get any good outdoor shots, but hey, my camera broke after Iraq so I just grabbed a loaner :D The beams are both tremendously brighter in real life, it's my crappy camera work that makes them look like *** but you can compare the intensity of the hot spots at least.
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