I'd like to buy an incandescent but...

[Cascade Range]

I just can't wrap my head around how short the battery life is on them.
Is this one of the major drawbacks of this design of light? I love the price
of the Incan 6P but the 20/60 minutes time with the cr123's makes it a bit
unappealing. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Mettee]

The small surefire compact size and its primary use dictate all those things. Incans can have good run time. Most small stock surefires led or incan have shorter run times. Its more the battery than anything else...but there are many factors that make the specs what you see.

 

[Sailboat]

I just can't wrap my head around how short the battery life is on them.
Is this one of the major drawbacks of this design of light? I love the price
of the Incan 6P but the 20/60 minutes time with the cr123's makes it a bit
unappealing. Any thoughts? Thanks.

They are hugely inefficient. From an efficiency standpoint, we're better off calling them flashheats, and marveling at how little energy is wasted by making light. (tongue in cheek, but they still aren't very good if you're looking to throw 200 lumens for half the night)

However, they are very pleasing to the eye, and SHOULD throw better for a given reflector size.

High CRI LEDs seem to have them beat for color, but I'm not personally convinced I should give up on incans yet.

For me, the bad runtime is a small price to pay for the things I love about incans.

 

[Brigadier]

In a 6P size light, get some P90 LA's and a half dozen IMR16340's.

There are ways around runtime issues. IMO, the benefits outweigh the limitations.

 

[wyager]

With incans, light is a by-product of heat.
With LEDs, heat is a by-product of light.

 

[Cascade Range]

Thanks for all the responses and thoughts. I just might buy one and see
how I like it seeing they are not all that much money the one's I'm looking
at.

 

[Sailboat]

Since you have a G2 in your avatar..Don't bother buying a whole new light for an experiment. Even though you will love incans.

For 12 dollars you can get a Surefire P60 lamp which will give you 65 lumens for an hour, with 4k lux.

For 15 dollars you can get a Lumens Factory EO-6 and blast 200 lumens and a gajillion lux. That's not very scientific, but since it's doing 3 times the output with the same beam shape, the lux have to be way up there. Runtime isn't good at all with this option, but it is cool to get that much light out of an incan with 2 CR123s.

http://www.lighthound.com/Lumens-Fa...ssembly-for-SureFire-C-P-Z-Series_p_1005.html

 

[mdocod]

For 15 dollars you can get a Lumens Factory EO-6 and blast 200 lumens and a gajillion lux. That's not very scientific, but since it's doing 3 times the output with the same beam shape, the lux have to be way up there. Runtime isn't good at all with this option, but it is cool to get that much light out of an incan with 2 CR123s.

Hi Sailboat,

LumensFactory "lumens" are measured very differently from "Surefire Lumens."

I don't want to get into the details because I've probably explained this "a gajillion" times on CPF, but the EO-6 is only going to be about 50% brighter than a P60. It's just about enough to notice a difference but it's not going to blow any socks loose.

Eric

 

[KiwiMark]

Most of my incans are my bigger lights - I can get 2 hours of good output from my Mag 2D with 3854-L bulb. On a smaller light with plenty of light output the run time will have to be less, there really isn't an easy way around it. However I can use my A2 for short bursts and use other lights like my Jet-IIIM (warm tint) for longer periods. The trick is to own several lights and take an incan as well as an LED with you - then you can get the best of both worlds.

 

[ampdude]

I just can't wrap my head around how short the battery life is on them.
Is this one of the major drawbacks of this design of light? I love the price
of the Incan 6P but the 20/60 minutes time with the cr123's makes it a bit
unappealing. Any thoughts? Thanks.

You could try a Lumen's Factory ES-9 lamp assembly paired up with a Five Mega 2 x 18650 body and two of AW's P18650 2900mAh cells for probably around 3.5hrs of runtime and rechargeable as well.

 

[Sailboat]

Hi Sailboat,

LumensFactory "lumens" are measured very differently from "Surefire Lumens."

I don't want to get into the details because I've probably explained this "a gajillion" times on CPF, but the EO-6 is only going to be about 50% brighter than a P60. It's just about enough to notice a difference but it's not going to blow any socks loose.

Eric

Thanks Eric, my mistake. I have both the P60 and EO-6, and I found the LF bulb to be considerably brighter than the P60. Not just in the hotspot but also in the spill, it was much, much brighter.

My Quark AA^2 is reported to be 200 OTF Lumens. I believe that the LF bulb is very very close to this level, but it does have a much more pronounced hotspot and a dimmer spill. I think this is because the reflector may be slightly bigger and the incan filament is much smaller than the LED's surface.

The SF bulb is not close to either in terms of light, but it's the prettiest, which is all that I really care about.

Perhaps I haven't been in the game long enough and I'm easily impressed with brightness.

 

[Mikeg23]

I find an hour of runtime to be sufficient... Probably because I started out with a streamlight strion. My user lights are a 6P or E2e both of which have been converted to recharchable lithium ion. I generally carry one of these with a spare battery and though I have frequently used up one battery through out the course of a work day/night I have never burned through both.

 

[NotRegulated]

If you have a Surefire two or three cell light you can have both an incan and a LED just by changing the lamp assemblies.
For example, a standard 6P with a P60 incan bulb can also use any of the D26 LED dropin lamp assemblies as well.
The three cell lights like the 9P or C3 will let you run the P90 incan bulb or again most any of the LED's that handle up to 9volts.
If you are considering using rechargeables, the three cell lights like the 9P is a perfect host for running two 17500 rechargeable batteries with the P90 bulb. You get decent runtime for an incan and the power is rechargeable. For more runtime, put in an LED.

 

[Cascade Range]

Great replies guys, gives me lots to consider. :thumbsup:

 

[Brigadier]

For a 3X123 sized incan, you can't get much more bang for the buck than the LF Seraph SP-9. They are SF 'C' compatible, and are bored for 18mm cells. They come with 2 bezels-reg or crennelated, and 2 tailcaps - a clicky for use up to 2A, and a twisty for 2A+ bulbs. I run mine with the LF D36 mini-TH, and HO-9L lamp, and 2 AW18500 Li-ions, good for 60 minutes. For more runtime, you can get the SR-9L[75 minutes], or a D36 LED module, or their P7 TH.

And the LF incand LA's really put out a beautiful beam.

 

[Cascade Range]

that's a great looking light. :thumbsup:

 

[ampdude]

Bridadier is totally right. But also remember that with incan lights it's not quantity of light, but quality of light.

Us incan snobs will give you some excellent advice.. make recharging batteries a priority and if that's not an option...Bring lots of extra batteries!

 

[Brigadier]

Bridadier is totally right. But also remember that with incan lights it's not quantity of light, but quality of light.

Us incan snobs will give you some excellent advice.. make recharging batteries a priority and if that's not an option...Bring lots of extra batteries!

Agreed. I use a small case Logic Point and Shoot camera bag to carry extra 18500 cells, both for this light, or my bored M3. And if worse comes to worse, I can always throw in 3XCR123 cells from my SF spares carriers.

 

[buickid]

Rechargeable is the way to go! Guilt free lumens!

 

[Yavox]

For a 3X123 sized incan, you can't get much more bang for the buck than the LF Seraph SP-9. They are SF 'C' compatible, and are bored for 18mm cells. They come with 2 bezels-reg or crennelated, and 2 tailcaps - a clicky for use up to 2A, and a twisty for 2A+ bulbs. I run mine with the LF D36 mini-TH, and HO-9L lamp, and 2 AW18500 Li-ions, good for 60 minutes. For more runtime, you can get the SR-9L[75 minutes], or a D36 LED module, or their P7 TH.

And the LF incand LA's really put out a beautiful beam.

What kind of extender do I need to put 3x18650 into SP-9?