Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

[ampdude]

First off, I do own a few LED lights. I have a red Photon III that I've had on my keychain for over 6 years now. I have a 45 lumen Dorcy that I bought at Big Lots a month ago. I have a 2AAA River Rock .5W 10 lumen light that I bought at Target several years ago.

That's the extent of my LED collection and I'm comfortable with that. I've used Crees and R2 drop-in's and things like that in the past, but they just never appealed to me.

I use a G2 with a P90 and two of AW's IMR16340's at work. I have a ton of Surefire E-series incan lights. I have a bunch of C series Surefire incan lights. I have other incans. I have a bunch of extra P60/P61/P90/P91 and Lumens factory bulbs for my lights.

I have used rechargeable batteries most of the time in the past few years. I have extra primaries for backup when I need a longer runtime than a few rechargeable batteries can provide, such as in emergencies.

I'm pretty comfortable with that because they have always served me well an I've never liked the light produced by LED's, no matter how many times I've used the latest greatest ones.

I'm not alone am I? I have been thinking about getting a 5A tinted Malkoff with the E-series adapter head lately! Talk me out of it?

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

You are probably not alone. I started out with Incan lights and never stopped buying them. That said, always having been a flashaholic. I initially tried LED lights and never stopped buying them either. I do like the color rendition of incan lights at night, but don't have a problem with LED light color enough to limit my use of them at night.

We have to be careful here that this thread does not turn into an Incan vs LED thread, as we have already done that, many times, and recently too. Ampdude, is there any way to keep that from happening? I would think you could monitor this thread closely to keep that from happening. :thumbsup:

Bill

 

[buickid]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I'm not sure I can talk you out of a warm tinted Malkoff, as I own a M30W, and I love it! All of my other lights aside from a Novatac 120P are incandescent, so you know I love incan. I find the Novatac a bit too cool (tint wise), but its so versatile, so it stays in my collection. The M30W on the other hand, that stays in my decked out 6P. That one is bored for 18mm, has a FM35 red BeamFilter, and rides in a V21 nylon holster. Its pretty much always my EDC, except when I feel like taking my E2D out of the case.

 

[rontaki]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

Recently, I purchased an EagleTac M2XC4 in the Neutral White tint. It is more of a warm white, judging by the way it looks, and by the "sunlight test" - it looks warmer, or more yellowish, than sunlight does on white paper.

I would say it is at least as warm as an incan, possibly even more so! It certainly has good color rendition, and makes all my other LED lights look blueish by comparison.

Coupled with long battery life, being impervious to shock, long working life and a robust output, what's not to like?

Ron

 

[KiwiMark]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

That's the extent of my LED collection and I'm comfortable with that. I've used Crees and R2 drop-in's and things like that in the past, but they just never appealed to me.

I'm not alone am I?

You are not alone, many people don't realise what they are missing out on.

But you lack a Zebralight H60w and that is a great shame - you should buy one. This is a great light for incan fans - it is hard to beat a nice wide floody beam from an H60w that is on a head band or clipped to a pocket while you hold a nice incan thrower. The last time I went camping I had a Zebralight clipped to my shirt and I was holding a Mag 2D ROP high (with fivemega deep reflector V2) - I could see around be thanks to the Zebralight and if I wanted to see further away then I just clicked the Mag on and viola!

A neutral (warm) tint 1 x AA thrower is also a good thing to keep in your pocket every day - very handy and much nicer beam colour than the standard bluish emitters. I just got a Nitecore EZ-AA neutral - not much bigger than a L0D but lots more throw.

You probably need more incans too - everybody does!

 

[ampdude]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

We have to be careful here that this thread does not turn into an Incan vs LED thread, as we have already done that, many times, and recently too. Ampdude, is there any way to keep that from happening? I would think you could monitor this thread closely to keep that from happening. :thumbsup:

Bill

Oh crap! Honestly, I never even thought of that when I was posting this as strange as this may sound now. I just wanted to know how many people out there like me just don't feel "inadequate" without some other type of light in their collection. I could be refering to HID LED whatever. I was just wondering if anyone still feels fine with only having incans as their "go to" lights. I'd use my incans for any situation imagineable. Whether I need to search a cave for several hours or ride out a natural disaster for a couple of weeks or spot an intruder and use it tactically, or more. Incan just does it all for me and I don't really feel compelled to get anything else.

I've only had one Surefire lamp burn out on me in the past ten years and it was just recently. And I think it was a fluke. I've always used their incan lamps heavily and never had a problem. I've had several "other" types of lights go out on me. I have PLENTY of spare lamps and I'm not worried about runtime or lamp life.

 

[lctorana]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

Over the past year or so, I have been moving ever-closer to incan-only.

My experience is very similar to ampdude.

 

[KiwiMark]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I was just wondering if anyone still feels fine with only having incans as their "go to" lights.

I honestly wouldn't feel fine without my LED lights. But I wouldn't want to give up my incans either.

Are there incan equivalents of the Zebralight H60w? I am not too sure that the function of this light is matched by any other.

What about the 1 x AA lights (Nitecore/Quark/whatever) that have good throw, plenty of Lumen and reasonable battery life? How about for ultra low output (like the Quark moon mode)?

I really can't see incan lights matching LED for certain purposes, just like no LED I have come across could match my Mag 3D (drawing about 80W of power and still running 30+ minutes before falling out of regulation) or my Elephant II with 3" throwmaster head (210W regulated output - but not much run time). Around home I love my ROP low for a handy incan utility light, but in my jeans pocket I carry a 1 x AA LED light (the Mag 2D just ain't gonna fit).

My view: You must have both LED & Incan lights so you can use the right tool for the job. LEDs have efficiency and an ability to go low without colour change. Incans have high CRI for more natural looking light and the ability to have HUGE output - as long as you can supply enough power.

Incan only - never!
LED only - never!

 

[RichS]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I agree with KiwiMark. I am definitely an "incan" guy, as I much prefer the light quality of incandescents. But I have several LEDs that I use and would not replace with an incan. One is my EDC which is a Fenix LOD Q4. Anything bigger than a AAA is too big for me to EDC. But I can count on this for hours of use at low or medium, which is plenty most of the time. The most important light is the one you have on you, and this is usually the only one I have on me. Inside the house my NovaTac is also indispensible with it's low-low and tail-stand.

I'll always grab one of my incans when I'm heading outside, but I'll have a LED handy as well. Since the advent of warm tint LEDs, the severe gap in light-quality has really diminished. My preference - the Q4 5B - has awesome rendering and provides very nice 3D illumination indoors and out. My Q4 5B modded L1 is an awesome light, and I'd never get rid of it. As a flashaholic, why not have the full arsenal of lighting technology available to you? If I need pure efficiency/runtime - it's LED. If I need the maximum throw possible, I'll pull out my POB HID. For everything else, nothing but incan.

When we had a power outage for 7 days in a row last year, I can't imagine not having a handful of nice tail-standing LEDs to use in the bathrooms for showers, in each room for lighting, kitchen for eating/cooking, etc. If I had only or mainly incans for this length of time, I would have been up a creek... keep in mind you can't charge batteries without power.. A few CR123s kept us with light for quite a while due the high efficiencies of LEDs. Of course I used some incan lighting as well, but during this time it was all about efficiency and power conservation as I didn't have an endless supply of batteries.

My point is, don't lean so heavily to one side of the that you fail to take advantage of all the strong points and advancements of the others.

 

[Linger]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

My point is, don't lean so heavily to one side of the that you fail to take advantage of all the strong points and advancements of the others.

Totally.
I've moved towards the beam character of incan, and recent purchases have been >500 lumen incans. They are very impressive. Even a flooder incan has a decent bit of throw to it. To me incans are special use, they have a very unique ability but the fantastic efficiency and output of my leds is something my incans cannot replace.
To answer the OP's question: No I would not be comfortable with-out it.
I think anyone should have a 'real' incan and a 'real' led to go with it.

 

[computernut]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I like having an incan outdoors but I usually have at least one LED on my as backup. Can't beat the runtime and don't having a spare in case my bulb blows.

 

[Well-Lit]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I think it's all about balance. Having both incans and LED's at your disposal strikes this balance. Having said that, my LED's probably out number my incans 3 to 1. But then again I have alot of incans . Indoors it's LED's almost exclusively. Outdoors, it's an incan with an LED backup.

Best Regards:
Bob

 

[cernobila]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

Well, in my case LED's for indoors, hallways alleyways, around the campfire/car/tent etc.......but Incans for any serious outdoor work including night walks, camping, caving, local park, our back yard etc.......there are uses for both.

 

[Linger]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

hrm, and unfortunately, as I think about it, my bicycle light would be a serious challenge if I only had incans. I like to have it lower when I'm in trafic, higher for rough / off road, full for when it rains, light on my handlebar, bright as a motorcycle's headlight, and runtime enough that I don't have to take too many spare batteries:devil:

 

[LuxLuthor]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

Ampdude, I think it is great how you asked it. There will always be some element of a LED vs. Incan that will creep into many of these threads, but it's ideal when people have informed preferences. Having a stock Mag 2D does not constitute being informed about incands, nor does having early, blue-white LED models confer informed LED status.

I think most flashaholics, especially that have been into this for a couple years will be rooted in Incands, but if they then move to LED's which have their advantages, it is an informed preference that should be respected the same as your informed preference for incands.

Overall, I still have a strong preference for incands...but having said that, I own at least 50 LED's, and there are various scenarios and settings where there is really a best choice, and no good reason to exclude any category.

 

[Linger]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I think most flashaholics, especially that have been into this for a couple years will be rooted in Incans

Is there a 'general progression?'
I've noticed posters I think of as my 'peers' who seemed to move through the forums with the same progress and questions as I had. And to me it seems we progressed through higher-power LED's towards turbo incans, short run-time and high performance.
Or does it just look like a forest to me because i'm standing under a tree?

Is there a progression, among cpf'ers, towards higher-output incans?

Thank-you,

Linger

(for myself, instead of trying to make a floody multi-die throw, or get high contrast in a forest from an emitter with a predominantly blue wavelength, I will carry an incan option, a module to swap in to turn dark into daylight and reveal what-ever secret the forest had been hiding from me. For example, a portage sign now in 2feet of water because the tree it was hung on fell into the lake)

 

[Tempest UK]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

Well, my two most regularly carried lights are an A2 and a battered old 6P, with the latter going back and forth between a P60 and P61. That's not to say that I don't own any LED lights, but for one reason or another I still enjoy using incandescents.

Perhaps I'm just set in my ways. I've started to carry a T1A recently, but that's more to do with its usability and less to do with lumens. The output of the now almost antiquated 6P has been, and still is, more than I need most of the time.

Regards,
Tempest

 

[Echo63]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

Im actually a LED guy, but the last two lights i bought are both incan (SF A2 and SL Ultrastinger)

i only have three lights rated over 150lumens, the ultrastinger, a Magcharger and a lumensfactory P7 head.
i am about to start looking for a new matching body for the lumensfactory head, and hopefully i can get an SF turbohead too, and start playing with IMR, and the high output lumensfactory bulbs.

I do like Incans though

 

[bestcounsel]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I have been going back in forth with the led vs incan as well....

I decided if im working a high profile detail i can carry both LED and Incan and the "e" series lights make it that much easier.....

I carried an e2e the other day with a LF incan bulb and rcr123's and it was super light in weight.

Low profile gigs 1 e2e E2l is more than enough..

 

[wykeite]

Re: Is anyone else out there comfortable with NOT owning a "real" LED light?

I was wholeheartedly LED, I came to 'sensible' flashlights via Fenix, they were fine for me at the time. Reading the forum here I went on to P60 type flashlights, warm drop ins, graduated away from strobe and SOS modes. I then bought a Surefire and another and 7 later, love incans.

My E2E is always with me as is my keychain LED Streamlight. Work is where the incan falls over due to runtimes, then it's a P60 host with a nice warm 3 level drop in. Great runtimes, nice colour rendition and the multiple levels.

If my employer supplied 123s instead of crappy alkaline AAs and Ds I'd probably go incan all the way.

So to answer the post: At present I wouldn't be comfortable NOT owning a real LED light.