DieselDave
Super Moderator,
I am now the proud owner of not one but two LS based torches. A Badboy 500 and ARC SLS rev1 second. These two lights are so different from one another in terms of beam you would never know they were related. I suspect many if not most of you here on CPF that have multiple LS based lights know exactly what I am talking about. I read extensively about the Luxeon prior to my purchases and how they varied in color and power but until now I would not have believed the huge difference without seeing it with my own eyes and running some informal test. I am very pleased with both lights but wish I could take the good from both and throw out the ugly. I intentionally left out the word “bad” because IMHO both torches are amazing. I want to relay some of my observations and solicit comments from others about their experience.
Badboy 500, I have had this one for about 3-4 weeks. This is my first LS. I run it in a Mag AA. NX05 optics, and a kroll switch. I use Duracell Alkalines, I tried Lithium’s but saw no improvement. I have done some impromptu drop test onto a brick floor and have slightly dented and scratched the MAG case but the light still works great. Very white, with the slightest of green shade around the corona, much whiter than my Scorpion that I used to call super white. Power is impressive, good hotspot, nice spill. I bought it for the power and full regulation. If I would have never purchased another LS based light I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven, but I did. I probably have 90 minutes of 10 seconds to 15 minute use of this light so far and have been nothing but impressed.
ARC SLS rev1 second. I got this light yesterday from another CPF member. It is used but in very good shape. This is an obvious second due to the very green light it puts out. I have the single AA pack , 2 AA pack, 123 pack and the 123 TSP pack. I have already decided I will only use the 123 or 123 TSP with this light unless something I can’t foresee comes up. My preference thus far is the 123 TSP. I have not tried it in 2 AA config. because once I saw how green it was with the single AA I turned it off.
I am running Toshiba 123’s and Panasonic Lithiums AA’s. Very, very green light with a single AA., just very green with the 123 setup. Good throw, green seems to mostly disappear after 15-20 feet.
Last night and tonight I took both lights out back and did some extremely technical testing. I won’t get into all the mechanics but let me say I not only used a tall Pine tree to shine into, I also used an Oak. My first impression at close range (less than 10 feet) was how well the BB500 gave me realistic colors. (I keep the BB500 set at it’s tightest beam setting all the time) I could not really tell much difference in brightness inside 10 feet between the BB500 and the ARC LS. Once I went to long range testing (over 40 feet) I was shocked. The ARC throw stomped the BB500 and the spill was better. I asked myself, how could this be? (This is the main reason I repeated this testing tonight.) My first thought was, it was only because I had a new 123 in the ARC. The battery condition in the BB500 shouldn’t matter being that it’s fully regulated. I put in new batteries anyway to be sure, same result, the ARC is kicking butt even with the pea green beam. I went back in and stole a tired 123 from my Scorpion. It was getting pretty dim in the Scorpion and I was about to change it out. I tested again and the green ARC was still the champ at distances of more than 10 feet. (Inside 10 feet they were still tied with the naked eye.) Next thing I did was run the ARC for 40 minutes straight with the tired battery and retested. The BB500 was now slightly brighter (remember this is a battery that I ran in my scorpion for 3 months). I was going to repeat after 15 more minutes but the 123 ran out of juice and went into moon mode. So what do I think I learned? My ARC LS has more power than my BB500 until the last 10-15 minutes of battery life. If you look at it in black and white it makes no sense. How can my 350-400ma ARC with a pea green beam out power my 500ma BB500? I believe I answered my own question at the beginning of the article. The Luxeon varies in power and color so much you wouldn’t even know the lights were related. Am I wrong with this conclusion? I don’t believe my ARC is one of the 500’s and even if it was I would think the pea green beam would hurt it for throw power. Where does this all leave me? (I obviously need more LS’s for further study.) I can leave my equipment set up in the backyard until the next time. I not only used the trees, my main target was the vinyl multi colored roof on the kids playscape. I wonder and I don’t see why it would be this way but…what if the green LS’s produce more power because the green tint is part of the power multiple? I leave it to the experts to comment but my gut feeling is QA and standardization on the Luxeon emitter has a way to go. Bottom line, I love both lights for different reasons. Both have good power and both are keepers.
David
Badboy 500, I have had this one for about 3-4 weeks. This is my first LS. I run it in a Mag AA. NX05 optics, and a kroll switch. I use Duracell Alkalines, I tried Lithium’s but saw no improvement. I have done some impromptu drop test onto a brick floor and have slightly dented and scratched the MAG case but the light still works great. Very white, with the slightest of green shade around the corona, much whiter than my Scorpion that I used to call super white. Power is impressive, good hotspot, nice spill. I bought it for the power and full regulation. If I would have never purchased another LS based light I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven, but I did. I probably have 90 minutes of 10 seconds to 15 minute use of this light so far and have been nothing but impressed.
ARC SLS rev1 second. I got this light yesterday from another CPF member. It is used but in very good shape. This is an obvious second due to the very green light it puts out. I have the single AA pack , 2 AA pack, 123 pack and the 123 TSP pack. I have already decided I will only use the 123 or 123 TSP with this light unless something I can’t foresee comes up. My preference thus far is the 123 TSP. I have not tried it in 2 AA config. because once I saw how green it was with the single AA I turned it off.
I am running Toshiba 123’s and Panasonic Lithiums AA’s. Very, very green light with a single AA., just very green with the 123 setup. Good throw, green seems to mostly disappear after 15-20 feet.
Last night and tonight I took both lights out back and did some extremely technical testing. I won’t get into all the mechanics but let me say I not only used a tall Pine tree to shine into, I also used an Oak. My first impression at close range (less than 10 feet) was how well the BB500 gave me realistic colors. (I keep the BB500 set at it’s tightest beam setting all the time) I could not really tell much difference in brightness inside 10 feet between the BB500 and the ARC LS. Once I went to long range testing (over 40 feet) I was shocked. The ARC throw stomped the BB500 and the spill was better. I asked myself, how could this be? (This is the main reason I repeated this testing tonight.) My first thought was, it was only because I had a new 123 in the ARC. The battery condition in the BB500 shouldn’t matter being that it’s fully regulated. I put in new batteries anyway to be sure, same result, the ARC is kicking butt even with the pea green beam. I went back in and stole a tired 123 from my Scorpion. It was getting pretty dim in the Scorpion and I was about to change it out. I tested again and the green ARC was still the champ at distances of more than 10 feet. (Inside 10 feet they were still tied with the naked eye.) Next thing I did was run the ARC for 40 minutes straight with the tired battery and retested. The BB500 was now slightly brighter (remember this is a battery that I ran in my scorpion for 3 months). I was going to repeat after 15 more minutes but the 123 ran out of juice and went into moon mode. So what do I think I learned? My ARC LS has more power than my BB500 until the last 10-15 minutes of battery life. If you look at it in black and white it makes no sense. How can my 350-400ma ARC with a pea green beam out power my 500ma BB500? I believe I answered my own question at the beginning of the article. The Luxeon varies in power and color so much you wouldn’t even know the lights were related. Am I wrong with this conclusion? I don’t believe my ARC is one of the 500’s and even if it was I would think the pea green beam would hurt it for throw power. Where does this all leave me? (I obviously need more LS’s for further study.) I can leave my equipment set up in the backyard until the next time. I not only used the trees, my main target was the vinyl multi colored roof on the kids playscape. I wonder and I don’t see why it would be this way but…what if the green LS’s produce more power because the green tint is part of the power multiple? I leave it to the experts to comment but my gut feeling is QA and standardization on the Luxeon emitter has a way to go. Bottom line, I love both lights for different reasons. Both have good power and both are keepers.
David
