MacTech
Enlightened
Last night, on a whim, I decided to give the Mag Instrument XL100 a try, as the motion control interface looked intriguing....
Pop the light out of the package (a pox on the evil clampacks, thank Og for my Spyderco Spyderhawk hawkbill knife, no clampack stands a chance!) and unscrew the tailcap, I'm not a fan of 3AAA carrier-based lights, but the Mag carrier feels sturdy and well made, it's a nice touch having the polarity indicators molded into the tops of the carrier itself
Drop the carrier in and fire it up, dear Og that's bright!
Compare against my 90 lumen Fenix L1T 2.0 Rebel, the XL100 has a more intense hotspot, but a slightly ringier beam
Compare against my Novatac 120-P, the NT has a vastly superior beam profile (best beam profile in my collection), no hotspots or voids, just a nice balanced spread, the XL100 out-throws it though
it seems to be brighter than the rated 85 or so lumens it's rated for would have you believe, but clearly that's mainly due to the reflector putting as many photons in the hotspot as possible...
at close to middling distances, the beam profile of the XL100 is nice, very usable, but as distances increase, I cant be sure, but I could *swear* that Im seeing a slight, faint *donut hole* appear in the center of the hotspot, this would only be noticable when WWH though, but since I know its there, its slightly irritating, it also has two oval lobey style artifacts in the corona of the hotspot
Time to try the focusing feature, but as the standard spot beam pattern is perfectly usable, I see no real need to focus it, especally since all the focusing seems to do is open up a dark spot in the center of the beam, the spill doesnt get noticeably brighter at all, it just gets ringy, almost like the classic incan Mag flood setting, this must be designed for those who are nostalgic for the old ringy look of the classic Mag beam pattern
And now, on to the interface;
when used as a simple on/off light, its okay, nice and bright, good palm-filling size, and a decent heft, taken as simply the latest step in a bigger, brighter light, its a step in the right direction............
.....when I can get it to work.....
I'd estimate that at least 10% of the time when I click the tailswitch, *nothing* happens, the light does not illuminate, it can sometimes take upwards of 3-4 clicks to activate, in just the basic on/off mode, and it's annoying
Dimmer; combine the fussy tailcap switch with the fact that you have to keep the light *infuriatingly* perfectly level and hold for more than one second to activate this feature, it irritates me even more, when the dimming feature *does* work, it works quite well, and is actually pretty cool, it's just getting it to work in the first place that's annoying
Strobe; oh boy, another disorienting strobe to slow strobe mode, *YAWN*, I was hoping for a strobe more akin to my Eternalight ErgoMarine, one that I could use at work to check the timing of the belts and ball bearings in the cash dispenser units of Self Checkout registers, nope, this is a boring tactical strobe and for my purposes, is *less* than useful
Nite Lite; This is, I think, the *coolest* feature of the light, and is implemented well, engage NL mode, set the light down, after no motion, it dims to 8% or so, and brightens the instant it detects motion/vibration, great for camping, or extended power outages
Signal; *yawn* a badly implemented and annoying momentary mode, will see *NO* use from me
S.O.S; *yawn*, nothing to see here, move along, useless feature (for me, at least)
Lockout; it works, but combined with the tempermental switch operation, sometimes it works *too* well
Candle mode; it loses points for not being able to tailstand, but it gains points by having the LED shielded in a cup so the emitter wont be damaged if it tips over, and shields the bright LED emitter from the eyes, it also emits a nice, flat, even flood of light when used with head removed , in fact, I find the flat, floody beam from a headless XL100 to be MORE useful than the stock throwy reflectored beam....
So, since Ive had some quality time with the XL100, Im beginning to change my view on it, the newness of the motion interface is wearing off quite rapidly, combined with the fussiness and glitchy nature of the interface, I may just return it to Home Despot, as both my Fenix L1T 2.0 and Novatac 120-P have much more elegant and intuitive interfaces, the only thing the XL100 has that they dont is a slightly throwier beam (with the expected beam artifacts) and a cool, gadgety interface, thats just slightly needlessly complex
OTOH, I do appreciate Mag Instrument going out on a limb and actually *innovating* for a change (as opposed to the typical Innovation Via Lawyers), and Mag should be supported for taking a bold, risky step with the XL100
I'm not sure here, the XL100 IS cool, but the tempermental switch and fussy OS make it more irritating than it should be....
Pop the light out of the package (a pox on the evil clampacks, thank Og for my Spyderco Spyderhawk hawkbill knife, no clampack stands a chance!) and unscrew the tailcap, I'm not a fan of 3AAA carrier-based lights, but the Mag carrier feels sturdy and well made, it's a nice touch having the polarity indicators molded into the tops of the carrier itself
Drop the carrier in and fire it up, dear Og that's bright!
Compare against my 90 lumen Fenix L1T 2.0 Rebel, the XL100 has a more intense hotspot, but a slightly ringier beam
Compare against my Novatac 120-P, the NT has a vastly superior beam profile (best beam profile in my collection), no hotspots or voids, just a nice balanced spread, the XL100 out-throws it though
it seems to be brighter than the rated 85 or so lumens it's rated for would have you believe, but clearly that's mainly due to the reflector putting as many photons in the hotspot as possible...
at close to middling distances, the beam profile of the XL100 is nice, very usable, but as distances increase, I cant be sure, but I could *swear* that Im seeing a slight, faint *donut hole* appear in the center of the hotspot, this would only be noticable when WWH though, but since I know its there, its slightly irritating, it also has two oval lobey style artifacts in the corona of the hotspot
Time to try the focusing feature, but as the standard spot beam pattern is perfectly usable, I see no real need to focus it, especally since all the focusing seems to do is open up a dark spot in the center of the beam, the spill doesnt get noticeably brighter at all, it just gets ringy, almost like the classic incan Mag flood setting, this must be designed for those who are nostalgic for the old ringy look of the classic Mag beam pattern
And now, on to the interface;
when used as a simple on/off light, its okay, nice and bright, good palm-filling size, and a decent heft, taken as simply the latest step in a bigger, brighter light, its a step in the right direction............
.....when I can get it to work.....
I'd estimate that at least 10% of the time when I click the tailswitch, *nothing* happens, the light does not illuminate, it can sometimes take upwards of 3-4 clicks to activate, in just the basic on/off mode, and it's annoying
Dimmer; combine the fussy tailcap switch with the fact that you have to keep the light *infuriatingly* perfectly level and hold for more than one second to activate this feature, it irritates me even more, when the dimming feature *does* work, it works quite well, and is actually pretty cool, it's just getting it to work in the first place that's annoying
Strobe; oh boy, another disorienting strobe to slow strobe mode, *YAWN*, I was hoping for a strobe more akin to my Eternalight ErgoMarine, one that I could use at work to check the timing of the belts and ball bearings in the cash dispenser units of Self Checkout registers, nope, this is a boring tactical strobe and for my purposes, is *less* than useful
Nite Lite; This is, I think, the *coolest* feature of the light, and is implemented well, engage NL mode, set the light down, after no motion, it dims to 8% or so, and brightens the instant it detects motion/vibration, great for camping, or extended power outages
Signal; *yawn* a badly implemented and annoying momentary mode, will see *NO* use from me
S.O.S; *yawn*, nothing to see here, move along, useless feature (for me, at least)
Lockout; it works, but combined with the tempermental switch operation, sometimes it works *too* well
Candle mode; it loses points for not being able to tailstand, but it gains points by having the LED shielded in a cup so the emitter wont be damaged if it tips over, and shields the bright LED emitter from the eyes, it also emits a nice, flat, even flood of light when used with head removed , in fact, I find the flat, floody beam from a headless XL100 to be MORE useful than the stock throwy reflectored beam....
So, since Ive had some quality time with the XL100, Im beginning to change my view on it, the newness of the motion interface is wearing off quite rapidly, combined with the fussiness and glitchy nature of the interface, I may just return it to Home Despot, as both my Fenix L1T 2.0 and Novatac 120-P have much more elegant and intuitive interfaces, the only thing the XL100 has that they dont is a slightly throwier beam (with the expected beam artifacts) and a cool, gadgety interface, thats just slightly needlessly complex
OTOH, I do appreciate Mag Instrument going out on a limb and actually *innovating* for a change (as opposed to the typical Innovation Via Lawyers), and Mag should be supported for taking a bold, risky step with the XL100
I'm not sure here, the XL100 IS cool, but the tempermental switch and fussy OS make it more irritating than it should be....
