Maglites and those different versions/bulbs have me confused...

Aalsen

Newly Enlightened
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Jan 15, 2013
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Ok, so the oldschool one have a glowbulb with kind of yellow lightoutput. This is incandescent?
And then you have another version with xenon, which is also a glowbulb.. is this inancescent? Is it the same as the oldschool one, or does the xenon type has a more white output/tint?
And then you have three generations of led... And the halogen magcharger.
Please correct me if im wrong.

My main question is what is the difference between the oldschool type and the xenon? Do they both have yellowish light?
 
Argon, Krypton, Xenon and Halogen are all light bulbs. Incandecent. They have a filament that "glows" when electricity is applied. All have an orange-ish glow from 2000 kelvin to about 3500 kelvin in the order I listed them.
Now, one thing about an incandecent light is as batteries lose voltage the light output dims, which adds to the orange tint.

LED is a light emitting diode. It's glow comes from a chemical reaction when electricity is applied. Make up said chemicals can change the tint. In some cases they dim as batteries deplete and that can change the tint more to the warmer side too.

Kelvin temperatures refers to the color of light output. Higher kelvin numbers is considered cooler and lower is considered warmer.
 
Ok, so there´s no particular difference between the the "regular" bulb and the xenon. Thanks mates
 
Argon, Krypton, Xenon and Halogen are all light bulbs. Incandecent. They have a filament that "glows" when electricity is applied. All have an orange-ish glow from 2000 kelvin to about 3500 kelvin in the order I listed them.
Now, one thing about an incandecent light is as batteries lose voltage the light output dims, which adds to the orange tint.

LED is a light emitting diode. It's glow comes from a chemical reaction when electricity is applied. Make up said chemicals can change the tint. In some cases they dim as batteries deplete and that can change the tint more to the warmer side too.

Kelvin temperatures refers to the color of light output. Higher kelvin numbers is considered cooler and lower is considered warmer.

Well I need to correct that, since our LED's aren't using any chemical reaction to provide light
It's called electroluminesce , and what's really considered to be an chemical reaction is a fire.
 
Thanks for clearing things out for me :)

Just picked up a mag 3D with krypton bulb, and i love it, charming in its own way with the yellow unclear tint and how robust it is. I picked it up from a guy in Oslo, this flashlight might be from the 80s/90s..? Picked up a mag mini AA the same day for $5.

I have another four mini mags AA one the way. One for me, one for my wife and my two kids get one each. One of the mini mags is pink (breast cancer foundation) and is the one i will be keeping for myself. I also have the new mag 3D Led 650 lumens (or something).
Yesterday i ordered a black mag 6D incandescent, the big boss. I also ordered brackets for the three 3D mags to put them on the wall, and for four of the mini mags (they´ll be side by side on the wall as familylights when we go out in the evenings). Also a holster for the 3D mags. I know, i went bananas on mags.

Oh, and i ordered four packs of krypton bulbs and four packs of xenon bulbs, and 50 D batteries, and petroleum jelly vaseline, and 12 eneloops AA.
 
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At first Mag used vacuum bulbs, these were fairly dim – later Mag offered krypton bulbs as a upgrade, these are brighter than the vacuum bulbs. Eventually Mag made krypton bulbs standard, replacing the vacuum bulbs and offered xenon PR based bulbs for the C and D cell Mags as a upgrade. Later Mag standardized on xenon bi-pin bulbs for the C/D Mags and also changed to xenon in the Mini-Mags. The xenon bulbs are whiter and brighter than krypton. Mag only offered halogen bulbs for the Mag Charger as these may generate too much heat for a standard Mag.

My favorite for C/D cell Mags is the old PR based xenon bulbs as the new bi-pin xenons often don't focus well in old Mags from the '80's and I can never seem to get the bi-pin xenon bulbs centered properly. I also find that the Mag PR xenon bulbs produce a much nicer beam than the old krypton bulbs.

For the AA Mini-Mag, the current Mag xenon bulbs are pretty good. Back in the day, I used to use nexstar bulbs sold by brinkmann, these are a tad brighter than the current Mag xenon bulbs and were noticeably whiter/brighter than the old krypton bulbs.
 
Krypton bulbs like the AA and AAA lights use last 10 hours. Halogen bulbs tend to last 30 hours (only referring to PR type bulbs, not million candlepower spotlight types that last longer). Xenon bulbs last longer, probably around 50 hours (Xenon Star bulbs). If you want to use incandescent bulbs, go with xenon.
 
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