BuddTX
Flashlight Enthusiast
Just received my Streamlight 3C, 10 LED, light from www.brightguy.com, and, of course, I had to compare it to my Streamlight 4AA, 7 LED light, and of course, it was just begging for a comparison, so, to paraphrase a quote from the cult movie "SPINAL TAP", to compare the 10 LED light to the 3 LED light, "It's three brighter!"
http://members.aol.com/chiprowe/gotoeleven.wav
http://members.aol.com/chiprowe/gotoeleven2.wav
(Spinal Tap is a very funny movie, and if you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to see this movie, Directed by Rob Reiner, and the actors actually wrote and performed all their own music! It is a cult favorite!)
Man, Streamlight needs to name their light like SureFire and dat2zip, the DENOMINATOR, and the BAD BOY and the MAD MAX, not the 3C!
OK, at first I opened the light, and it is a bigger light than I am used to, but I knew that when I bought it, it takes 3 C batteries (hey, wait, that's where they get the name from!
It has the same basic design of the LED's as the 4AA streamlight, 7 around the diameter of the bezel, with a newly added trio of tightly placed LED's in the center, where as in the 4AA, there is a noticable blank spot in the center.
I took a trip to Wal-mart, and bought a 4-pack of Rayovac Alkaline Maximum Plus batteries (My favorite brand other than lithiums, regardless of the price), and came home and fired it up.
I twisted the head on, and the light came on, and it was very nice! While compared to my Mr Bulk LGI, the 3C does appear slightly dimmer and blue-er, BUT, when using it by itself, I do not notice the blue, and DO VERY MUCH notice the bright, even, wide field of light that this light produces. In comparing the 4AA to the 3C, the 4AA apperars to be slightly bluer, dimmer and narrower than the 3C. Except for the beign slightly less blue-er, that was exactly what I expected.
I have used it's little brother, the 4AA for walking in totally dark fields, and the light gives a very solid, white, even light, that one feels comfortable walking with. I can imigane that the 3C would just put out more light, something that is always welcome when in a no light situation.
Now for the nice thing, the tailcap was, unlike it's little brother, supprisingly easy to use, and was very comfortable using. I Thought that it would be a little heavy to hold and operate one handed, but it was not. I wish that the 4AA was as easy to operate the tailcap as the 3C. Now, with a slight grip modification, using the forfinger, or pointer finger, to operate the 4AA, it is easy to operate the 4aa one handed.
Finally a light that appeals to both the twist on crowd, and the one handed crowd!
Internally, the 10 LED's are mounted in what appears to be a semi-plastic head (the silver reflective front), and appears to have a metal brass or copper or some other metal base that must be a heat sink, something missing from the 4AA. A welcome feature after reading about Brightnorm's meltdown of his 4AA when testing it on lithiums. Alas, at this time, there are no lithium C batteries. Also, there is a "shelf" in the body that moves the batterys forward when using the tailcap. It looks as if some thought was put into this light. Maybe future versions of the 4AA will have this metal base!
Now for the clip. This light has a big clip, and is the first light of this size that I have owned that has a clip. At first I thought, "This light is already streaching the limits of my pocket, adding a clip just makes it bulkier in my pocket!" Well, it turns out that the clip is a welcome addition, and clips very nicely to the outisde of your front pocket, with only the clip inserted into your pants. The 4AA fits very comfortably in your pocket, and is light enough to carry comfortably there, and thanks to the clip, the 3C is also easy to carry, for a large light. The clip also give a little anti-roll, and fits nicely in the hand.
The outside of the light is very well made, and has a presicion fell, despite being Polycarbonate. Also, it has a Rubber coated bezel, and the two "black strips" down the body are also rubber, to give it a nice feel"
The light is also Safety rated at UL Listed Class 1 Div 1, Class 1 Div 2.
Now, what I don't understand, but others here do, is why a 4AA light has less LED's than a 3C light. After all, 4 *1.5 should give you more power than 3*1.5! Well, two people answerd me in another post, and here are their replies:
rlhess
Member # 1623
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Not necessarily.
The internal impedance (resistance) of the C cells is much lower than the AAs and the capacity (ampere hours) is about 2.5x.
Also, since you don't have a peak voltage of 6V to ballast the LEDs for, you may actually be able to get more light longer. It's all in the design and I believe Streamlight showed very capable design and a deep understanding of the dynamics involved with the light plot I got from the 4AA.
Greg sez that the 3C is substantially brighter than the 4AA.
I had just ordered 4 4AAs and now ordered 5 3Cs ... some are going back, for sure, but I'm very excited. The 3C would be a better car light than a 4AA IMHO.
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Quickbeam
Member # 482
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At 4.5 volts, 10 Nichia LEDs will be overdriven unless resistored down (which I bet they are).
Running the same 10 Nichia LEDs on 4 AA batteries at 6v conveys no advantage whatsoever (except the size of the package). They will have to be resistored down even more to achieve an acceptable voltage for driving the LEDs. Result: more voltage wasted in the resistors. 1 battery is totally wasted. That's all.
The 3 C config will, of course, give longer runtime and will have less voltage wasted as heat by the resistors. I'm very interested to see how this compares to a LW 4000.
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So there is my answer! It looks like this light will stay brighter, for longer, than the 4AA.
Like the other new LED lights from Streamlight, they give honest runtimes. A graph showing the "beam distance over time" shows this:
Startup-------21m - 70 Feet
4hours--------15m - 50 Feet
30 Hours------10m - 33 Feet
50 Hours------6 m - 20 Feet
95 Hours------3 m - 10 Feet
336 Hours ----1 M - 3 Feet
A welcome bit of honesty to say that your light will diminish in brightness, while still claiming a long run time.
I guess regulation would be nice, if I could keep that 70 feet figure for 30 hours and then have it go almost completey dark. but it is nice knowing that there is lots of light in this light, even if it isn't "brand new brightness" for the whole time. And, sometimes, like in an emergency, you really need that light to streach out!
The nice thing about all LED lights, is as the batteries grow weaker, the light does not become more yellow, it stays the same color, just less intense.
Comparing this light to the Luxeon Star LED's? Well, My opinion is that, my brightest LS LED, Mr. Bulk's LGI, compared to the 3C, is that the LGI gives a brighter, whiter, less blue, slightly more concentrated beam, whereas the 3C is less bright, but puts out a more wide beam. This seems to parallel what Craig posted on his site, comparing the KL1, KL2, and KL3 LED heads from SureFire, The KL2 is to be mounted on the M3, and is a 19 head Nichia LED compared, to the 1 LS LED for the KL1 and KL3:
http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/kl1.htm
http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/kl2.htm
http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/kl3.htm
To quote Craig:
"The KL2 produces a softer, slightly wider-angle beam than the KL1 or KL3."
I think that the 3C parallels that view. (How much do you want to bet that Streamlight has a 19 head LED in the works???)
This is the kind of light that you want to have with you when you KNOW that you are going to need some serious light for a long time.
In summary, another very nice light from Streamlight, a light that you would want to keep around for emergencies, AND OR for when you need a lot of light. Bright, even, broad light, and a long run time, and the C batteries make it more convientent than a D sized light. There are no apoligies needed when using this light over similar sized 2-D and 3C incandecents, and compared to the similar Lightwave 4000, it is about 23.00 less than the Lightwave, so it is priced very nicely.
The 4AA, being smaller, and lighter, with a little less light and runtime, is a light to thow into your pocket or whatever, when space is at a premium, or when you only "MAY" need a light, and light weight, and small size are just as important as haveing a good light, that will last a long while, should you need it.
The 3C is for when you KNOW you are going to need a bright light, and are going to need it for a long time!
How much you want to bet, they introduce a 15 LED light, then a 19 LED light next, then they will come out with their Luxeons! THEN WILL COME THE REGULATED LIGHTS!
