Most powerful commercially available portable HID spotlight?

[DayofReckoning]

It's hardly conjecture when I have direct experience with both systems. I think your use of the word "Objectively" in your above post is a bit misused. It really should be subjectively. Unless you're on the engineering teams of all these lights you mention, then you don't really know anything substantial about what goes into them.

Did you even watch the video? Your personal anecdotal experience versus his numbers? Well, he belongs to this forum. Perhaps you should take that up with him.

 

[XeRay]

I like how speculation, elitist snarky comments, and and pure conjecture gets trumped by data. 6:27 in that video. It must be noted that sheer output is not the primary goal with the cooling, but also ensuring to extend the lifespan of the components, and the data shows this cooling fan to provide some benefit.

I have also tested this unit, the throw is not impressive at all, it is primarily a wide flood light. The center spot LED doesn't do all that much and videos (photos) are often very deceptive.

 

[DayofReckoning]

I have also tested this unit, the throw is not impressive at all, it is primarily a wide flood light. The center spot LED doesn't do all that much and videos (photos) are often very deceptive.

I thought we were talking about the cooling performance here? Oh, I found some more data to show the cooling fans effectiveness even better. https://1lumen.com/18650-reviews/acebeam-x70/

I agree, with a rating of 311,000 candela, it's not a real impressive thrower. However, it's not made in that capacity, it's made to have a more useful beam for searching at reasonable distances. For example, that light, at turn on, puts out about 6 times the output as your best model, and still maintains constant over 15,000 lumens, all while having access to lower power levels for when you don't need full power and need to save battery. All while costing $500, 1/4 to 1/8th of what some are asking for their HID's.

 

[Magio]

Yeah the X70 was never meant to be an extreme thower. It does however throw just as far as the Polarion PH40 lights while having 15x the lumens.

 

[DayofReckoning]

Quote from that X70 Review

"The following runtime was done, using the fan on its highest setting. This resulted in a completely different runtime graph. Although the output drop looks the same, the average output of its battery life was about 3 times brighter. The output is still about 20,000 lumens for 30 minutes. There are a few ups-and-down in the graph. This is probably the thermal heat configuration of the driver. The fan does a good job keeping the head cool! "

Looking back over the data again and how much improvement that handle seems to make according to both these sources, if a manufacturer took the time to make a very robust handle mounted similar to what is on the Xeray/Lemax lights, and made the mounting point much larger and stronger, combine that taking notes from top PC fan manufacturers and make a larger and more efficient fan, and some changes to the heat fins and how the air circulates, I see no reason why this couldn't be used as a low cost cooling solution compared to the more complex and expensive solution Imalent uses. There is no requirement to have a radical design approach that must be made from the ground up, it's a quick, effective fix. That is of course provided that these future models show favorable data, like what has been shown for Acebeam solution. Unfortunately, the Imalents fans automatically engage, so it's not possible to do a test and see what the difference in performance is compared to the "Mickey Mouse" solution.

More of these actively cooled lights will continue to appear on the market, it will be interesting to see what direction they go. I made a thread earlier this year discussing Liquid Cooling in LED lights. It's been done, and is highly effective.

 

[BVH]

Liquid cooling for LED lights...Did you see the Syniosbeam by Enderman on FF?

 

[DayofReckoning]

Yeah the X70 was never meant to be an extreme thower. It does however throw just as far as the Polarion PH40 lights while having 15x the lumens.

While having a large selection of multiple different, super efficient lower brightness settings to choose from, down all the way to 700lumens, no bulbs to change or replace, and hugely more battery capacity and performance, all within an extremely robust and reliable shell that only the elitist's would scoff at. Did I mention it has a solid 5 year warranty and cost's $500?

 

[XeRay]

I already bought that exact model, you want mine ? It includes 2 of the batteries for the handle and a dual batteries charger, make me an offer. The light has less than 2 hours of use total on it.

 

[DayofReckoning]

I already bought that exact model, you want mine ? It includes 2 of the batteries for the handle and a dual batteries charger, make me an offer. The light has less than 2 hours of use total on it.

Haha, sounds tempting. Though knowing what I know, I'd trade this overpriced and outdated Lemax of mine for one in a heartbeat

 

[alpg88]

i wonder how polarion, or maxabeam compares to k75

 

[DayofReckoning]

i wonder how polarion, or maxabeam compares to k75

K75 blows away anything in the Polarion handheld lineup. Maxabeam is a one trick pony toy that has very little real world application other than looking really cool in Hollywood movies.

 

[Matt@PeakBeam]

i wonder how polarion, or maxabeam compares to k75

Hi alpg88. I don't believe manufacturers should get in the mud commenting on competitors products, but I'd be happy to tell you a little bit about the Maxa Beam and you can come to your on conclusions. The Maxa Beam uses a pure xenon short-arc lamp. Due to this it really excels in a couple different areas. The xenon short-arc light source is extremely small so you can very effectively collimate the light being generated into a very tight beam. This results in the Maxa Beam having 12M CandlePower. This equates to 1 lux at 3500m (what we use when reporting range) or 0.25 lux at 7000m (The ANSI standard and what you will see a lot of manufacturers use to calculate range). The Maxa Beam also has a motorized beam width adjustment from spot to 40 degree flood that can be controlled via buttons with the hand holding the light. It also feature different beam intensities and a user-adjustable strobe mode.

The second commonly utilized feature of the Maxa Beam is it's infrared capabilities. The pure xenon lamp emits very heavily in the near IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum that common NVGs/scopes and many day/night cameras rely on. Several different IR filters can be attached to the front of the searchlight to block out the visible/white light and turn the light into a covert long-range IR "illuminator".

Hobbyist/collectors should come to their own determination on what they value in a light and if it is worth spending their money on. Generally speaking though, lights in this category are better thought of as tools for the vast majority of our customers. They are generally purchased for a specific task or to overcome a specific issue.

I'd be happy to answer any additional questions you may have.

 

[Magio]

I think the xenon short arc lamps are more fairly compared with LEP than they are LED.

 

[alpg88]

Mickey Mouse both from an aesthetics and functional standpoint. The very narrow channel flow of air over maybe 20-30% of only 180 degrees of the finned head surface creates a spot cooling scenario where you're going to have uneven cooling so uneven LED performance. The MS18, on the other hand, has no ugly glued-on afterthought looking handle. It has two fans 180 degrees opposed to each other and two exhaust outlets 90 degrees from the fan inlets. The result, 360 head cooling. In addition, it utilizes an internal mounted copper heatpipe system to further its' cooling efficiency. It conforms to industry standard norms. The stick-on handle is an inefficient embarrassment.

Having had both style lights, I can also say that while the handle fan moves air, the air coming off the fins is not that much warmer than ambient. It absorbs very little heat The air coming from the MS18 exhaust ports is quite warm, having picked up a lot of heat.

yea, however due to coanda effect that area is more than 20-30%. but that is not all, it does not have to blow over entire sink, just colling some portion of it, will make temp difference, heat moves faster where temp difference is greater, heat always moves to where it is cold, or colder, so that small fan is probably does the job just fine.

 

[DayofReckoning]

yea, however due to coanda effect that area is more than 20-30%. but that is not all, it does not have to blow over entire sink, just colling some portion of it, will make temp difference, heat moves faster where temp difference is greater, heat always moves to where it is cold, or colder, so that small fan is probably does the job just fine.

I posted two sources of data here in this thread that actually shows the measurable difference.

 

[alpg88]

Hi alpg88. I don't believe manufacturers should get in the mud commenting on competitors products, but I'd be happy to tell you a little bit about the Maxa Beam and you can come to your on conclusions. The Maxa Beam uses a pure xenon short-arc lamp. Due to this it really excels in a couple different areas. The xenon short-arc light source is extremely small so you can very effectively collimate the light being generated into a very tight beam. This results in the Maxa Beam having 12M CandlePower. This equates to 1 lux at 3500m (what we use when reporting range) or 0.25 lux at 7000m (The ANSI standard and what you will see a lot of manufacturers use to calculate range). The Maxa Beam also has a motorized beam width adjustment from spot to 40 degree flood that can be controlled via buttons with the hand holding the light. It also feature different beam intensities and a user-adjustable strobe mode.

The second commonly utilized feature of the Maxa Beam is it's infrared capabilities. The pure xenon lamp emits very heavily in the near IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum that common NVGs/scopes and many day/night cameras rely on. Several different IR filters can be attached to the front of the searchlight to block out the visible/white light and turn the light into a covert long-range IR "illuminator".

Hobbyist/collectors should come to there own determination on what they value in a light and if it is worth spending their money on. Generally speaking though, lights in this category are better thought of as tools for the vast majority of our customers. They are generally purchased for a specific task or to overcome a specific issue.

I'd be happy to answer any additional questions you may have.

thanks for reply Matt, i do have a question, it would be interesting to know what manufacturer thinks,
maxabeam was first introduced in mid 80s, leds did not exist back then, as far as practical illumination source, now leds are taking over every other light source, and are improving rapidly, what will happen to maxabeam? will it be still a short arc light, will leds find its way into the light?

 

[Matt@PeakBeam]

thanks for reply Matt, i do have a question, it would be interesting to know what manufacturer thinks,
maxabeam was first introduced in mid 80s, leds did not exist back then, as far as practical illumination source, now leds are taking over every other light source, and are improving rapidly, what will happen to maxabeam? will it be still a short arc light, will leds find its way into the light?

I'm all for transparency and information sharing, but generally I need to draw a line when it comes Peak Beam's focus on future development. I am definitely biased, but I believe the current Maxa Beam has been fine-tuned over the years to be the best manifestation of a xenon short-arc searchlight in handheld form. For users that rely on all of the advantages/features of the Maxa Beam searchlight and its accessories I do not think there is another SINGLE technology that can surpass it's performance.

There may be specific applications where current or not yet available technologies outperform the current Maxa Beam in a specific area, and depending on the end-user and what their objective is those other technologies may be a better fit for their specific application. This has always been the case and will continue to be. Generally speaking any new technologies that substantially outperforms the Maxa Beam in a specific area are on our radar and being researched further. Unfortunately I can't really go much beyond that.

Hope that was at least a somewhat satisfying non-answer

 

[DayofReckoning]

I'm all for transparency and information sharing, but generally I need to draw a line when it comes Peak Beam's focus on future development. I am definitely biased, but I believe the current Maxa Beam has been fine-tuned over the years to be the best manifestation of a xenon short-arc searchlight in handheld form. For users that rely on all of the advantages/features of the Maxa Beam searchlight and its accessories I do not think there is another SINGLE technology that can surpass it's performance.

There may be specific applications where current or not yet available technologies outperform the current Maxa Beam in a specific area, and depending on the end-user and what their objective is those other technologies may be a better fit for their specific application. This has always been the case and will continue to be. Generally speaking any new technologies that substantially outperforms the Maxa Beam in a specific area are on our radar and being researched further. Unfortunately I can't really go much beyond that.

Hope that was at least a somewhat satisfying non-answer

Have you looked into LEP technology? Not only do we have tiny inexpensive pocket sized LEP's that are easily hitting well over 2.2km, and well over 2mil candela, but Acebeam will soon be releasing models that are promising ranges up to 6km. And to think, this technology has literally just hit the consumer market, and is producing unbelievable results at literally pennies on the dollar compared to the current HID market. At the rate they are going, the Maxabeam's claim to fame of the longest throwing searchlight will only take a few shorts years to be surpassed.

https://1lumen.com/news/acebeam-w50/

https://1lumen.com/21700-reviews/jetbeam-m1x/

 

[Matt@PeakBeam]

Hi DayofReckoning. You highlighted a key sentence from me but there is a very important reason I wrote "SINGLE" in all caps and also the context given in the first half of the sentence. A significant advantage of the Maxa Beam is to quickly convert from white light to IR. I was making a specific point about end-users that rely on ALL of the features of the Maxa Beam and the inability of another SINGLE technology/product to meet the full suite of capabilities the Maxa Beam has. Yes I am familiar with LEP technology.

 

[DayofReckoning]

Thank you Matt.

Seems like as the newer technology from LED's and LEP's closes in on making HID irreverent in nearly every category, IR seems to be the one single category usage case where it still may have some relevance, so thank you for bringing the IR capabilities to my attention. Of course, it's easy to forget about IR and how useful it is to military/police, etc, when you are just the average guy who likes bright lights.