New LEMAX LX70. Killer Polarion PH50.

[TEEJ]

WB Comparison:

Control, with AWB

The Control with AWB shows the way the camera sees the grass and trees, etc. The street lights look white, but, the pools of light they cast are also yellowed.

AWB

The lit grass up close looks a little greener, and the less well lit proximal and streetlight lit areas look yellower. The colors on distant targets is more washed out.


The two above indicate that the camera shows low light areas as yellowed using the AWB.


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Daylight WB

LX at 50

This is the LX at the 50 watt level, and the grass looks greener than the AWB version, as do the trees, and there seems to still be the same less lit areas/lit by street lights, that are more a bit more orange/yellow than yellow, but the street light bulbs still look white. Overall, this might look the most realistic? Does that jive with being there?

LX at 70 w


Despite even more light, the proximal grass seems less green than at 50 w. The rest looks similar, but, overall, the distal greens are very clear.





Overall, I'd say between AWB and Daylight WB, the daylight pics might be a closer approximation of what the lights can do.

 

[AceDan]

With proper quality controls in manufacturing, neither the bulb or electroformed reflector would vary enough to detect ANY difference between lights. Philips has outstanding BULB QC standards, as does our California based electroformed reflector manufacturer. There should be no detectable difference between lights.

Thanks Xeray. Just FYI. I've used two Ushio 75w bulbs in the same light and seen difference in the hot spot size at the same distance, plus the corona slightly different. My thoughts on that are the crystals inside the glass.

 

[Patriot]

------------------------------------

Daylight WB

LX at 50

This is the LX at the 50 watt level, and the grass looks greener than the AWB version, as do the trees, and there seems to still be the same less lit areas/lit by street lights, that are more a bit more orange/yellow than yellow, but the street light bulbs still look white. Overall, this might look the most realistic? Does that jive with being there?

LX at 70 w


Despite even more light, the proximal grass seems less green than at 50 w. The rest looks similar, but, overall, the distal greens are very clear.

Overall, I'd say between AWB and Daylight WB, the daylight pics might be a closer approximation of what the lights can do.

Okay, this actually helped a lot. You're right, the whiter image taken with AWB definitely is not the most accurate representation. What I was seeing in actuality was very close to the Daylight WB, zoomed image LX70 @ 50W. I'd say that particular image is just a touch too warm. On the other hand, the Daylight WB, zoomed image LX70 @70W is way too warm. What I'm having difficulty determining is if the "way too warm" daylight WB setting is still closer to actuality than the AWB cooler image. It might be that the "way too warm" image is still actually the closer of the two though. I really appreciate the help here and two brains are always better than one!:twothumbs

 

[TEEJ]

Okay, this actually helped a lot. You're right, the whiter image taken with AWB definitely is not the most accurate representation. What I was seeing in actuality was very close to the Daylight WB, zoomed image LX70 @ 50W. I'd say that particular image is just a touch too warm. On the other hand, the Daylight WB, zoomed image LX70 @70W is way too warm. What I'm having difficulty determining is if the "way too warm" daylight WB setting is still closer to actuality than the AWB cooler image. It might be that the "way too warm" image is still actually the closer of the two though. I really appreciate the help here and two brains are always better than one!:twothumbs

LOL

Or 4 eyes.



As you're seeing, the actual amount of light itself is shifting the balance even with a fixed balance setting. The camera itself has programming that is responsible, just like the way film responds to different types of light differently.

That all means that there is no "one perfect setting", but, to keep it apples and apples, you need to use one anyway.

So far, the daylight setting seems to be as close as you're going to get, but your camera's internal algorithms will also bias the end results, hence the suggestion to bracket a shot with a few WB settings, to see what each does to one shot.

As you SAW that the 70 w and 50 w of the SAME light produced different colors (Did it by eye?), you have to assume that the light emitted had different characteristics. (Just like sunlight at dawn produces different colors than sunlight at dusk, even though its the same darn ball of burning hydrogen, etc.)

Try some bracketing, and see if anything interesting pops up.



The results may be applicable to future HID shots for example, or at least give you a baseline to work from.



BTW -

Does your camera/lens keep a fixed f-stop when you zoom, or does the f-stop go up as the focal length is increased?

 

[Patriot]

As you SAW that the 70 w and 50 w of the SAME light produced different colors (Did it by eye?), you have to assume that the light emitted had different characteristics.

Yeah, the beam does get warmer from 50 - 70W, it's just that it doesn't seem like it's 'that much' warmer. I'd say it's a 100-200K shift and the picture makes it look double that in my mind. One of us, (me or my camera) is obviously getting the wrong impression...lol.

Does your camera/lens keep a fixed f-stop when you zoom, or does the f-stop go up as the focal length is increased?

You know, that's a great question! I'm pretty good with photography basics in general but I don't think I've ever thought of that with this particular camera. My intuition tells me that there's no way that camera is holding F4.0 and certain telephoto ranges and there's probably a point that it's changing to F5.6 or even smaller. The thing is, I've never actually seen it indicate any smaller than F4.0 on my LCD screen, in which case I might have just happened to stay under zoom range to lose F4.0. I'll have to just go test to see if and when it does. I'm with you though! If it does, it makes a difference with regards to exposure.

Cheers!







It was raining here pretty good last night so I never made it out for my longer range shots.

 

[tonkem]

What I find interesting, is the increase in runtime over the Polarion lights. This making the Lx50 particularly attractive, since it gets 2.3 hrs on max 50w, and 3.3 hrs on "low" at 35w. After owning the PH40, the runtime of "only" one hr was a bit of a turnoff. And not really needing a light of that caliber caused me to release it into the market. This model is interesting though, for the runtime and output I am intrigued.

Looking forward to your video review, Patriot. I am sure there will be many comparisons to the Polarion in there.

 

[AceDan]

Any news and reviews Patriot?

My dealer has quoted me £1650 including delivery to the UK for the LX70. Waiting on Patriot vs PH50 ;-)

 

[LuxLuthor]

It would be very interesting to compare Xeray Barnburner 75W and Xeray LX70.
For those who not matter waterproof and aluminum housing... But bright light is only important

Agreed. That is my exact question.

In any case, some superb beamshot comparisons guys. Thanks for all the great and tedious work!

 

[XeRay]

Any news and reviews Patriot?

My dealer has quoted me £1650 including delivery to the UK for the LX70. Waiting on Patriot vs PH50 ;-)

Unles you don't care, you need to make sure it includes a XeSparQ igniter and a Philips DL50/740 bulb or else you are not comparing apples to apples.
Otherwise you get a standard D1S bulb, either Philips or Osram brands.

 

[BVH]

There's a BB on MaraketPlace for a paltry $350.00 including shipping! Someone buy it and send it to me so I can use it as a comparison. I'll then send it back.

Agreed. That is my exact question.

In any case, some superb beamshot comparisons guys. Thanks for all the great and tedious work!

 

[AceDan]

Unles you don't care, you need to make sure it includes a XeSparQ igniter and a Philips DL50/740 bulb or else you are not comparing apples to apples. Otherwise you get a standard D1S bulb, either Philips or Osram brands.

Haven't a clue what you're on about, sorry. I recall lumen a lumen and lux, lux?!

Patriot, any further reviews or videos on their way please?

 

[XeRay]

Haven't a clue what you're on about, sorry. I recall lumen a lumen and lux, lux?!
Patriot, any further reviews or videos on their way please?

Look at this adjacent thread:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...s-Lemax-LX70&p=4356467&viewfull=1#post4356467

There you will find more answers to your comment.

 

[AceDan]

Look at this adjacent thread: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?378748-XV-LX70-vs-Lemax-LX70&p=4356467&viewfull=1#post4356467 There you will find more answers to your comment.

Thanks XeRay, I never knew about this difference. Great thread.

 

[Patriot]

Patriot, any further reviews or videos on their way please?

Yep, I've got video beamshots done and will be recording the review Thursday or Friday. There's a good chance that the beamshots will make it onto a shorter video of it's own before the desktop review.

 

[Patriot]

Hey Spotlight junkies, I took the XeVision LX70 out to the mountains again, this time with the cameras and some other lights.

This is on the way in. It's about a 30min hike back with a 78lb pack but there's no light pollution or people to freak out. These stills were made from low light video so the quality isn't too great.



This is a picture of the mountain I'm shooting the lights at. The 40x50 yard dark spot in the center is a slide of black shale surrounded by desert grass and plants. The distance is about 770 yards. That's our target for the still pictures. Ignore where I'm pointing.



Here I'm pulling some equipment and lights from the pack and laying everything out. I was taking still and video beamshots with three different cameras.



This is a control shot of the mountain after dark. It might be a 8sec exposure instead of a 10sec exposure like the following. I try to over expose the beamshots slightly because of the loss of light during resizing.


Fenix RC40


Polarion Abyss Dual S @ 45W


Polarion PH50


XeVision Lemax LX70 @70W






Stacked in same order......








The wind became quite strong and made more video very difficult because of audio issues. It was even starting to effect the stills because even my big tripod was trembling in the wind some. Time to pack up and head out.

 

[Parker VH]

Thanks much for taking the time to do this. I have to admit I'm impressed with the sheer amount of light the Lemax puts downrange. It appears that the corona is quite a bit larger than the PH50 and the hotspot is definitely more intense. I'm undecided if I'd rather have a smaller overall corona, not that I can change it.

 

[Parker VH]

Patriot, Do you think there'd be any noticeable difference if you used the Polarion CSWL instead of the PH50? I would think they'd be very close overall.

 

[Dmitriyrus]

Look at this adjacent thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...s-Lemax-LX70&p=4356467&viewfull=1#post4356467
There you will find more answers to your comment.

I updated starting post, given this information

 

[Patriot]

Patriot, Do you think there'd be any noticeable difference if you used the Polarion CSWL instead of the PH50? I would think they'd be very close overall.

Yeah, overall the PH50 and CSWL are very close. The main difference is that the CSWL is driven to 55-57W for about 5 minutes before stepping down the 40W. The extra initial wattage of the CSWL certainly gives it a boost in output but if I'm honest, I'd prefer that it stayed at that output or at least 50W. It's definitely got the needed heat sinking that the PH50 doesn't.

 

[Parker VH]

Yeah, overall the PH50 and CSWL are very close. The main difference is that the CSWL is driven to 55-57W for about 5 minutes before stepping down the 40W. The extra initial wattage of the CSWL certainly gives it a boost in output but if I'm honest, I'd prefer that it stayed at that output or at least 50W. It's definitely got the needed heat sinking that the PH50 doesn't.

The CSWL drops to 40W? I assumed 50W?? Interesting.