XeRay
Flashlight Enthusiast
Re: New Lemax LX70. Killer Polarion PH50.
Well first lets clarify your overdriving statement.
All ballasts overdrive the bulb to some extent during the early stages of operation called warm up, before steady state is reached. So yours is really a question of relative overdrive intensity. Not a yes or no, but a “how much” question.
The overdriving in every case is tapered off, as steady state (warmed up) is approached.
I believe the Polarion uses a S.Korean made ballast but not sure who makes it. Chinese made aftermarket kit ballasts typically overdrive minimally causing them to take maybe 30- 40 seconds or more in some cases, to reach full brightness. This is done by them because their ballasts are usually not robust enough to take “heavy” overdriving. Their cheap bulbs also can’t take it. They want to avoid pushing the cheaply made electronics too hard, causing premature failures. They also do it to avoid some Canbus (computer fault) issues in cars where they are converting Halogen to HID in an aftermarket conversion kit. They want the kits to draw less amps during the start up and warm up stages. The Chinese 35 watt claimed (rated) ballasts are more typically about 30 watts, not 35 true watts output like automotive factory OEM ballasts.
One more thing, typical OEM car ballasts also have very quick warmup (bulb overdrive) very close to what you have indicated, offered by Polarion. One word of note, these have all been ONLY 35 watt OEM systems (and~30 watt Chinese) not 40 watts, we are talking about in this initial paragraph. 40 watts and above (overdriving) is in "new territory", "uncharted waters".
Back to the direct specifics of your question, most of the Polarions in the field are 40watt not the 50 watt variant, I would guess more than 90% are 40 watt. I will continue my comments on the basis that we are primarily talking about the 40 watt Polarion as a basis of this continued response.
Since it appears that Dmitriyrus has both, PH40 and PH50 Polarion models, perhaps he would be so kind to comment of his perceptions, as to the relative difference of initial brightness. The comparison between the 2 models, at start-up.
My GUESS they are both about the same or a minimal difference. Until our 35/50 at 50 watts is close to being warmed up, then there will be a more noticeable ~10 watt ~1000 lumens difference.
We decided from the start to not abuse the bulbs excessively, hurting bulb life more than what is necessary, in what we perceived was an optimal compromise level.
Since we can initially start our lights in either the high or low mode. We knew we could use that to our advantage in this somewhat important “tactical” performance characteristic. When you want the brightest initial firing using our products, always use the higher power setting. Since our units offer 50 or 70 watts (2 models), for the high setting. Comparing a heavily overdriven 40 watt offering to 70 watts is no longer a “fair fight”. Our lights do take some seconds longer to fully warm up. A bulb life and lumens maintenance issue benefit.
With the 50/70 a comparison is not fair to a 40 watt light, because of my earlier comment of our ability for starting up at 70 watts, the high setting. When you are comparing it to the 40 or 50watt Polarion.
You can only push the bulbs so far. With our ability for starting at 70 watts you can’t use excessive overdriving, you would very quickly permanently damage any of these similar bulbs types, ours (Philips) or the Polarion (Osram) HID bulbs.
Our 35/50 would be a more fair comparison with the Polarion PH40 and 50 regarding initial brightness. They should be quite similar. Using our 50 watt setting , with about 1000 warmed up final lumens more from ours than the PH40 and similar lumens output to the PH50, with our advantage of the lower wattage (dual) setting when possible to extend battery run times, for both of our models.
Note: we also use significantly larger reflectors as well, on both of our lights. The larger unit about 25% larger diameter than our 35/50. But even our 35/50 has a large 80mm precision reflector. The 50/70 a 100 mm precision reflector, 25% diameter increase is a 50% increase in reflector surface area, in this case. The larger reflectors also enhance the “out the front” lumens.
With all these other factors included in the performance mix assessment, we believe the overdriving issue by itself, is no longer a performance comparison issue of real concern.
I would suspect the Polarion PH50 could still be very slightly brighter at startup, when we startup using our 50 watt (high) setting on the 35/50 model, or the 50 watt (low) setting on our 50/70 model. Not likely enough to make a tactical difference. Again Dmitriyrus can help us with this detail, to understand this PH50 vs. PH40 characteristic better.
Boy, that was a long winded response to an initially perceived “simple” question.
I believe I have given a complete and adequately technical analysis of this issue and question.
I believe for our lights, we have found the optimal reflector sizes, parabolic shape and optical efficiency characteristics, bulb types, ballast warm-up and operational functionality behaviors.
That your questions (comments), while they are very valid to be asked, have been fully answered here and will prove to be moot in the final analysis. Let the lights “speak” (illuminate) for themselves. The result of 50 years of combined HID systems engineering skill and experience within our final product development team.
Well first lets clarify your overdriving statement.
All ballasts overdrive the bulb to some extent during the early stages of operation called warm up, before steady state is reached. So yours is really a question of relative overdrive intensity. Not a yes or no, but a “how much” question.
The overdriving in every case is tapered off, as steady state (warmed up) is approached.
I believe the Polarion uses a S.Korean made ballast but not sure who makes it. Chinese made aftermarket kit ballasts typically overdrive minimally causing them to take maybe 30- 40 seconds or more in some cases, to reach full brightness. This is done by them because their ballasts are usually not robust enough to take “heavy” overdriving. Their cheap bulbs also can’t take it. They want to avoid pushing the cheaply made electronics too hard, causing premature failures. They also do it to avoid some Canbus (computer fault) issues in cars where they are converting Halogen to HID in an aftermarket conversion kit. They want the kits to draw less amps during the start up and warm up stages. The Chinese 35 watt claimed (rated) ballasts are more typically about 30 watts, not 35 true watts output like automotive factory OEM ballasts.
One more thing, typical OEM car ballasts also have very quick warmup (bulb overdrive) very close to what you have indicated, offered by Polarion. One word of note, these have all been ONLY 35 watt OEM systems (and~30 watt Chinese) not 40 watts, we are talking about in this initial paragraph. 40 watts and above (overdriving) is in "new territory", "uncharted waters".
Back to the direct specifics of your question, most of the Polarions in the field are 40watt not the 50 watt variant, I would guess more than 90% are 40 watt. I will continue my comments on the basis that we are primarily talking about the 40 watt Polarion as a basis of this continued response.
Since it appears that Dmitriyrus has both, PH40 and PH50 Polarion models, perhaps he would be so kind to comment of his perceptions, as to the relative difference of initial brightness. The comparison between the 2 models, at start-up.
My GUESS they are both about the same or a minimal difference. Until our 35/50 at 50 watts is close to being warmed up, then there will be a more noticeable ~10 watt ~1000 lumens difference.
We decided from the start to not abuse the bulbs excessively, hurting bulb life more than what is necessary, in what we perceived was an optimal compromise level.
Since we can initially start our lights in either the high or low mode. We knew we could use that to our advantage in this somewhat important “tactical” performance characteristic. When you want the brightest initial firing using our products, always use the higher power setting. Since our units offer 50 or 70 watts (2 models), for the high setting. Comparing a heavily overdriven 40 watt offering to 70 watts is no longer a “fair fight”. Our lights do take some seconds longer to fully warm up. A bulb life and lumens maintenance issue benefit.
With the 50/70 a comparison is not fair to a 40 watt light, because of my earlier comment of our ability for starting up at 70 watts, the high setting. When you are comparing it to the 40 or 50watt Polarion.
You can only push the bulbs so far. With our ability for starting at 70 watts you can’t use excessive overdriving, you would very quickly permanently damage any of these similar bulbs types, ours (Philips) or the Polarion (Osram) HID bulbs.
Our 35/50 would be a more fair comparison with the Polarion PH40 and 50 regarding initial brightness. They should be quite similar. Using our 50 watt setting , with about 1000 warmed up final lumens more from ours than the PH40 and similar lumens output to the PH50, with our advantage of the lower wattage (dual) setting when possible to extend battery run times, for both of our models.
Note: we also use significantly larger reflectors as well, on both of our lights. The larger unit about 25% larger diameter than our 35/50. But even our 35/50 has a large 80mm precision reflector. The 50/70 a 100 mm precision reflector, 25% diameter increase is a 50% increase in reflector surface area, in this case. The larger reflectors also enhance the “out the front” lumens.
With all these other factors included in the performance mix assessment, we believe the overdriving issue by itself, is no longer a performance comparison issue of real concern.
I would suspect the Polarion PH50 could still be very slightly brighter at startup, when we startup using our 50 watt (high) setting on the 35/50 model, or the 50 watt (low) setting on our 50/70 model. Not likely enough to make a tactical difference. Again Dmitriyrus can help us with this detail, to understand this PH50 vs. PH40 characteristic better.
Boy, that was a long winded response to an initially perceived “simple” question.
I believe I have given a complete and adequately technical analysis of this issue and question.
I believe for our lights, we have found the optimal reflector sizes, parabolic shape and optical efficiency characteristics, bulb types, ballast warm-up and operational functionality behaviors.
That your questions (comments), while they are very valid to be asked, have been fully answered here and will prove to be moot in the final analysis. Let the lights “speak” (illuminate) for themselves. The result of 50 years of combined HID systems engineering skill and experience within our final product development team.
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) Polarion PH50. 
