PH50 & Maxabeam comparison

[Patriot]

I was intentionally careful not to title this thread "PH50 vs. Maxabeam" since that would be silly. These lights are obviously completely different beasts. My intention is just to show how very different the Polarion 50W HID and the 75W Short-arc Maxabeam are from each other. Sometimes HID's beams are loosely and innocently referred to as having "laser like" throw. Some HID's certainly have a narrow angle beam, especially the collimated portion but I personally find the difference between HID and Short-arc beams amazing. I just wanted to share with some of the new members what many of the seasoned CPFers already know. Also, the weather was very nice tonight and I just really wanted to get out and enjoy it.


The lights...

PH50, 183 yards to tree trunk (streak of light above the tree was an aircraft)

Maxabeam, set to high, 183 yards to tree trunk (same exposure as picture above)

PH50, 168 yards to the yellow trash bucket. (Note that this was underexposed so that the Maxabeam wouldn't be too over exposed with the same exposure below.

Maxabeam, set to low, 168 yards to the yellow trash bucket. (same exposure as PH50 picture above)

Maxabeam, set to high, (same exposure as the previous two pictures)

I plan on posting additional, more interesting beamshots after another outing tomorrow evening. If all works out I'll have some 600 yard shots.

 

[Lips]

Excellent shots Patriot



Ah, beam shot times! I love taking the beamshots - funfun- and hate doing the computer work...



Thanks for the work! :thumbsup:




.

 

[DM51]

I plan on posting additional, more interesting beamshots after another outing tomorrow evening. If all works out I'll have some 600 yard shots.

Excellent! Looking forward to the 600 yd ones.

 

[Flashanator]

interesting comparison.

Would have loved to see a costco or Ti-Mega, as I'm familiar with those. It would give me a sense of the maxabeam.

 

[DM51]

Hey, who are you? There was another guy around here recently, but at least he had 500mw. LOL

 

[Flashanator]

LOL :laughing:

I'm the cooler Flash.

 

[Patriot]

interesting comparison.

Would have loved to see a costco or Ti-Mega, as I'm familiar with those. It would give me a sense of the maxabeam.

I'll keep that in mind for tomorrow night Flashanator.

 

[Flashanator]

cool, thanks

 

[Team Member]

Nice pics Patriot :thumbsup:

Finally I get to see the difference in size of the Maxabeam and PH50. Maxabeam seems to be not to big. At first I thought it was a huge, monsterlike thing...

Is there different models of the Maxabeam? I can´t say that I have looked to much at Maxabeam since I have been very pleased with my Polarion.

Pleased may not be the right word :thinking: Over-excited it has to be

I´m looking forward to those 600yard photos :naughty:

 

[Flashanator]

the PH50 must be amazing, its stylish small size. :naughty:

 

[Patriot]

Excellent shots Patriot


Ah, beam shot times! I love taking the beamshots - funfun- and hate doing the computer work...

....and you take some of the best around Lips. Your gif images are always great too. You and Lux Luthor demonstrated the value of gifs to me. I guess now that means I better post one...lol.



You're welcome Team Member. All of the Maxabeams are the same size but they do sell differently spec'd lights.

 

[karlthev]

Great thread and great pics!! This is an excellent representation of what the beams actually look like. What camera are you using?


Karl

 

[GhostReaction]

Both of these are truly grail lights
:thumbsup:

So how many seconds longer does the Maxa need before reaching full brightness?

 

[karlthev]

The Maxa Beam "starts" instantly at high power which lasts 3 seconds (according to Peak Beam) and then drops back in output to a factory set medium or whatever you may wish to program it. I really haven't timed mine but it is a very short period at the highest level. The Polarion takes 5-10 seconds or so to reach full power--at least that's been my experience. My other HIDs are slower in reaching full output.


Karl

 

[LuxLuthor]

Great pix!

Karl, you can program it so right toggle will turn on high for 16 seconds.

While light on, hold red power switch down, then rock beam switch to right and release, then release power switch. Light will go out with setting saved.
​

 

[cryhavok]

Damn I always get a bit weak in the knees whenever I see a polarion light...

looking forward to more shots.

 

[Patriot]

Great thread and great pics!! This is an excellent representation of what the beams actually look like. What camera are you using?


Karl

Just the same cheapy Canon Power Shot S2 IS. 5MP. I no longer have the Canon SLR. I sold it a while back with plans of purchasing a Nikon D300. With things being a little shaky economy wise, I decided to hold off on that for the time being.

 

[BlueBeam22]

Wow Patriot this is an awesome comparison!:thumbsup: I have always been amazed by the Maxabeam. I like how the third picture captures the Maxabeam's beam in the air.

The Polarion appears to have almost the same beam pattern as the N30, but it looks nearly twice as bright. It must look amazing to shine the PH50 through a large field like that.

 

[Patriot]

Here is a gif image of the two:

It appears that I bumped the camera tripod since the two don't perfectly match...one of my gif pet peeves...lol. I guess it's close enough to get the idea and exposures were the same in each. I'm amazed by the corona from the PH-50 and how it's even illuminating the powerline polls and lines at the upper right. Although I didn't range the pole specifically, it's about 240 yards away. I should also mention that the moon was pretty bright last night too.

 

[Morepower!]

Awesome thread !! I would love to own both those lights. The next time you take some pics with those 2 lights would it be possible to set the focus of the Maxabeam to the same angle as the Polarion ? I'm very curious to see the difference between them on equal ground, so to speak. Thanks