I have a good amount of experience with 50-100W lights, including the various Osram lamps, and lamps like the Philips 402158, and also the IRC lamps from Osram. As can be seen from my sigline, I am the co-designer of the USL, and I built the USL proto-type from scratch.
And before that, a number of years ago, when I started on The TigerLight Upgrade Thread in an effort to make a higher powered solution available, I got into all the various Welch Allyn lamps that are typically used for "hotwire" mod solutions here on CPF, such as the 1111, the 1274, and the 1185.
In short, I have plenty of experience with higher powered incandescent solutions in the 20 to 100 watt range.
At first, the sheer amount of light, and the increasing amount of it with the successs of each more powerful mod I did, led me into what I call the "brightness disease". It got to the point where my SF E2e seemed so pathetically underpowered to me as to be worthless as an EDC. I used to feel that nothing under 100 lumens (out the front) was worth considering (for me, anyway).
Then, as part of my consulting work for TigerLight, I had to spend a lot of time with the focusing and potting of the TigerLight stock lamp module. The lamp is a xenon-halogen tungsten filament 7.2 volt 1.8 amp lamp, yielding about 275 lumens out the front from about 13 watts of power. Not much compared to a 35 watt overdriven 1185, and nothing compared to a 100 Watt 2200 lumen 62138.
But as I tried to nail down the exact best focal point for best performance in the field, and spent hours and hours out there with such a "low powered" light, I realized this very simple truism (which though commonplace is still true):
SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE
If you're someone who is going walkabout for more than 20 or 30 minutes, you can use the fact that your EYES WILL ADAPT TO THE DARK to help you out. If you blast a whole area with massive amounts of spill light and beam light, your pupils will contract --which, drum roll please . . ., will require even MORE light, and so on and so forth.
There are a number of viable solutions to this:
1. Overpower it. Do what andrewwynn does and carry around a 100 watt light with a runtime in the 12 to 20 minute range. Or find something like the X990 HID with a much longer runtime, in a non-cylindrical form factor. But however you do it, you basically are going for the SPOTLIGHT / SEARCHLIGHT approach. Turn night into day. Light up the entire freakin' field. It will ruin your night vision, but you have so much light it just doesn't matter. This is akin to the Native American saying "White man build big fire and sit way back".
2. Underpower it. This is my solution. I like to use my SF A2 to go walking in the woods. The LED's are putting out a mere handful of lumens. Nothing compared to a 100 watt lamp. But because my eyes are mostly or even completely dark adapted, this is plenty of light. This is akin to the "Build small fire and sit very close" compainion line to the earlier quote above. And if and when I need to reach out and touch something I can . . .
3. Strobe it. A short burst from a long throwing light IN COMBINATION WITH vision that is still more or less dark adapated is truly a winning combination. Even the mere 75 to 80 lumens from my A2 incan high beam are potent enough to reach hundreds of feet in concert with my more light sensitive eyes. OR, using a combination like a headlamp constant on and the SureFire M6 as the burst light would be an even more potent combination, albeit in a larger, two-light form factor.
All types and kinds of people can post to a forum like CPF. It's best to find out what kind of experience they have to find out where they are coming from. Does the person giving the advice ever go out walking in the "outback", in the woods and fields, in the pitch dark, in the country? Or does he use and test his lights standing on his back porch, or out on the street, or in the den inside or something. THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS OUTDOOR USEAGE.
I go for an average of five walks a week, most of them at night, all of them longer than half an hour, all of them in the country, in the fields and woods. And in my experience, THE M6 IS MORE THAN POWERFUL ENOUGH TO SERVE AS A LONG RANGE FLASH-LIGHT.
And, in my opinion, anyone who thinks that the M6 beam is mostly hotspot and throw, with little or no spill, is someone whose vision and perspective have been skewed way far to the opposite extreme due to too much exposure to a super large 100 Watt 12 volt filament in a 2 or 3 inch reflector--a beam which is almost equal parts flood and throw.
The TigerLight Gen4 LA, which I spec'd, or a MagCharger, are beams which are indeed mostly throw and less flood (especially the MC). But the M6? LOL! That's outrageous. In my opinion, and going by my experience, the M6 beams, both LOLA and HOLA, have a nice amount of flood as well as good throw.
Earlier, people talked about the M6, and some said it was a toy or a novelty item. I said it was not. But however people think THAT may be, a 100 watt hot-rod hotwire basement modded light certainly IS a novelty item. After only 5 minutes of runing a light like that is heating up so fast that the head of the light will burn you (or your daughter or son). It's got a short runtime, that can only be replenished with an hour or two hour (or longer, depending on your equipment) charge. It's an exhibition light. It's a toy.
I have a 100 watt light. It sits on my book shelf and sees very little "real world" use. I have found it to be useful and practical in certain situations, but I would give it up IN A SECOND if it were a choice between that or my M6.
Don't be so quick to discount lower powered lights. Don't be so quick to be impressed with numbers or the bravado of any given posting. Or a negative post. When I was first on CPF, I was thinking of getting an A2 and posted a thread asking for opinions. A very respected CPFer came on and bad-mouthed the A2 beam, calling it one of the worst, most artifacty beam there was--or something like that. So I didn't get the A2, on the strength of that negative assessment. I certainly didn't want a terrible beam!
Later I found that while the A2 beam isn't as pleasing aesthetically as, say, the E2e beam or the N2, it was PLENTY GOOD ENOUGH for my tastes.
All postings and opinions--mine, andrewwynn's, whoevers--should be taken with a grain of salt and a large helping of common sense and consideration of your own personal situation.
I endorsed the HD-M6. I called it superior. I still do. If you think you will be best served by an HD-M6 and an M6 running the MN21, go for it. I only say this:
1. It's not ready yet and may not be for some time.
2. Primary 123's may suit your needs just as well or better.
3. Get a spare tailcap or spare internals so you can always go back to stock configuration.
The M6 is such a wonderful, beautiful and well designed light that it seems a shame to me to irreversibly mod it away from stock configuration.
As for "show me a picture of a beat-up M6" I would have been able to do that before SureFire warranteed my Millenium turbo head, but I can't really do that now. I have a scratch in the body and a ding in the tailcap, but it's not much. Fact is that the HA coating does a good job of holding up to knocks and scrapes without scratching.
However, I know for a fact that Lightraven's M6 would be an ideal candidate for such a picture.
Bottom-line: plenty of people USE their M6's on a daily or weekly basis. THESE are the people who probably, just MAYBE, have the best, most accurate assessment of the light and its merits.
