SSC Modded Striker and Malkoff SSC 3D

[racer7]

A comparative impression of both - not hard numbers.

Why? The aren't the same form factor or in any way physically alike or intended sales competitors.

Answer - They both drive the SSC at reasonably high levels. 1.0A for the Malkoff and IIRC 0.82 A for the Striker SSC. So expected output isn't very different.

The modded Striker obtained through Matt works as expected. Nice switch electronics with an interesting "hold to dim" mode plus a strobe. Its only a bit more than half as long as the Malkoff 3D (and about 1 1/2" longer than an M1)and has a very nice central beam pattern similar to a less powerful Amilite T5 but with less spill. Obviously more punch than an M1, C2, P1D, etc, as expected and shown in Matt's photos. The beam is pretty near ideal for intermediate distances of 30-100', can reach further depending on environment and dark adaptation, and the dimmer protects night vision for closer use. The size is a bit large for my jacket pockets but not by much - so this may be close to a perfect light for that walk on a dark beach or in a suburban neighborhood. Too small for a club but there are better legal ways to address protection issues.

The Malkoff remains the long lance of the pair and is only a bit more than half the price of the modded Striker. Its MagLite reflector produces a very narrow spot beam that carries further than the modded Striker. Beyond 200' it is a very clear choice over the Striker but for under 100' I'd prefer the Striker beam type. A mild OP reflector in this light would make it more useful to most, I think, though perhaps at the expense of its unique feature -very long throw. If you live on a farm and need to reach across that beanfield with an LED, this has the reach to do it. And it has the stored power of 3 D cells compared to a pair of 123s.
And I suspect most of us have pounded something with a MagLite at least once, even if it was just ice in the cooler.

All of the SSC lights I've used so far (4 types) have better beams and/or color balance than the Cree lights and the obvious competitor to two favorite Fenix Crees (P1D-CE and L0D-CE because of their small form) hasn't arrived yet. Should be interesting when it does. Personally, I consider Crees impendingly obsolescent at the front edge of this technology - sort of like a "two speeds down but same generation" processor chip- and the previous Lumileds and similar "the prior generation". It becoming fairly obvious that driving the SSC at something near an amp will be needed at the front end.
(Not that prior generation stuff doesn't have a purpose in headbands for close work, and related uses. I like the X-5 in my glovebox just fine for its purpose and do not want anything brighter for that use.)

 

[daveman]

...Personally, I consider Crees impendingly obsolescent at the front edge of this technology - sort of like a "two speeds down but same generation" processor chip- and the previous Lumileds and similar "the prior generation."

I agree, if Cree doesn't release their Q3 bin XR-Es soon, SSC will gain the edge in the premium portable LED lighting market.

 

[2xTrinity]

All of the SSC lights I've used so far (4 types) have better beams and/or color balance than the Cree lights and the obvious competitor to two favorite Fenix Crees (P1D-CE and L0D-CE because of their small form) hasn't arrived yet. Should be interesting when it does. Personally, I consider Crees impendingly obsolescent at the front edge of this technology - sort of like a "two speeds down but same generation" processor chip- and the previous Lumileds and similar "the prior generation". It becoming fairly obvious that driving the SSC at something near an amp will be needed at the front end.

I absolutely agree that for lumens, and for beam distribution/throw, the SSC is the hands down winner. However, the Cree LEDs I've been able to get my hands on have been better so far for color rendering IMO, even though they don't look at "white" and have a slight greenish tint. The only SSC that I've been able to find are the cool white ones (SW0), which don't render as well as the warmer (WH) Cree LEDs that I have. Also, the overall output in the Cree gets warmer still due to the fact that the "yellow" light is thrown out to the sides, meaning this is what gets concentrated into the hotspot. The color rendering is by no means bad though on the Seoul. If I coudl get some in a warmer bin for the Seoul that would probably be best in every respect.

The only other situation that I can think of as an advantage for the Cree would be the guys using big aspheric lenses to concentrate the lgihs fromthe Cree LEDs for the sake of throw -- there the fact that most of the light is projected straight forward is a huge advantage, while it's a disadvantage for most reflector-based lights.

 

[MattK]

racer7 - Excellent work. I think you were spot on in pointing out that they're not really 'competitors.' We did have an opportunity to ask LEDLogic to allow the units we modded to run at 1A but according to the specs that would have been a 20 lumen (10%) gain for using more than 20% more power and you cannot 'see' the difference of 20 lumens. We wanted the Striker to remain a well balanced tool and that meant maintaining the existing runtime, not decreasing it, while basically doubling it's output.


For the record we used USW0H binned P4's for the Strikers.

 

[ace0001a]

Well as Wayne over at The Sandwhich Shoppe pointed out, color rendition seems to be all over the chart with both Cree and SSC. Albeit, I have found that all the different binned SSCP4s I've messed with all lean towards the cooler tints--kind of reminds me of when I first started playing with 5mm LED flashlights. Personally, I like that as it reminds me of the HID lights in cars. I've had Crees that have been cool with earlier P3 bin verson, but all the P4 bin ones I've messed around with lately have been warmer and "greenish looking". I too prefer the SSCP4 over the CreeXRE. It's too bad Cree didn't make their XRE in the same form factor as a Luxeon, then there'd be less headache retrofitting Luxeon flashlights. Lets hope the next Luxeon (whenever it comes out), will make retrofitting old Luxeon flashlights easy.

 

[cratz2]

I have two SSC lights and two Cree lights. All are modded from Luxeons.

I don't really mind the greenish tint of some LEDs and greatly prefer greenish to bluish and I esp dislike violet tints. Both of my Cree lights are green. And not really 'slightly green', but 'green'. Again, I don't mind, but I'm sure a lot of CPFers wouldn't find them acceptable.

Both of my SSCed lights use a USW0H and they are among the whitest LEDs I've ever had. I'd say the SSC in my HDS is the second most true white LED I've ever owned.

 

[2xTrinity]

I've messed with all lean towards the cooler tints--kind of reminds me of when I first started playing with 5mm LED flashlights. Personally, I like that as it reminds me of the HID lights in cars. I've had Crees that have been cool with earlier P3 bin verson, but all the P4 bin ones I've messed around with lately have been warmer and "greenish looking". I too prefer the SSCP4 over the CreeXRE. It's too bad Cree didn't make their XRE in the same form factor as a Luxeon, then there'd be less headache retrofitting Luxeon flashlights. Lets hope the next Luxeon (whenever it comes out), will make retrofitting old Luxeon flashlights easy.

Well, the best HID headlights are generally a lot warmer than any high-power LEDs I know of -- around 4300K. They generally look more "Blue" to oncoming traffic though as the blue gets scattered more due to chromatic aberration in the lens, while the rest of the light gets concentrated onto the road surface. However, I have read that the newer Luxeon LEDs that supposedly get 115 lumens per watt have a color temperature of around 4600 I believe, which should be a big improvement. That actually makes sense to me -- the eyes are the most sensitive to the yellow/green wavelengths, so converting more of the blue to yellow/green should improve the lumen output.

I have two SSC lights and two Cree lights. All are modded from Luxeons.

I don't really mind the greenish tint of some LEDs and greatly prefer greenish to bluish and I esp dislike violet tints. Both of my Cree lights are green. And not really 'slightly green', but 'green'. Again, I don't mind, but I'm sure a lot of CPFers wouldn't find them acceptable.

Both of my SSCed lights use a USW0H and they are among the whitest LEDs I've ever had. I'd say the SSC in my HDS is the second most true white LED I've ever owned.

Greenish tint usually just means that there is a slight deficiency in the red. My "best" Cree LED is good, but if I point a small 5mm red LED up at the ceiling, and do a ceiling bounce test, the light all of a sudden looks perfect. Honestly, I think someone needs to come up with a two-phosphor LED: blue + separate red/green phosphor. The biggest fault with current LEDs is that red is lacking.

 

[racer7]

Matt- thanks for the comments. Battery life really does matter and I suspect almost all of us would agree that going for a modest output improvement at the expense of a lot shorter battery life is not a good idea. The real strength of the modded Striker is its beam pattern matched to a plenty adequate output for almost all purposes, and given inverse square laws there certainly wouldn't be muched gained from a few extra lumens. But if we just had some 10000 mAH 123s.......! Once we get to that point we might even have cost effective electric cars.

The color balance issue raised in this thread is an important thing that I think many users overlook and should be more clearly covered in reviews discussing intended uses of lights. One way to do that would be to compare depth perception and color resolution on specific types of targets.

The human eye/brain does react to yellower light by perceiving improved contrast that helps depth perception and perceived color, especially in dim lighting. There's a reason shotgun competitors and many others often use yellow glasses. And its no secret to most of us that incans make it easier to perceive colors than many LEDs, especially at long range in low contrast targets. That's part of the reason LEDs need so much punch to be useful at really long distances- their higher color temp creates a starting handicap in some situations. The 1A SSC in a tight beam, like the Malkoff, works better at longer distance than the MagLite stock incan but less potent LEDs in the MagLite (eg the earliest Terralux conversions and similar) aren't as convincing in this regard, though they bring the other advantages associated with the LED emitter package such as constant output and longer battery life. For moderate distance, the high power LEDs around today have removed the color balance issue - they have plenty of output to offset any starting handicap..

I hate violet, too. Nothing quite like washing a gray target with a violet light to see very little. I prefer a warm white over a cool white and can even stand a little preceived yellow. I don't like green in any form that's not a plant - lights, carpets, cars, whatever. Whoops- an exception- wine bottles...

I'm also an HID fan- my old Lexus SC 300 has HID conversion headlights done the right way- take apart the stock housing, insert US DOT spec HID optics and bulb, reassemble. That conversion ended any future incan headlamps, halogen or not, in cars I buy in the future - they are obsolete. I have found no situation where the HIDs fail to surpass incans, including fog, rain, etc. The improved optics more than make up for the fact that higher color temps scan have backscatter issues with water in air.