Hey everyone,
OK, here's a draft review/analysis of the shootout.
It was quite difficult to examine and compare these lights because of many factors, so i'll try to explain as well as I can. All the while trying to keep it as simple (?) or clear as possible.
It's hard to completely characterize each light into a particular group, but relatively speaking, I could group them in the following way:
a) Flood-biased lights (Surefire Beast, X990 flood mode)
b) Spot-biased lights (Cmacclel's HID, Sway's Blitz HID)
c) Uber-output lights (Sleeper, Ken4, Ken5)
d) "regular" lights(a mixture of spot/flood) - The rest
Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule, and I will cover each light in more detail, but I think it's a good point to start.
Let's examine the zoom photos set first.
Be sure to look at the WHOLE picture, not just the center.
The photos are organized in relative order. Lights that are similar to each other are grouped together for better viewing.
First of all, the Wolfeyes is, politely put, very disappointing. It was by far the dimmest in the group. Not much to say.
The Surefire Beast was next up, the X990 in flood mode was a bit better. As expected, these flood-biased lights seem quite dim in the center.
The next 3 (Stock Thor, Havis-Shields, X990) were quite close. The thor actually looks almost the same as the Havis-Shields except for the color.
If I HAD to compare, I would say that the Havis-Shields seems to have the hottest spot, but the X990 shows the most area(look at the tree on the right).
All in all, the 3 could be said to be of equal performance.
The Kenrad looks like the X990, but is clearly brighter. Although the ground on the X990 seems just a tad brighter.
The KumKang ups the ante on the Kenrad. The hot spots are a close call, but look at the ground and background.
The boosted thor seems to light the target tree the brightest of this group. The ground is a bit brighter on the Kumkang though.
The next 4 are a bit different than the ones before them.
The 35W mode of Cmacclel's HID looks like a boosted version of the Havis-Shields. The 50W mode does even better.
Sway's Blitz HID mod is quite impressive in it's hot spot. It really did remind me of a Maxabeam. The 35W hot spot is brighter than the 50W hotspot of Cmacclel's HID, but you can see that the background is very dark (still better than the wolf eyes, though).
Other than the 35W mode of Cmacclel's HID, the beams of these lights makes it extremely difficult to compare to the group before.
I could make some guesses of the relative light outputs, but it would be just that. A guess.
Remember, these are just the zoom shots. You must look at the wide angle shots as well to truly judge the performance of a light, so let's move on for now.
Next, we come to the uber output lights. The one shot that I wanted to take over in this shoot..... the Ken4 was aimed lower than all the others (look at the ground). If it had been aimed better, the tree would've been better illuminated as well as the objects in the background. How much better?
I don't know. What I do know is this. The sleeper is clearly brighter than the Ken4. So the ken4 aimed correctly would've been a slightly darker version of the sleeper pic.
Just for fun, I put a Ken4 bulb into a Blitz 240 reflector to see how it would perform with a large reflector. It did real good. The center is clearly brighter than any other light (except the Ken5).
The Ken5 was the brightest light of the whole group. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Enjoy, and let me know what you all think.
P.S. The Ken5 is NOT a Blitz 240 mod. I simply used the blitz 240 reflector body as a test mule for the Ken5. If I were to make a "real" Ken5, it would be in a all-in-one rechargeable body.
OK, here's a draft review/analysis of the shootout.
It was quite difficult to examine and compare these lights because of many factors, so i'll try to explain as well as I can. All the while trying to keep it as simple (?) or clear as possible.
It's hard to completely characterize each light into a particular group, but relatively speaking, I could group them in the following way:
a) Flood-biased lights (Surefire Beast, X990 flood mode)
b) Spot-biased lights (Cmacclel's HID, Sway's Blitz HID)
c) Uber-output lights (Sleeper, Ken4, Ken5)
d) "regular" lights(a mixture of spot/flood) - The rest
Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule, and I will cover each light in more detail, but I think it's a good point to start.
Let's examine the zoom photos set first.
Be sure to look at the WHOLE picture, not just the center.
The photos are organized in relative order. Lights that are similar to each other are grouped together for better viewing.
First of all, the Wolfeyes is, politely put, very disappointing. It was by far the dimmest in the group. Not much to say.
The Surefire Beast was next up, the X990 in flood mode was a bit better. As expected, these flood-biased lights seem quite dim in the center.
The next 3 (Stock Thor, Havis-Shields, X990) were quite close. The thor actually looks almost the same as the Havis-Shields except for the color.
If I HAD to compare, I would say that the Havis-Shields seems to have the hottest spot, but the X990 shows the most area(look at the tree on the right).
All in all, the 3 could be said to be of equal performance.
The Kenrad looks like the X990, but is clearly brighter. Although the ground on the X990 seems just a tad brighter.
The KumKang ups the ante on the Kenrad. The hot spots are a close call, but look at the ground and background.
The boosted thor seems to light the target tree the brightest of this group. The ground is a bit brighter on the Kumkang though.
The next 4 are a bit different than the ones before them.
The 35W mode of Cmacclel's HID looks like a boosted version of the Havis-Shields. The 50W mode does even better.
Sway's Blitz HID mod is quite impressive in it's hot spot. It really did remind me of a Maxabeam. The 35W hot spot is brighter than the 50W hotspot of Cmacclel's HID, but you can see that the background is very dark (still better than the wolf eyes, though).
Other than the 35W mode of Cmacclel's HID, the beams of these lights makes it extremely difficult to compare to the group before.
I could make some guesses of the relative light outputs, but it would be just that. A guess.
Remember, these are just the zoom shots. You must look at the wide angle shots as well to truly judge the performance of a light, so let's move on for now.
Next, we come to the uber output lights. The one shot that I wanted to take over in this shoot..... the Ken4 was aimed lower than all the others (look at the ground). If it had been aimed better, the tree would've been better illuminated as well as the objects in the background. How much better?
I don't know. What I do know is this. The sleeper is clearly brighter than the Ken4. So the ken4 aimed correctly would've been a slightly darker version of the sleeper pic.
Just for fun, I put a Ken4 bulb into a Blitz 240 reflector to see how it would perform with a large reflector. It did real good. The center is clearly brighter than any other light (except the Ken5).
The Ken5 was the brightest light of the whole group. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Enjoy, and let me know what you all think.
P.S. The Ken5 is NOT a Blitz 240 mod. I simply used the blitz 240 reflector body as a test mule for the Ken5. If I were to make a "real" Ken5, it would be in a all-in-one rechargeable body.
