The unquenchable desire for more lumens

[James35]

First I was surprised to find a web site like this with a forum dedicated to flashlights. Then I realized, there is certainly a need for it.

With the help of this community, I've learned a lot in just 4 months. I picked up a Malkoff P4 dropin. So my 2D Mag-lite went from 30 lumens to 240 lumens. Well, that was great, but I wanted more.

Last night, I completed my first Mag P7 which puts out 700-900 lumens. It's much better yet. But wow, I can't believe that I STILL WANT MORE LUMENS! How can this be?

BTW, for a little side fun tonight, during a lull in the fireworks, I lit up the clouds like the Bat-signal for only 3 seconds, then the fireworks resumed.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

L.e.d. lights will be limited in lumens by the number of great emitters you can cram in the head of a flashlight and the capacity of the battery you use to power it. It can get expensive really fast to try to get the brightest light this way. If you want more light, you might have to go for an H.I.D. spotlight. S.S. P7 and Cree MC-E l.e.d.s will get you lots of light, but you will have a hard time getting one to throw a beam far, and you'll be limited by how much heatsinking it will take and how fast a drain your batteries can handle. H.I.D.s can put out over 3,000 lumens and some are over 100 lumens/watt (as efficient as the best l.e.d.s). I only mention H.I.D.s in the l.e.d. forum because you aren't satisfied with some of the best l.e.d.s currently made.

 

[James35]

No that's ok. I appreciate the input. When the Cree MC-E comes out, I doubt it will be much of an improvement over a P7. I like throw, so it seems like I may be at the end of the road for LED's, until something better is developed.

 

[yellow]

when the MC-E comes out, it will be 5 mins, then that useless, wrongly designed P7 will never be heared again.

With the MC-E one gets a led that really pushes out the 700 lm (and not the more realistic 400-500) and the ability to use already tested and proven drivers

no more crappy divect driving some led in parallel

 

[adamlau]

Time for you to pay a visit to Spotlights and HID Flashlights.

 

[Gunner12]

Yes, HID(or a hotwire incan) would be the next step.

Look at HIDs over 10w though.