Which Is The most powerful Handheld HID Flashlihgt

Kirov

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Messages
40
Location
Sofia, Bulgaria
Hallo to everybody!

I am new to this forum and I came here searching for an answer to the most important question in my life (as an EXTREME fan of lightning):
Which is THE MOST powerful Handheld Search/Flashligh made so far???

I have done quite some research myself. I own so far 4pcs of HID Handhelds. 1pc 35W and 3pcs 10W. I am waiting this month to receive my Wolf-Eyes Crocodile-I and Dragon-I. I am also trying for a long time to purchase the MaxaBeam 75W but it is not easy to buy something from the US especially when you are located in a shitty country like mine(Bulgaria)!

The Best thing that I own is a 12 000W Xenon Searchlight which is mounted on the roof of my office Building, with a power output of 550 000 Lumens. The only bad part is that I had some problems with the International Airport last week, and now I cannot use it until we solve the problem. If we do not solve it I will have One extremelly heavy 12KW Flashlight to use in the forest(that's If I find something to provide it with power).
To convince you even further how big fan I am of lightning I can tell you that on one of my SUVs I have mounted 3 aditional 35W BOSCH HID lights and on the other I have 4 of the same(+ the original bi-xenon lights + the original 65W Halogen) and it is still far from being bright enough for me in front of the car. Not to mention my collection of more than 30 LED/Xenon/Luxeon mini-flashlights...

Anyway Sorry If I made you bored with my story. The point is that after a couple of hours reading through these forums I understand that here are some guys(or girls) with really good knowledge on this subject, so I decided to ask you what would be the BRIGHTEST Handheld I can easily take with me in the forest...

Thank You
 
Well, if lumens is what you are going for, than.....


Sway's Lightforce 240 Blitz (It's a mod though)!!!


A Kumkang 35w HID light is probably the most powerful (puts out the most lumens) stock light that you could buy. (Unfortunatly, they aren't available anymore (that I know of in the US anyway))

Other than that, the X990 35w HID light is a portable output monster as well. You can get one of them at Brightguy.com for just under $500.

http://brightguy.com/detail_int.php?Sku=ACRX990
 
Thank You MaxaBaker!!!

I already own a x990 (it is branded McCulloh). It is the only one 35W HID that I have so far. It is not bad but you cannot concentrate the beam at all and most of the light is lost and it does not reach great distances. Up untill today I was thinking that the most powerful was the MaxaBeam 75W. But I found in one forum here about the MegaRay 175W. That Must be the most powerful on the market, or is there a more powerful one???

By The way I cannot find even one online store that sells the MegaRay 175!?
The cheapest Place I know for the MaxaBeam though is:
http://www.icaststudio.com/maxabeam.htm

Anyway Thanx again. If you know about any other powerful flashlight please let me know!
 
The MaxaBeam and Megaray aren't actually as bright as your X990. They use xenon short arc bulb technology (some consider it HID), but, it doesn't have the metallic salts in the bulb that metal hilide (such as the X990 bulb) have in them so it doesn't put out as much light (lumens) so it doesn't look near as bright. The advantage of the XSA bulbs in th MB and MR is that they have the ability to out throw almost any lights due to their high surface brightness.

The maxaBeam - 1000 lumens


X990 - 3200 lumens


So, it wouldn't light as much stuff up, but they (MB, MR) would out throw an X990 (or most other metal hilide (HMI) light) with ease). Hope that helps!
 
So If I got you correctly, the MaxaBeam would have a greater range but less light output (In Lumens) than the x990?!
By the way this is getting confusing with the Bulbs! I always thought that that HID is called High Intesity Discharge because the thing that emmints light is the electric arc between the electrodes, and in that sense I thought that Short-Arc bulbs are exactly the same???

For the x990 they claim it is 3 000 000 candle power and the MaxaBeam they claim it is 7 000 000 cp.....
What is the catch here? How could it be more Lumens and less candle power.........
By the way MaxaBaker what is your favourite FlashLight, or what are you actually using?
 
[ QUOTE ]
markdi said:
a 15 mcp 50 watt hid thor out shines a x990


[/ QUOTE ]

I prolly should have mentioned the HID Thor in there as well, but I gave my "mod vote" to the Blitz as being the brighter one. The Blitz just throws farther I think, though.
 
Yes, it gets very confusing between the HID bulbs. Basically (very basically), a XSA (xenon short arc) bulb is the same thing that's in your X990, but without the metal salts in the space between the anode and cathode (the little metal prong things). The salts in an HMI (metal hilide) bulb heat up, produce light (the extra light that the XSA bulbs don't get), and allow the arc to be powered with less electricity (that gives HMI bulbs their great efficiency as well). That then equals more lumens being produced = more total light (even though it's using less electricity). The XSA bulbs have great throw even though they lack lumens because they have a a 75w arc between the anode and cathode that has a very high surface brightness (4 times the intensity of HMI bulbs, and 60 times the intensity of halogen bulbs). Although some will argue, surface brightness of the emitter (in this case, the arc), will = greater throw (the size of the emitter (xenon SHORT arc) and reflector size+material will matter as well for throw. The smaller the emitter, the more focusable = more throw. That's why xenon SHORT (small/short emitter) arcs throw so well). The XSA bulbs are missing the metal salts in the bulb that heat up (which would increas the emitter size (losing throw because it's then less focusable) so it can throw farther yet put out less total light (lumens).

Wow, that probably is incredably confusing.
 
Okay, I add, the candlepower is the intensity of the light at one point (I think it's at one meter away???). The reflector controls the angle/degree of the beam. So, if you have a flood light, the candlepower is very little, but if you took the same light and focused it into a thin beam, the candlepower would increase even though the amount of light (lumens) stayed the same. The CP (now called Candela most of the time) is judged by the beams intensity at a spot (the hotspot in a flashlights beam usually). So, the reflector pretty much controls CP (or candela).

Therefore, the MaxaBeam's needle thin beam has more candlepower than the X990 because more light is focused into one spot tighter increasing the intensity.


My favorite light is the MaxaBeam. Hence the username and avatar /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

What do I use, well, I use a lot of lights but my soon to be favorite is the SuperNova! It's practiaclly the same thing as a the MaxaBeam but it is made in a different country so it is cheaper. Check out the threads about it. I can't linkt it for you right now, but there is one in the GB section and one in the Spotlight/HID section!
 
WOW!!!
Thank You again Maxa!!!
It is not confusing! I learned things I never knew before! I never thought about it that way! It makes perfect sense now - they achieve 2 degrees light beam with the shorc arc but they have less lumens. And to get more lumens you have to make the arc longer but you loose focus and come to something like 9 degrees beam of the x990 - more lumens but over a much bigger surface.
Then it depends what is the application you need a light for to determine which one is the best. Anyway I must get one MaxaBeam definitely!
One request please - when you mention 50W HID or any other cool flashlight product - PLEASE give me a web page or an exact name so I can look for it. See that's why I asked you guys which is the best Flashlight since you know - for example I never knew 50W HID flashlight existed... But which one is it???...that is the question...

Thank You again for the information
 
Re: Which Is The most powerful Handheld HID Flashl

[ QUOTE ]
MaxaBaker said:
Okay, I add, the candlepower is the intensity of the light at one point (I think it's at one meter away???).

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not exactly true. Candela is a measure of the light emitted in a particular direction. It has nothing to do with distance. The intensity of the light at one point you are talking about is measured in Lux, that's Lumens/Meter^2.

Just take a look this thread, I'm writing something about this stuff there:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB4&Number=935946

Your other statements are all correct!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Kirov said:
And to get more lumens you have to make the arc longer but you loose focus and come to something like 9 degrees beam of the x990 - more lumens but over a much bigger surface.


[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly!!! But, don't forget that the metal salts in an HMI bulb also add to the total light output.

Yes, we would have told you exactly where to buy the 50watt HID flashlights. Unfortunatly, they are all modifications (as of right now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ). You have to buy the bulb+ballast+ignitor seperatly and then get the body that you want to put it in. In markdi's example, you'd buy a 15 million candlepower Thor light (not even close to that CP rating BTW), and then stick the HID system into that body.

Just do some searching in this thread and you'll find where you can get the 50watt HID system. Maybe markdi can help ? (he's kinda the expert on the 15 MCP 50watt Thor idea /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ). The 10 MCP Thor can be found here (just a smaller reflector):

Link to Thor
 
Re: Which Is The most powerful Handheld HID Flashl

[ QUOTE ]
Spacemarine said:
[ QUOTE ]
MaxaBaker said:
Okay, I add, the candlepower is the intensity of the light at one point (I think it's at one meter away???).

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not exactly true. Candela is a measure of the light emitted in a particular direction. It has nothing to do with distance. The intensity of the light at one point you are talking about is measured in Lux, that's Lumens/Meter^2.

Just take a look this thread, I'm writing something about this stuff there:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB4&Number=935946

Your other statements are all correct!

[/ QUOTE ]

Wheew. Glad I only got one thing wrong /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif !!!! Thanks SM!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Actually, I get lux and cd confused a lot. I should have known /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Re: Which Is The most powerful Handheld HID Flashl

lotsalumens your 50W HID Thor looks great.
Can anyone tell me where I can get a 50W HID conversion kit?
As I understand the Standard halogen Thor uses a standard 100W halogen light bulb - most probably H3 type or at best H1 and you get a conversion kit for this type of Bulb base and you put it in...??? The only problem is that I have heard of only 35W HID conversion kits for the automotive industry...

lotsalumens unfortunatelly I do not have any pictures yet of My own instalation of the 12K Xenon searchlight. I will have soon anyway since I will need some pictures for advertizing, and I will post them. I have pictures with my old 4 000W Xenon searchlight but it is no use of posting them since it was far away from what I have now - around 4 times more Lumens.
Anyway the manufacturer is: http://www.spacecannon.it/
Unfortunatelly their page is under construction and you cannot see details about my model - otherwise it is called Sky Eyes One and is under Show Lightning.
But if you want pictures - they have some of the best that I have seen here: http://www.spacecannon.it/Img_Gallery/Gallery_IndiceMondiale.htm
Like this one here:
[image]d:\d\new york.jpg[/image]
This is an actual image taken and the effect is achieved using 88 pieces 8 000W Xenon lights!
 
Re: Which Is The most powerful Handheld HID Flashl

Ooops I got things wrong with the pictures!
Their web site is Flash and I cannot post the picture here....
Anyway go and check their gallery it is Really worth it!
 
Re: Which Is The most powerful Handheld HID Flashl

By the way Has anyone found YET a place where you can purchase the SUPERNOVA????
Or at least can anyone tell me who is the manufacturer or a web page or something. I couldn't find anything on google!
 
Re: Which Is The most powerful Handheld HID Flashl

I think ther's still a spot left in the GB when someone dropped out. I could be wrong though, just pm solomon.
 
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