Is the Gladius really 80+ lumens?

alvdll

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As stated in their specs. Another Glasdius question before I thake the plunge tomorrow to buy it. Has anyone measured the light output?
 

igabo

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It's probably nowhere near 90 lumens; according to quickbeam's review, it gets about 55 lumens; which if you ask me, isn't worth it for the $230 price. Not to mention, it's not so easygoing on rechargeables. You'd be much better off saving your money and getting some other high end LED light with more power, such as the HDS U60; which generates 60 lumens, but runs on only one cell, and supports rechargeables; all for less money.
 

Navck

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That and the HDS is usually 60 lumens on spot +/- a lumen or two. (I heard that a intergrating sphere is used to calibrate them... Geeze)
The Gladius also has the "tailcap made of glass" (Easily broken)
I'd recomend you a U2 (18650s/17650s) or a HDS EDC (2x CR123a tube if you want it larger.)
 

cy

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don't think Gladius puts out 80 lumens out the front end. but for the few Gladius I've handled, they put out lumens slightly better than HDS 60's.

they really are two different class lights. Gladius clearly handles better with say gloves. user interface is completely different. my personal preferance is for Gladius, others may differ.

was fortunate enough to witness a live demo of Gladius in action at shot show. they had a dark tent to show disabling effects of strobe. I saw a veteran cop be easily pushed over when hit with strobe of Gladius.
 
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kennyj

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For an EDC, I'd say the HDS is a much better light. The Gladius is really not meant for the same purpose. IIRC, it focuses a lot more on throw, and doesn't take well to running for long periods of time (though it does have fantastic battery life overall.)
 

beezaur

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I just got a Gladius a couple of weeks ago.

I run it on rechargeables with no problem. The only issue is that it blinks every 15 seconds with the low battery warning. 15 seconds is a fairly long time, so in most of my use I don't even get to the blink. For walking my dog at night, etc., I just barely notice. It isn't as annoying as you'd think. I use AW's protected 1600 mAh Lion 17670 cells.

There are one or two reports of the tailcap breaking. In tests by a third party for Night-Ops, the switches came out far more durable than other brands. The issue is with drops on a locked out tailcap. Honestly I don't think we know how weak the cap really is from a couple of reports. In any event, the cap has already been redesigned once to alleviate the intermittent activation problem. I would not describe the tailcap as "made of glass."

The Gladii (?) sold now are claimed to have a T-bin LuxIII LED. I don't think earlier Gladii had a "guaranteed" bin. My Gladius' output is comparable to that from my SureFire L2. I can't tell the difference between them on a "ceiling bounce" test. It throws about like a SureFire 6P/G2. The Gladius spot is not as concentrated as the P60 lamp's, but it seems to put more light on target.

In my opinion the reasons NOT to buy the Gladius are size and user interface. It is not easily EDCable (it is not intended to be). And you would either like the UI or you would not. That's just a personal preference. I like the SureFire UI better (e.g., A2), but I also like the UI on the Gladius. It has super ergonomics, and I like the button better than SureFire's. The method of mode switching is where I favor SureFire.

It is one of my favorite lights. I pretty much use two lights now: my McLuxIII-PD for EDC and my Gladius for everything else.

Scott

P.S. It is worth adding that the Gladius has thermal management logic in its electronics. If you have the light on high for something like 10 minutes, it will auromatically dim a bit to cool down. It doesn't let itself get very hot. But if you want to override that, you can just "double tap" the switch off-on, which resets the electronics, and be back to full brightness. It stays cooler with Li-Ions. I was not able to get mine to go into thermal management on high.

Another thing is that the Gladius starts blinking with primaries when they are reduced to about 10% of capacity. At that stage you have about 10 minutes of bright, then the light will start dimming gradually. It will not actually go out for several more hours. I just verified for myself that last night. This is important to me because I don't like the idea of being left in a lurch by a suddenly dead flashlight.
 
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Luna

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If I were to guess, the majority of Gladius detractors probably haven't personally seen the issues they quote.

At first I felt the gladius wasn't as tought as the U2 or other lights, but it hasn't caused me any problem. Breake the lens of a Gladius, and you can find one. Break it on the U2 you have to to send the light in (or settle for a 31.5mmx2mm flat mineral glass replacement that I now have to have AR coated). I've had the tail cap issue on the U2.

Problems with the Gladius...none. As for the rechargable option of the Gladius. The blink is the only problem. The fix ... well I think I have a non invasive one that can use regular 4.2v cells :D
 

city cop

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Keep in mind you don't want rechagables in a true tactical light. There not nearly as reliable. Make no mistake about it, the Gadius is a "tactcal light" and does it very well.
I have the Gladius and U2, both great! but when I'm entering a room at night, looking for someone, I want my three lil friends in my hands! The Gladius, Smith and Wesson. Just my two cents!:xyxgun:
 

NewBie

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Was the problem with the tail switch ever fixed?

There were several cases of broken tail switch assemblies, one, as I recall was a simple 2-3 foot drop on a linoleum covered wood floor.
 

beezaur

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NewBie said:
Was the problem with the tail switch ever fixed?

There were several cases of broken tail switch assemblies, one, as I recall was a simple 2-3 foot drop on a linoleum covered wood floor.

I only know a couple of things about tailcap issues.

There was until recently a problem with intermittent activation. Ken Good stated on another thread that this was due to a tolerance stacking problem, I think. The switch has been redesigned. New switches should be coming into circulation now. I had the intermittent issue with my new Gladius, sent it back, and they fixed the inside of the cap pronto (~24 hr turnaround). It works fine now.

Ken also described the drop testing that was done on a thread here. Evidently the results were extremely positive, but I am not sure to what extent they tested with the switch locked out. That was the problem reported by others -- that the cap broke when dropped in lockout mode. I don't know the status of the resolution of that problem, or whether its fix is related to the intermittent problem.

I am wondering if the broken ones weren't just manufacturing flukes, like poorly molded parts or something.

Scott

P.S.

intermittent activation thread:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/107267

broken Gladius thread with discussion of drop testing (post #59 by "strategos" on page 2):
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/91572&page=2&pp=30
 
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cy

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failure mode on Gladius tailcap only occurs in lockout mode. evidently they tested and tested Gladius with no issues in normal mode. but never thought to test in lockout mode.

until Gladius comes out with a new tailcap. to avoid problems simply don't use lockout.
 
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cy said:
don't think Gladius puts out 80 lumens out the front end. but for the few Gladius I've handled, they put out lumens slightly better than HDS 60's.

they really are two different class lights. Gladius clearly handles better with say gloves. user interface is completely different. my personal preferance is for Gladius, others may differ.

was fortunate enough to witness a live demo of Gladius in action at shot show. they had a dark tent to show disabling effects of strobe. I saw a veteran cop be easily pushed over when hit with strobe of Gladius.

It's very hard to compare the lumens. Dim sidespills of large area wouldn't look bright, but because of the large area, the lumen allocation can be rather high.

Even if they exactly the same beam pattern, lumens are hard to compare visually, because our eyes have a logarithmic response.
http://www.lutron.com/product_technical/pdf/360-408.pdf

Assuming the same beam pattern, if a test sample is putting out 60% the output relative to reference, it would appear to be 80% as bright as the reference. If it's putting out 25%, it would appear about 50% as bright.

Because of this, they could rate a 25 lumen light as "50 lumens" and when compared against a 100 lumen light having the same beam pattern, it would appear "half as bright" and convince most people its putting out 50 lumens.

In reality, the beam pattern is never quite the same between two sources, so you really need a calibrated integrating sphere equipment to do a lumen comparison.

Would you believe that a 32 watt, not so "bright" four foot fluorescent lamp outputs 2,800 lumens? This is more than a common 2 million CP spot light.
 

cy

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Handlobraesing said:
It's very hard to compare the lumens. Dim sidespills of large area wouldn't look bright, but because of the large area, the lumen allocation can be rather high.

Even if they exactly the same beam pattern, lumens are hard to compare visually, because our eyes have a logarithmic response.
http://www.lutron.com/product_technical/pdf/360-408.pdf

Assuming the same beam pattern, if a test sample is putting out 60% the output relative to reference, it would appear to be 80% as bright as the reference. If it's putting out 25%, it would appear about 50% as bright.

Because of this, they could rate a 25 lumen light as "50 lumens" and when compared against a 100 lumen light having the same beam pattern, it would appear "half as bright" and convince most people its putting out 50 lumens.

In reality, the beam pattern is never quite the same between two sources, so you really need a calibrated integrating sphere equipment to do a lumen comparison.

Would you believe that a 32 watt, not so "bright" four foot fluorescent lamp outputs 2,800 lumens? This is more than a common 2 million CP spot light.
that's not completely true...

you may not know exact flux output, but in a side by side test. using ceiling beam test, outside throw, room corner etc. it's very easy to tell which light is putting out more flux. temperature of light comes into play, for your eyes may or may not be more sensitive to certain tints.
 

TENMMIKE

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the gladius is a great light , i have a brilliant white U2 , put them together and ask me which one will i take , if i had to have only one light ill take my gladius any-day, and not look back , my u2 is nice and better then all the ones iv compared it to, but i still think my gladius is a better all around light, iv done plenty of multi hr long run times with it, it handles it great, it regulates its self very well.. and that tail cap problem ( glass tail cap LOL) IS SO OVER BLOWN,as to wonder how it got to this proportion ...........my 2 cents
 
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cy said:
that's not completely true...

you may not know exact flux output, but in a side by side test. using ceiling beam test, outside throw, room corner etc. it's very easy to tell which light is putting out more flux. temperature of light comes into play, for your eyes may or may not be more sensitive to certain tints.

Outside throw wouldn't tell you the flux unless the beam pattern is absolutely identical.

As for the diffused light testing, that gives you a qualitative way of telling the two apart, but you can't quantify it unless you use a light meter. Something that gives "twice" the perceived total illuminance has four times the brightness as measured light level is the square of the perceived level.
 

Luna

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Handlobraesing said:
As for the diffused light testing, that gives you a qualitative way of telling the two apart, but you can't quantify it unless you use a light meter.

There are ways but that is what he is talking about.

Ceiling bounce works fine but there is a reason IS are spherical and multiple sensors are used. Distribution patterns will alter the reading because the distances light has to travel will vary.

If anyone wishs to argue that, just take two identical light and point them at same spot then hold them so they fashion a dipole and measure. This is a worst case but it show the flaw The flux reading of each will not be the same in most environments.
 
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