SCblur
Enlightened
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2005
- Messages
- 818
I was bored today, what can I say... I caught a glance of one of my many minimags that I have not once used since my rebirth as a flashaholic. I usually have feelings of disdain when I glance at my maglights, as they remind me when i used them faithfully, with the false belief that they were the best and brightest.
A devilish thought occurred to me... "I wonder how many times I can drop a minimag before it stops working." It didn't take more than a second before that thought was acted upon, and i was headed outside, red minimag in hand, sporting a new lamp and batteries. Making a mental wager, I was willing to give the mag a generous two or three drops before I predicted it would fail. Let the experiment begin.
I started with a wasit-high drop onto the driveway. Nothing. Hardly even a scratch. I was impressed, albeit barely. Drops two through five proceeded much as the first. Time to step things up a notch I thought. A few drops from head height produced the same disappointing results. My awe was slowly growing, as this little AA mag was outpacing my predictions with hardly more than a few scratches.
Around this time, my curiosity got the best of me. I don't know what came over me, I just chucked the light straight up, nearly thirty feet. "This should do it" I thought with a grin, as the minimag started its return voyage to the earth. "WHAM!"
THE DARNED LIGHT WAS STILL LIT!!??!?!?!
Now what had previously been awe had changed to frustration. I was determined to knock this light out if it was the last thing I did. On the next toss, I thought I had done it, but alas, the lamp had only fallen out after it landed bezel-down. Upon re-seating the bulb, it was working again. By this point, I had throw it to an estimated height of 30-40 feet several times. The bezel was dented in several places, the head made a 'crunching glass' sound when twisting the bezel (Part of the lamp, near the base, had broken off) and the beam pattern resembled a kaleidoscope. Not to mention, the output was about half of normal.
But, it was still working.
I decided on a new approach. I needed to assist gravity a little, since it was apparently not strong enough by itself. After a wind-up, I threw it straight down, hard. Still working. I decided it was going to end here and now. I threw it four more times straight into the concrete, each time with greater force than the last. The fourth time did the trick. She was dead. YES!
I unscrewed the bezel to make sure it wasn't the bulb that fell out. To my surprise (again) when I touched the lamp, it flickered. It seemed that the light was still sorta operational. If i fiddled with it, I could make it flicker, but I decided this would suffice for dead since the light would not turn on via conventional means.
I must say, I am not a Mag fan by any means. But after this little experiment, I have a much greater level of respect for their ruggedness, if not light output or beam pattern. I guess this is a testament to less being more. I doubt a complex light would have stood up to damage as well as a mini mag, with so few parts and simple operation. To any of you out there with AA minimags, consider them very very very very sturdy. I wish I was made of money, cause I'd love to stress test a few different brands (especially SF) for a good old fashioned shootout.
If anybody has an old G2 they would like to donate to science, I'd be happy to do the research
EDIT: As requested, here are some pictures of the damage. All I had handy was the bezel. Most of the damage was concentrated here, as this is where I directed most of my rage This is the state of things when the bulb went out.
A devilish thought occurred to me... "I wonder how many times I can drop a minimag before it stops working." It didn't take more than a second before that thought was acted upon, and i was headed outside, red minimag in hand, sporting a new lamp and batteries. Making a mental wager, I was willing to give the mag a generous two or three drops before I predicted it would fail. Let the experiment begin.
I started with a wasit-high drop onto the driveway. Nothing. Hardly even a scratch. I was impressed, albeit barely. Drops two through five proceeded much as the first. Time to step things up a notch I thought. A few drops from head height produced the same disappointing results. My awe was slowly growing, as this little AA mag was outpacing my predictions with hardly more than a few scratches.
Around this time, my curiosity got the best of me. I don't know what came over me, I just chucked the light straight up, nearly thirty feet. "This should do it" I thought with a grin, as the minimag started its return voyage to the earth. "WHAM!"
THE DARNED LIGHT WAS STILL LIT!!??!?!?!
Now what had previously been awe had changed to frustration. I was determined to knock this light out if it was the last thing I did. On the next toss, I thought I had done it, but alas, the lamp had only fallen out after it landed bezel-down. Upon re-seating the bulb, it was working again. By this point, I had throw it to an estimated height of 30-40 feet several times. The bezel was dented in several places, the head made a 'crunching glass' sound when twisting the bezel (Part of the lamp, near the base, had broken off) and the beam pattern resembled a kaleidoscope. Not to mention, the output was about half of normal.
But, it was still working.
I decided on a new approach. I needed to assist gravity a little, since it was apparently not strong enough by itself. After a wind-up, I threw it straight down, hard. Still working. I decided it was going to end here and now. I threw it four more times straight into the concrete, each time with greater force than the last. The fourth time did the trick. She was dead. YES!
I unscrewed the bezel to make sure it wasn't the bulb that fell out. To my surprise (again) when I touched the lamp, it flickered. It seemed that the light was still sorta operational. If i fiddled with it, I could make it flicker, but I decided this would suffice for dead since the light would not turn on via conventional means.
I must say, I am not a Mag fan by any means. But after this little experiment, I have a much greater level of respect for their ruggedness, if not light output or beam pattern. I guess this is a testament to less being more. I doubt a complex light would have stood up to damage as well as a mini mag, with so few parts and simple operation. To any of you out there with AA minimags, consider them very very very very sturdy. I wish I was made of money, cause I'd love to stress test a few different brands (especially SF) for a good old fashioned shootout.
If anybody has an old G2 they would like to donate to science, I'd be happy to do the research
EDIT: As requested, here are some pictures of the damage. All I had handy was the bezel. Most of the damage was concentrated here, as this is where I directed most of my rage
This is the state of things when the bulb went out.
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