Mag-Led 2 Cell impressions

So I picked up a 2 cell MagLed upgrade today at Wally World, from a display that was still laying on the glass counter in the Hunting/Fishing section.

Once it got sufficently dark here I tried it out in a brand new Pewter 2C Mag with fresh Ray-O-Vac Alks. Here are my observations.

Brighter overall and much more throw that either of my L1P on fresh Energizer 2500s. I would say easily twice as bright.

HDS B42XR has good output but the Mag-Led has far greater throw. It is hard to compare these two as the HDS is a good smooth beam with very useful spill, the Mag is a thrower with a little spill. Once you widen the beam on the Mag you get a donut that makes it diffucult to compare by eye.

The Mag-Led far out throws the PentagonLight L2 (running new BS 123) when the Mag is focused to a pin spot. When the hotspot is made to be the same size as the PL L2 it appears that the Mag-Led is very close in the hotspot throw with a bit less brightness in the spill that the PL L2.

And finally the closest comparison is to my Diamond DB-3W's in a pair of 3D Mags. The 3Ds were running on new R-O-V Alks. One of my DB-3W's is brighter and the Mag-Led compared favorably to it. The Mag-Led is slightly less purple in tint than the better of my two DB-3W. For all practical purposes during my test the Mag-Led in the 2C had identical output as the DB-3W in the 3D. The obvious difference is that the 2C is much smaller and lighter. That said, other than the 3D with DB-3W, the other lights I compared the 2cell Mag-Led to are much smaller in size.

The tint is good. Not my best Lux3 (the HDS is), but pretty good. For $19 it seems to be a good upgrade for the 2 cell Mags. I can't speak to the runtime, regulation, or heat dissapation.

Can you do a comparison again after leaving the MagLED running for 30 minutes? Then take the module out immediatley after the 30 minutes to see how hot it is (just a "finger thermometer" measurement will be sufficient)?

Since it's a comparison, shouldn't he be taking the module of both out? That way he can say ouch, ouch, instead of just ouch.

I picked one up too. I've got the same 2cell model.

Overall it's worth the money. mine is a tad less bright then a TWOJ at 750ma. I would say its probably a SXO* or a SWO*. I won the tint lottery because its very white. Heat sinking is adequate for short term use; I wouldn't want to leave it on for long term use (30+ minutes).

I'm interested if anyone has a 3-4 cell and a 2 cell module, are they the same brightness?

The bottom line: I'll be picking up more to outfit other mag-lites with, and will buy them for people I know that use 2-4 cell lights.

Hows' the tint on these?

Using these things in C-cell Mags isn't that bad of an idea...lesser runtime, not a problem if they're general use lights that run on rechargables, but the brightness of a full size Mag with the smaller barrel size sounds extremely tempting. A friend of mine has always complained how big around the D-Mags are, yet he still wants to get a Mag-LED.
...Fifteen bucks at Home Depot for a 2C, eighteen for the upgrade...This could be a good birthday present.

KDOG3 said:

Hows' the tint on these?

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Well, I went to two Walmarts late Thursday night -- first one No Joy, but the "better one" farther away had some. It was funny, I was looking on the regular pegboards and there was one 2D 3W MAGLED mixed among the others. I was like, "Whoa, they saved one for me?!

Turns out there was a box of them on the glass counter where they have the fishing reels in Sporting Goods. Some in black and some in regular aluminum. I took one of the latter.

I would say that there is a bit of yellow to the tint, but not horrible. Shine it on a white painted house and it looks white -- until you shine an Inova T2 next to it and you realize you're looking at a somewhat "warm" LED spot...

Of course, I have no way to know whether this is typical, or whether there is much variance.

I'd like it to be whiter, but it's satisfactory the way it is. I really just like having an LED flashlight, finally, that's in the time-proven Mag housing. Isn't that what this is about?


-Jeffrey

Interesting.

Though I prefer floody lights, I would like to try the LED upgrade...could always add a diffuser.

I would love to see a compact flip-up filter/diffuser, so you could easily change from throw to flood.

Dare to dream, eh?

Bob

I'd like to know how different number of cells affect the output/runtime. Should I drop the $20 here, or use it toward buying a Fenix L2T?

Handlobraesing said:

I'd like to know how different number of cells affect the output/runtime. Should I drop the $20 here, or use it toward buying a Fenix L2T?

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I've been wondering the same.

Handlobraesing said:

I'd like to know how different number of cells affect the output/runtime. Should I drop the $20 here, or use it toward buying a Fenix L2T?

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They are completely different animals. The Fenix is smaller and has good output for its size.

The 2 cell MagLed upgrade is about twice as bright as a L1P, and will run much longer given the C or D cells.

IMO, the Fenix has a far better/more useable beam. The Mag ends up with a pinpoint spot that throws well but has very little useable spill. If you attempt to utilize the "patented focusing" you end up with a terribly large black hole in the middle of the beam.

I was away most of last evening, but did have the upgrade running for a couple minutes. It seemed like the whole fastening ring was quite warm, actually surprisingly warm for the amount of time the light was on. Hopefully I can get a chance to do some more investigation over the weekend.

The 2 cell upgrade seems like a winner for the 2C lights. You get a relatively small form factor with a good deal of light from pair of standard alkaline C cells in a relatively durable light. Seems like a fair deal for ~$36 including tax.

Handlobraesing said:

I'd like to know how different number of cells affect the output/runtime. Should I drop the $20 here, or use it toward buying a Fenix L2T?

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It's difficult to say my experience is typical, but my 2 cell module is just a bit brighter than my 3 cell. My 2 cell module is also discernibly brighter than my Diamond.

Whether or not that's typical, I don't know.

Empath said:

It's difficult to say my experience is typical, but my 2 cell module is just a bit brighter than my 3 cell. My 2 cell module is also discernibly brighter than my Diamond.

Whether or not that's typical, I don't know.

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Empath:
Hows the tint on your's, compared to the diamond?

Now I think I may be getting a little hooked ...

On the way home, I picked up a couple of $10 2 cell Mags just to try out the 2 Cell LED modules and compare them to the 3 Cell modules.

Real quick observations and comparisons.

The 3 Cell does output more light and will outthrow the 2 cell module.
Tint is whiter with the 3 Cell module, though the output from the 2 cell module is plenty white.
The 2 Cell is whiter and does outthrow a SL 4AA Propoly Lux, and about the same tint as SL 3C Propoly Lux but also outthrows that light.
In another posting, I did note that the tint from LEDBeam 3Cs seem to be whiter than the 3 cell Mag modules, but the Mag will outthrow the LEDBeam even when the spot of the Mag is focused opened as wide as it will go (and still maintaining a solid spot), with the Mag focused all the way down it definitely outthrows the LEDBeam 3C.

The MAGLED 2D I got last night throws quite well, all the way down my driveway, with a nice tight spot.

I want to caution anyone considering them, though, that if you want a good FLOOD light, this is NOT the way to go. If you adjust the focus on the MAGLED to anything other than "tight spot," you get a serious donut-hole in the middle. It's not pretty. The focusability of the MAGLED is just about as useless to me as it ever was in the conventional Maglites.

The Inova T2 that I EDC is much better for flood-lighting. The MAGLED is much better than the T2 for spot/throw. As a general-use light, though, I think I prefer the light I get from the T2 to that of the MAGLED. Much of the enjoyment I get from the MAGLED comes from the fact that it's a Mag, and it's heavy and has they "last-ditch use-as-a-club" factor going for it.

Oh, one last thing -- the brightness/intensity of the MAGLED is FAR better than the same exact flashlight using the included Krypton bulb. It makes the Krypton bulb seem laughable.


-Jeffrey

If you remove the head, does that give you a perfect flood of light? If it does, it might be a decent light for camping although I wonder about it's heat sinking ability.

BentHeadTX said:

If you remove the head, does that give you a perfect flood of light? If it does, it might be a decent light for camping although I wonder about it's heat sinking ability.

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Yep. Take the reflector out and you have a great walking light. You could just take the head off but then any rough use will hurt the bare LED.

I just checked out another 2 cell module and the tint is slightly warmer, nearing on the yellowish side compared to my other one. The cooler one is a bit bluer then a TXO*. For outdoor use the yellowish one washs out less.

Just picked up a 2-cell led replacement at Wal-mart,doing a side by side eye ball test,with 2-d Mag lights.One has a Mag-star bulb,the other the new led,the led makes the incan bulb look sick.Both lights have fresh batteries,have to play with this some more tonight,but so far I like this up grade.As others have said the display box was on the glass counter in sporting goods.This store had no Mag led lights,just replacement led bulbs.

peacefuljeffrey said:

I want to caution anyone considering them, though, that if you want a good FLOOD light, this is NOT the way to go.

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That's a good point. One should not expect the LED module to change the characteristics of the Mag Light's reflector system. Your still going to get the donut hole effect just as you would with an incandescent bulb.

peacefuljeffrey said:

Oh, one last thing -- the brightness/intensity of the MAGLED is FAR better than the same exact flashlight using the included Krypton bulb. It makes the Krypton bulb seem laughable.
-Jeffrey

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That's something I discovered with the 2D lights that I picked up, the Krypton bulb does have a donut hole no matter how you have the light focused. I never noticed it before as I generally tossed the Krypton bulbs with any Mag and replaced it with one of the Magnum Star bulbs as soon as I got it.

I posted the following in the thread about the 3-cell module but realized that it would be more appropriate in this thread, so here's a copy.....

I think that when an official runtime test is done, we're going to find out that the 2-cell module has full current regulation. I base this on current draw, and also on eyeballing relative brightness, using fresh and used batteries. If so, it's a nice surprise.

The LED in the module I have has a vf of 3.23.