A whole new perspective of LEDs and Incands.

Mags

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Some members of my church went crab fishing tonight at Captree, somewhere near Jones beach, and I had a blast with my lights. I strapped a glo toob to a trap and brought in quite a couple, and got a chance to test my highest valued LED and Incan. I usually dont use LEDs outside, or in a completely dark area anyway, and found how easy it was to see things with my SF M3, while it was hard to see things with my modified LongBow Micra. Unfair match, I know, but ina fair trial the LED sucked. My eyes actually hurt trying to see things the micra was lighting, or trying to light. My M3 on th other hand was great. everything was much easier on the eyes, and I ended up lending the Micra to someone elsefor the rest of the night. Now I have a question about this. Does the incan perform better simply because it is an Incan, or because it has yellow light? If I had an LED with a yellow emitter, would it perform just as good as an incan? Im an LED guy, mainly because of LEDs Beam quality, durability, runtime, and whiteness of the beam. Now I am almost hating my LEDs. Gonna order some protected 17500s for my M3 now.....
 

chesterqw

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the m3 has a higher lumen rating for sure.

the tint of incan lights is somewhat close to that of the sun(duh) which makes things easier on your eyes, as you are already used to see things lighted up by the sun everyday.
 

NAW

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Mags said:
My eyes actually hurt trying to see things the micra was lighting

Whats a "Micra"? I nerver heard of a LED called Micra. I assume it does'nt put out much lumens? Heres the problem. Unless this Micra puts out 125/225 lumens(thats how much a m3 puts out) then the Surefire m3 puts out much more lumens. So it will be brighter and illuminate more objects for sure. But what would happen if you had a LED that puts out as much lumens as a m3? Then there will be a competition. But I don't think you can compare them both unless they are equal in lumens. I mean would it be fair to compare a m3 against my AE 24w HID (1300 lumens) and critize the m3?
 
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Mags

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The Micra is a flashlight, made by LongBow.
 

NAW

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Mags said:
The Micra is a flashlight, made by LongBow.

Do you know or can guess as to what kind of lumens this LED puts out?
 

JanCPF

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chesterqw said:
....the tint of incan lights is somewhat close to that of the sun(duh) which makes things easier on your eyes, as you are already used to see things lighted up by the sun everyday.
Not true! Most incan bulps have color temperatures in the 2500-3500 Kelvin range, whereas the whitest Luxeons have color temps. of about 5000-6000 Kelvin. The light from the sun on a clear day at noon, has a color temp of about 5500 Kelvin. On cloudy days the color temp is even higher.

Mags,
The hurting of your eyes is probably because you are straining them more. You can't compare a wimpy Longbow to an M3 :tsk:

A lot of people around here find that incans gives better color rendition. I tend to disagree though, because I think color rendition pretty much boils down to output. I find that LEDs have at least as good color rendition (actually I think it has better) when compared to an incan with equal amount of output.

Jan
 
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leukos

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Mags,

I knew you would like your new M3 a little more after actually using it outside! In my uneducated opinion, the reason incandescent works so much better outdoors than LEDs is because of the light frequencies reflected back to your eyes. The larger amounts of red colored wave-lengths present in incandescent light reflect better off of things like vegetation, dirt, and rocks. However, the predominantly blue wave-lengths in LEDs tend to get absorbed by their environment and thus create that ghostly pale appearance.
Happy crab hunting! :)
 

NAW

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leukos said:
the reason incandescent works so much better outdoors than LEDs

I think that it ALSO depends on peoples opinion. For ex, I got a 120 lumen surefire incandescent and a 100 lumen surefire LED. The LED is weaker in lumen output but I like the beam outside better than my 120 lumen incandescent.
 

Donovan

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JanCPF said:
Not true! Most incan bulps have color temperatures in the 2500-3500 Kelvin range, whereas the whitest Luxeons have color temps. of about 5000-6000 Kelvin. The light from the sun on a clear day at noon, has a color temp of about 5500 Kelvin. On cloudy days the color temp is even higher.
Jan
It's not just color temp but the broad spectrum of color your getting with an incan and not getting with an LED! And while an incan peaks at a lower temp it is putting out a very broad spectrum of light (as does the sun). Most people see MUCH better outside with an incan because of this. With its very narrow output LEDs tend to make things outside look pale, ghostly, 2D with reduced detail. Now an LED may be more useful under certain situations due to its very narrow spectrum as it may make certain colors "pop".
 

Chronos

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I've taken various incans and LEDs with me when hiking at night. As stated many times before on CPF "It depends..."

My last time out I took my Gladius and SF M2 (P60) with me. Both lights are of similar size and output and battery life (I'd estimate the Gladius has a bit better runtime and slightly more throw).

Standing on a rocky outcropping about 60+' above a creek I shined both lights down onto the scene below. I thought I could identify more detail with the M2 vs. the Gladius, though I thought the Gladius could throw a bit better and had a hotter spill.

Walking on the trails I thought both lights did quite well. I could punch through the undergrowth with both lights and still see the trail without that annoying "follow the bouncing ball" effect with some lights that are all throw.

My preference? I don't really have one . I love my Gladius and its multi-stage output and yes, the strobe effect works. I love my M2 and look forward to taking it out next week in its new 3X123 (via Detonator) and W/E P90 bulbs as well as the KL3... I'm loving the Lego-effect with SF.

Right now I'll have both lights with me on all hikes. But to compare either to my BRIGHT 13v W/E is unfair. It is much larger but can a) toss a complete wall of light with the 13v bulb b) toss a brighter wall of light with the D36 12v bulb c) throw for well beyond 300 yards with a nice spill beam with the 12v M100X turbo head.

I'll have the Gladius, W/E, and M2+ with me next week. Should be fun!
 

twl

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I prefer the LED lights overall, but there is something pleasing to the eye about the color of an incandescent bulb.
 

Mags

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also when reading, an incandescent lamp is much morepleaseing to the eyes than an LED light...
 

NAW

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Mags said:
also when reading, an incandescent lamp is much morepleaseing to the eyes than an LED light...

If I was to get my magcharger and shine 200+ lumens directly into my eyes, would that be pleasing? Lets find out...
 
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