Lowes Task Force 3AA Luxeon light with Cree XR-E star

Howdy all,

Just got some Cree XR-E stars and emitters today, and thought I'd try one out. My Crees are of unknown bin code, but are part number XR7090WT-U1-0021, so they are something north of 73.9 lumens at 350mA.

I removed the original Luxeon I star from one of the $2.50 Lowe's 3AA Luxeon lights I hoarded recently, and popped in a Cree star. Measured current with slightly used Duracell AA alkaline cells that the light came with was almost exactly 350mA (700mV drop across the 2 Ohm resistor that is in the light).

I set my camera's exposure manually, and used a fixed white balance of 5000k. The colors shown are fairly close, but keep in mind that the wall paint is not exactly white, and I did not spend much time tweaking the white balance to get an exact match with what my eye sees.

According to the camera's light meter, and to my eye, the Cree is twice as bright overall. My Lux meter shows that the Cree's hotspot is half as bright as the Luxeon, due to the optic in the Lowe's light not working well with the Cree.

All shots are at ISO 200, and f/1:16
Original RVOH Luxeon on left, Cree XR-E on right

2.5 second exposure


1.3 second exposure:


1/1.6 second exposure:


1/3 second exposure:


Comments?

Cool, nice work. Too bad the cree doesnt like the optic too much, cause these would seem like ideal hosts otherwise.

damn, i wanted to be the first one to try this =( but no crees yet