What do you think about the 130 lumens PALM BLAZE K2 ?

hi everybody, how are you ?

I would your opinion about the PALM BLAZE 130 lumens and 1,5 Hours of runtime with two CR123 and DC-DC Regulated Circuit ?

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link http://www.batteryjunction.com/fpak2luledfl.html

someone got this flashlight ?

it's maybe the flashligh of my dream if all specification are true

thank by advance

Ive got two of them. Brightest light Ive ever owned. Gets real hot after about 10 min. Well made. I think they are well worth the money. Square beam, very bright hot spot, tons of throw.

mhubble said:

Ive got two of them. Brightest light Ive ever owned. Gets real hot after about 10 min. Well made. I think they are well worth the money. Square beam, very bright hot spot, tons of throw.

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Can you tell us more about the beam? I presume that its a spot and not a flood. Is there any side spill and is it of any use? Any pictures possible?

mhubble said:

Ive got two of them. Brightest light Ive ever owned. Gets real hot after about 10 min. Well made. I think they are well worth the money. Square beam, very bright hot spot, tons of throw.

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woww great !
and you got other flashlight of 100/120 lumens for the comparaison with PALM BLAZE ?

you think then the power is really at least 120 real lumens ?

it's very concentrated spot ?

i dont do why it's not a popular flashlight... she is maybe more recent...

thanks

cernobila - the beam is spot but spreads out quickly with distance. Ill try and get some beam shots later tonight. Probably wont get to post them till tomorrow. This light has alot of uses. Makes a great weapons light. Will really blind you. The only problem Ive found with it is it gets too hot.

zerafull - Its really 120 lumens. I have nothing to compare it too except a terralux maxstar 5 for the maglite. The PALM BLAZE is ALOT brighter.

Those are the usual bogus claims. It won't produce 130lm for 1,5h.

On 2xCR123 with a good regulator you can power a Luxeon LED at roughly 1000mA for 1,5h, 2/3 the current they claim.
At 1000mA, a Luxeon K2 won't produce 130lm, not even the bare LED.
Now ... then lets figure in the losses from the optical system, converters, heat ... etc. ... and you will quickly realise that this light won't make 130lm at all, far from that. And I highly doubt it runs for 1,5h fully regulated.

This is just the usual marketing hype with no substance behind it.

However ... the light looks nice, and it has a current regulator. Not bad.

bernie

mhubble said:

Ive got two of them. Brightest light Ive ever owned. Gets real hot after about 10 min. Well made. I think they are well worth the money. Square beam, very bright hot spot, tons of throw.

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And here's his (MHubble's) review..

Keep in mind when comparing brightness to not just look at the hotspot. A bounce test off the ceiling is more accurate for relative output comparisons.

MattK said:

12-16-2006, 12:47 PM

The Blaze is very bright but I don't think the throw is particularly impressive - hardly what I'd call amazing and I expect more experience reviewers will find the same; an excellent mid-range light.

... it's all hot spot with no flood where the MaxStar is spreading it's lumens over a much wider area. Looks impressive on a wall but in real world applications these tight hot spot lights aren't as user friendly...

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MattK said:

01-03-2007, 02:35 AM

... they're seriously badas5 IMHO!

I'm seriously in love with the PalmBlaze like I was for a long time with my L4. It's just so damned impressive - I've never seen an LED with a hotpsot flood like this that wasn't some sick multi-LED canon.

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:huh2:

okay, it's good surprise finaly

and you know other flashlight with the same technical specifications just by curiosity ?

+1 for "Sweet"

EngrPaul, this is OT, but I love the new Avatar. Hilarious.
john

finally a light that offers a small body, no damn agressive bezel, back switch, ...

should be quite a good host for modding
(a cree wont produce the same heat while being equally bright)

yellow said:

finally a light that offers a small body, no damn agressive bezel, back switch, ... should be quite a good host for modding
(a cree wont produce the same heat while being equally bright)

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...and increase run time!
That's what I was thinking. Does anybody know if it can be opened up easily to mod?

I tried with a strap wrench and vise and couldnt get it to budge.

lrw2 - you have to see the beam to get it - it puts out a wall of light - think movie projector - very smooth & consistent beam. It's either all hotspot or all flood depending upon how your persepctive. There's no tiny 'spot' of light surrounded by lesser amounts. Imagine this if you will - at ~10' it basically projects a 6' square beam that's got a 6' diameter circle inside that's slightly brighter. There's not really a traditional 'hotspot/spill'.

zerafull - It's extremely popular considering it's only been available for a month - we've had to accelerate and airfreight our shipments to keep up with demand.

kiessling - The mfrs listed runtime 1.5 at max and 10 total. I think the 130L is believeable when I reference it against a U2 and L4. Like it or not this is common to about 99.9% of the mfrs. We did a basic runtime test (clock, paper, observation) here and the observed full brightness was definitely over 1 hr and the light was still going at 9+ hours. The 130L is OBVIOUSLY based upon Luxeons spec at 1.5A - not measured output.

I'd been unable to get one open either but when I was demoing the light to a customer at CES I threw it pretty hard against a wall 15' away to demonstrate the ruggedness of an LED. When I picked it up it was off. At first I just assumed it hit on the switch - which it may have - but in checking it over I noticed the head was now loose enough to twist off. Underneath the body is threaded and has a gasket but the LED/optic/head is all a sealed unit I'm not clever enough to open.

Lastly I have a prototype Cree lamped flashlight here that is running at 375mah off of 3 C cells behind a largish (1.5' Diameter) collimator. I'd say the overall output of each is similar but that while the Cree can throw like nobodies business while the Palmblaze has a much cleaner, more even beam that's not optimized for throw.

Here's the pics of the PalmBlaze:

Matt, sorry, it just isn't believable.

When doing a runtime test using your Eyeball MkI you will not notice a drop in brightness untill maybe 50% or so, and due to the soft changes you will be fooled even more. Not valid.

SF lights are rated "minimum output", meaning the minimum output of the light and not the LED, with usually more output than what they are rated for.

With this light we see LED lumens at 1.5A drive current quoted, and with the claimed runtime we neither get 1,5A to the LED nor do we get 130lm out the front.

It is marketing hype, plain and simple. And yes, almost all manufacturers do it. Which is why they should be judged by their behaviour and exposed. This is unacceptable.

bernie

OMG the clickie and and 2 a123 size is EXACTLY what I'm looking for. If this thing isn't a piece of crap I want it

MattK,....Can you let us know if this light can run on any other combination of batteries?....eg. 1x 3.7V 17670 or 2x 3.7V new slimmer AW's RCR123's?...and if so, what is the performance with these rechargeable cells? Thanks.

Kiessling,

While I understand that humans cannot perceive brightness differences of <~20% I still think a side by side comparison of a light with fresh cells and one an hour + into it's run is still a farily valid means of measuring brightness.

SF lights are rated for minimum per the LED spec - does SF test every LED and make sure it's within spec? Do they lumensphere every light to confirm output? It's still just a best faith estimate. Certainly it's a more 'honest' approach than most but I think that it's generally understood here that when a mfr makes a lumen claim, with few exceptions, they mean bulb lumens as claimed by the mfr for that bin lot.

I find the use of wattage as a measure far more misleading to the average consumer. As you and I both know power consumption is a pretty crappy measure and now we have companies like Mag claiming '3W' for their AA minimag while driving the unit at 1/2 of that current level. I guess I find that a lot more offensive and intentionally misleading.

SF is certainly a great company. I believe in them and their products which is one of the reasons I carry them. They're the gold standard, that's a given. I can think of only 1 other company at the moment that uses output lumens and again, I believe that the use of bulb lumens is a common and accepted practice.

Bottom line - we've sold a lot of these and had nary a complaint. Fit and finish is excellent and everyone who has seen it has been impressed. There's been a number of posts from folks who have gotten theirs and they've been singularly positive.

GetSome - It's not a piece of crap - fit and finish, build quality, etc is as good as I've ever seen out of China. The Mfr is a major OEM for some very well known and well respected brands. The switch is a true tactical switch - not merely a reverse clickie - as it has a momentary feature accessable without having to first turn the light on.

cernobila - We're a battery merchant so we don't test with AW's cells. I have done some limited testing with our fully protected (3.0V) RCR123A batteries and they've worked fine but I've never done any repeated, extensive testing so I won't make any claims as to suitability yet. I think you're going to have to wait for someone else to try it or be the guinnea pig yourself with the cells you've mentioned.