Is the E1e (and E1w) as bright as a 2-cell Maglight, lets find out....

SureFire's claim that the E1e has the same brightness as a 2-cell Maglite is rather, shall we say..... intriguing, how can a light slightly longer than the *head* of a Mag put out anywhere near the same amount of light?

SureFire *has* to be stretching the truth, right?

well, i had to find out, i dropped a 2 cell MagNumStar bulb in my MagLED 2C, dropped in a fresh set of batteries, and grabbed the E1e, Mag 2C and camera....

here's the pics;

first set of pictures are looking at the hay barn, i forgot to zoom out the camera to the widest setting though, so the pics are at whatever default zoom setting the Nikon CoolPix 3500 uses....

the SureFire E1e;

nice, even light, smooth wide hotspot, could be brighter, but not bad for a *one cell* light, a very *balanced* beam profile

the Mag 2C;

a much ringier beam, full of the infamous Mag "Rings and Holes", but it does appear slightly brighter, clearly a result of a reflector optomized for throw at the cost of a smooth beam

But..... is it brighter.....?

lets turn the camera around and point it at the house, roughly 10 feet away

Here's the E1e Vs. Mag 2C;



the E1e has a nice, smooth, balanced beam, bright hotspot, a very nice, clean beam
the Mag 2C has a Ringy beam, full of holes and dark patches, the hotspot doesn't appear brighter than the E1e

now i'll angle the camera a little to the left and put the hotspot on the trellis
E1e top pic, Mag bottom pic;



just for fun, here's some other barn pics;

Eveready 6V lantern;

A2 Aviator;

MagCharger;

Thanks for sharing..

Awesome comparison. :goodjob:

how far away is the barn? and did you have a fresh sell in the E1E as well?

thanks for the comparison!

rough guestimate for the barn pics would be around 35 feet or so, the battery in the E1 ZTS's out at 100%

I took a couple more pics down the hallway....

the 2C Mag;

the E1e;

We can clearly see the difference, thanks

Nice test but I think you should have done the comparison with the stock Maglite bulbs that are supplied with a 2C Maglite. A more fair comparison using stock vs. stock parts IMO.

I could live with the E1E rather than the mag since the beam is cleaner, more evenly spread......come to think of it, my KL1 head couldn't fare any better than the your E1E on the beam pattern......nice

I'd rather carry an E2e or another 2-cell surefire light than a stock 2C mag. But then my 2c mag now has a LuxV in it driven at 9v

Shane

So bsaically conclusion, e1e has more output, less throw because of the near perfect beam. The mag has more throw but less output.

Usually SF is conservative on their lumens ratings and often times other manufacturers might have "slightly" exagerated figures.

Also, the mag uses a much bigger reflector. So it's going to throw further at optimum focus. And the Surefire isn't adjustable so what you see is what you get. But what you see is definately a prettier beam.

Shane

nice. i don't own a mag lite anymore.but i do have an E1 and E1E.

tussery said:

Nice test but I think you should have done the comparison with the stock Maglite bulbs that are supplied with a 2C Maglite. A more fair comparison using stock vs. stock parts IMO.

Click to expand...

Good point....

Stock Mag 2C;

Mag 2C w/ MNS 2 cell bulb;

E1e;

The beam quality from mags make me ill...

MacTech said:

how can a light slightly longer than the *head* of a Mag put out anywhere near the same amount of light?

Click to expand...

I would hesitate to EDC a 2D Mag. So when a tiny light can produce as much light as a 2D Mag, it is really an easy decision to EDC that tiny light.
This is 1 reason why I simply love the E1E and have 7 of them.

Glad to see that e1e getting some use

firefly99 said:

I would hesitate to EDC a 2D Mag. So when a tiny light can produce as much light as a 2D Mag, it is really an easy decision to EDC that tiny light.
This is 1 reason why I simply love the E1E and have 7 of them.

Click to expand...

Until you stop at a local store and see 4.85 for 4 c/d cells compared to the number of 123's you'd have to buy for the surefire to get a comparible runtime provided that store even carries them.

Oh sure you can get them online for cheaper, but which are you more likely to see if you happen to need batteries at 11:00 PM: A local convenient store or a UPS truck searching for you to deliver your online ordered 123s?

That's where the Mag takes the lead.

Nice pics! :goodjob: It's gonna be near impossible for that E1E to compete with the Mag in throw. It is just near impossible when comparing reflector sizes. But in overall output, I think it may have the edge...very impressive for something soooo much smaller

This post has just made me realize I need a small incan....hmmmmm

Do you have a Brinkman Maxfire? I'd love to see a comparison between those two.

Nice job, btw!

Very nice picks! But I think it's a bit of an unfair comparision, since the Mag D-cell light has been around almost 30years, and I'm not aware of any bigger changes (except for the LED-module of course).

It would be interesting to compare the Surefire E1 to the later generation of smaller lights, like Fenix P1D CE/L1D CE, even L1P. They crush the E1 when it comes to measured numbers of their output, but I'm not sure the difference will be that evident in outdoor beamshots.
But I guess that's an entirely other thread...