New Member - A couple questions + I just bought a couple "drop-ins"

Hello. This is my first post.


I have never had anything but good old incandescent Maglites. I have 2 - 3D Mags, a 2C Mag, a 4D Mag, and a 2AA Mini-Mag.

After registering today and reading a whole bunch of stuff I went out to Wal-Mart and bough 2 drop-ins. I got a NiteIze 3 LED for about $5 for my Mini-Mag. I also got a new Maglite brand 3 Watt LED for one of my 3D Mags.

I about crapped my pants when I turned them both on. WOW.

Just a couple questions:

1. I saw a NiteIze LED for the 3D Maglite and it was only $8. I paid $18 for the Maglite brand 3 Watt LED. Is there a difference? Was it worth the extra $10?

2. Am I in the right place? I think I'm going to need a support group because now I want to buy another light.

I think my next purchase may be an Inova X1 or X5 for work (office).

I'm also a new member. Hi! Otherwise, I have nothing useful to add to this conversation, so I'll wander off now.

I have both the NiteIze and MagLED upgrade for C/D Mags. There is no comparison. The MagLED is MUCH MUCH brighter than the NiteIZE Mag upgrade, although the NiteIZE upgrade will run for about a million hours on a set of D cells

The Mag upgrades are about the best thing going for 2-3 cell C/D's, and the 3D upgrade is supposed to be a bit better than the 2 and 4 cell units. You bought the right drop-in for your 3D. There will be a better 2-3 cell upgrade coming from TerraLUX soon but it's not shipping yet.

This is a lousy place to go if you are looking for the traditional kind of support, ie good advice re: controlling your addictions. This is the kind of place where you will leave dead broke but with a great collection of lights. If, on the other hand, you are looking for advice on the best way to SPEND your money, then buddy you are definitely in the right place and welcome to the slippery slope.

Don't rush out and upgrade all your lights too quickly -- take a while and understand the options you have. Until I stumbled in here I had no clue how far and how easily Mags could be modified. You probably won't want to go all the way to the 600 watt aircraft landing light upgrade but there are lots of options in between.

DWL said:

1. I saw a NiteIze LED for the 3D Maglite and it was only $8. I paid $18 for the Maglite brand 3 Watt LED. Is there a difference? Was it worth the extra $10?

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Welcome to CPF!

In case you hadn't run across it yet, flashlightreviews.com has comparative data on a whole bunch of flashlights, including the NiteIze LED and the Mag LEDs. The Mag LED is much brighter than the NiteIze.

DWL said:

2. Am I in the right place? I think I'm going to need a support group because now I want to buy another light.

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Yes, this is the right place if you want to buy another light. And another, and another, and another...

EssLight

yea you bought the right on between those two. but i had a nite ize in my 2d mag and it was great for reading at night because it was relatively dim and i knew i was hardly drawing any power. runtime is like 30 hours on 2d and 60 on four d batteries. it actually might be more than that! but if you want one twice as bright that draws the same power as the mag led you just bought, wait for the cree terralux for 2d/3d mag's. it will be a great drop in!

welcome to the club, unlock your wallet...

Thanks folks. Good to be here. Yeah I'm gonna wait a little while on doing anything with my other Mags. Thanks for the advise.

I just want to find a green 2 or 3 D Mag now. I saw one here that someone had modded with a 3 position switch and 3 LED's. That thing was awesome.

Anyway, thanks.

I had a NiteIze C/D drop in in a 4D M*g as a power out light.

But I got way too much guff about it not being bright enough, so now there is a M*gled drop in inside that 4D.

I keep the NiteIze handy, as when there is no power you don't really need THAT bright.

The 3 cell M*gled is pretty widely regarded as the best, but personally I LIKE the 2C M*gled close by me here at 'puter!!!

DWL said:

I just want to find a green 2 or 3 D Mag now. I saw one here that someone had modded with a 3 position switch and 3 LED's. That thing was awesome.

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I think that there are lights on the market today that are better in lots of ways than Maglites, modified or not. And you can spend lots and lots of money modifying these things. I suggest that you read about, and try out if you can, lights from manufacturers such as SureFire, Streamlight, Wolf-Eyes, Pila, and (with lots of devoted fans here on CPF) Fenix. I think you might find premium lights more rewarding, and more worth your hard-earned dollars.

Welcome to CPF!

Holy crap.

I'ts now 12:54am EST and I just went outside to compare my new 3D Mag with the 3 Watt LED to my 4D Incan Mag. Both with fresh batteries, the LED just blows away the 4D.

I keep wanting to turn on the LED one outside and shine it everywhere. I can't even imagine what some of the more expensive lights you guys have will do.

Wait until you start doing some incandescent mods to your other mags. You won't notice that your brightest LED is even turned on. You're going to have a lot of fun... trust me on this.

Go find out what the "ROP" acronym stands for, and report back in the morning.

Welcome to the forums. Quickly! Return your MagLED upgrade! There's better ones out there. The SSC Terralux drop in is a better choice. I have the MagLED upgrade for my 3D Mag, it seemed good at first, but I find the effect just pathetic now.

You're on the way to a Mag85 or ROP I reckon.

Sure, retina scorching brightness is fun.

But who among us actually USES a M*g85?

The LUXIII puts out enough light with superior runtime and generally nice tint.

I believe that Cree and the other "new" LEDs might make things even better.

But I keep M*gleds around the house and have gotting no bad comments about lack orf brightness!

I mostly use a Mag11 2D but that's mostly because the host was already banged and scratched while the Mag85 is pristine. A 400-800 lumen light is just about right for outdoor use, at least in the country, although I'll be the first to agree they're kinda painful indoors

The 3-6 cell Terralux seems to be considerably better than the MagLED in a 4D host but most of the reviews seem to indicate there isn't as much difference in a 3D since the electronics can't drive the LED to full brightness on 3 cells. The SSE LED is definitely "less blue" than the MagLED though, which is nice. There will be another version of the Terralux coming out in a couple of months which is optimized for 2-3 cell use.

For what it's worth, my most used light is a a Mag 2D with a drop in led module from terralux that has two 1.25W leds. I also put an aftermarket frosted glass lens from flashlightlens.com. I have much brighter lights, but this is one is used a lot due to the large flood and runtime of about 17hours.

It depends what you want. Next I think I will put 6AA's in 2D series adaptors, and get the Seoul drop in and see how that works. I know it will not run for 17 hours though.