which Lens for Malkoff drop in?

I like floody lights so I plan on the stippled reflector, along with the P4 drop-in. 240 Lumens for 6-8 hours will make a great truck light. Question is what lens should I order and from who. Anything else I should pick up? Also is there going to be an upgrade for the P4 soon--as in should I wait?


Also trying to decide between a 3d purple vs a 4d blue--

If your light is going to be a truck light, I would suggest keeping the stock polycarbonate lens. A UCL lens would be nice letting more light though however these are, of course, glass and if your flashlight rolls around and hits something, it could break, as I have found out. Also a trucklight is more likely to be a worklight, so I'd say stick with the stock lens. I'd say go for the p4 dropin now, I have one and it's great, I wouldnt hold out on enjoying what you could have now. 4d gives you max brightness, but 3D fits nicer into places.

Carabidae said:

If your light is going to be a truck light, I would suggest keeping the stock polycarbonate lens. A UCL lens would be nice letting more light though however these are, of course, glass and if your flashlight rolls around and hits something, it could break, as I have found out. Also a trucklight is more likely to be a worklight, so I'd say stick with the stock lens. I'd say go for the p4 dropin now, I have one and it's great, I wouldnt hold out on enjoying what you could have now. 4d gives you max brightness, but 3D fits nicer into places.

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Well I took most of your advice! Decided to go with the UCL lens and ordered a couple of spares--one for the glove box. Also in candlepower fashion I bought two hosts for the 750 lumen version that is coming out.....

Carabidae said:

If your light is going to be a truck light, I would suggest keeping the stock polycarbonate lens. A UCL lens would be nice letting more light though however these are, of course, glass and if your flashlight rolls around and hits something, it could break, as I have found out. Also a trucklight is more likely to be a worklight, so I'd say stick with the stock lens. I'd say go for the p4 dropin now, I have one and it's great, I wouldnt hold out on enjoying what you could have now. 4d gives you max brightness, but 3D fits nicer into places.

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+1 on the poly lense...I've broken every glass lense I ever tried in a flashlight (with the exception of the Pyrex lens in my 6P), at least 3 of them that I can think of. The last one (on my nice brand new hotwired 2C Mag) held up for a total of about 25 hours...that's when my three year old niece decided to do a durability test on the brick fireplace.

If you use 4 Cs in a 3D Mag you get the output of a 4D...you lose some runtime I'm sure, but it's worth the sacrifice in my book. Besides, I just read on here somewhere that Cs have about half the runtime that Ds have and a Malkoff in a 4D will run for 8+ hours, so you should get around 4 hours with the Cs. 4 hours is pretty acceptable runtime for most users I would think...especially at 240 lumens!

SR.GRINGO said:

Also in candlepower fashion I bought two hosts for the 750 lumen version that is coming out.....

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I own both of the Malkoff Drop ins (and more than one of the p60)....what is this 750 lumen version of which you speak? Link?
Did Gene give an estimate of when they will be available? Run time? I think I heard briefly of a tri-cree...

I think he was talking about a new dropin gene was working on, a tri-led version dropin. I don't remember if it was a cree or seoul.

I haven't settled on a final design yet. I've been working with both Crees and Seouls.

Gene43 said:

I haven't settled on a final design yet. I've been working with both Crees and Seouls.

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When might your "regular" 240 lumen drop in be available again?

Has anyone tried an aspherical lense on one of Gene's Mags?

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/pl1028.html

This works nicely. It tightens up the focus and still gives a very useful/practical circle of light.

mrmike said:

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/pl1028.html

This works nicely. It tightens up the focus and still gives a very useful/practical circle of light.

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Thank you. Would the resulting beam from the aspherical lense out throw a stock-lensed Malkoff Mag with the Malkoff Mag's beam focused to its tightest?

Edit to add: With the aspherical lense placed all the way into the bezel, would any part of the lense stick out from the bezel? Can the Mag still "stand" on the bezel?

smokelaw1 said:

I own both of the Malkoff Drop ins (and more than one of the p60)....what is this 750 lumen version of which you speak? Link?
Did Gene give an estimate of when they will be available? Run time? I think I heard briefly of a tri-cree...

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YAH ME TOO!!!! WHERE CAN I BUY THIS???......MALKOFF???????????

daveman said:

Thank you. Would the resulting beam from the aspherical lense out throw a stock-lensed Malkoff Mag with the Malkoff Mag's beam focused to its tightest?

Edit to add: With the aspherical lense placed all the way into the bezel, would any part of the lense stick out from the bezel? Can the Mag still "stand" on the bezel?

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I do not own the Malkoff, but smokelaw1 posted that the Malkoff doesn't benefit from the aspheric.

Unless you buy a new bezel, the lens protrudes. It this is a truck light, you probably do not want the aspheric - focused, it's great for long distance, but unfocused it's pretty diffuse.

For more info:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2090964

My understanding is that because of the radiation pattern, the Crees do much better with aspheric than the SSC's that my mag dropins use. I use the SSC because it is well suited to mag's stck reflector.