Re: My take on camping lights
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meta4 said:
Thanks for all the great replies! It sounds like no compact LED light is going to match the throw of an incandescent like the Mag 3D. However, I like a smooth beam, and I usually set my Mag on flood anyway, so something like a Badboy 400/500 might suit my needs.
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With the exception of the New 5 Watt Luxeon Stars and a InReTECH Tri-lite, no LED is going to compare to the "throw" of an incandecent. Short story, if you want to get a drop in replacement for your 3D (or maybe 4D for even brighter results) Mag, get the InReTECH Tri-light. 3, 1 watt Luxeon Stars in your Mag.
( I have a 5 Watt Luxeon Star custom made light from fellow CPF member, Mr. Bulk, and it blows EVERY other incancedent that I own out of the water, including my Princeton Tec Surge, and my modified Brinkmann Legend LX with a SureFire P61 Hi Output Lamp Assembly (HOLA), and both of those lights are VERY WELL respected, very bright lights!)
BUT, LED's are great, actually prefered by me, over incandecents when walking or hiking, in total darkness.
I say this humorously, but you have to "become one" with the LED lights to understand this. Why? Well, unlike the Mag 3D, that punches out a thin but strong beam of light (abit, with rings and shadows) for a long distance, the LED's produce a very wide "glow" of light all around you. Depending on the LED light that you get, the light will ight up everything, from 0-15 feet to 0-100 feet. AND, it will be a very very white light, not yellow, and very even, no rings and shadows.
For this to work very well, it need to be completely dark, and camping would fit that description. No ambient light at all. If you can see clearly in front of you, without any extra light, then a LED light probably is not going to do all that much for you.
What happens, is that you do not "loose" your nighttime vision when using a LED light. I use one of my favorite lights, a custom made, limited availability, 3 AA Cell light from Mr. Bulk, called the LGI, almost nightly when walking my dog, with my friend and her dogs. Sometimes we go to places that are totally free of any ambient light. When I turn on my LGI, everything in front of me, gets flooded with this pure, snow white light. It is totally awesome! NOW, when my friend turns on her light, a Streamlight Stinger HP (an incredible, rechargable, 40,000 CP incandecent and supprisingly small), All the light from my LGI seems to "Dissapear"! WHY? Because, her light is soo bright, that my eyes have to adjust, and they loose their large dialation, or nightime vision, and they have to adjust to the bright light.
The first time I experienced this LED effect, was when I took a trip to Vermont, Skiing, last Spring. I was walking my dog, outside the cabin, and there was lots of snow, and absoultely NO ambient light. I had a 1 LED light, No super, custom made, ultra bright LED, just a standard Nichia 1 LED light, and I turned it on. MAN, you would have thought I had a 2,000,000 cp spotlight in my hand! Why? Well, it was totally dark, so the only light around at all was from the 1 lone LED, and the entire ground was covered in pure white snow, so all the light relfected back off the snow. I just stood there in amazement! How could one little LED put out all that light? Well, your eyes were helping out, that is why it seemed so bright.
Now the side benefit of this is, that you can still see "in the dark", so turning your head away from the light, you are not blind, but rather can make out shadows etc.