Malkoff compared to SF L4

Hi good folks.

Was reading about the Malkoff 6P drop in @ 140 lumens with flow beam.

How does it compare to a L4. i have a L4 and its probably my best lighting tool out of several surefires. Supreme even flow and bright natural white light.

Only minus is the battery drain and thats why i dont use it as much as i should when i need it. Have also ordered a 2008 inova T1 due to my need for flow lights but have not recieved it yet. I tend to use my 6P in allmost all situation when i should have used the L4.

Malkoff and Inova runtime of 4.5 hours seems to be ideal for me.:thumbsup:

While i post i may also mention that i have recieved a new E1L 2 stage. the tint is insanely green and have numerous very visible rings in the beam. is this normal for the 1 cell outdoorsman or should i try to send it back to surefire. My E2l 2 stage was bright white with almost no visible rings..... the E1L the first surefire led out of 8 that i am not fully satisfied with.:candle:

regards.

Bjorn

E1L 2 stage, E2l 2 stage, E2L 45lum, L4, L1 cree, G3led, 6Pled, E2DL

The malkoff, unless your order the floody one, will have a narrower beam then the L4. The color according to the owners is a neutral tint.

If you want a floody beam, malkoff does have this drop-in. I have not seen beamshots so I'm not sure if it has a similar beam to he L4.

LEDs are sorted by tint, some companies use multiple different tint bins for a model, so there can be larger differences in the tint.

If you really don't like it, contact Surefire.

The L4 (Wall of Light) is a classic ... but battery life is short. The M60LF sounds like just the ticket, but I've seen no direct comparisons yet, as it is a brand new product.

Gene's quality is top notch, as is the customer service provided by Gene & Cathy. Even if the M60LF is not quite as floody as the L4 (and I cannot say if it is or if it isn't), the runtime is over four times longer ... which may be worth something to you.

Thanks.

Thats exactly the drop in i was lookin at.

Have searched for beam shots or reviews but didnt find any, strange cause its sold out too.

Maybe someone here can enlighten us more.

The E1L, well i dont like it. never seen anything like it. It is differenses in my other surefires too but need to use two at the time to spot it. With this one it is visible on its own and very easily too, and the rings too. Spot is also a little off center. And compared to my other 45l e2L the tint destroys the throw.

regards.

Bjorn

Gunner12 said:

If you want a floody beam, malkoff does have this drop-in. I have not seen beamshots so I'm not sure if it has a similar beam to he L4.

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Hello,

These Malkoff drop-ins look very interesting and I might just order some of them :twothumbs.
One question: when using them in a Surefire 6P or G2: do these lights allow for the use of rechargeable cells or are their bodies too narrow?
(For my L2, I have to peel off the outer layer of my rechargeable cells (3.0V) in order to make them fit. Not exactly ideal.)

Kind regards,
Joris

Thanks to all of You.

Very interesting that this Malkoff hasnt been compared to the L4 more, it looks like a good flow light from the specs and descriptions.

Update on my E1L : well , the spot isnt off center at all. Its perfect center. I found just now that it looks that way because of the large uneven rings.

When I hold it in perfect angle to the white wall and turn it around its clearly visible the rings make it seem that way.

It looks like a miniature Galaxy spinning in space.

Minor problem maybe, surefire have spoiled me so now im acting foolish. The light will save my life in any situation, water or ice, its just that Im a flashaholic. Thats the problem...

regards.

Bjorn

22hornet said:

One question: when using them in a Surefire 6P or G2: do these lights allow for the use of rechargeable cells or are their bodies too narrow?

Click to expand...

AW 17670's fit in my older G2 just fine. Don't know about the newer G2's though.

Same fit in my newest G2 as my older one.
Thats 2008.

bfodnes said:

Thanks to all of You.

Very interesting that this Malkoff hasnt been compared to the L4 more, it looks like a good flow light from the specs and descriptions.

Update on my E1L : well , the spot isnt off center at all. Its perfect center. I found just now that it looks that way because of the large uneven rings.

When I hold it in perfect angle to the white wall and turn it around its clearly visible the rings make it seem that way.

It looks like a miniature Galaxy spinning in space.

Minor problem maybe, surefire have spoiled me so now im acting foolish. The light will save my life in any situation, water or ice, its just that Im a flashaholic. Thats the problem...

regards.

Bjorn

Click to expand...

Can you please just type "FLOOD."

And for your Surefire E1L, send it back with a note saying it is unacceptable, that's what I would do. You didn't pay for or expect a low quality light and you should not accept such. I'm pretty sure Surefire would actually feel the same way.

And good luck to you, I'm still working on packing up an Inova from a few months back.

I have an M60 and have owned a few L4s.

The L4 as you know puts out a huge broad swathe of light that probably only throws to mid range. The M60 has a fantastic throw thanks to the optic and also a fair amount of flood. The flood is not as bright as the L4. The L4 directs most of its light into the flood beam wheras the M60 directs it to the hotspot. That's not to say that the M60 doesn't have flood - it does - but it's not as bright as the M60.

Re: tint as you know it's a lottery - one of my friend's M60s is pure white while mine is a little green. The M60 optic results in a slight donut hole effect but not as bad has I have seen on some L4s or L2s. The beam is also not as smooth as the L4 beam - it has a couple of rings but when I'm using the light outside I don't notice.

The M60 is probably brighter than the L4 (I would have to check).

I have an AW 17670 and it fits in my 6P perfectly. I'm not sure if it's possible or not, but maybe it could be bore out to fit 18650 batteries.

22hornet said:

Hello,

These Malkoff drop-ins look very interesting and I might just order some of them :twothumbs.
One question: when using them in a Surefire 6P or G2: do these lights allow for the use of rechargeable cells or are their bodies too narrow?
(For my L2, I have to peel off the outer layer of my rechargeable cells (3.0V) in order to make them fit. Not exactly ideal.)

Kind regards,
Joris

Click to expand...

interesting that this Malkoff hasnt been compared to the L4

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The Malkoff M60LF is maybe two weeks old. The L4 is older than dirt, and has been well documented. Give the M60LF another week or two & someone will post beamshots:nana:

There is also a 235 lumen M60F.

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop2..._id=22&zenid=av83ovm01sf2gq8rl10plnie878erope

I've got the new E1L and I don't find it green or ringy, so it was probably luck of the draw.

Grox said:

I have an M60 and have owned a few L4s.

The L4 as you know puts out a huge broad swathe of light that probably only throws to mid range. The M60 has a fantastic throw thanks to the optic and also a fair amount of flood. The flood is not as bright as the L4. The L4 directs most of its light into the flood beam wheras the M60 directs it to the hotspot. That's not to say that the M60 doesn't have flood - it does - but it's not as bright as the M60.

Re: tint as you know it's a lottery - one of my friend's M60s is pure white while mine is a little green. The M60 optic results in a slight donut hole effect but not as bad has I have seen on some L4s or L2s. The beam is also not as smooth as the L4 beam - it has a couple of rings but when I'm using the light outside I don't notice.

The M60 is probably brighter than the L4 (I would have to check).

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I bet that there really isn't a donut hole. It just appears that way due to the color temp of the hotspot's center. Mine appears to be a hair dimmer in the very center of the hotspot but checking a beamshot in photoshop and adjusting exposure it becomes apparent that the center really IS the brightest part of the beam.

Yoda4561 said:

I bet that there really isn't a donut hole. It just appears that way due to the color temp of the hotspot's center. Mine appears to be a hair dimmer in the very center of the hotspot but checking a beamshot in photoshop and adjusting exposure it becomes apparent that the center really IS the brightest part of the beam.

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My malkoff does have a donut hole. Please tell me how can you be so utterly convinced that mine doesn't when you haven't seen my unit?

Another CPFer has also seen my malkoff and agrees that there is a donut hole. Please tell me how you are so certain that there is no donut hole when a) you haven't seen the unit and b) at least two of us agree there is?

The behaviour of a single unit does not generalise and can not be generalised to a broader sample.

Beamshots included:

original:


photoshopped for less exposure (-2.37):

Because I thought my M60 looked exactly as you were describing till I checked my beamshots in software. I open up levels and basically ramp up the shadows and watch the shape of the hotspot. Yours is a little worse than mine and does have a very slight actual donut, but the very center of the spot is still brightest. I chalk this up to manufacturing tolerances in the LED and optics. It bothered me a bit at first but since I found it was more a trick of the eye than an actual beam defect I got over it. I actually wonder if the optic's front surface has something to do with this, mine isn't straightedge flat, it has a "dip" in the middle, which I wasn't expecting. More importantly I'd love to see a beamshot comparison with the M60 flood and an L4 since their beam profiles aught to be fairly similar. The L4 was my old favorite light and I loved the flood output since it lets you see "more" as opposed to further, and it let me see far enough for a pocket light. A 2x brighter version with better runtime would be right up my alley.

My malkoff donut hole is more prominent in real life than on the above pictures. It is nowhere near as bad as say the L2, U2 or a few of the L4s I have had.

The above shot was just a straighforward push button in program exposure mode - I didn't even have to try hard to capture the donut hole.

I know what you're saying, not sure if it's percieved color temperature or what but mine has a very visible "bright" ring surrounding a slightly "dimmer" hotspot and is most visible when viewed outdoors of all things. I poured over my whitewall shots with multiple exposures and image processing and came to the conclusion that the warmer hotspot color just appears a little dimmer to the eye than its corona. The camera doesn't lie, and the camera says that the hotspot on mine is definately the brightest part of the beam with no donut hole. It's definately not perfect but it's still better than my incan P60 but not quite as smooth as my P60L, (edit: and I really lucked out with a perfect L4) thems the breaks with a tight optic it seems.