Malkoff 3D Drop-In VS Official MagLED Upgrade. Malkoff Yellow Tint?! Beamshots!

Hi there,

this is my first post in this amazing forum.

I recently imported a Malkoff Devices 3D Cell Drop In for my beloved Maglite for waaaay too much money. I am living in Germany and customs got me by my balls this time hehe.

Anyway, I am very satisfied with the throw of the Malkoff Drop-In but I do not like the yellowish tint so much. Currently I am running 3 Alkaline Duracell Batteries. Is the yellow tint "normal" when it comes to Seoul P4 emitters compared with a stock reflector and a UCL Lens? I am still some kind of a n00b in Bins and stuff. I kinda like the blueish tint of the MagLED more.

Here are some Beamshots:






Malkoff on the left, MagLED to the right. Cam at auto exposure.


Proof of yellow tint with exposure set to -2


Malkoff VS MagLED

Edit: Pics resized

Welcome to CPF, DrTekGER.

Interesting pics - but could you resize them, please? The maximum permitted size is 800 x 800 pixels.

Anyway, I am very satisfied with the throw of the Malkoff Drop-In but I do not like the yellowish tint so much.

Click to expand...

You know, if you read through the CPF forums, you'll find that there are a good many members who would gladly kill to have that "yellow" tint. :thumbsup: :welcome:

Yeah I did some homework on CPF during the last hours and I found out that there is some epic debate about blue VS yellow tint going on.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/146607

However, the pictured beamshots in the thread above look more appealing to me.

Just minutes ago I ordered a MOP Reflector at Kaidomain.
Will this reduce some of the yellowing (corona) going on?

Tek.

The Malkoff is more of a vanilla color, which is highly desired. Well, for me at least. I hate blue/purpleish tinted LED's!

Yeah right, "Vanilla" hits the spot!

I am new to the LED business with all its divinity but I might have to try my Malkoff out in the woods at total darkness first before I do some more judging.

Maybe my (now shitty) original M*g LED module just took my sense for a good tint in the wrong direction since it was my entry to LED mods and this forum (one day, you will me mine *dreams of THE TORCH*) hehe.

Thanks for the heads up!

DrTekGER said:

...I might have to try my Malkoff out in the woods at total darkness before I do some more judging.

Click to expand...

I think you may well find that the yellow-tinted light will give you better depth perception and color rendition. Try navigating by the blue-tinted light and then try navigating by the yellow-tinted light. The blueish tint looks brighter, but the yellowish tint really gives you more functional light, in my opinion.

A yellowish tint is a more natural tint. Sunlight towards dusk, candlelight, and campfire light are all yellow-tinted. Many cavers still prefer incadescent or carbide headlamps because of the warmer, more natural light that they give off.

Mine is very white, almost too white.

I am tempted to see if Gene will do one with a U2 and SVO tint. :candle:

divine: do you have the 2/3 cell Drop in or the 4/5/6 cell version? Wanna trade? Also: What batteries do you use?

I think the tint-bias tends to be psychological in terms of taste. What happens is people tend to fall in love with the first tint they use, then when they buy another flashlight or drop-in they will complain its too warm or too cold because it doesn't match their first LED tint.

Personally have noticed tint differences even among the mag-lite dropins. I bought two sets at two different times and one was yellowish the next set was bluish. Personally I won't buy the Innova flashlights because I feel that they are way too bluish.

Many many years ago I paid my way through Engineering school by working at a color photo lab when photographs were processed manually and by chemicals. Every emulsion had a color variation in the film and in the paper emulsion that had to be corrected for. The single biggest problem was that many photographs developed may have been slightly warm (reddish to yellow) or cold (bluish to greenish). But no one ever noticed until they had more pictures made of the same negative.

The tint was never a big problem unless someone came in for remakes or for an enlargement. The problem most of the time the tint was off by just a very small fraction...sometimes too small for the automatic printers to correct. I remember my boss telling me how people would have a roll of film processed, pay for two dozen 20 cent snapshots, then order a custom enlargement that cost $10 from their favorite picture. Then they would complain that the $10 print was different and they wanted to remake the $10 enlargement to match the $0.20 cheap print simply because of the psychological attachment they made to the first image they saw. This was true even in cases where the custom made enlargement was more accurate colorwise because better equipment was used to perfect the color balance.

Its a psychological attachment similar to "first love".

At least your yellow beam is uniform.

check out the P7 i just built..2 of the dies are yellow, 2 are white. :shakehead

(stepped down exposure to expose the tints.)


how did this p7 even get binned??? lol

it's not bad outdoors as you can only see the individual yellow dies
when focused as such on a white wall. For real use the "overall" tint is pretty good.

direct drive d2dim p7 csxoi - oh how i love the d2dim...but i digress.

DrTekGER said:

divine: do you have the 2/3 cell Drop in or the 4/5/6 cell version? Wanna trade? Also: What batteries do you use?

Click to expand...

I have the slightly older one... the 2-4D, runs dimmer on 2 cells, optimum on 3 cells, and you get extended runtime on 4 cells. It's in a 4D mag. I've used alkalines, but now I'm using tenergy 10,000mAh D cells in it.

I don't think I could part with it, it's my only Malkoff Mag Drop-in!

I prefer a yellow or even amber tint to LEDs. Not into killin' anyone for it, yet.

:tinfoil:

YEAH YELLOW !:twothumbs, BOO BLUE! :thumbsdow

Guys, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Today I started to love yellow tint and hate purplish.

My Malkoff sure is one hell of a thrower!

jag-engr said:

I think you may well find that the yellow-tinted light will give you better depth perception and color rendition. Try navigating by the blue-tinted light and then try navigating by the yellow-tinted light. The blueish tint looks brighter, but the yellowish tint really gives you more functional light, in my opinion.

A yellowish tint is a more natural tint. Sunlight towards dusk, candlelight, and campfire light are all yellow-tinted. Many cavers still prefer incadescent or carbide headlamps because of the warmer, more natural light that they give off.

Click to expand...

Big +1 to a yellower tint. You should try it outdoors, you'll see a difference. I had 2 Malkoff M60's, I kept the yellower tint and sold the whiter one. I felt the yellower tint was more natural and truer to my eyes. YMMV. I'm sold on the yellowish tint.

Remember that the various tints will be exaggerated/amplified when compared side by side with another led of different tint. Also, you are letting the camera decide what kind of white balance to use(auto exposure).:welcome: