gottawearshades
Enlightened
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2007
- Messages
- 986
[FONT=Verdana, Arial Black][FONT=Verdana, Arial]I recently purchased this modded U2 from AaronM, and I've had some fun playing with it lately. Here are some first impressions on this mod.
As you can see from the pics in the other thread, it looks like it came out of the factory this way. The emitter fits in the reflector perfectly.
The Beam: The screenshot AaronM posted is accurate. Let's not mince words. The beam is butt ugly. I can see why Milky puts diffuser film on most of his quad-die builds. A very big, very splotchy hotspot with a very bright corona. The hotspot is very white. The corona is rather yellow. I never had a Lux U2, so I can't compare. The hotspot is bigger than on a NovaTac, and the corona is about as bright.
The weirdest thing about the beam is that there's no donut, but within arm's reach there's a distinct dark "X" in the middle of the beam(!).
Outdoors, you don't notice anything wrong with the beam, and it seems I can see colors better than with some other lights.
Level 5 completely lights up a yard 40 feet by 35 feet, and could probably do better if I had more yard.
I haven't yet taken it anyplace where I can see how it throws. I was hoping for a lot of throw, but this has more flood than expected, so I might be disappointed.
Level 4 gave me all the light I could need to see everything during a night walk though a wooded area. The depth and color seemed very good, I've got to say. I'd see myself using Level 3 most often.
Heat: After running on level 6 for twenty minutes or so, it gets plenty hot. Not painful, but I wouldn't call it comfortable, either.
Brightness: Here are my best estimates on brightness levels. I used highly scientific ceiling bounce test procedure, and I tried to be conservative.
Level 1 5 lumen maybe ? (pretty low anyhow)
Level 2 ~20 l? (nicely spaced in between 1 and 3)
Level 3 60 (about the same as my Fenix TK 10 on Medium)
Level 4 100 (about the same as NT 120p on Max)
Level 5 200 (about the same as my TK 10 on Hi)
Level 6 400 maybe (plenty bright, but my Milky 540-lumen monster is clearly brighter)
Levels 1 through 3 seem perfectly spaced, you could miss the jump between 3 and 4, and the biggest jump is between 4 and 5.
Nothing else to report, except that this is a fun light to take into the woods![/FONT][/FONT]
As you can see from the pics in the other thread, it looks like it came out of the factory this way. The emitter fits in the reflector perfectly.
The Beam: The screenshot AaronM posted is accurate. Let's not mince words. The beam is butt ugly. I can see why Milky puts diffuser film on most of his quad-die builds. A very big, very splotchy hotspot with a very bright corona. The hotspot is very white. The corona is rather yellow. I never had a Lux U2, so I can't compare. The hotspot is bigger than on a NovaTac, and the corona is about as bright.
The weirdest thing about the beam is that there's no donut, but within arm's reach there's a distinct dark "X" in the middle of the beam(!).
Outdoors, you don't notice anything wrong with the beam, and it seems I can see colors better than with some other lights.
Level 5 completely lights up a yard 40 feet by 35 feet, and could probably do better if I had more yard.
I haven't yet taken it anyplace where I can see how it throws. I was hoping for a lot of throw, but this has more flood than expected, so I might be disappointed.
Level 4 gave me all the light I could need to see everything during a night walk though a wooded area. The depth and color seemed very good, I've got to say. I'd see myself using Level 3 most often.
Heat: After running on level 6 for twenty minutes or so, it gets plenty hot. Not painful, but I wouldn't call it comfortable, either.
Brightness: Here are my best estimates on brightness levels. I used highly scientific ceiling bounce test procedure, and I tried to be conservative.
Level 1 5 lumen maybe ? (pretty low anyhow)
Level 2 ~20 l? (nicely spaced in between 1 and 3)
Level 3 60 (about the same as my Fenix TK 10 on Medium)
Level 4 100 (about the same as NT 120p on Max)
Level 5 200 (about the same as my TK 10 on Hi)
Level 6 400 maybe (plenty bright, but my Milky 540-lumen monster is clearly brighter)
Levels 1 through 3 seem perfectly spaced, you could miss the jump between 3 and 4, and the biggest jump is between 4 and 5.
Nothing else to report, except that this is a fun light to take into the woods![/FONT][/FONT]
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