Flood vs. Throw

I'm expermenting with small lights. I have a special requirement. I need a light that is for a person who is night blind. He sees well in a brightly lit parking lot, but otherwise, it's a big problem.

He needs a handheld light with a beam that floods an area in front of him wide enough to completely wash a path. Throwers don't do it. And it needs to be bright and preferrably white.

I'm looking at 200 lumen LED lights but could really use some suggestions for a light with this kind of close performance. No point in seeing a tree at 400 ft. if you trip over a curb right in front of you.

Thanks.

I have a friend who's night-blind bad too, he prefers my incan (more yellow/natural) light to led white light. I made him a 2c mag ROP Low (2x 18650) for his bday last year with a heavily stippled reflector, it puts out a monster flood and its easy to recharge. He loves it, takes it absolutely everywhere with him. He's played with just about every light I own (many many) in the dark backyard and says he can't find one he likes better than the rop. I notice its your first post (welcome to cpf btw), so if you need some advice on ROP building feel free to ask, I'm happy to help out a fellow Texan Also in the incan room there are several ROP mod threads if you do a little searching.

g

Leef 2X18650 body + Malkoff M60WF = seeing good at night!

If that's not good for you I suggest a Mag mod. I have one.........in my link.

Sgt. LED said:

Leef 2X18650 body + Malkoff M60WF = seeing good at night!

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+1, that would be my choice too.

mr.squatch said:

I have a friend who's night-blind bad too, he prefers my incan (more yellow/natural) light to led white light. I made him a 2c mag ROP Low (2x 18650) for his bday last year with a heavily stippled reflector, it puts out a monster flood and its easy to recharge. He loves it, takes it absolutely everywhere with him. He's played with just about every light I own (many many) in the dark backyard and says he can't find one he likes better than the rop. I notice its your first post (welcome to cpf btw), so if you need some advice on ROP building feel free to ask, I'm happy to help out a fellow Texan Also in the incan room there are several ROP mod threads if you do a little searching.

g

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ROP?

I have the M60F and it's exactly what you're looking for. The two guys above suggested the WF but you said you wanted white so the M60F should be perfect. I have mine in a Cabela's 6P clone with 2xCR123's and it's great.

There is one light which I can recommend, which is the the Brinkmann 2D 3 watt Digital Dimmable LED flashlight $25 from Target.
On high it outputs around 150-200 lumens, has 4 brightness settings ranging from very dim to being bright like a spotlight, and should have a 10 hour runtime on high, being a 3 watt CREE XR-E LED running on 2xD cells.
This light has an extremely powerful beam, and the brightest and largest ring of spill I have ever seen from a small (or medium size) LED flashlight. It has a HUGE bright white hotspot which is very wide and floody so it lights up everything nicely at close range.
I have taken it on walks at night and compared it to my other LED flashlights, and it did the best job out of all of them flooding the ground in front of me due to its bright spill and wide spot.
It does have very good throw along with being floody, due to being so immensly bright, but it does a great job of flooding everything at close range as you said he needs.

Sgt. LED said:

Leef 2X18650 body + Malkoff M60WF = seeing good at night!

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+2, I agree, this would be the best option, and if your friend wants to use primaries use a Surefire 9P body.

Here are the links:

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop2/index.php?main_page=products_all
http://www.surefire.com/9P-Original

artec540 said:

ROP?

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ROP is roar of the pelican. There's a pelican 6v bulb that overdrives nicely at 7-7.5v, puts out a LOT of light, and just so happens to fit in a maglite perfectly. put either 6 aa's or two 3.7v lithiums in a 2c or 2d mag with a metal reflector and a glass lens and you've effectively 20x or more the light output of a stock mag. Also the pelican bulb comes with a high or a low, if you want very bright and long runtimes low, or if u want exceptional light go with high. I have about 15 variations on the rop now, from a 1940's vintage lamp to a 2 lithium C mag, to a 6c to a 6d and everything in between. Love em.

to the OP, if you're set on an led, like said above, a malkoff dropin goes great in a 40 dollar g2 surefire. For around 100 bucks you can have upto 290 lumens of very white lite and great runtimes. I currently own 9 malkoff variations as well. lol... I have a problem

g

mr.squatch said:

40 dollar g2 surefire.g

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G2's are $150 @ local shops here. :mecry:

The Malkoff M60F is not meant for continuous use in plastic lights like the G2. It generates a lot of heat and needs an aluminum-bodied light like the 6P to provide additional heatsinking and avoid frying the unit if you want to run it for more than 15 minutes at a time. Same for the M60WF.

AxeMan said:

The Malkoff M60F is not meant for continuous use in plastic lights like the G2. It generates a lot of heat and needs an aluminum-bodied light like the 6P to provide additional heatsinking and avoid frying the unit if you want to run it for more than 15 minutes at a time. Same for the M60WF.

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I have two malkoff'd g2's and have used em for years with various led dropins. No problems at all even with the newest brightest m60 highs. g2's are pretty freakin tough lil lights. I don't typically use my lights for 15+ minutes at a time, but I have on more than one occasion gone walking at nite and ran thru a set of batteries nonstop without issue. If you are worried about it, a 6p would be a better choice for you, but I can vouch for the g2's, they're awesome.

g

It's not that the G2 will be damaged by the heat; it's that the drop-in will overheat because the heat does not have anywhere else to go. Malkoff's site warns against this:

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop2..._id=22&zenid=dvgqrltc9a41n387sovchank1ejhvjlb

The warning is in second paragraph of red text.

The 6P, G2, and Malkoff devices are all known to be excellent products, and I'm not trying to say otherwise. But if the OP's intended application requires running the light for extended periods, the M60F/G2 combination may not be a suitable choice, and I thought I would point that out before a purchase is made. Sorry that my language was vague in referring to the drop-in as "the unit"; I should have been more specific.

go with the Malkoff M60WF, you won't regret it, put in a Surefire host, and you have a light that is bright, indistructable, and easy to handle.

Chuck

AxeMan said:

It's not that the G2 will be damaged by the heat; it's that the drop-in will overheat because the heat does not have anywhere else to go. .

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Ooo never really thought about that. Like I said, I use mine every day, but rarely for very long at a stretch. Good point :twothumbs

g

Wouldn't this be a great time to see an MC-E drop in? I bet in a well heatsinked light you could easily get 400 lumens. Or just get a P60 compatible light and sand the lens.

mr.squatch said:

I have a friend who's night-blind bad too, he prefers my incan (more yellow/natural) light to led white light. I made him a 2c mag ROP Low (2x 18650) for his bday last year with a heavily stippled reflector, it puts out a monster flood and its easy to recharge. He loves it, takes it absolutely everywhere with him. He's played with just about every light I own (many many) in the dark backyard and says he can't find one he likes better than the rop. I notice its your first post (welcome to cpf btw), so if you need some advice on ROP building feel free to ask, I'm happy to help out a fellow Texan Also in the incan room there are several ROP mod threads if you do a little searching.

g

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Many thanks. Great ideas. I like the ROP. I've already got a 2xAA mini-mag. Suggestions of a 2 x 18650 version with a different bulb for the mini-mag? I can certainly go to a 2xC or 2xD but it gets bigger and heaver.

I have roughly .... 50 maglites... yeah, lol I have a problem. I let ppl mess with em all the time, I sell a few so I take one of each of 5 or so everywhere I go. Pretty much everyone likes the form factor of the 2c the best, including myself. Mini's are better to carry in your pocket but even my best mini doesn't stand a chance against my woosiest 2c. I have a 1499 aurora minimag 7.4v that's freakin amazing but it gets hot fast and parts are becoming harder to find. Plus I'm not all that confident with it as my edc for some reason. Where u at in Tx? If you're nearby I'd be more than happy to hook you up with some test drives. I'm in Houston. I have one (or more haha) of just about any kind of mag there is. God I hope my gf never counts em.

g

get 2 Zebralights, any model of ur choice! :naughty:

nice floody wall of light, small in size too!

18650 batteries won't fit in the Minimag. They are 18mm wide and 65mm long vs the 14mm wide and 50 mm long of an AA battery. 2 14500 batteries should work but they have much lower capacity(smaller size) and the ROP's bulb is a PR base bulb, not a bi pin like the Minimag.

How much are you willing to pay? You can get a 2C and run the ROP low bulb with 2 C Li-ion batteries. You can also see if Malkoff can make a warm white version of his Maglite drop-ins.