PT EOS (Luxeon) Vs. EOS (Rebel)

I absolutely love my old Luxeon PT EOS, it's just so incredibly useful, just the right amount of light on low for navigating inside, a decent throw outside on high, and there's the luxury of having both hands free that the headlamp design is well known for

the only thing I didn't like about the Lux EOS was the optic's tight, squarish beam when using it close up, and a very slight purplish tint to the beam when compared to other LED lights (yes, yes, I know, Luxeon lottery and all that...)

So, when I was out at my local sporting goods store this afternoon, I saw they had the upgraded EOS with the frosted optic and Rebel emitter, so I picked one up

the Rebel EOS is a stellar headlamp, it takes everything good about the Lux model, and adds a frosted optic for an absolutely flawless tight-ish flood of light, there's no hotspot to speak of, not like the Lux model, just a smooth, warm flood of light, perfect for close to medium range distances, it does lose some throw compared to the older Lux model, but for my purposes, that's a fine tradeoff, I have other more powerful lights available when I need throw, for my purposes, I find flood far more useful

the tint is also much warmer than the purplish Lux model, it's got a faint incan-esque warmth to it, far more pleasing to my eyes

If you're looking for a good, solid headlamp for close to medium range work, the Rebel EOS comes highly reccomended

Baseline flash exposure;

EOS Luxeon on High, close range shot (2 feet)

EOS Rebel on High, close range shot (2 feet)

That is a nice beam color and shape. I may have to look into one of those. I recently bought the BD spot and it may have too much of a spot beam for me.
Thanks for the pics.

offroadcmpr said:

That is a nice beam color and shape. I may have to look into one of those. I recently bought the BD spot and it may have too much of a spot beam for me.
Thanks for the pics.

Click to expand...

I put scotch tape over the 3mm LEDs on my Spot and it smoothed out their beam nicely. It's spot is similar to my Fenix L1D. I like it.

MacTech,

Thanks for the beamshot comparison between the old lux and new rebel PT Eos models.

I got my rebel Eos recently and I too really like the neutral/warm tint and the medium floodiness of the beam. When I compared it to a seoul modded BD Spot with both on high, I was quite surprised by the lack of throw, however it was more than enough in a moonless night inside a dark forest.

I still really like the beam shape of the BD Spot with its good throw and good spill.

The Eos does too many things right (beam/tint/regulation/output/runtime/IPX8/robustness/weight) and the one or two minor gripes (level order/UI/3AAA) I can live with, it is now the go-to headlamp for night tramping (hiking/bushwalking)

Based on old threads, the old Eos had a regulated run time on high of 2:15 on alkalines, 3 hrs with 900 mAh NiMH, and 3:20 on 1000 NiMH.

Did the run time with alkalines really drop down to 1 hour with the new version? Has anyone tried any current/voltage measurements?

Don't lay all of the reduced life at the feet of the headlamp.

According to this datasheet, Alkalines have a reduced capacity at higher discharge rates. So a 1.5 times increase in current could give a 1.3 times reduction in capacity, overall reducing the runtime by a factor of 2!

Much better to compare the runtimes with the batteries you'd sensibly use, e.g. lithiums or NiMH. Their capacity is much less dependant on current draw.

codypop said:

Don't lay all of the reduced life at the feet of the headlamp.

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm not making a judgment call. I'm curious about if the emitter is being driven harder and other details such as current draw at the batteries, voltage across the emitter, etc. I'd be interested in seeing runtime graphs with NiMH (Eneloops are all I use).

On my modified Eos, I usually use it hooked up to 4AA (sometimes 3AA) or 4AAA external packs, so runtime is not a big deal. If the emitter is actually being driven harder, that might be even better, since that might potentially mean brighter, though something doesn't compute.

With the Seoul modified Eoses, I was assuming same runtime as Luxeon with 2x brightness (or 3x for my Eos, because of the vintage of Luxeon... I did the first review of the Eos on this site in 2004) because of increase efficiency of the Seoul. But I'm not sure if the runtimes on the Seoul modified Eoses actually change after modification. The Rebel Eos I was assuming also got the doubling in output from a 2x increase in efficiency, with the same runtime, but I only notice today that the regulated runtime is supposedly a lot less than before. But the Rebel is definitely more efficient than the old Luxeon, so maybe the brightness increase is more than stated or the runtime is a mistake or typo? Just curious about what is up.

It is the tint of the Rebel LED and the fine beam of the new EOS that makes this headlamp so good. Runtime seem fine for a 3xAAA headlamp. I did a review on both the EOS 2 and 4-mode EOS. So far I have not seen a 3XAAA headlamp as nice.

I was hoping PT will upgrade the EOS to something similar to the EOS Tactical. Instead of a lens filter system, they use a diffuser lens.

That way you can the keep the option of the throw of the original EOS
and the wider view with the diffuser lens.

(below are pics of the EOS tactical)

EOS tactical with red lens filter system

I also wished that PT would integrate a diffuser into the tactical while they increased the output but they chose to keep the Eos Tactical at the same output as the older Eos. Still a great light and I am now leaning towards the Quad Tactical. The best feature of the Eos Tactical, other than the lenses is that the Tactical starts off in low mode IMHO. Still looking at doing a mod of this light in my spare? time.

Exactly, they should upgrade the Led in the tactical model, it still has 25 lumens