Boring times for flashaholics?!?

Hi there,
I just was thinking that in the last year or so there really was nothing really outstandingly new in the world of flashlights.
Or am I missing something?!? (I hope I am! )

A few years ago we could see a considerable better flashlight and/or higher efficiency LEDs every few months.

I still remember the old light bulb MagLights, then came the first well useable LED lights from e.g. Fenix and SureFire LED, and then there was a really large jump in efficciency/efficacy to high lumen lights like the Fenix P3D(-Q5) with around 200 lumens.
And on the other side we got better and better small AAA lights like e.g. the Arc-AAA and now the L0D or LF2 class lights from Fenix and LiteFlux.

But in the last few months, what really great improvements were there?
The only thing that was a little interresting were the P7 and MC-E LEDs, which were just a few "old" LEDs put together with no higher efficiency than before.
Is the efficiency of modern LEDs so high that most likely ther will be no substantial improvement anympore?

And were there any flashlight improvements like e.g. a battery charge display or something like that?


PS:
If someone would like to explain to me the difference between efficiency and efficacy (or poste a link to such an explanation) I would be very gratefull!

Sorry- but I disagree. My Eagletac lights are excellent. I also got a P7 light, and that was also amazing. Now MC-E and the new Xp-e led.

If you are getting bored....try to make your own flashlights...I did- look up drumlights!

There are some programmable flashlights that will tell you the voltage of your battery.

Ice said:

Hi there,

I still remember the old light bulb MagLights, then came the first well useable LED lights from e.g. Fenix and SureFire LED,

Click to expand...

Surefire LEDs came long before Fenix, and Arc came long before Surefire, and McGizmo and a few others were making Surefire compatible LuxIII LED with PR/PRT/McR heads and parts when Surefire was still using Lux I and shower head KL2.

I remember when I first joined CPF I innocently sent Don a PM to asking him to hang out, not realizing that he was building PR-T heads as fast as he could when people discovered the McR beam.

I don't know how the longer standing flashaholics feel, but I've been having a field day!
I started gaining interest a couple of years ago when I bought a 65 lumen Luxeon Nextorch, then someone told me about the P2D which had just come out, and it esculated from there. Next came the D10, which is about when I started taking an active interest in these forums. There's so much out there for people relatively new to it, these are amazing times.

I think that we should have enough with P7s and MC-Es, they can provide tons of light but the problem now is the battery capacity. Higher capacity li-ions is what we need.

Im waiting for the Eagletac megalight, the N30 to get back to stock and already saving up for the L2.

divine said:

There are some programmable flashlights that will tell you the voltage of your battery.

Click to expand...

where can you find them?

I think there has been a little bit of a slowdown recently with everyone using the Q5. The R2 didnt take over the Q5 so there hasnt really been a new king led to rave over. The p7 has been interesting i guess but not really seen anything that stands out a lot. Even though its very bright it doesnt have the throw the Q5 does and throw is often the name of the game.

So i wouldnt say its boring but i think that I have been waiting awhile to see the next best thing. Add to that i am hesitant to buy because i dont want a outdated flashlight.

I think some of the research on better leds is very interesting, but i dont know that kind of science very well and it can be harder to grasp or follow.

Perhaps you missed the fact there is a $150 Fenix and a $40 SureFire?

Quote:
Originally Posted by divine View Post
There are some programmable flashlights that will tell you the voltage of your battery.
where can you find them?

Click to expand...

The LiteFlux LF2X can show the battery voltage by blinking a few times (which is really nice)!
I'd prefere a seperate display however...

I'm quite close to ordering a Wolf-Eyes Sniper with a MC-E LED and 580 lumen right now... If someone could give me a gentle push in that direction...

chewy78 said:

where can you find them?

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Don't forget the LiteFlux LF3XT! Not only does it give you a voltage readout under actual load, it also has 2 user selectable interfaces. This light is not boring at all. In fact since its introduction, my flashalholicsm has been so satisfied that I am in sort of a remission, not anxious or feeling like I need another light fix anytime soon. However, if a light would come along with all of the LF3XT's versality and just added perfect color rendition, I might just get sick again.

Ice said:

PS:
If someone would like to explain to me the difference between efficiency and efficacy (or poste a link to such an explanation) I would be very gratefull!

Click to expand...

http://tinyurl.com/cf45om

"Boring Times" sounds like a machinist's trade magazine.

I'd like to purchase a subscription please.

:laughing:

chewy78 said:

where can you find them?

Click to expand...

JetBeam, Ra Lights, NovaTac, and a few more lights have the blinking future that tells you the battery is low.

LLCoolBeans said:

"Boring Times" sounds like a machinist's trade magazine.

:laughing:

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:thinking: :lolsign:

In my opinion, 1,5 years ago the Pelican 7060 comes out, the Tiablo A8/A9 and some others, there was first time very good LED Lights come into the market, but...after that not anything real new, what will i do with a light (P7/MCE) with needs 2,5 Ah ? i think the Lumen/ Watt is not better now as 1 or 2 yars ago.
When comes the real next Generation ? I do not think it is P7 or MCE.

Well we haven't seen a new general LED that really wows, but the MC-E and P7 really are WOW for some applications. I certainly wasn't bored with new LEDs though because the R2 is quite nice and the Warm/Neutral tint emitters are very exciting. The different beam profile from a GD leds as seen from the Twisty was quite interesting.

There have been an explosion of interfaces, this is bad in some ways, but good in that we have been able to try lots of alternatives.

The E1B was quite impressive, and the LF3-XT was impressive because of its programable features at a new significantly lower price point. The general output/runtime combination of an M60L is very impressive. While I was not overly impressed with the initial EagleTac lights, they certainly set a new low price-point in their segment. The TK11 has clearly taken Fenix into another market segment. While not what I need in a light, the DBS impressed many people and was certainly some type of new milestone.

Even the small improvements like LD01-SS were exciting to me. The Al BitZ had a breakthrough price point for a custom light. I love it, and wish more lights had similar knurling, and bream quality. The explosion of 18650 based lights also makes me smile. I think the runtime/output of the Aeon is also impressive, this little light is very exciting. While still expensive the Aeon really shows how far we've come.

So I've slowed down a bit over the last few months while I wait for the light with the silly name to sort out it's production issues, but I'm far from bored, we're still in the early stages of LED lighting. I only have 1 LED light running of the mains in the house, when there are no incandescents left in the house I might get a little bored.

BabyDoc said:

Don't forget the LiteFlux LF3XT! Not only does it give you a voltage readout under actual load, it also has 2 user selectable interfaces. This light is not boring at all. In fact since its introduction, my flashalholicsm has been so satisfied that I am in sort of a remission, not anxious or feeling like I need another light fix anytime soon. However, if a light would come along with all of the LF3XT's versality and just added perfect color rendition, I might just get sick again.

Click to expand...

:twothumbs

@rmteo:
Very interresting link, thanks! So there is one light with a status display!
It's a shame that it's so low quality otherwise!!!

@Marduke:
Thanks for your link concerning the difference between efficiency and efficacy. However you seem to not have actually read any of those links coming up. Most of them are about completely different topics and the few that match are really hard to understand.
Here an example: "Well, efficacy is whether it works or not... whether it has that capacity".
Do you understand that?!? :duh2::wave:

I thought that efficiency (of light sources) is the amount of light (in all wave lengths) compared to the used electrical energy in the unit "Watt/Watt" and that efficacy is basically the same but in "Lumen/Watt" as indicated here.
Is that halfway correct?!?

PS: Isn't it a problem that both do not take into account which wave lengths the human eye really can see?!?