12 beamshoots, includes M30/TK40/L2/M2C4/RRT-1/...

[SIZE=+3]12 beamshoots[/SIZE]

This article will show some beamshoots from 11 newer lights and two older lights: 4 XR-E (one a triple), 5 MC-E, 2 P7, a HID and one incandescent flashlights. I have included the different levels for many of the lights, giving a total of 35 beamshoots. I have also done a ceiling bounce to get a idea of the actual light output of the different lights.



The lights are: OLight M30 Triton, Fenix TK40, EagleTec M2C4, Lumapower MVP, Epsilon ED-P72, Jetbeam M1X, DereeLight DBS MC-E, NeoFab Legion II, MicroFire Warrior 3500, OLight M20 Warrior, Jetbeam RRT-1 Raptor, Fenix TA30, Maglite 6D


[SIZE=+2]Light output[/SIZE]
To get an idea about how much light the put out, I did an ceiling bounce and plotted the measured values into this graph. The Legion II is used as reference, i.e. 100%.


And here is the maximum levels only:


And the minimum levels:



[SIZE=+2]Max. power[/SIZE]
First a comparison between maximum power for all lights.
M30, TK40, M2C4


MVP, ED-P72, M1X


DBS MC-E, Legion II, MicroFire 3500


M20, RRT-1, TA30


Maglite 6D, M30+Diffuser



[SIZE=+2]Max. power at reduced exposure[/SIZE]
Same pictures as above, but processed with two steps lower exposure.
M30, TK40, M2C4


MVP, ED-P72, M1X


DBS MC-E, Legion II, MicroFire 3500


M20, RRT-1, TA30


Maglite 6D, M30+Diffuser



[SIZE=+2]Min. power[/SIZE]
Here are all light at minimum power.

M30, TK40, M2C4


MVP, ED-P72, M1X


DBS MC-E, Legion II, MicroFire 3500


M20, RPT-1, TA30


Maglite 6D, Dark reference



[SIZE=+2]OLight M30 Triton[/SIZE]

Light emitter: MC-E
Batteries: 2 x 18500

High, medium, low


With diffuser on high



High


Medium


Low


Diffuser on high



[SIZE=+2]Fenix TK40[/SIZE]

Light emitter: MC-E
Batteries: 8 x AA eneloop

Turbo, high, medium


Low


Turbo


High


Medium


Low



[SIZE=+2]EagleTec M2C4[/SIZE]

Light emitter: P7
Batteries: 2 x 18650

Turbo, high, medium


Low


Turbo


High


Medium


Low



[SIZE=+2]Lumapower MVP[/SIZE]

Light emitter: 3 x XR-E
Batteries: 2 x 18650

High, medium, low


High


Medium


Low



[SIZE=+2]Epsilon ED-P72[/SIZE]

Light emitter: P7
Batteries: 2 x 18650

High, medium, low


High


Medium


Low




[SIZE=+2]Jetbeam M1X[/SIZE]

Light emitter: MC-E
Batteries: 2 x 18650
Version: Generation 1, second generation has higher output

High


High


[SIZE=+2]DereeLight DBS MC-E[/SIZE]

Light emitter: MC-E
Batteries: 2 x IMR16340
Version: 2.1A drive current, original OP reflector

High, medium, low


High


Medium


Low




[SIZE=+2]NeoFab Legion II[/SIZE]

Light emitter: MC-E
Batteries: 3 x 18650

High, low


High


Low




[SIZE=+2]MicroFire Warrior 3500[/SIZE]

Light emitter: 35 watt HID bulb
Batteries: LiIon pack

High


High


[SIZE=+2]OLight M20 Warrior[/SIZE]

Light emitter: XR-E
Batteries: 2 x CR123

High, medium, low


High


Medium


Low



[SIZE=+2]Jetbeam RRT-1 Raptor[/SIZE]

Light emitter: XR-E
Batteries: 1 x 18650

High, medium, low


High


Medium


Low



[SIZE=+2]Fenix TA30[/SIZE]

Light emitter: XR-E
Batteries: 3 x CR123

High, medium, low


High


Medium


Low



[SIZE=+2]Maglite 6D[/SIZE]

Light emitter: Incandescent bulb
Batteries: 6 x alkaline D-cells

12 beamshoots



This article will show some beamshoots from 11 newer lights and two older lights. = 13 :thinking:

Awesome job that was a lot of work thank you :twothumbs

Great work lovecpf

Nice!
It's good to see some nice beamshots of the M30

Having just ordered one ive been looking everywhere to get some bigger beam shots then the ones i have found so far.

And these are the sort of thing i was looking for.

:thumbsup:

Excellent work!! :twothumbs Finally, a review of all the latest monsters in a single thread.

From the comparison shots, looks like Legion, M2 and ED-P72 top the charts. Naturally, I would say the HID is in a different league.

Lot of work went into this, thank you very much for the effort......I learned a lot from these photos.

is it just the size of the spot? The M2C4 looks like it was pointed at the grass not the tree like the others.

TOOCOOL said:

12 beamshoots
This article will show some beamshoots from 11 newer lights and two older lights. = 13 :thinking:

Click to expand...

Only 11 of the lights really count, the last two are just for reference and are only counted as ½ each.

Zeruel said:

Excellent work!! :twothumbs Finally, a review of all the latest monsters in a single thread.

From the comparison shots, looks like Legion, M2 and ED-P72 top the charts. Naturally, I would say the HID is in a different league.

Click to expand...

I also missed a way to compare them, but be a bit careful how you rate them, some of the lights are throwing a lots of light in between the trees in the far end.

Kremer said:

is it just the size of the spot? The M2C4 looks like it was pointed at the grass not the tree like the others.

Click to expand...

It was misaligned a bit, but I tried twice and both times I got the glare before the trees (I need some way to secure exact alignment off all the lights).

HKJ said:

I also missed a way to compare them, but be a bit careful how you rate them, some of the lights are throwing a lots of light in between the trees in the far end.

Click to expand...

True, you're the best person to tell since you're there.
Btw, do you think Sunlite Eagle 16wfp should be a contender here as well?

Zeruel said:

True, you're the best person to tell since you're there.

Click to expand...

When I get started, I do not really look at the beams, I am much more focused on aiming the light, and writing the correct picture number down.

Zeruel said:

Btw, do you think Sunlite Eagle 16wfp should be a contender here as well?

Click to expand...

I supposed it is in the same range as the best lights here, probably with a good throw. I might get one when they release the model with the increased drive current, but I have not decided that yet.

Tiablo ACE-G beamshots would be nice too!

Thanks for the comparisons HKJ, you certainly have a good collection of lights.

I know its not easy to find standard settings for outdoor beamshots, so I commend your efforts. :thumbsup: I plan to experiment with a few distance shots myself for my collection of multi-emitter lights (a round-up review is pending, once I'm done testing the Eagletac M2 series lights).

A minor suggestion - a table may be helpful to allow easy comparison of outputs (i.e. the 3-D bar graph effect makes it tough to compare from one end to the other). And as a reminder for folks, JetBeam seems to have increased the output on the second batch of M1X lights (i.e. my light box and ceiling bounce both show the 2nd gen M1X to be closer in overall output to the M30 than the MVP).

Keep up the good work ... :wave:

selfbuilt said:

Thanks for the comparisons HKJ, you certainly have a good collection of lights.

Click to expand...

I have a few, but I wonder how many you have.

selfbuilt said:

I know its not easy to find standard settings for outdoor beamshots, so I commend your efforts. :thumbsup: I plan to experiment with a few distance shots myself for my collection of multi-emitter lights (a round-up review is pending, once I'm done testing the Eagletac M2 series lights).

Click to expand...

It is not really supposed to be a standard settings, I did all the beamshoots in one session. I look forward to your roundup review.

selfbuilt said:

A minor suggestion - a table may be helpful to allow easy comparison of outputs (i.e. the 3-D bar graph effect makes it tough to compare from one end to the other).

Click to expand...

I do not really want to use a table, it gives the impression of better precision that the measurements warrants and small differences are anyway irrelevant in real life.
The log scale graph gives a very good impression of how the visual difference between the light output is, both between the lights and between the levels.
The lin scale graph makes it possible to get more exact numbers.

selfbuilt said:

And as a reminder for folks, JetBeam seems to have increased the output on the second batch of M1X lights (i.e. my light box and ceiling bounce both show the 2nd gen M1X to be closer in overall output to the M30 than the MVP).

Click to expand...

Yes, my Jetbeam is a bit behind in output, but it has very good throw anyway.

Thanks for the very nice comparison thread with excellent pictures and representation graphs.

Just to second what others have said, my 2nd gen. Jetbeam M1-X seems much higher in output than your first gen. represented here.

In fact, its slightly higher than my M30 and almost as bright as my Solarforce L950M (which you may want to add at some point to the comparisons )

HKJ said:

I do not really want to use a table, it gives the impression of better precision that the measurements warrants and small differences are anyway irrelevant in real life.
The log scale graph gives a very good impression of how the visual difference between the light output is, both between the lights and between the levels.
The lin scale graph makes it possible to get more exact numbers.

Click to expand...

I agree in regards to precision - I try to limit to no more than 2 or 3 significant figures in my presentation of results, since I know from experience that is all I can reliably reproduce. But you are right, people tend to make a big deal over small differences that are measurable with equipment but not noticeable in real life (i.e. it is hard to notice <20% difference in most anything in real life).

As for log output, I agree that makes perfect sense for raw lux data (i.e. "throw" measures). Not so sure if it it really captures the difference for ceiling bounce results, though. The room is in essence integrating all the output (or diffusing it, depending on how you want to look at it). Twice the output on ceiling bounce does look like about twice the output to my eye (i.e. fairly linear). In your case, I noticed the Microfire 3500 HID looks to have ~2.5X the output of your Legion II on a linear scale, but only ~15-20% more output on a log scale. Which seems closer to you in terms of subjective impression in actual use?

AMAZING work hkj,

after playing with them all

which one has the best price/value/performance ratio?

in real life.

in your opinion.

The Legion 2 won my heart.

hmm, it seems i may not have to get another MCE light... the TK40 more than holds its own against these lights. But i still like the neutral tint of the M2XC4... the fenix TK20 is too weak a light for me

selfbuilt said:

As for log output, I agree that makes perfect sense for raw lux data (i.e. "throw" measures). Not so sure if it it really captures the difference for ceiling bounce results, though. The room is in essence integrating all the output (or diffusing it, depending on how you want to look at it). Twice the output on ceiling bounce does look like about twice the output to my eye (i.e. fairly linear). In your case, I noticed the Microfire 3500 HID looks to have ~2.5X the output of your Legion II on a linear scale, but only ~15-20% more output on a log scale. Which seems closer to you in terms of subjective impression in actual use?

Click to expand...

I do not really have the concept of "xx% more light", fixed in my mind, it is more like: "about the same", "a little bit brighter", etc., and I believe that the log scale conveys that very well, a step from 3 to 30 is just as significant as a step from 30 to 300.

I am surprised by the "low" output of the Microfire, it is either around 2000 lumen or the spectrum is interpreted different on the lux meter (It might also be a combination).

waddup said:

AMAZING work hkj,

after playing with them all

which one has the best price/value/performance ratio?

in real life.

in your opinion.

Click to expand...

That is a bit difficult to answer. I do not keep that much track of prices, but I have a few thoughts:

I like the L2 for its good output, but it was way to expensive for the finish delivered.

The M30 is one of my favorites, mostly because of its small size and the UI.

I have just got the M2C4 and not used it enough, but the standby drain is a problem for me.

I was surprised how well the DBS stod up to the others, but the runtime is too short with the two IMR cells.

Great beam shots!!!! Still thinking the M30 will be my next light!!!