New and Improved Magmaled

Got this email from Techass yesterday. 25% brighter with new aluminum housing. Little bit shorter battery life. No longer works in the AAA model. Looks pretty interesting. Wonder how this new model compares to the Opalec Newbeam.....


MagmaLED back in stock!



Dear EternaLight fan,





Some good news and bad. First the good news.

The long awaited MagmaLEDs are back in stock.

For those of you who are unaware, this is a

drop-in replacement bulb for the popular Mini

maglite AA model. Simply replace the bulb and

you've got a white LED flashlight! It still

uses the famous maglite reflector for focusing.

And, it's 25% brighter than the last model.

It's also in a cool aluminum housing which eats

up heat and protects it from getting crushed

better. Now for the bad news. Being brighter

means it eats batteries a little quicker. And,

it will only work in the AA model, not the AAA

model. The improvements also cost $1.00 more

but it's well worth it! Order now. The last

time we ran out, we were out for 5 months!



here's a quick link to take you to product

order page:



http://www.techass.com/el/versalux/magmaled/magmaled.php





Thank you!

I wonder indeed....

Looked at the ad. I was disappointed by the obvious editing of the picture re colour balance and beam from the torches. I saw the incandescent colour balanced towards yellow (look at the colour behind the torch) yet the LED pic was white. Secondly, I can see a beam in the incandescent, not the LED.

Is this intended to deceive so that the LED appears brighter, whiter etc

You may call me sceptical, but I'm not impressed so far based on the sales spiel.

Who has these? What are they like? Are they anything near the light output of an incandescent of the same power consumption?

Chris

Might be time for me to replace my old MagmaLED. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

It's always encouraging to see more companies get into LED conversions, but this one is poorly advertised. I see nothing saying what the LED is or how bright it is. It says that the peak light output rating is 15. But 15 what? I doubt it's lumens. Could be lux or candlepower.

And what does "useable light" mean. It looks to me that Versalux is just another of those companies that doesn't know what it's selling, or it doesn't want the consumer to know.

Pi_is_blue -- it appears you have one. Can you answer any of the questions?

OK guys, we've revised the page a little. I hope the information you're looking for is there. We'll revise it again with comparitive pictures when we get another sample unit for a side by side photo. Thanks!

Wonder why they made the second generation so that it would not fit in the AAA Minimag? I would have thought that they would want to have the only dropin conversion pill that wold fit in both sizes of MiniMags.

Your right, we did. But, the heatsink needed to be larger so it won't physically fit. Eventually we MAY have another one for AAA but it won't be as bright.

I have one of these and have been very pleased with it. I originally put it into a 2AA Minimag and was not awed by the brightness. I read one of Roy's posts about his Magmaled and now it lives in a AAA Minimag. The beam is a little tighter in the 2AAA than in the 2AA. It produces better light output than white ARC AAA, and a tighter beam with better throw than my Infinity Ultra. I had to shorten the reflector a bit to make it focus properly, but that only took a few moments. Overall I find that it makes the 2AAA into a really useful little light.

It will be nice if the newer version is a little tougher and a little brighter, but I wish it would still work in a 2AAA.

Pi, if you decide that you want to get rid of yours we might be able to work something out.

I didn't know the original would fit a MiniM*g 2AAA, damn, I've been looking everywhere. Now that I can't get 'em I find out about it.
MrEtermaLight, if you run across any old stock I'll take 2, if you do make a new dropin that will work I'll take 2.

Ordered one ... will receive soon ...

Total: $17.99 ($15.99 + $2.00 shipping and handling)
Shipped Via: USPS Air Mail

I've had one these for while, very bright. Metered at 75 Lux, so that challenges the Reactor with it's Luxeon direct driven on alkalines. For not being a Luxeon, I'd have to say this very bright, probably brighter than any other single 5mm LED mod. Very nice, well built, and reliable. Great color to the beam also, none of that Luxeon pea green stuff to worry about.

The MagmaLED is nice if you want a narrow beam in the 2AA Maglite, and in the 2AAA Maglite it has a nice fairly wide beam. I don't use mine very much, so I might sell it. I find that in a 2AA Maglite, the beam is too narrow for closeup, and too dim to throw a long way. In the 2AAA maglite it appears to be slightly dimmer, but is very good for closeup work.

Rec'd MagmaLED type 2 today ... installed it in minimag w/ two fresh Rayovac alkalines. Agree w/ Lambda's post this thread. I'd put brightness level somewhere between an Ultra-G and an Opalec.

Used it to compare with my other lights for about 5 min. when it suddenly dimmed down to about an original Infinity's brightness level and stayed there ... Now for an RMA from Techass ...

Rec'd replacement from Techass ...
Mounted in a Mini-Mag AA, this is a very useful light for anything requiring a wide (flood) beam with a small dim hotspot. Good walkaround area light for in-house or in-car use. It will reside on my driver's side door.

Al, overall, would you say that the new/improved (which is it?) Magmaled duplicates the beam of the original yellowish incandescent, but with LED white instead?

Or does it change the beam pattern somehow?

This is the same as "M-1 unit" put on the market in Japan. Although written in Japanese, a review is here.
(for AAA miniMAG)
http://fuja.s22.xrea.com/review/m1unit/index.html

Nice comparison page Fuja. That CROPS SeaBright light looks kind of interesting. Anybody seen one before?

SeaBrIGHT is here.
http://fuja.s22.xrea.com/review/seabright/index.html

It was compared by 1LED of three types /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Prometheid said:
Al, overall, would you say that the new/improved (which is it?) Magmaled duplicates the beam of the original yellowish incandescent, but with LED white instead? Or does it change the beam pattern somehow?

[/ QUOTE ]

Japanese site referred to above is a bit misleading IMO. The unit Techass sells is indeed the same as pictured but the beam pattern I get is of a very wide corona with a dim but focusable hotspot which has nowhere near the "throw" of the incandescent (I use Brinkmann lamps).

Still, for a wide area light for close range use up to around 15 Ft., I like this mod. AND it's relatively cheap.