Incan vs LED

Can anyone point me in the direction of some comparisons in and lux and luman on similar size incan and led flashlights. Also pros and cons over the two types.

And maybe even some battery info and how they are rated and what all the letters and numbers mean.



New to the forum and there is an overwhelming amount on info.

First, :welcome:

I'm fairly new here as well.

Second, "Incan vs LED" is not a good subject title simply because it's something of a kind of topic.

But here's my two cents on incan vs. LED:

1. One is not "better" than the other. They each have their value in a particular situation.

2. LEDs have longer lifespan, but don't do color rendition very well (in general).

3. Incans are nice for a "warmer" light and for better color rendering.

Bottom line: You'll have to experiment a bit and see which you prefer for different situations. My understanding is that Surefire is a good place to go for incans, although I don't personally own any (yet).

ETA: I recommend doing a search and/or just browsing the general light forum. You'll learn a lot just from reading.

Thanks ab1ht for the info. I understand the topic being exhausted but its hard to find and hard facts. Just what people like not which is brighter.

Also the lingo is kinda hard to wrap around.

I was more interested in which bulb type would be brighter in "x" flashlight body.

I currently have an ebay knock off a surefire incan. Had it for about for 4 years. It takes the 3V 123 batteries. I'm happy w/it but had no idea it could be better. Just trying to figure out what would have more lux/lumans in this body.

Also waiting for an Ultrafire 502 it has a CREE XR-E R2 so it will be a good place to compare bulbs in those lights.

Run time, run time, run time...

LED's have it all over incans when it comes to run times. When comparing similar output LED's to incans, the LED will have much, much longer run times. And it gets worse as the lights get brighter. A Surefire 6P with the P61 lamp will net about 20 minutes on high and give you 120 lumens. An LED light with 120 lumens running similer batteries will give you almost 10x that in run time.

Incans bulbs do burn out and need replacing, also more frequently with high output models.

That said, I am looking to buy a high output incan becasue I am a photographer and it's much easier for me to match white balance with ambient light and incan light because of the color temp. LED's are very poor for photographic purposes becasue of this. It's basically impossible to blend LED light with ambient light becuase of the temps. The only photo specific lights that are LED are macro lights where the entire subject is flooded with light.

at the moment Led smoke incan with ease when small size and "low current" (= under 1 A) is concerned. (ever had a 1*AA incan?)
That makes lights 1-2 cells up to 2*CR123 size.

If the current get raised, single-die led get difficulties, but there are the quads available now.
So raise the current to 2.5 A, in that class the incan get problems again.

Anything even more power consuming - there are no mass produced led lights available by now, that is more incan vs. HID.
(Question is, if these make sense. Even such powerful incans (ROP and such) or HID see very seldom use, as its the size/weight that gets a problem)

If you need to match color temps with led photography you can always use a warming gel. It's just like when using a flash, a flash tube has about the same CRI and color temp as a decent led both about in the 80 range at 6000k. Though you can actually get better CRI using something like an ssc led which can be in the 90 range. In fact I find the P7 led to have a very pleasant cool white look, better than a comparatively low temp incan like a mag lite which though technically 100 cri is absolutely terrible for photography illumination.

qwertyydude said:

If you need to match color temps with led photography you can always use a warming gel.

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Huh, that is a good idea using a warming gel! Never even thought of that.

bosscrab said:

Can anyone point me in the direction of some comparisons in and lux and luman on similar size incan and led flashlights. Also pros and cons over the two types.

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I have plenty of LED and Incan lights, basically:
For smaller lighter lights with better runtime and brightness - LED is by far the best.
For larger heavier lights with bigger and higher capacity batteries the incan lights are good and have better colour rendition.

My modified D-Cell Maglites are great! I can get good run times by using 3.7V 5000mAh batteries. But they are too big to carry on me every day.
My 1 x AAA and 1 x AA lights are all LED - lots of light on a small and easily pocketable flashlight.
Once I go up to a 2D Maglite sized torch (or bigger) I would generally prefer to go with incan unless I need much more than 2 hours runtime - I have a 4D with Malkoff LED drop-in for 8+ hours of bright light.

If you could say what you want in a light then many here could suggest a good light to buy. Don't be afraid to buy a couple of nice incan lights and 3 or 4 LED lights, then you can have the right sort of flashlight for the task you want (you don't have to buy that many lights all at once). You could buy a Surefire A2 Aviator - that has both LED & incan in the one flashlight.

If you need a light for foggy, rainy or snowy conditions, an incan is miles ahead of LED at cutting through that crap.

I used to be all on one side of this old debate till I spent enough time here to learn that both have their advantages.
I have plenty of both and I'm happy.

bullfrog said:

If you need a light for foggy, rainy or snowy conditions, an incan is miles ahead of LED at cutting through that crap.

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Warmer tint LEDs can improve this, though probably not enough to make it equal.

I'm heading out to walk the dogs in a few minutes. Carrying a 3x18650 (length imagine 6 x CR123s) Leef body incan with a WA1185 bulb (BRIGHT) and a surefire tailswitch modified with AW soft start 3 level switch installed in it. With a stainless steel "defender" head it also works as a nice club - and did I mention it's BRIGHT. 18650s freshly charged after last night's walk during a power outage.

On my hip I have a LED - tonight it's a Surefire L1 that has been modded to take a AA (has a lithium primary) - so small light dependable 2 stage light. Great Backup. Sometimes it's a McGizmo LED light on my hip (Haiku, LS20, PD-S...). Longer run time, dependable.

Each have their place. If I was at work (industrial) it may be a 6P sized (1x18650, or 2 x IMR 16340 (cr123 sized)) incan or LED with probably a Aeon (small CR2 based LED light) as a backup.


Almost all my lights are multi level, almost all my lights are quite bright at their top level. If I carry single stage lights I'll carry a very small, not very bright light for say reading motor nameplates (cannot use 200 lumens well to read a stainless tag - unless you shield it in your hand) and then a bright light.

bosscrab said:

Can anyone point me in the direction of some comparisons in and lux and luman on similar size incan and led flashlights. Also pros and cons over the two types.

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:welcome:

It would probably be easier if you mentioned any specific flashlights that you may have been researching so people could give you more specific feedback. Having said that, here are a few general notions:

Circuits in an incandescent flashlight are simpler so there's less to go wrong, color rendition is generally better with an incandescent bulb compared to an LED, runtimes are generally lower on an incandescent compared to an LED and incandescent bulbs are more fragile and have a significantly shorter lifespan compared to an LED.

bosscrab said:

And maybe even some battery info and how they are rated and what all the letters and numbers mean.

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Not sure what you mean by this. Battery types are not associated with a particular light type. You can get AAA powered incans and LEDs, AA powered incans and LEDs, CR123 powered incans and LEDs, etc.

bosscrab said:

New to the forum and there is an overwhelming amount on info.

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Yup, the amount of info can be daunting. Your best bet is to use the search function of the forum and ask specific questions in the appropriate forums. CPFers are generally a pretty helpful bunch and in my own experience as long as you ask good questions you will get good answers from the folks here.

At the moment incands smoke LED's with ease when quality, and depth of true colors is concerned. (ever had a LED that rendered colors properly outside?)

There are incands that run great on 1-2 primary or rechargeable cells, including 123a size.

All lights use current. Some incands use more current than LED's, other incands use less current than LED's. Choose your light based on your needs. One is not better on this topic.

Anything even more power consuming - there are no mass produced led lights available by now. (makes sense?)

Even such powerful incans (ROP and such) or HID see very frequent use, as it's size/weight make them ideal.

Enjoy Incans more than LED's.

yellow said:

at the moment Led smoke incan with ease when small size and "low current" (= under 1 A) is concerned. (ever had a 1*AA incan?)
That makes lights 1-2 cells up to 2*CR123 size.

If the current get raised, single-die led get difficulties, but there are the quads available now.
So raise the current to 2.5 A, in that class the incan get problems again.

Anything even more power consuming - there are no mass produced led lights available by now, that is more incan vs. HID.
(Question is, if these make sense. Even such powerful incans (ROP and such) or HID see very seldom use, as its the size/weight that gets a problem)

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Slinging your beaten-to-death B.S again?

LuxLuthor said:

At the moment incands smoke LED's with ease when quality, and depth of true colors is concerned. (ever had a LED that rendered colors properly outside?)

There are incands that run great on 1-2 primary or rechargeable cells, including 123a size.

All lights use current. Some incands use more current than LED's, other incands use less current than LED's. Choose your light based on your needs. One is not better on this topic.

Anything even more power consuming - there are no mass produced led lights available by now. (makes sense?)

Even such powerful incans (ROP and such) or HID see very frequent use, as it's size/weight make them ideal.

Enjoy Incans more than LED's.

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HAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Way to go Lux!

:devil:

Tisk tisk, you're going to get this one closed too aren't you?

Seriously though, has anyone done a fair comparison between the 2? Lumen to lumen size and runtime, similar current draw with same type of batteries etc?

Hi there and :welcome:

bosscrab said:

Can anyone point me in the direction of some comparisons in and lux and luman on similar size incan and led flashlights. Also pros and cons over the two types.

Click to expand...

I don't think you're going to find comparisons between LED lights and incand lights as in, WA1185 vs P7 as these are 2 distinctly different types/classes of flashlights. The pros and cons have been set out in the previous posts so i wont get into those. Nor do i want to get into which is better etc, they each have their uses and i have a few of each.

bosscrab said:

And maybe even some battery info and how they are rated and what all the letters and numbers mean.

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For the cells, i have no idea what the 'CR' in CR123 stands for, maybe someone here can enlighten (no pun intended)

The numbers 14500, 18650, 16340 are easily read.

The first 2 digits indicate the diameter of the cell, the next 2 indicate the length of the cell, the final '0' means that the cell is round.

hence, 14500 = 14mm diameter, 50mm length, 0 being round.

You might want to surf on over to 'flashlight electronics' and read the stickies there for more information. That's how i started, read, research, read again, THEN ask

enjoy your stay here though your wallet and credit cards may not.

no offense on the OP part...

but what IS it with this week and beaten to death topics being brought up over and over....
:laughing:

Crenshaw