IsaacHayes
Flashlight Enthusiast
WARNING: LOT'S OF TEXT! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (STORY FORMAT)
Got my Illuma-Lux on Monday, which was insanely fast for the post office considering it was mailed out friday. I poped in a few batteries I was able to find at work. I couldn't tell how bright it was since it was daylight, but I could tell it was lighting things up. So I wasn't able to tell how usefull it was until nightfall. So I examined it over.
The body: I was expecting a ruber tail switch with push on push off. But it's a black plastic switch. Which at first I was confused on how to operate it. To operate it: twist the tail cap all the way until it lights. To turn off, you back off a couple of turns. Then to use mometary just press the plastic switch on the tail cap. The light probably isn't water proof due to the tail switch. I belive it would be other wise as it has orings on the head and tail cap.
The ID of the body is a little large for my duracell AA's, so I put a peice of notebook paper folded in half and it took care of it to stop any rattles.
Looking in the business end you see the yellow phosphur of the LED through the 1/2" half acrylic ball. I'm guessing it's a Low-Dome as it is totally yellow in a circle.. Also the beam has a yellow ring around the outside which I belive is one charictristic of Lowdowmes. I may be wrong though. The center is white with a slight purple tint that you can only notice at certain times.
Enough of the nit-picking that only people in the know would care about, how usefull is it?!? Very!
Night time: I was wondering how this would stack up against my mini mag light I use a lot in my car. Well, to put it bluntly, the minimag may as well not be on. The Illuma-Lux totaly destroys in in brightness, whitness, and beam shape/quality. I would always focus the minimag to it's tightest as the flood was too dim to see anything. I did this and waved it around, notiting it was still hard to see things. I turned on the Illuma-Lux, and it was like someone turned on a florecent light! The minimag beam might as well not be there. You can see everything clearly, in pure, BRIGHT, white, flood light! In fact it's almost too bright to turn on in your car when looking at things close range!! It hurt my eyes!
Amazing for close distances, but how does it stack up for med-long range? I took it outside and was walking with it, to my surprise the beam while being very wide lit up everything clearly. I lit up the side of my house and it was very very bright! I shined it up into some trees that are maybe ~65feet high or more and you could see everything clearly!
I brought it over to a friend's house that was having a party. I flashed it breifly and it imediatly caught the interest of someone. There were lights on in this apartment too. I was the center of attention quickly. Everyone was shocked at the white light! No one noticed the yellow ring around the edges. Not only that, they kept commenting on how freakin bright it was! And this thing is a wide beam, not even a spot!
Got home, got out my 2D mag. 2D mag focuses to a brighter beam, so it has more throw, albeit being yellow-orange and splotchy beam. But does it put out more light? (lumens?) I focused the mag to a beam roughly the size of the illuma-lux's and put them the same distance from a white wall, around 3". The mag was pathetically dim looking! The big mag puts out less light!
Negatives: Not waterproof, Possibly a LD led causing the yellow ring around the beam.
Positives: Surprisingly BRIGHT, Perfect smooth wide usefull beam, pure white light, longer runtime than incandecents.
Conclusion: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif VERY USEABLE light. This light is very white, with a broad smooth beam making it very easy to view a wide area at night and comprehend every detail. Don't let the broad beam fool you. It's bright, and will light up far away objects very nicely. Great for up close, walking at night, and lighting up tree's, sides of houses, and traffic signs afar, clearly & cleanly.
Unless you need a very far throwing light, this light this flashlight makes compared to a 2D mag is far superior. No matter what focus I used with the mag I couldn't comprehend every item or detail on my computer desk. But turn on the Illuma-lux and the whole desk is lit very brightly & evenly. The white light makes it so much easier to see things clearly compared to the yellow incandecent, that the minor yellow ring on the edge of the beam doesn't even matter a bit.
This is my first Luxeon light to play with, as I'm waiting for all my parts before I compelete my other ones. I can only imagine how intense the light would be if concentrated to a spot like a mag does. I'll soon know as I have 30mm optics on the way for my projects.
I used to favor spot beams until using the Illuma-Lux. Main reason was anything less of a spot was too dim! Now I'm thinking differently. I think my future project will be for a high powered flood beam. Because they are so useable!! (except for signaling UFO's and blinding small aircraft pilots) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Got my Illuma-Lux on Monday, which was insanely fast for the post office considering it was mailed out friday. I poped in a few batteries I was able to find at work. I couldn't tell how bright it was since it was daylight, but I could tell it was lighting things up. So I wasn't able to tell how usefull it was until nightfall. So I examined it over.
The body: I was expecting a ruber tail switch with push on push off. But it's a black plastic switch. Which at first I was confused on how to operate it. To operate it: twist the tail cap all the way until it lights. To turn off, you back off a couple of turns. Then to use mometary just press the plastic switch on the tail cap. The light probably isn't water proof due to the tail switch. I belive it would be other wise as it has orings on the head and tail cap.
The ID of the body is a little large for my duracell AA's, so I put a peice of notebook paper folded in half and it took care of it to stop any rattles.
Looking in the business end you see the yellow phosphur of the LED through the 1/2" half acrylic ball. I'm guessing it's a Low-Dome as it is totally yellow in a circle.. Also the beam has a yellow ring around the outside which I belive is one charictristic of Lowdowmes. I may be wrong though. The center is white with a slight purple tint that you can only notice at certain times.
Enough of the nit-picking that only people in the know would care about, how usefull is it?!? Very!
Night time: I was wondering how this would stack up against my mini mag light I use a lot in my car. Well, to put it bluntly, the minimag may as well not be on. The Illuma-Lux totaly destroys in in brightness, whitness, and beam shape/quality. I would always focus the minimag to it's tightest as the flood was too dim to see anything. I did this and waved it around, notiting it was still hard to see things. I turned on the Illuma-Lux, and it was like someone turned on a florecent light! The minimag beam might as well not be there. You can see everything clearly, in pure, BRIGHT, white, flood light! In fact it's almost too bright to turn on in your car when looking at things close range!! It hurt my eyes!
Amazing for close distances, but how does it stack up for med-long range? I took it outside and was walking with it, to my surprise the beam while being very wide lit up everything clearly. I lit up the side of my house and it was very very bright! I shined it up into some trees that are maybe ~65feet high or more and you could see everything clearly!
I brought it over to a friend's house that was having a party. I flashed it breifly and it imediatly caught the interest of someone. There were lights on in this apartment too. I was the center of attention quickly. Everyone was shocked at the white light! No one noticed the yellow ring around the edges. Not only that, they kept commenting on how freakin bright it was! And this thing is a wide beam, not even a spot!
Got home, got out my 2D mag. 2D mag focuses to a brighter beam, so it has more throw, albeit being yellow-orange and splotchy beam. But does it put out more light? (lumens?) I focused the mag to a beam roughly the size of the illuma-lux's and put them the same distance from a white wall, around 3". The mag was pathetically dim looking! The big mag puts out less light!
Negatives: Not waterproof, Possibly a LD led causing the yellow ring around the beam.
Positives: Surprisingly BRIGHT, Perfect smooth wide usefull beam, pure white light, longer runtime than incandecents.
Conclusion: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif VERY USEABLE light. This light is very white, with a broad smooth beam making it very easy to view a wide area at night and comprehend every detail. Don't let the broad beam fool you. It's bright, and will light up far away objects very nicely. Great for up close, walking at night, and lighting up tree's, sides of houses, and traffic signs afar, clearly & cleanly.
Unless you need a very far throwing light, this light this flashlight makes compared to a 2D mag is far superior. No matter what focus I used with the mag I couldn't comprehend every item or detail on my computer desk. But turn on the Illuma-lux and the whole desk is lit very brightly & evenly. The white light makes it so much easier to see things clearly compared to the yellow incandecent, that the minor yellow ring on the edge of the beam doesn't even matter a bit.
This is my first Luxeon light to play with, as I'm waiting for all my parts before I compelete my other ones. I can only imagine how intense the light would be if concentrated to a spot like a mag does. I'll soon know as I have 30mm optics on the way for my projects.
I used to favor spot beams until using the Illuma-Lux. Main reason was anything less of a spot was too dim! Now I'm thinking differently. I think my future project will be for a high powered flood beam. Because they are so useable!! (except for signaling UFO's and blinding small aircraft pilots) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
