Comparing my M60 and M61

Last night on a dog walk I grabbed two EDC's. One had a Malkoff M60 and the other a M61. As I traveled around the neighborhood I tested & compared the two. The M61 is a nice - practical light. It has good throw and a nice spill area also. The M60 has a narrower spill area but thows further and has a nice white hot spot. They are both nice lights but I think that I prefer the older M60. It has usuable spill for general use and really reaches out in distance for a small EDC. The M60 just seems to have a little more Wow factor for a little light.

I don't work with, or speak for Gene.....

But if and when some optics are available for the XPG's, maybe he'll offer them.

I love the M61, I just ordered two more yesterday.

Hi Bob96!

I have two Malkoff MD2 hosts; one with M60 and the other with M61. You have right about M60 throwing further. But I will oppose that M60 has narrower spill area. It's easy to be deceived that M60 has a very narrow beam when trying it at daytime or under home light illumination. Actually M60 has a wider spill. The spill is dimmer but has not that definite edge like the more typhical reflector beam character of M61.
Within the width of the M61 beam the M61 is brighter, but the M60 continues to illuminate where M61 does not illuminate at all.

I use to say: for indoors use or when using on a wall M61 is better. For outdoors the M60 is often better. You will not have a definite beam edge, but instead a stepless dimming beam which under really dark conditions illuminates practically everything to the sides. The dimmer outer part of the beam which you will not even notice at daytime will then be very useful under dark conditions.
Try it out again about the beam width and you shall see!

Apologize for my partly faulty english...

Regards, Patric

I compared M60 and M61 extensively...

M61, at any square inch of its hotspot, is dimmer than any other square inch of the M60 hotspot. In fact, M61, at its brightest point is about equal to M60L, but has a much bigger and more useful, truly huge hotspot.

I EDC'ed M60 x 18650 then didn't like the runtime that much, moved to M60L x 18650 and like the 4-hour runtime, and now find M61 x 18650 most useful. In 2x18650 configuration, I think I would prefer M60 but the way I actually use it, M61 is what I want. Thus M61 is my current EDC.

I tried M61 on both 1 and 2 cells and didn't notice any difference. This is not the case with M60 as you can clearly see a difference between 1 and 2 Li-Co 18650 cells. That difference amounts to probably 40-50 lumens.

I think 80% of the time, M61 has a more useful beam. And the remaining 20%, M60 is more useful.

I used to think like you, that outside M60 is more useful than M61. That may not be the case, as M61 has a bigger hotspot, highlighting more paths through a dense forest, giving you more options, which route to take.

M61 has a decent runtime, but not impressive. Just good enough, but still motivates you to bring spare cells. When I run a "L" configuration, I don't bring the spares.

Wanting to try M61WL or M61WLL for the best runtime.

Both are lousy throwers outside, with M60 marginally better.

M61 doesn't really obsolete M60, the new Hound Dog does (But it's not a true Lego)

I tend to like the M60 quite a lot, the narrow but throwy beam is great.

To deal with the runtime issue, I use it in a 9P (2x18500) format, which is quite a lot of energy/capacity. I also sometimes will use it in a 12P (2x18650) format. I don't know exactly what the runtime will be, but it is quite useable/decent.

If the "neutral" (closer to incan CRI) M61W and M61WL does indeed give out a nice tint, it may be worth getting since the efficiency penalty is quite bearable (with the 9P and 12p formats as I mentioned above).

The M61WL is quite adequate also to run in a 2x123A primary battery configuration from the runtime point of view, as per manufacturer specs.