SL TL-2 LED...Impressions

PJD

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I received a new SL TL-2 LED in a swap with another CPFer (thanx, Scott!) this past Monday, and after a few days of use, these are my impressions.

First of all, the light I traded was an SF L4...I know, I know, that's SF BLASPHEMY /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif!!! I did receive a couple other lights in the trade as well. I didn't dislike the L4. It was a VERY beautifully crafted light, and the one I had was PURE white! It just didn't suit my needs...and for $140.00 I felt I should have a light that suits my needs. When I first received my L4, I thought I had achieved flashoholic nirvana! But the more I used it, the less satisfied I was with it as far as my particular likes/dislikes were concerned. Some of the things I didn't like about the L4:

Not enough throw. I know the L4 is designed to have more of a flood type beam, but I DID expect a little more distance. At anything beyond, say, 50 to 75 feet I found the L4 to be of little or no help.

In the two weeks I had the L4, the knurling on the barrel frayed the pockets on two pairs of Levis, even after loosening the clip a little. For a light that I planned on using as a front pocket carry EDC, this wasn't good.

Even though I had a pretty good Z57 on mine, I still found it a little too stiff for constant on, and a little too easy for intermittent/signaling. Unless I put it in the lockout position every time I pocketed it, it would constantly come on whenever I sat down.

Heat. One evening I was helping my father-in-law work on his car and as the sun went down I reached for my L4 for extra light. After about 20 minutes of being on, the bezel was damn near too hot to touch, and the barrel had reached the point of being uncomfortable to hold. Unfortunate, because the beam of the L4 makes it perfect for "under the hood" applications! Some times you need your EDC for more than just short durations, and for instances like this I found the heat build-up of the L4 to be a major annoyance.

Keep in mind, these are just MY impressions on the L4, and these are the things that lead me to want to try the TL-2 LED. I'm not a SF basher...I love their products! It's just that in this particular instance, this particular light had some shortcomings to ME...others are SURE to have different impressions.

Now on to the TL-2 LED...

Throw: For a 1 watt luxeon, I've found the throw of the TL-2 to be QUITE impressive. Mine (others may vary) EASILY throws twice as far as my L4 did, and damn near as far as my E2. On it's tightest focus at a distance of 10 feet the hotspot of the TL-2 is about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the hotspot of my E2. For my uses, this makes the beam wide enough to be truly useful, but not too thin to be useless like a Stealth Light or similar beam light. And the pure white color of my particular TL-2 coupled with the smooth reflector seems to give the throw that much more "oomph". I was lucky enough to get a VERY white luxeon in mine. Upon CLOSE inspection on a white wall, I have virtually no green, blue or any other discernable colors in the beam. In fact, it's every bit as white as my L4 was, and that was the whitest luxeon I'd ever seen.

Corona/peripheral light: The peripheral light of the TL-2 isn't as bright as the peripheral light of the L4 by any means (1W vs. 5W...), but I was still impressed at how useful the peripheral light of the TL-2 is. The peripheral light of my particular TL-2 is slightly brighter than the light that immediately surrounds the hotspot of my SL 4AA 7 LED, and at a distance of 10 feet it's roughly 4 to 5 times as wide, and very smooth and even. In my back yard which is about 40'X 75' and very dark, the peripheral light of my TL-2 very usefully lights up the entire depth (40') of the yard with a light that is bright enough to clearly see small objects (ball, frisbee, Tonka truck) and walk a path by. VERY useful peripheral light!

Switch: Although not a clickie, and no lockout capability, the switch of the TL-2 still functions very nicely. Press the button at the tail cap for intermittent, and twist clockwise for constant on. The resistance of my particular light switch is just enough to keep it from twisting on by itself while being front pocket carried, but light enough to make one handed operation quite easy. The pushbutton is nicely recessed in the tailcap (not really recessed, but there's a guard around it), and mine has yet to activate in my pocket when I sit down. The TL-2 is about 1/4 of an inch longer than my E2(SG), and front pocket carries just as easily, even with the bezel being slightly larger. The pocket clip is very sturdy, holds the light in place nicely, and is removable. In fact, I don't have a holster to carry mine in at work yet (I'm a Corrections Officer at a state prison), so I've been using the clip to attach the light to my belt, and after 3 days the clip has not bent at all...very sturdy.

Fit and feel: The SL TL-2 LED feels VERY solid in the hand, and has absolutely no rattles, twangs, or any other loose sounds. The bezel is just tight enough to keep the selected focus from moving while still letting you change the focus with relative ease if you desire. The texture on the light's barrel gives a good grip, but won't fray your pockets.

I don't have a light meter for lux readings or digicam to post pics, but I still hope some will find my impressions of the SL TL-2 LED to be of some use. I find it to be a VERY nice mix of whiteness, brightness, throw and peripheral light, and I'm very pleased with it. It makes a great front or hip pocket EDC, and is bright enough for damn near any situation. IMHO, those of you that get one won't be disappointed. Since getting the TL-2, my usual EDC is now 100% LED; TL-2, Ultra-G, ArcAAA turquoise on keychain. The Ultra-G is gonna be replaced by the ArcAA as soon as they're available. I have a LOT of lights (somewhere around 75 I think...I've given away or sold quite a few of them over the last couple months), but these are with me ALWAYS!

PJD

P.S. JohnK...thanx for the recommendation! You were right on about this light!
 

JohnK

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PJD, I'm glad you like it. They are NICE lights.

I did not expect the wonderful wide "spill" from the TL-2 and 3. It makes the lights just that much more useful, combined with the very good throw.

The "spill" from my TL-3 is wider, and brighter than from my PT Surge; and that's saying something.
 

milkyspit

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PJD, great review! Glad you like the TL-2 LED. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

As for me, I'm quite pleased with my new L4, which seems like either a SL ProPoly 4AA 7 LED on steroids, or a dwarven version of my Blaster VI. Guess where I got it from...? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

coolguy

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I just got my TL-2 last night, and I totally agree. White, Bright and very useful. I know, I shined the damn thing in my eyes. It incapacitated my vision for a little bit... Fine line between curiosity and stupidity. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/drool.gif
 

Quickbeam

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Not regulated.

The TL-2 LED beam center lux is about 1100 as opposed to about 580 for the L4, so it definately outthrows the L4 despite the fact that it produces less light overall. It also outthrows the TL-3 LED which doesn't seem to be able to focus to as tight of a beam. As with the L4, the TL-3 LED beats it in overall light, however.
 

milkyspit

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Quickbeam, it seems kind of strange to me that the L4 produces only 580 lux with a 5-watter, whereas the TL-2 produces 1100 lux using a 1-watter and Mr. Bulk's Space Needle II produces somewhere around 8000 lux using a 5-watter. And yet, the L4 was tested (commissioned by ARC) in an integrating sphere as producing 81 lumens! I know the L4 gives a flood effect, but with that kind of power it seems like it should post something higher than 1000 at least, simply by virtue of its raw power! Do you have any thoughts on why such a massive discrepancy exists?
 

Quickbeam

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milkyspit Yes, I do. And as a matter of fact I have this same conversation going on in serveral threads. The gist of it is that LUX and LUMENS are not directly related to one another at all.

Lux is the measurement of the maximum output from the brightest part of the beam (the center).

Lumens is the measurement of the overall output.

A laser has very high lux and low lumens.

A 1,000,000 cp "floodlight" (not "spotlight") has high lumens and low lux.

It all has to do with how tightly the beam is focused. A high lumens light like the L4 has a relatively lower lux reading because it is not focused into a pinpoint beam.

Lux is directly affected by focusing optics and reflector design.

Lumens is all of the light measured no matter where it goes.

lux_illustration2.gif


Notice the light on the bottom has higher Lux output (like the TL-2 LED) but the one on top has lower lux but more overall light output (Like the L4).

Another example would be if you use a light diffusing film on the lens of a tightly focused beam flashlight. The Lumens output doesn't change - the same amount of light is still being produced. However, the Lux reading at beam center will drop due to the fact that the beam will be more spread out.

Here are two beamshots of the same 3-D mag at the same tight focus with stock lens and with UCL-LDF from Flashlightlens.com.
flashlightlens_ldf_magnarrow1.jpg
flashlightlens_ldf_magnarrow2.jpg


Same lumens out, very different Lux at beam center.

I am working on a test apparatus that would give a relative overall brightness measurement so you could compare different lights on my site. This would be similar to a Lumens measurement, but would just be a general measurement of the overall lighting ability of a flashlight. Sort of like reflecting the beam off of a white ceiling and measuring the amount of reflected light that hits a sensor on the floor.
 

JohnK

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I had a security problem last night on the "farm", grabbed my TL-2 LED, and a PT Surge, (plus handgun), and went to investigate.

During the one hour or so in which the problem was resolved, the Surge pooped out, batteries gone; the TL-2 took over some MAJOR duties, and worked just fine.

I like good Luxeons; like the Energiser bunny, they just keep going; and going; and going.................
 

PJD

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The TL-2's throw blows the Arc LSH-P's throw away...plain and simple.

PJD
 

Doug S

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For those that have seen the TL-2 and TL-3 LED models, what it the thermal connection from the LED to the barrel of the flashlight? Is the surface the LED mounts on contiguous with the external surface of the flashlight? The Streamlight boys apparently were entirely clueless on the matter of LED thermal management when they designed the SL4AA7. Hopefully they have learned something by now.

An unrelated question: Is the resistor which provides current limiting in these lights accessible to the extent that it could be changed out? If so, the TL-2 would be a good candidate for use with a Li-ion 17670 cell. Unmodified, it would be much dimmer but very long runtime with a 17670 cell.
 

The_LED_Museum

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[ QUOTE ]
Doug S said:
For those that have seen the TL-2 and TL-3 LED models, what it the thermal connection from the LED to the barrel of the flashlight? Is the surface the LED mounts on contiguous with the external surface of the flashlight? The Streamlight boys apparently were entirely clueless on the matter of LED thermal management when they designed the SL4AA7. Hopefully they have learned something by now.

[/ QUOTE ]
They didn't learn anything - at least not with the TL-2.
The LED is mounted to a post inside a spring, and does not in any way touch the flashlight barrel.

tl-2-9.jpg
 

Quickbeam

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You are concentrating on just the assembly outside of the light. Inside the light the wider section of the base of the aluminum post contacts the inside of the barrel of the light on the bottom of the wide lip. The body becomes quite warm after just a few minutes of use. There is probably some thermal connection between the base of the emitter and the base of the post. I'm not going to dissect mine to find out, though...
 

JohnK

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Quickbeam is correct. The body of the light has an (I think) aluminum sleeve, that is more or less a light friction fit with the bottom male portion of the LED assembly. Heat transfer does take place there.

The TL-3 LED is the same.
 

Doug S

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Thanks, QB, I think that I understand your description. Looking at Craig's photo again, I note that the post the emitter is mounted on looks darker than the rest of the assembly. Is this just the lighting or is it made out of some different material?
 

The_LED_Museum

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[ QUOTE ]
Doug S said:
Looking at Craig's photo again, I note that the post the emitter is mounted on looks darker than the rest of the assembly. Is this just the lighting or is it made out of some different material?

[/ QUOTE ]
The post in the middle is some kind of plastic. I took a swiss army knife and was fairly easily able to put a gouge in it with the knife blade.
Warning! Cutting the pylon with a knife will probably void your warranty, so please don't try this at home!
 

Doug S

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[ QUOTE ]
The LED Museum said:
The post in the middle is some kind of plastic. I took a swiss army knife and was fairly easily able to put a gouge in it with the knife blade.
Warning! Cutting the pylon with a knife will probably void your warranty, so please don't try this at home!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, Craig. Sorry if you had to leave your apt to perform this investigation. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
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