Nite Ize LRB-07-PR1W 1 Watt Upgrade / Something Brighter = Cost/Runtime?

I gave my friend an old blue 4D Mag several months ago, promising him I would eventually buy him the Nite Ize LRB-07-PR1W 1 Watt Upgrade LED. According to BigWaffles famous runtime graph here, this upgrade in January of 2009 offered the best compromise between runtime, brightness, and cost. At 28.5 hours before dropping off with decent output and $10-12 price range, it was what I had in mind to purchase when gifting him the 4D Mag.

That was January of 2009; it is now April 2011. Is there a dropin currently available for the same amount of money (say $15 max) that will:

1) Exceed the runtime of the Nite Ize LRB-07-PR1W with equal brightness,

or,

2) Exceed the brightness of the Nite Ize LRB-07-PR1W with equal runtime?

He is by no means a flashoholic, and he already owns the Mag I gave to him. If there is something that meets one or both of the above criteria, I would buy it in lieu of the LRB-07-PR1W. Otherwise, I will simply buy one and he will be a happy guy with a durable, long running (28.5 hours of near constant output) light that he will be proud to own.

To be clear, I understand that there are many three watt options available which are much brighter. However, I would like to limit the candidates for viable alternatives to the Nite Ize to those dropins which consume no more than one watt of power.

EDIT: The 28.5 hour quote from the BigWaffles graph was with a 3D Mag. I gave my friend a 4D. A very, very rough estimate of 25% more runtime going from three to four D cells would be about 35 hours of near constant output.

I'd think that the extra cell would give a greater increase in run time than 25%, but, that's just a guess.

The only thing I can think of is to use a MagLED module with a much newer LED in it. You'd lose a bit of run time compared to the Nite Ize drop-in (which is my go-to drop-in these days, BTW), but, brightness will go up by a considerable margin. I have a 2D MagLED module that I swapped an XP-G R5 into that put out around 160 OTF lumens on bigC's sphere, compared to about 100 lumens from a Rebel MagLED. The XM-L would probably increase that by about 30 lumens or so, though the hotspot would be fairly large compared to the MagLED module in stock configuration.

Well, after much perseverating, I finally bought my friend the Nite Ize LRB-07-PR1W. As I walked him out to the car, we joked about how if he needed help installing it, he should just give me a call. We laughed, because how hard could it be to install a mass market dropin...?

That night, I spent 25 minutes on the phone with him, guiding him through it. When we finally got it working, he was thrilled with the tint and output, especially compared with the previous light source in the Mag—none. I'd gifted it empty. He's happy to have a solid working light, I'm happy it wasn't a ton of money, and the world is now a better place that someone without a light now has one.

Have you ever used the LRB-07-PR? If so, how does the 1W version compare? I tried the LRB-07-PR, and it wasn't particularly bright, irrespective of the number of cells used, and the tint was very, very blue. Is the 1W bright and white?

Hi, Stephen. I recommend checking out the following links:

Link <--short
Link <--short
Link <--whole thread

The lesser Nite Ize, the original, is considered by most folks here to be an ultra long runtime, emergency use dropin. It will run a long time, as evidenced above, but will be quite dim. The one watt version is a compromise between brightness and runtime, which is why I purchased it for my friend. "Bright" and "white" are subjective, but I can tell you that the one watt iteration is most certainly brighter than its predecessor. As for tint comparison, I point you here:

Link

For its price and runtime, I would certainly recommend the Nite Ize one watt. You can always spend more money and get more lumens, but I think this dropin still fills an excellent price/value/runtime/lumen niche.

Your mileage may vary.

Please let me know if this does/does not help.


LEDAdd1ct

Thanks - those links were very helpful.