Ever since I got into the flashlight game, most lights I've purchased were the inexpensive variety, rarely going past $100 mark. For two years, I deemed them to be good enough. But I couldn't look away from the two models that Surefire offered; E2DL and LX2. The former had one of the most aggressive looking bezels I've ever seen, while the latter had this sleek look and LOTC funtionality that gave it such an appeal. But, at the time, they were a little too pricey for me. My mentality was, "Why would I want to buy these when I can get something brighter for half the cost?" So my interest died.
As time passed, however, my belief in sheer lumens has deteriorated. In fact, I realized that while having more lumens available is great, low and medium outputs from these high-output lights are far more useful in general. The one time I actually needed the raw lumens was when I was lighting up the scene of a motorcycle accident with my Scorpion V2. Otherwise, the high modes were waste of battery.
And, when I really thought about it, I realized that I was reaching for my secondary light, Quark AA Tactical, far more often than my primary light, Lumintop TD-15 and, later on, Scorpion V2. It was far more economical to use it since AA batteries are cheaper and far more readily available than lithium primaries.
With the declining interest of seeking for more lumens, I turned my attention towards something that would provide a usable amount of output with good throw. I searched around for a bit, but smaller lights were increasingly moving towards using larger emitters, thus more flood than throw. I believe that flood is nice, but that's something that can also be achieved with a throwy light with a diffuser, whereas it doesn't work the other way around.
And then I found the L1 Lumamax. Reaching 3,700 lux with only 65 lumens? Most other lights of its class can barely touch that at twice the amount of output. I read up on it and also learned that Surefire had announced the successor to the L1, the LX2, back a few years ago. I don't know what happened to it, but I would have grabbed one if it was available.
So, seeing how CPF has expert members who can modify lights, I decided to see if it would be possible to have a L1 modified to a similar specification as what the LX1 was supposed to be offering, and I did. Member milkyspit did exactly that.
I traded some messages with him and, sure enough, he agreed to do it. I sent him the requested specifications and, after a few trials and errors on my part, nailed down on the modifications. Two days after the payment had been cleared, the Milky L1 Extreme was at my doorstep.
Behold...
It may look like a stock L1, but so many has changed internally.
The emitter has been swapped out for XP-E R2WD. It has a really nice tint to it, to the point I'm actually surprised that the tint bin for it wasn't rated as neutral.
I was told that it should put out 70-80 lumens with a 3V primary. With a 3.7V RCR, however, it would nearly triple the output and crank out ~263 lumens at the emitter, (~211 lumens OTF) allowing it to compete with its larger LX2 cousin. But the best part about using a primary is that it would give the light a 7-12 hours of runtime on high, which is great since 70-80 lumens is what I need most of the time, and that ridiculous runtime means that I don't have to carry many spares.
The emitter is now sitting on a copper heatsink, as oppposed to aluminum. This would let me use it for extended periods of time without having to worry about overheating at all.
I also specifically request that the light have two different modes, with two different outputs in each. The primary mode has the standard high and low, 263 lumens (70-80 lumens with primary CR123A) and 10 lumens, respectively. The secondary mode is set to 10% of the output of primary mode, at 26 lumens and 1 lumen.
Switching to different mode is done by rapidly clicking the switch fifteen times. At any time during the fifteen clicks, if I pause for a second or more, the process will reset. This was done since I rely on momentary activation quite often, and I didn't want it to accidentally switch modes on me.
(Sorry. No picture of high mode using a RCR yet.)
Mode 1 - High (70-80 lumens)
Mode 1 - Low (10 lumens)
Mode 2 - Medium (26 lumens)
Mode 2 - Moonlight (<1 lumen)
Even with reduced high output from using a primary cell, this sucker can throw quite far. It can light up a reflective street sign that's 150 meters away from my house, even through a significant amount of light pollution. I can't wait 'til I get the rechargeables and find out how much it will throw in all its glory. If I were to hazard a guess, it would probably run neck-to-neck with a LX2.
Sadly, it has dethroned my Quark AA Tactical as my keychain light. I'm trying to find a new home for the Quark, and it looks like I might be giving it away to a local rookie cop as his backup.
Big thanks to milkyspit for this fantastic mod! This thing will probably outlast my kids.
As time passed, however, my belief in sheer lumens has deteriorated. In fact, I realized that while having more lumens available is great, low and medium outputs from these high-output lights are far more useful in general. The one time I actually needed the raw lumens was when I was lighting up the scene of a motorcycle accident with my Scorpion V2. Otherwise, the high modes were waste of battery.
And, when I really thought about it, I realized that I was reaching for my secondary light, Quark AA Tactical, far more often than my primary light, Lumintop TD-15 and, later on, Scorpion V2. It was far more economical to use it since AA batteries are cheaper and far more readily available than lithium primaries.
With the declining interest of seeking for more lumens, I turned my attention towards something that would provide a usable amount of output with good throw. I searched around for a bit, but smaller lights were increasingly moving towards using larger emitters, thus more flood than throw. I believe that flood is nice, but that's something that can also be achieved with a throwy light with a diffuser, whereas it doesn't work the other way around.
And then I found the L1 Lumamax. Reaching 3,700 lux with only 65 lumens? Most other lights of its class can barely touch that at twice the amount of output. I read up on it and also learned that Surefire had announced the successor to the L1, the LX2, back a few years ago. I don't know what happened to it, but I would have grabbed one if it was available.
So, seeing how CPF has expert members who can modify lights, I decided to see if it would be possible to have a L1 modified to a similar specification as what the LX1 was supposed to be offering, and I did. Member milkyspit did exactly that.
I traded some messages with him and, sure enough, he agreed to do it. I sent him the requested specifications and, after a few trials and errors on my part, nailed down on the modifications. Two days after the payment had been cleared, the Milky L1 Extreme was at my doorstep.
Behold...
It may look like a stock L1, but so many has changed internally.
The emitter has been swapped out for XP-E R2WD. It has a really nice tint to it, to the point I'm actually surprised that the tint bin for it wasn't rated as neutral.
I was told that it should put out 70-80 lumens with a 3V primary. With a 3.7V RCR, however, it would nearly triple the output and crank out ~263 lumens at the emitter, (~211 lumens OTF) allowing it to compete with its larger LX2 cousin. But the best part about using a primary is that it would give the light a 7-12 hours of runtime on high, which is great since 70-80 lumens is what I need most of the time, and that ridiculous runtime means that I don't have to carry many spares.
The emitter is now sitting on a copper heatsink, as oppposed to aluminum. This would let me use it for extended periods of time without having to worry about overheating at all.
I also specifically request that the light have two different modes, with two different outputs in each. The primary mode has the standard high and low, 263 lumens (70-80 lumens with primary CR123A) and 10 lumens, respectively. The secondary mode is set to 10% of the output of primary mode, at 26 lumens and 1 lumen.
Switching to different mode is done by rapidly clicking the switch fifteen times. At any time during the fifteen clicks, if I pause for a second or more, the process will reset. This was done since I rely on momentary activation quite often, and I didn't want it to accidentally switch modes on me.
(Sorry. No picture of high mode using a RCR yet.)
Mode 1 - High (70-80 lumens)
Mode 1 - Low (10 lumens)
Mode 2 - Medium (26 lumens)
Mode 2 - Moonlight (<1 lumen)
Even with reduced high output from using a primary cell, this sucker can throw quite far. It can light up a reflective street sign that's 150 meters away from my house, even through a significant amount of light pollution. I can't wait 'til I get the rechargeables and find out how much it will throw in all its glory. If I were to hazard a guess, it would probably run neck-to-neck with a LX2.
Sadly, it has dethroned my Quark AA Tactical as my keychain light. I'm trying to find a new home for the Quark, and it looks like I might be giving it away to a local rookie cop as his backup.
Big thanks to milkyspit for this fantastic mod! This thing will probably outlast my kids.
