On 09-18-11 turbo BB posted his review of the Xeno G10v2 XM-L flashlight.
I should never have read it since the physical format is one of my favorites – just the right length with minimal extra diameter for the head (comfortable for pocket or belt carry) and a decent clip that won't break or slip out of clothing easily.
Add to that the flexibility of primary (123's) or rechargeable (18650's) cells plus a simple interface and decent build – what more could I ask for?
It reminded me of the Fenix T1 and the Jet Beam Jet-III Pro which I regard as "Classics" in this format. I simply had to order one! It took less than a week to arrive.
Rather than repeat what turbo BB said I thought it would be interesting to compare the G10v2 with the Fenix T1 which is now 4 years old.
They can both run on 2 x CR123's and the evolution in LED's over the 4 years means that the 225 lumen from the T1 on "turbo" has been replaced with 480 lumen from the G10v2. Since our eyes-brain does not perceive brightness in a linear way that does not mean that the G10v2 should look twice as bright as the T1. The question was: will it look any brighter and if so how much?
The "white wall" photo with lights at 4 yards.
As you can see the T1 beam was tighter and since both LEDs were "cool white" I was surprised at the difference in color. When I increased shutter speed to see which light the camera thought was brightest it was a draw!
How can I explain this?
Well the brightness of light on any ONE spot (or unit of area) of the white wall is not the lumen output. Wikipedia says "The lumen can be thought of casually as a measure of the total "amount" of visible light in some defined beam or angle, or emitted from some source……The difference between the units lumen and lux is that the lux takes into account the area over which the luminous flux is spread. A flux of 1000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1000 lux. The same 1000 lumens, spread out over ten square metres, produces a dimmer illuminance of only 100 lux."
So how did they compare in the real world?
The detail in the very back of the photos is about 50 yards away and it was my impression (but not the cameras) that the field of light from the G10v2 was larger than the T1's. It also looked a little brighter (over a larger area).
The following photo is a zoom detail to the back of the photo (50 yards from the camera) that shows this "extra light" from the G10v2.
Hopefully "young CPF'ers" still struggling with the concept of brightness and lumens might find this interesting given that the G10v2 has over twice the lumen output of the T1 but does not look twice as bright at any given point.
So what do I think of the Xeno flashlight – about the same as turbo BB. All I could find to complain about was that the printing on the stainless steel tail cap had not been updated – It reads "STT 10v1".
I should never have read it since the physical format is one of my favorites – just the right length with minimal extra diameter for the head (comfortable for pocket or belt carry) and a decent clip that won't break or slip out of clothing easily.
Add to that the flexibility of primary (123's) or rechargeable (18650's) cells plus a simple interface and decent build – what more could I ask for?
It reminded me of the Fenix T1 and the Jet Beam Jet-III Pro which I regard as "Classics" in this format. I simply had to order one! It took less than a week to arrive.
Rather than repeat what turbo BB said I thought it would be interesting to compare the G10v2 with the Fenix T1 which is now 4 years old.
They can both run on 2 x CR123's and the evolution in LED's over the 4 years means that the 225 lumen from the T1 on "turbo" has been replaced with 480 lumen from the G10v2. Since our eyes-brain does not perceive brightness in a linear way that does not mean that the G10v2 should look twice as bright as the T1. The question was: will it look any brighter and if so how much?
The "white wall" photo with lights at 4 yards.
As you can see the T1 beam was tighter and since both LEDs were "cool white" I was surprised at the difference in color. When I increased shutter speed to see which light the camera thought was brightest it was a draw!
How can I explain this?
Well the brightness of light on any ONE spot (or unit of area) of the white wall is not the lumen output. Wikipedia says "The lumen can be thought of casually as a measure of the total "amount" of visible light in some defined beam or angle, or emitted from some source……The difference between the units lumen and lux is that the lux takes into account the area over which the luminous flux is spread. A flux of 1000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1000 lux. The same 1000 lumens, spread out over ten square metres, produces a dimmer illuminance of only 100 lux."
So how did they compare in the real world?
The detail in the very back of the photos is about 50 yards away and it was my impression (but not the cameras) that the field of light from the G10v2 was larger than the T1's. It also looked a little brighter (over a larger area).
The following photo is a zoom detail to the back of the photo (50 yards from the camera) that shows this "extra light" from the G10v2.
Hopefully "young CPF'ers" still struggling with the concept of brightness and lumens might find this interesting given that the G10v2 has over twice the lumen output of the T1 but does not look twice as bright at any given point.
So what do I think of the Xeno flashlight – about the same as turbo BB. All I could find to complain about was that the printing on the stainless steel tail cap had not been updated – It reads "STT 10v1".
