FOURSEVENS XM18-- Not Seeing anyone buying it

So the XM18 finally became available for purchase and its not in stock in more than one store and I haven't seen a single person saying that he bought it. Not a single review or a mention in a thread.
So is it just me or is this thing priced very very high than it shuold have been?

Give me your thoughts on this guys

My overall impression is that there just isn't much demand for a two thousand dollar stop sign shaped flood light.

If it had a better form factor, or was more throw oriented...then the HID people who DO spend that much on helicoptor targeting lights, etc...might look at it if the lumens all lined up in a small diameter column and then marched out a mile or two in formation...

...But there are no large body of enthusiasts of flood lights I know of, who covet say, stadium lights, for their collections, to act as an analogous demographic.

Another demographic might have been interested if it were beautiful. It isn't very attractive, to me at least. If people looked at it, and swooned...it could potentially sell at that price point to collectors at least.

Currently, it looks utilitarian, doesn't register as a flashlight visually, has function over form styling which I appreciate from an engineering perspective...but which doesn't pull in collectors.


In short, between the price point, potential uses, aesthetics, and performance characteristics, there is not much of an overlapping demographic that would find it desirable as a flashlight.

Marketing and form factor might be better switched to commercial demographic targets, as an industrial application such as area lighting...rather than trying to sell it as a "Flashlight".

It's like those hyper cars that never go into real production... more of an engineering "my stick is bigger than yours" concept than anything practical.

Ualnosaj said:

It's like those hyper cars that never go into real production... more of an engineering "my stick is bigger than yours" concept than anything practical.

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And hence the high price resulting from a limited production run as I'm sure FourSevens was/is wise enough to understand that the market for this kind of light cannon is extremely limited.

As for me I've got to admit though, I'd LOVE to have one!!!

I can see this along with the Olight X6 as a HID replacement. Having the option to use LEDs instead of HID could be very appealing to some. Personally I'm realizing for me, after 800 lumens, I'd rather have more lights than brighter lights. i.e. having a 3 x 800 lumen lights is a better use of $300 than buying a 2400 lumen light.

If I was experienced enough with mechanical engineering, I'd probably make a flashlight carrier than can hold 3 separate flashlights and the carrier itself would have a handle and tripod mount. That way you can buy 3 flashlights of any type that will fit inside of it, and you'd get 3 x the output.

The price is quite reasonable. I mean many CPFers own Polarions and SPY 007/TriVs, Maxabeams that cost nearly as much. The reason it's not very popular is because it doesn't bring anything new to the table. A 250W HID can easily deliver that kind of output, while 2500 dollars in components can easily allow you to build a 400W HID with double the output. Even cheaper builds like the LarryK14 with its 1000W incan have even higher outputs and are cheaper.

So really, the thing is people without that sort of money to spend on flashlights don't have anything brighter, while people have budgets that size don't want it as they've got something far brighter.

I look at that "flashlight" and think, "WTF???" Why not just build an HID with similar (or more) lumens and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more throw? You'd have something with a much better form factor, with far better performance, and for far less $$$.

Basically, I think it just comes across to folks more as just a design exercise...just a "let's see what we can do" thing than something actually sellable. I doubt they ever intended on moving many of them.

As an aside...wouldn't the S18 be a far more useful light if it could take 3 18650s instead of a half dozen 123s? Very odd design decision, IMO.

"Why not just build an HID with similar (or more) lumens and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more throw? You'd have something with a much better form factor, with far better performance, and for far less $$$."

This would be a good example of what I am talking about... http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?272969-Vector-192-BFL-172W-Dual-Beam-Build

yifu said:

So really, the thing is people without that sort of money to spend on flashlights don't have anything brighter, while people have budgets that size don't want it as they've got something far brighter.

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I believe this statement is about right.

TEEJ said:

Another demographic might have been interested if it were beautiful. It isn't very attractive, to me at least. If people looked at it, and swooned...it could potentially sell at that price point to collectors at least.

Currently, it looks utilitarian, doesn't register as a flashlight visually, has function over form styling which I appreciate from an engineering perspective...but which doesn't pull in collectors.

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It could be argued, though, that the very fact it looks unique could make it collectable, i.e. a kitsch novelty item.

Zombie thread

David recently mentioned he's sold nearly a hundred XM18s - I've seen at least one member's beam shots from it here on CPF.

I would have bought one if it had come with a belt clip or hip holster.

Str8stroke said:

I would have bought one if it had come with a belt clip or hip holster.

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What about a keychain mount?

I suspect that the XM18 might be a little dated now. In another forum I read a post by someone who had modded his BTU shocker with 3x XHP70. It produced 16,000 lumens at turn-on! Hard to justify the cost and size of an XM18 when a much cheaper modded light can put forth similar output.

You could always hit up Vinh. He current boosted the xm18 with all dedomed xml2 led. 24k lumens and 800+ kcd of throw which is just over a mile.

Dang Alex, reaching for the moon! lol The XM18Vn! lol Awesome. Of course you would need to have Vinh convert it to 220 volts and mount a dryer plug on it!

We have a similar light to this at work (multiple Cree's" that is attached to our shop fan, to light up our work area, it runs on 110 volts, though, and lights up our shop very well. I would tend to think that any light such as this is designed for area lighting... night time weddings on the beach, etc...
http://www.fabricatingandmetalworki...ads/2013/11/Big-***-Fans-PFX-LED-Close-Up.jpg

4sevens has lost me entirely. From a mom and pop dedicated to cpf enthusiasts it has become just another remote company that knows what is best for us even if we do not

Is that not the light that has the remarkable similarity to a prototype created by Dave from Cool Fall?

Hit up your favorite search engine for the age-old marketing concept of sell the sizzle, not the steak.

I suspect that the XM18 was a serious product only in the same sense that the Ford GT was a serious product - namely, it wasn't. Both are demonstrations taken to an extreme and offered up for sale not because they will fetch such a price and sell in such volume as to be profitable, but to generate some hype, some buzz, perhaps even establish some pedigree for the brand. So back to the trite marketing saying - a brand association with something seen as exotic and desirable can help sell the more mundane products the masses really need.

In racing, there's the saying win Sunday, sell Monday. There are perceptible bumps in sales for the sponsors of a winning team - be it an automaker that sponsored the team with factory engineering support, the main title sponsor whose logo you can see on TV, or a lesser sponsor whose logos will be far harder to see on TV.