does the Cree MC-E still have a place in flashlights?

as the title states, does the MC-E have any benefits over competing offerings, be it from Cree or SSC or whomever, to make it still worth putting in flashlights?

I know Dark Sucks! has the MC-E as the default option on theirs builds, at least on the site, but I can't recall having seen any new models or recent models from any brands offering the MC-E, except 4Sevens with the multicolored Quark RGB

thoughts?

MCEs have lost their place in commericial flashlights... but I still use a few offline around the house

Multi-die parts will always be a bit more expensive than single-die parts. The Luxeon V "portable", O-Star, and now MC-E have all held their brief time in the sun and were all replaced by newer-tech single-die products.

Given than XM-L's and other high-end LED's are available that out-perform the MC-E and a "floody" beam can be obtained from a single die just as easily as from a larger multi-die LED - while the multi-die LED's have inherent difficulties forming tight beams - they've quickly fallen off inventories as models built around them are retired.

It's sort of the nature of technology. Some hot new technology debuts in serial then matures. Deploying the same underlying tech in parallel opens up more performance, but typically with compromises. Wash, rinse, repeat when some new tech breakthrough is again deployed in serial.

For efficiency and output, you can't beat the newer LEDs.
If you need multiple colors, MC-E is still viable.
http://www.cree.com/led-components-and-modules/products/xlamp/arrays-directional/xlamp-mce

I would like a flashlight that can switch from cool to warm, or run both pair of dies together.

MCE/P7 sadly have become obsolete.

I never cared for either of the quad-die emitters. I have two in my collection, and thats enough. They were never efficient enough (Lumens / Watt) to attract my attention, and they generally need a very floody optical design to smooth out the dark spot created by the " + " in the middle.

kramer5150 said:

I never cared for either of the quad-die emitters. I have two in my collection, and thats enough. They were never efficient enough (Lumens / Watt) to attract my attention, and they generally need a very floody optical design to smooth out the dark spot created by the " + " in the middle.

Click to expand...

A parallel design generally cannot improve efficiency over a single-die package - it can only increase the lumens available from a single package.

I've found flood to be more useful in real-life situations than spot - thus the quad-die package "floodiness" isn't a problem of itself - but that's a matter of personal preference.

I have 1 MC-E light, an iTp A6 Polestar, and it was the 2nd higher end LED flashlight I ever bought. They stopped making the A6 at the end of 2011 I believe. It turns out that iTp is an Olight brand, and it was supposed to be a less complex, less expensive light, which I believe is what all iTp lights are supposed to be. It cost $79.99 retail, but I found mine at an online store going out of business, new in box for $59.99. It's a little shorter and thinner than the standard size 2- D flashlight, and runs on 6- AA batteries in a battery container. It has 3 brightness settings and 1 strobe, all controlled by a side switch near the head. There is no rear switch on this light. It's settings are: 12L low, 160L medium, 700L high, 700L strobe.

What I like about it is its great tint, which is ever so slightly to the warmer side of neutral, so it has great CRI. But I really like its beam profile. It has an absolutely huge spill beam, but unlike most lights that are either flood or throw, the A6 also has a well defined, well centered, perfectly round hot spot that gives it good throw on med and high. Its kind of the best of both worlds, as its spill will light up an entire room or illuminate an wide outside area, but its hot spot is concentrated enough to reach out and light up objects further out. The only downside to that is when you are outside pointing it away, you can see everything in front of you out to about 30-50 feet in the spill, and everything out to 200-400 feet in the hot spot, but the intermediate area is fairly dark.

It is a larger light than the typical 1 -18650 size, and its not really pocketable, but it did come with a nice nylon holster, so it would make a good security light for a cop or security guard.

But I really like the MC-E LED in it, and I think it renders colors better than any of the other 6 higher end LED lights I own. Its just a nice warm color, but not too yellow. When I compare its battery life specs with other XM-L or XP-G lights, looking at similar brightness settings from other lights compared with the A6, it seems to have very similar efficiency. There's no obvious efficiency advantage to the other lights vs this light when comparing similar brightness settings. So it seems to be a good quality, efficient LED.

This light was worth every penny of the $59.99 I paid for it, and more! Even at $100 it wouldve been priced fairly I think, and Olight has great customer service/support in the USA, so when I emailed asking for a spare battery container for the A6, they sent me a newer, thicker and tougher battery container for the 6- AA's it holds, and only charged me $8 including shipping for it! It was the last one they had too.......I got it just in time!