Sunway M10R R2 vs R5

I recently ordered a Sunwayman M10R R5. When it came in the mail I noticed that the box said 190 lumens instead of 210. Sure enough the light itself said R2. I called the company and they apologized and sent out the R5 and a return label immediately. So I get the R5 today and figure while I've got them both, why not compare the two. The R5 has a smooth reflector and sends out a smooth beam. The R2 is more of a spot in the middle, then some spill, then a donut hole, and then a little more spill. However, the R2 seems obviously brighter. Not necessarily significantly brighter, but enough that my wife, who cares nothing about lights other than the G2LED that is in her purse, can tell the difference. I am using fresh Surefire batteries in both. Shouldn't the R5 be brighter? Am I nit picking?

No comments?

Sounds like the R2 has a tighter spot to it which usually makes it look brighter. Bounce both off the ceiling and see which makes the overall room look brighter.

Just curious, but does the low on the R5 look more like 4 or 0.4 lumens?

Bouncing off of the ceiling they look almost identical. The only difference being the slightly warner tint of the R2.

The low on both look the same, and it looks like 4 to me.

210/190=1.11 or an 11% increase. Our perception of a lumen increase is a square root of that or 1.11^0.5=1.05 or a 5% increase... that's pretty my much indistinguishable. If you have a decent camera, you could also use the its light meter to check which is brighter. Bounce lights off the ceiling and then meter a white piece of paper on the floor using your manual mode and filling the frame.

Reason I was asking about the low, was that in both of Selfbuilt's review of the M20 and M11, he commented that the 4 lumen lows were more like 0.4 lumens - just wondering if that was also true on the M10s.

In a car, the power output = torque x rpm.
Electrical power = voltage x current.
The total power of light (lumens) = the brightness (lux) x the surface area of illumination (square meters).
Thus, while the R2 has a brighter hotspot, it is the R5 that has a much greater surface area of illumination.

Did your R5 come with an orange peel surface reflector, rather than a smooth reflector?

The R5 came with the smooth reflector. Also, the beam pattern is far superior IMO than the R2 with the orange peel reflector.

The word brightness is commonly used to describe two different parameters of light.
Brightness can mean a large total volume output of light in lumens.
Brightness can also mean greater intensity of light in lux.

If we abstain from using the word brightness, and just talk about the total volume output in lumens, and the intensity of the hotspot and/or spill in lux, then the R5 has the greater total volume output in lumens, but the R2 has a more intense hotspot in lux.

The R5 does have a slightly greater total volume output in lumens.
The total volume output in lumens also depends on the surface area of illumination in meters squared.
Thus, the R2 gets its total lumen output mainly from a brighter, but smaller sized hotspot.
While the R5 gets its total lumen output mainly from a less bright, but much larger sized hotspot.

If you like the less lux, but larger sized R5 hotspot, wait till you try the Zebralight SC600 18650 powered XM-L with an absolutely huge size hotspot, wide sized spill, and 750 lumens total output.

R2 and R5 only refers to the output bin - not what emitter type is used.

The original M10R featured a XR-E emitter (R2 output bin). Later M10Rs had a XP-G (R5 output bin). This is likely why you are seeing such large differences in the beam - the XR-E will be "throwier", but with a lot of beam rings around the hotspot.

Unfortunately, Sunwayman contributed to the confusion by not specifying the emitter type on their specs or packaging for two versions.

If you still have two lights in front of you, you will see the very different looking emitter styles. The brighter hotspot of the XR-E is likely what is giving you the perception that is brighter overall. Try doing a ceiling bounce in a closet - they should illuminate the room to roughly equal levels (with the XP-G R5 ~10% brighter, according to their lumen specs).