Maglite in the budget forum? Blasphemy to a few old timers, but it's the direction things have gone these days... sorta.
To some the budget light is a $3.99 number at the checkout counter of a box store or an eBay store. To some a light as much as $50, but branded by a 'non premium' company like Defiant, Energizer or Rayovac can qualify.
This is 2017. Things have evolved in the flashlight world to a point where the once mighty Rayovac is now along side the new kids like Defiant in the pecking order at your local box store. And so is Maglite anymore. See, a long time ago the Maglite was one of the best lights you could buy. And they were king of the hill in terms of durability and performance. And priced accordingly in the days where a budget light was... $3.99.... in 1980 dollars that was a lot. But a 2-3D Mag was $19.99.
Ok, enough of that. Maglite of 2016 is seen my many as lagging in terms of moving forward technologically. Yet not many will disagree that the fabled Maglite is still a reliable product that is simple to operate. Instead of trying to keep up the pace of all these newest ideas in everything tacti-cool Maglite has stuck with what works and tweaked that along the way. I somehow doubt ole Tony is scouring the pages of CPF to see what those crazy kids want next. Instead he is likely hanging out at the factory, the lab or the drawing board ensuring his new crop of employees and engineers are taking care of business 1979 style with 2017 equipment.
Enter the ML50 series. For about $35 the 2 or 3 C cell LED flashlight mimics an old school approach while providing a modern-ish setup. Gone are light bulbs in this one. So is a reflector with a cam to rotate a beam from an ugly old flooder with a giant bullseye darkened area to a pencil lead beam without much spill. Instead a quarter turn with positive stops at both ends gets you a wide spot with lots of flood and a nice blend between to a sharpened spot and plenty of spill remaining.
Also gone is the beam that looked like the head was covered with blue celophane and now a crisp white beam, although a hint of blue can be seen in certain scenarios.
The ML50 2C touts a bit over 400 lumens with a thermal step down that gradually reduces output to about 75%. The 3C touts a bit over 600 lumens using the same setup. Medium is noted to be about 100 lumens on both. Mag calls it low. Eco mode is rated around 20 lumens on both. I call that low since many other lights use that for their low setting, but it seems California Cop Light maker Maglite has chosen a more "earth friendly" sounding term.
Ok.
The switch on the ML50's is the Mag standard side switch, but in this case travel is noteably less and the click is nearly silent. It feels very positive from on to off. The button resides slightly below the barrel. The slight travel will make accidental turn on very easy in my view and is certainly a short coming for some applications such as a foot chase with the light belt carried. But for us regular folks it's a real nice improvement over the long travel of the original Mag switch. The feel is similar to the smaller XL light series.
Quickly clicking twice gets medium, 3 gets you low. Again like the XL series switches it took a few tries but I quickly got the hang of it. Mag uses a twist tailcap loose, hold the button thing where you can change the setup of the light. It defaults hi/me/lo but can be hi/lo/strobe (for campers?), or momentary/hi/lo for police or momentary/hi/strobe for tactical....
Me, I'd have liked a long press for strobe option along with the default setting, but lack of that doesn't make it a deal breaker for my uses.
The light was coated perfectly in a typical Mag black. Shiney cop light black, but they can be had in Mag red, blue, silver or pewter. Probably the same method as always, but a quarter turn of the tailcap allows circuit cut of the electronic switch. Like the ML25's lock out is easy. The knurling feels like a Maglite. Nothing more, nothing less. Grippy with gloves, slippery when wet just like the old days. (Note they have a more tactical grip in the ML50XL series.)
The head is somewhere between the full size lights of old and the ML25 series. Note flashlight lens dot com has glass or polycarbonate replacements if you prefer a bit more light transmission through the lens.
Here it is versus other C sized
Top to bottom, a 3C Brinkmann Legend, a full size 3C Mag incan, a 3C Defiant (3 emitter light), the 3C XL 50L and a 3C ML25 (with Stinger anti-roll device)
In use in the brightly lit WalMart parking lot I thought "eh, what's all the fuss about?" But when I got home to a dimly lit street was when I saw the magic. My neighbors golden tan roof shingles were... golden tan. The maple tree leaves were a nice green and the bark took on a gray tone... just like in daylight. Perfect CRI? Eh, I doubt it, but overall the brightly lit circle looked pretty natural. When I aimed it 2 doors down (about 200 feet or 60 meters) the entire house was brightly lit in full spill beam or the focused spot. But the focused spot really increased the throw. When I aimed it 3 doors down (about 300 feet/100 meters) I could clearly see my neighbor leaving his unlit shed in his unlit backyard dressed in hunting gear carrying his compound bow inside. He gave me a typical "bykfixer is trying out a new flashlight" wave and disappeared indoors.
To me, the medium (what Mag calls low) setting was a great next level. It provides plenty of light to find my wifes glasses one of the dogs carried out back from 50 feet or lit my 20x20 shed very well. Actually the low (what Mag calls Eco) is going to be my most used level. It's about as bright as those old full sized 2C incans with a nice crisp white beam. Using the Eco setting lit my home well at 2am without some policeman riding by thinking my home was being robbed. I could read by the light reflected off the ceiling of my home.
No PWM detected on Eco mode.
Gone is the "candle" mode with this one as the head is not user removable. I never understood the candle mode anyway. At table top level the thing needs a lamp shade in candle mode anyway or you get blinded each time you look towards your electric candle.
The Mag ML50 may not be cutting edge technology, nor the forward thinking by many modern era light makers. But it is another example of Maglite inching forward in terms of satisfying a market that has come to rely on their products for 38 years. This is a good replacement for the light your aging parent who has been using a Maglite for decades or a great general use light without a lot of bells and whistles. A budget light in one sense, but priceless when it's dark and a flashlight absolutely positively needs to work. Built in USA, this one is a winner in my view.
To some the budget light is a $3.99 number at the checkout counter of a box store or an eBay store. To some a light as much as $50, but branded by a 'non premium' company like Defiant, Energizer or Rayovac can qualify.
This is 2017. Things have evolved in the flashlight world to a point where the once mighty Rayovac is now along side the new kids like Defiant in the pecking order at your local box store. And so is Maglite anymore. See, a long time ago the Maglite was one of the best lights you could buy. And they were king of the hill in terms of durability and performance. And priced accordingly in the days where a budget light was... $3.99.... in 1980 dollars that was a lot. But a 2-3D Mag was $19.99.
Ok, enough of that. Maglite of 2016 is seen my many as lagging in terms of moving forward technologically. Yet not many will disagree that the fabled Maglite is still a reliable product that is simple to operate. Instead of trying to keep up the pace of all these newest ideas in everything tacti-cool Maglite has stuck with what works and tweaked that along the way. I somehow doubt ole Tony is scouring the pages of CPF to see what those crazy kids want next. Instead he is likely hanging out at the factory, the lab or the drawing board ensuring his new crop of employees and engineers are taking care of business 1979 style with 2017 equipment.
Enter the ML50 series. For about $35 the 2 or 3 C cell LED flashlight mimics an old school approach while providing a modern-ish setup. Gone are light bulbs in this one. So is a reflector with a cam to rotate a beam from an ugly old flooder with a giant bullseye darkened area to a pencil lead beam without much spill. Instead a quarter turn with positive stops at both ends gets you a wide spot with lots of flood and a nice blend between to a sharpened spot and plenty of spill remaining.
Also gone is the beam that looked like the head was covered with blue celophane and now a crisp white beam, although a hint of blue can be seen in certain scenarios.
The ML50 2C touts a bit over 400 lumens with a thermal step down that gradually reduces output to about 75%. The 3C touts a bit over 600 lumens using the same setup. Medium is noted to be about 100 lumens on both. Mag calls it low. Eco mode is rated around 20 lumens on both. I call that low since many other lights use that for their low setting, but it seems California Cop Light maker Maglite has chosen a more "earth friendly" sounding term.
Ok.
The switch on the ML50's is the Mag standard side switch, but in this case travel is noteably less and the click is nearly silent. It feels very positive from on to off. The button resides slightly below the barrel. The slight travel will make accidental turn on very easy in my view and is certainly a short coming for some applications such as a foot chase with the light belt carried. But for us regular folks it's a real nice improvement over the long travel of the original Mag switch. The feel is similar to the smaller XL light series.
Quickly clicking twice gets medium, 3 gets you low. Again like the XL series switches it took a few tries but I quickly got the hang of it. Mag uses a twist tailcap loose, hold the button thing where you can change the setup of the light. It defaults hi/me/lo but can be hi/lo/strobe (for campers?), or momentary/hi/lo for police or momentary/hi/strobe for tactical....
Me, I'd have liked a long press for strobe option along with the default setting, but lack of that doesn't make it a deal breaker for my uses.
The light was coated perfectly in a typical Mag black. Shiney cop light black, but they can be had in Mag red, blue, silver or pewter. Probably the same method as always, but a quarter turn of the tailcap allows circuit cut of the electronic switch. Like the ML25's lock out is easy. The knurling feels like a Maglite. Nothing more, nothing less. Grippy with gloves, slippery when wet just like the old days. (Note they have a more tactical grip in the ML50XL series.)
The head is somewhere between the full size lights of old and the ML25 series. Note flashlight lens dot com has glass or polycarbonate replacements if you prefer a bit more light transmission through the lens.
Here it is versus other C sized
Top to bottom, a 3C Brinkmann Legend, a full size 3C Mag incan, a 3C Defiant (3 emitter light), the 3C XL 50L and a 3C ML25 (with Stinger anti-roll device)
In use in the brightly lit WalMart parking lot I thought "eh, what's all the fuss about?" But when I got home to a dimly lit street was when I saw the magic. My neighbors golden tan roof shingles were... golden tan. The maple tree leaves were a nice green and the bark took on a gray tone... just like in daylight. Perfect CRI? Eh, I doubt it, but overall the brightly lit circle looked pretty natural. When I aimed it 2 doors down (about 200 feet or 60 meters) the entire house was brightly lit in full spill beam or the focused spot. But the focused spot really increased the throw. When I aimed it 3 doors down (about 300 feet/100 meters) I could clearly see my neighbor leaving his unlit shed in his unlit backyard dressed in hunting gear carrying his compound bow inside. He gave me a typical "bykfixer is trying out a new flashlight" wave and disappeared indoors.
To me, the medium (what Mag calls low) setting was a great next level. It provides plenty of light to find my wifes glasses one of the dogs carried out back from 50 feet or lit my 20x20 shed very well. Actually the low (what Mag calls Eco) is going to be my most used level. It's about as bright as those old full sized 2C incans with a nice crisp white beam. Using the Eco setting lit my home well at 2am without some policeman riding by thinking my home was being robbed. I could read by the light reflected off the ceiling of my home.
No PWM detected on Eco mode.
Gone is the "candle" mode with this one as the head is not user removable. I never understood the candle mode anyway. At table top level the thing needs a lamp shade in candle mode anyway or you get blinded each time you look towards your electric candle.
The Mag ML50 may not be cutting edge technology, nor the forward thinking by many modern era light makers. But it is another example of Maglite inching forward in terms of satisfying a market that has come to rely on their products for 38 years. This is a good replacement for the light your aging parent who has been using a Maglite for decades or a great general use light without a lot of bells and whistles. A budget light in one sense, but priceless when it's dark and a flashlight absolutely positively needs to work. Built in USA, this one is a winner in my view.
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