It's incan season in NorCal!!!

kelmo

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Greetings Fellow Photon Fiends!

I had to work late today and when I left my office it was dark and raining. The parking lot where I work is poorly lit. So I whip out my trusty C2 from my jacket pocket and the dark wetness swallowed my beam. When I got home I installed a P61 in my C2 and put a fully stocked SC1 in my other jacket pocket. I also put a P91 in my 9P. I love this time of year not for the rain but for appreciating my incandescent lights! I got to use my M4 the other night escorting one of my daughter's friends home.

Thanks for sharing

kelmo
 

thermal guy

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With all the 1000 plus lumen led lights now it's funny how we all survived with 60 lumens or so. And we're glad to have it.i have gotten back a little bit into my incandescent lights and I get by just fine.
 

yazkaz

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I had to work late today and when I left my office it was dark and raining. The parking lot where I work is poorly lit. So I whip out my trusty C2 from my jacket pocket and the dark wetness swallowed my beam. When I got home I installed a P61 in my C2 and put a fully stocked SC1 in my other jacket pocket. I also put a P91 in my 9P. I love this time of year not for the rain but for appreciating my incandescent lights! I got to use my M4 the other night escorting one of my daughter's friends home.
If you need to shoot thru fog etc. then it has to be incan -- not even warm white LED would come close.

However, output-wise incan (esp. on C2, 9P etc.) is getting unrealistic in current use. Would rather sacrifice the incan's CRI for a bright white LED instead.

For the record I still carry an M3 as EDC with only incan build (currently LF EO-M3) but feel pressured to change it into LED in the long run......
 

rrego

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Incans rock! I have stopped using my LEDs unless I need long runtime or very bright light for what I need.

Love the early darkness. On my nightly exercise walks, I make a point to try to take only incans for main lighting. I do bring a back up EagleTac D3A Nichia 4000K on 14500, just in case.

Walking lights:
Z3 with KT1 I recently picked up here (MN15)
Mag 2C ROP running Lo bulb (lamp picked up here)
Mag 3C running Tad Customs G4 lamp (so cool, never had an incan this bright)
G3 with the KT1 if it's cold out (for the hand comfort)
Solar Force with a P91 (2X18500)
E2D with Tad socket (3718 lamp) and lightsaver tail cap (use flash mode)
Mag 2C twisty running (4 cell lamp, 2 x 18500 LiPo - cool little set up) - got the idea from Bykfixer (?)

For around the house or poking around the car or whatever:
Surefire G2Z running 3.7V lamp on KP16650
Surefire M3 on 2x16500
Surefire M4 body with M3 head and weaponlight tailcap (the one that looks like a G2 tailcap, but metal)
Surefire M3 head/Leef 2x18650 body, Z41-HA (Tad Customs drop-in)
Brinkmann Maxxfire running 3.7V lamp on KP16650
Streamlight Scorpion running Tad Customs bi-pin lamp (3718) on 16650
Streamlight NF2 running Strion lamp on 16650
Streamlight TL2 running Strion lamp on 16650
Sreamlight TL3 on 2x16500
Blackhawk Legacy X9-P on 2x16500
Mag 2C with old stock Brinkmann krypton 6V bulbs running 2X18500 LiPo - Bykfixer idea (?)
Mag 2C with Tad Customs bi-pin lamp 7212(?) in the Mag bi-pin socket (leads barely make contact - not intended for the Mag socket)
SolarForce gunmetal L2 with P61 running unprotected 18650GA cell

Not super bright and crazy, but I appreciate all of these incans.

My LEDs are jealous of the attention the incans get :grin2:

Have more incans than LEDs now!
 
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Minimoog

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Don't have most of the US lights here in Blighty but exactly the same here. I'm almost 100% incan now and main lights are Ever Ready Portable Searchlight and a 1905 wooden lamp modded with a halogen bulb - plus my EDC Pifco Little Gem. I don't mind the dark nights AT ALL! Keep it up!
 

kelmo

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If you need to shoot thru fog etc. then it has to be incan -- not even warm white LED would come close.

However, output-wise incan (esp. on C2, 9P etc.) is getting unrealistic in current use. Would rather sacrifice the incan's CRI for a bright white LED instead.

For the record I still carry an M3 as EDC with only incan build (currently LF EO-M3) but feel pressured to change it into LED in the long run......

When not at work I still use my C2 w/P61 walking at night. My backup light is the latest SF Defender, single stage!

Keep the M3 incan!!!

kelmo
 

yazkaz

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When not at work I still use my C2 w/P61 walking at night. My backup light is the latest SF Defender, single stage!
Keep the M3 incan!!!
C2 with P61 yields way too little runtime. And there's no viable LiIon option to such light due to the filament rating being ~4.8V...

Yes I do intend to keep my M3 in incan. Mine runs on 2x17670 with the LF EO-M3 (via an MC123 extender). But I'm not courageous enough to run an MN11 due to it being very bright (near white) and thus on the verge of exploding inside the bezel assy (and ruining it).
 

ampdude

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Amazing how incans always punch through the snow and rain, but LED's just never do. Either you're cleaning off the snow from the bezel, or wondering why you can't see anything in front of you. Incan all the way for those types of situations. My storm lights will always be incans. Not that I don't normally use them anyways.
 

bykfixer

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Beam shape from incans were generally a bold center with some spread. The not so bright spread does not light up close objects so it's like the light drills a hole through the rain or snow.

Todays lights tend to spread light more evenly in a wide cone, which tends to light up those nearby drops or flakes which seems to reduce far away vision due to lack of contrast between the center and sides of the beam. Darker peripherals allows us to see forward better in those situations.

In the not so distant past when LED tech was pushing around 100 lumens, those lights like those from SureFire, Pentagon, Pelican and Streamlight produced a beam that mimic'd light bulbs in shape. ie pencil beams. Runtimes were a little better than the bulb, but lifespan of the light source was greatly enhanced. Tints were awful compared to todays technology, yet the earlier lights could cut through smoke nearly as well as the light bulb due to beam shape.

Nothing beats a nice, slightly over driven incan though.
 

yazkaz

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Slightly OT question...
If incan still has its value then how come many modern mfyers esp. automotive ones adopt multi-array LED lighting in the headlight assys?
And how viable are those LED foglights (if available), can they actually cut thru fog etc.?
 

bykfixer

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Position of the beam also matters Yaz. Fog lights tend to aim down more.

In flashlight terms, if you hold the light at hip height in fog you can see farther than when it's beside your head.

On autos the regular beam, be it LED or halogen tends to aim at an angle to light up a given distance a little bit downwards and bright aims more forward albeit with an added amount of light.

My son has a luxury sports car with LED lights with a TIR but brights are halogen using a conventional reflector setup with a flat lens.
 
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scout24

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Just because tech moves on from the older ways, doesn't mean there is no utility or value to be found looking backwards. It's in the eye of the beholder. :)

LED's in vehicle lighting theoretically last longer and draw less power than filament bulbs of the same brightness. I think that has a lot to do with it. And from a design standpoint, you don't need to build around the reflectors necessary to make filament bulbs effective.
 
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kelmo

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I got a yellow G2 w/P61 in my vest pocket with an extra set of batteries in a repurposed match container. I remember back in the day the P61 in a nitrolon light was supposed to be drop resistant. Going back to my roots!
 
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