To Mag or not to Mag

Evening all!

My first proper post on here apart from the saying Hi post from the other day.

I'm getting a hankering for some light! But first of all, the main reason I came here was because we accidentally left cells in our 2 old fashioned 3D maglites, and yes, you guessed it... ruined.

So we need replacements. These will only be used for general household duty. Is a new LED Mag like the ML300L worth the cash? Are the LED versions as robust as the old school ones?

Is the XL version worth getting? Is it an ergonomic improvement over the L version?

Are there any other flashlights that meet these requirements?

Thanks for your time.

ps. I've read other posts, but they all seem to be coming from the angle of comparing them to better/brighter flashlights. To replace the mags, I only need moderate lighting. Does the Mag still cut it? I'll start spending cash on toys later

Hi there! I approved your post, albeit in edited form. The discussion of using lights as weapons is something that isn't done here on CPF for a myriad of reasons. I think as your post stands you'll get plenty of answers. Thank you for your understanding, and welcome to CPF.

A 3C ML50 is well worth the coin. It has a very useable low called eco that can provide some 200 hours of light when a storm konks out the power etc. Another goody is the ML300.

Are they as robust as early Maglites? At one point Maglite started using slightly thinner tubing for weight reduction so by the 90's that was the norm. That was the C and D size. The ML 50 and 300 use an electronic switch where previous models used mechanical. The new switches are reliable as well. Both have a focus system that differs to make them spot to flood in about a quater turn now. The ones with the X in front mean the coating is tougher and they have a more tactical grip pattern. Inside parts are the same though.

Welcome to CPF.

Thanks for that. As the incandescent Mags I'm replacing were bought around 2000 or so, then they new ones should be no less robust. I didn't know they'd reduced the wall thickness in the 90s. Make you wonder what a really old one was like.

For this use, throw is irrelevant. They're literally for going out to the garage at night, or looking for stuff in the garden shed etc. Durability and reliability are more useful traits.

The really early Maglites were made of alluminum sprinkler pipe if I recall correct. Over time they reduced inner diameter to cradle batteries better. Wall thickness was slightly reduced for a bit of weight reduction. There's a member here called Liftd4R who has a blog specializing in Maglite history. I feel confident he notes what year that occured. That was D lights. I'm not sure if C size ever changed. My oldest C size is from the late 90's.

Heck, if all you need is a light around the house a few dozen times a year the triple a minimag can be a real handy light too. Or the 2 or 3C ML25, which is a larger version of the minimag pretty much. Still enough bulk to exude confidence while roaming the dark shed where critters may be hiding.

The ML300 is a bit shorter and lighter than the old incan Mags - it looks like the old Mags but it is completely redesigned with a new electronic switch and a new quick focus system - great light! If you really want an LED Mag with the same weight and length Mag still makes the 2nd gen LEDs that are built on the old incan barrels/switches, but I like the ML300 much more than these - the electronic switch, quick focus and programmable function sets are really nice.

The grenade grip on the LX versions give a little better grip than the standard versions and the anodizing is thicker/longer lasting mat finished type 3. I like the LX versions myself, but the standard L versions are fine as well, as BYK pointed out, function is the same.

Coming soon (or already in some Target stores) is an old school 2D with a bit better throw and a low setting of somewhere between 60 and 75% of high by guestimates of members here. So far Maglite hasn't said what the low is.

Actually, regarding the wall thickness of the tube, the opposite change was made to the C lights when the "Panther" or "lettered" lights came out in the 90s. They were beefed up to make thicker. Here is the explanation from member / collector Liftd's blog about C cell models:

"I should also mention that the barrels are marginally thicker on the new lights by just about a tenth of an inch or so. A lot of the early C cells I've seen are dented so I'm guessing the aluminum extrusion thickness was increased just slightly when the changeover happened to increase durability. This is the opposite of D cell lights which saw both outside and inside diameter reduced. This is because C cell lights were always extruded whereas D cell lights were originally made from aluminum pipe."

As for me, still lots to like about Maglites, although I collect more older ones than newer. I will say, those older heavier D cell Mags are built like tanks.

Old Lumens did an excellent tear down vid on the ML300 showing it's improvements over the old Mags:

I believe if I recall correct, that video was why I opted for am ML50 xx. I started out with the 3 cell because my local sprawl mart had it but later found a 2 cell down the road a few miles.

Me: "hey honey, wanna go out to dinner?"
Mrs Fixer: "sure, where?"
Me: "shoneys"
Mrs. Fixer: "sounds great"

Shoneys was next door to the Home Depot with the 2c ML50……website showed one left

"mind if we go by Home Depot first?" Turns out they had 3 left.

Not long after a 2 cell ML300 fell in my cart at sprawl mart. Back to the same Home Depot a few days after for a 3 cell version.

A freak winter storm knocked out the power and we lit the house at 4 places using tailstood, ceiling bounce ML's on eco mode for three nights.

It's a pretty good vid, but he didn't get into the programmable function sets.

xxo said:

It's a pretty good vid, but he didn't get into the programmable function sets.

Click to expand...

I'd like to see the tear down of the ML 300 4D. The heat sync is one of a few differences I can notice without taking it apart.

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Thanks for all the responses.

I've decided on either a ML300L, or if it feels much better in the hand, the LX. I like the size and heft of the 3D Mags.

It's more than enough for everything around the house, garden, car etc, and still has enough grunt for the rare occasions I'll need a little more throw.

Thanks for all the help.

I'll be back when I'm ready to buy something more exciting for no practical purpose other than it being a cool toy

I'm also, as a professional photographer, interested in batteries and charging, so I know there's a lot of expertise in here about that too, so I'll be around for a while.

Cheers everyone!

Toss a Maglite Solitaire LED and some ultimate lithiums in your camera bag and you'll have a great little shadow lighter for dialing in your camera during low light times or sunsets. Easy to teeth hold when both hands are occupied like placing the camera on a tripod or swapping lenses.

I keep a small low lumen flooder light in my bag because it can also aid in dialing in the camera in low light and the camera sensor fails to see a subject at first. That wee bit of extra light causes my Nikons to know where I want to focus in cases of nearby objects but it thinks I want to focus in the distance. Those times when subject matter dictates there aint a lot of time to figure things out.

For still life a zoomie can be handy for fill light. Trouble is most zoomies have a slight blue in the tint. But it needs to be small enough to comfortably hold like a cigar while hand holding the camera. I have a 1x123 sized light that puts out a few hundred lumens in a nice cone shape for daytime fill light but use a water bottle cap over the tip when the light needs to be dispersed. Great for still life or portaits. It has high, medium and low.

I found bright white causes my camera to think it's a flash bulb and not require as much white balance adjust later (if any). As a pro you understand that time in front of the computer monitor is best mimimized so a flashlight tint that is closest to what the camera flash tint is works best. I like 6200 tint. 6500 is a bit harsh. Below 6000 ends up altering the white balance at times, just enough with my Nikons that the colors differ from real life enough for me to get in a tizzy about.

I'm not a pro, but am a hobbyist with a ton of experience with photography going back to the 1980's. Too many Ansel Adams wanna-be's with Canon Rebels for me to try to compete with so instead of being a starving artist I chose to stay out of that crowed field. Now celphone cams have nearly wiped out the industry. My first "good" camera was an AE-1, then a Rebel G. I still have them (somewhere). My dad was a big fan of Pentax in the 70's and taught me the basics. He chose slides over prints to show on the "big screen". These days I photo journalize, mostly for work with a nice wide angle Canon point and shoot from about 2010. But there are times when like when the ever elusive belted King Fisher poses long enough for me to get out the 7100 and take a nice crisp photo through good glass. It took 10 years to get a photo of one setting still. I have dozens of them flying away but one morning I was behind enough blind that it did know I was there until 2 photos had been taken. Number 3 was him flying away again.

Anyway, a Maglite Solitaire LED has a pretty good tint for photography.

"For still life a zoomie can be handy for fill light. Trouble is most zoomies have a slight blue in the tint."

That's the issue.. white balance. You can only set the camera for one white point I'm sure someone in here has actually measured colour temp of various lights I bet LOL. So long as I can get one that's 5600K to match my strobes, or 3400K to match my photofloods, I'm all for that. Back in the incan days, this wasn't a problem. I'd either shoot with tungsten or halogen light for still life, and use tungsten balanced film, or set the cam to 3400K manually. I've found many LEDs are excessively cold when compared to daylight balanced flash though.

"I found bright white causes my camera to think it's a flash bulb and not require as much white balance adjust later (if any)."

As I'm mainly in a studio environment, I manually set a custom white point for my lighting equipment, so as long as I can get a light that matched that, it shouldn't be an issue. I'm pretty consistent in the studio. My strobes are 5600K.

Of course, on location, light changes dynamically throughout the day, so it's impossible to get one light that will always match. Night time and time exposures rarely require perfect colour matching, so no probs there.

I'll do some searches on here to see who's measured colour temp, and see what I can find.

Thanks
David.

Check out "the tint snob thread" for info color and color render index (cri) info.

maglite mike said:

I'd like to see the tear down of the ML 300 4D. The heat sync is one of a few differences I can notice without taking it apart.

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Click to expand...

What is the difference in the heat sinks?