What is the attraction of Incandescent?

shane1

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Just stumbled across this sub forum and had a look around. Why do some prefer incandescent to LED? LED's in general seem more efficient, durable and available in warm tints.
 

dotCPF

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Personally I have found:

K temp is super easy on the eyes. I'm quite favorable to it.

100 CRI.

They yield very high intensity beams.

60 lumens (Typical of a Surefire 6P incandescent bulb) is actually quite a good bit of light. I can clearly light up my chicken coop from the back porch, roughly 100' away. Enough to confirm all is well.

They are much less efficient, though I don't know if it's fair to say less durable. I have heard that Surefire's Xenon bulbs will survive full immersion in water..
 

DayofReckoning

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Beautiful, full spectrum 100CRI light that the very best high CRI LED's still cannot completely match
Incandescent's also throw very well compared to most LED's of similar output and size.
With the advent of Li-ion cells, LumensFactory bulbs, and Bi-pin adapters, this has helped Incans from going completely obsolete
Nostalgia probably plays a big part with the small group of guys that occupy this section of the forums.

One of the biggest problems, I think, with people new to the hobby is when they hear "Incandescent" they automatically get a mental picture of the traditional dim, yellow, unfocused Maglite type beam.

Once you see a quality, hot driven xenon/halogen lamp pushed by Li-ion cells to 3325k to 3350K, its hard to go back to most LED's.
 
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archimedes

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Beautiful quality of illumination ... :candle:

Is there any room left for analog in a digital world ?
 
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ampdude

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Even the best high CRI LED's cannot match the quality of light output of a well driven xenon-halogen incan. I prefer quality over quantity. I consider much of a typical "white" LED's output as light pollution and the lack of long range throw is another issue. I have plenty of LED lights, but for serious uses I always reach for the incan or the HID.
 

thermal guy

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Honestly to me its that it brings me back to when I was a kid. Playing outside or under the covers with my pitiful 5-6 lumen lights and having a ball and keeping monsters away and walking with my friends. They were good days and incandescence takes me back to a much much simpler day😁
 

DayofReckoning

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I think the issue of "reliability" with incandescent lights is overblown in my opinion. Quality lamps are very rugged and durable, Surefire lamps being insanely durable. Someone here used a good example of how the flashlight bulb blowing out when the bad guy is coming in the horror movies as an example of one of the preconceived notions people have about incandescent's lack of durability.

In countless hours of use, I don't think I ever lost a bulb in actual usage, anytime I've had a bulb blow on me it's been when firing the lamp up hot off the charger.

In the event of a failure, a lamp can be swapped out very easily in most cases. The simplicity with no circuitry or drivers is a big advantage. Not the case with LED lights that fail. Usually, when they fail, they fail.
 

ampdude

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Incans are also EMP proof for us preppers out there. Not saying that an average LED light stored away would be effected, but it's just something to keep in mind. Solar flairs, EMP/nukes, things like that don't bother incans too much. Maybe the circuitry in the lithium batteries if anything.
 
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DayofReckoning

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We have snowfall here in Pennsylvania as of right now. This thread inspired me to head outside with a few lights and remind myself how soft and pleasant the incan beam is in snowfall.

Anything above 500 lumens can actually make for a decent thawing device in wintertime :laughing:
 

ampdude

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We have snowfall here in Pennsylvania as of right now. This thread inspired me to head outside with a few lights and remind myself how soft and pleasant the incan beam is in snowfall.

Anything above 500 lumens can actually make for a decent thawing device in wintertime :laughing:

Yes, that and you don't have to worry about snow building up on the lens.
 

bykfixer

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Why do some like driving a 1959 Pontiac or riding a 1940's Indian motorcycle? Some like playing tennis in leather sole shoes or making popcorn in a pan? In most cases it is likely familiarity.

To me it's not about CRI, or BMP or any other three letter acronyms.
It's more about pushing an on button and getting electric fire on a stick to light my path. Part of that is familiarity from my youth.

I definitely appreciate the virtues of a cool white LED, or neutral for that matter. But compared to a light bulb they all seem artificial to me,regardless of what charts and graphs say. Yet I have no qualms with getting 175 lumens from a 2aa battery for 2 hours from an LED.

Sometimes I like stepping back in time and lighting darkness with something from my youth like a 2C fridge magnet number, or a 4c Maglite with a 3 cell krypton bulb. Perhaps a 2c fueled by 2 LifePo4 cells using a 4 cell xenon bulb. If I'm feeling real nostalgic I'll use a WW II right angle light or a nickel plated miners light from the late 1910's.
 
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scout24

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There's certainly room for incans in today's world. A Surefire P90 or P91 lit up on a pair of 18650's is a sight to behold. The beam from my Surefire M6 still makes me smile no matter what bulb is in it. And the bombproof presence in hand is reassuring as can be. It's a connection back to roots. To endless hours of flashlight tag played as a kid with plastic Evereadys and Rayovacs. Metal ones if you were cool. Simpler times. These are my nostalgic reasons, plenty of practical reasons in the posts above. Make room in your collection for a couple. SF's you can pop a screamer dropin into if you want to, or enjoy that awesome P60 beam for a bit of a blast from the past.
 

ampdude

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I just did a building check earlier tonight with a Maglite 4D with a Magnumstar II xenon factory bulb and a Surefire 6P with P60 in the pocket as backup. Still awesome.
 
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