Sorry I didn't get back to this thread a bit sooner. Had a couple of minor disasters to deal with. One involving my air conditioner; which I won't go into because it would involve a lot of language that would be inappropriate for a family oriented board; and as for the other...
Got the bad cell problem resolved with the Light Cannon, then my 7 year old niece knocked it off the table and it wouldn't light. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mecry.gif Thought I may have lost the $70 lamp, but I personally have subjected it to much harder knocks.
Tried new batteries and still no go. Popped in some old Duracell C cells and it lit up. Put my AA adapter back in with the NiMh AA cells and it still wouldn't light. Took a close look inside and found that one of the battery contacts had moved very slightly. Just enough to miss the - contact on my kluge AA adapter set up. Snapped it back in place and she fired right up.
That makes more than half a dozen hard knocks/drops for my LC100, and the "super fragile" HID lamp is fine. I wonder why people think these things are so fragile? WA Solarc data sheets say they are tested to something like 400G. Oh well...
Update:
A little more info; the C4/C8 eLED module uses a 5 watt SE Luxeon emitter (Side-Emitting). It is mounted on a slight pedestal in a faceted reflector. The reflector itself appears to be plastic, but the pedestal and underlying frame are metal. Not the best heat sinking I have seen for a Lux, but certainly better than a star mounted Lux sitting on plastic. If you'd like to see the module,
BrightGuy has a very nice picture. And he has 'em in stock at a nice price.
The switch on the C4/C8 moves two ways. With the incan version this moves 2 different lamps into position. This interesting arrangement allows you to switch to your "spare" lamp even under water! With the eLED module it acts as a high/low beam mode selector. Low beam provides less light, but increased battery run time.
Updated Comparison:
Running on all 8 cells the HID still looks cool-white, but without the blue-violet tint I saw a few days ago. In comparison, the C4 eLED looks warm-white. Not as warm as incandescent, but very noticeable next to the HID. Firing up my modded Mag running (6)CP1300SCR high output NiCAD cells and a GH24 lamp I find that the eLED looks more neutral-white in comaprison.
My modded Mag is one of the "whitest" incadescent lights I have seen. Much whiter than Xenon lights like the LX or PM6. But next to the C4 eLED it looks distinctly yellow; and next to the HID it looks yellow-orange.
With all 3 side-by-side, the HID looks the whitest, though on the cool side. The eLED looks warm, but not yellow. The incan, of course, looks yellow-orange.
Both the HID and the modded Mag (which I estimate is outputting something like 14-15 watts) are quite a bit brighter than the C4 eLED. Running on 8 cells the C8 eLED is noticeably brighter than the C4, but still no match for the HID or Mag-Mod.
I tried a quick-n-dirty beam shot, and the C4 eLED looked green with the camera locked on daylight/sunlight color balance. The HID looked white with a blue tinge around the edge; and the Mag-Mod looked yellow, with an orange surround.
HID / C4 eLED / Mag Mod
The green color is surprizing because I don't notice it at all in normal use. In fact I'm quite pleased with the C4 eLED and have been using it quite a lot around the house for general lighting. It's certainly not a photon monster that we flashaholics covet so much. It is a nice, durable light that is easy to use; lights things well at close to medium distances, and is easy on the eyes. The best way I can describe the light from the C4 eLED is
relaxing. In using it around the house while modifying computers or fixing air conditioners [GRRR!] I find that I can see details clearly, and with less eye strain than with the yellow-orangy incan, or the stark, ice cold HID.
Color, of course, is subject to the "Luxeon Lottery" so you may (and likely will) get different results. I have no idea what "bin" lux is in this thing; and I don't know if there is a way to tell.
Hopefully I'll get to take this thing for a dive soon. Will post again if/when I get more info...
Aloha, iG