Request for Minimag drop-in comparison

tech

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I haven't see this on CPF, or elsewhere yet, so I thought I'd ask.
Does anyone have, or can any one take, some beamshots that show a normal minimag verus some of the LED replacements that are available?
Such as the Terralux Ministar and badboys, etc?

I'm really curious to see how these compare against each other, as well as how they compare to a regular minimag.

T.
 

Roy

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You're asking about apples and oranges! The stock MiniMag is fully focusable whereas most of the modded MiniMags are not. At what point of focus do you wish to compair?
 

tech

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Tight focus, Roy, becaue the one thing I've always hated about Maglights is the wide-focused beam that is full of holes to the point of barely being usable.
IMHO.

T.
 

Loadedround

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tech

Glad you brought this up. I've been trying to decide on a mod for my Minimag. Beamshots would be great, or maybe just a comparison on output and runtime. Maybe we could throw in any incandescent options? Xenon lamps?

LR
 

Roy

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I think it's time for you guys to look through the Reviews Forum! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

tech

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Did so, and saw beamshots of dropins in general, but couldn't find any beamshots of minimags and dropins side by side for comparison.
Do you have a link that might have this/

T.
 

gadget_lover

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The beam shots don't tell much of a story when comparing similar lights. The beamshot is dependent on the optic (or reflector) as well as the LED. Comparing a madmax with LuxIII and NX05 to a badboy with LuxIII and NX05 will show about the same beam. One may be brighter, but that will not necessarily show up in beam shots. In short, beam shots are mostly for comparing the light management ability of two or more lights with similar light sources.

Now if you want to compare the madmax with NX05 against the Terralux Ministar with a minimag reflector, you are likely to see a difference.

When I compare dissimilar lights (madmax VS everled) I look at Lumens (total output), Lux (bightest spot in the focused light), battery drain and beam pattern. I almost never pay much attention to beam shots unless I'm looking at a new reflector or an LED tint/bin that's of interest.

Just my thoughts.

Daniel
 

Tree

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Here are a ton of beamshot photos. They might not have your combination in one package, but you can see the difference.

Here I have a 2AA minimag, vs a Arc Grey which is a 500ma LS mod with NX05 optics.
 

tech

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Thanks for the replys.
Basically, I'm trying to figure out if something like a MiniStar is brighter and "better" than a stock minimag since LED's (not luxeons) are usually don't have the throw of a incandescent.
That's all I'm trying to learn about. No fuss, no muss, no mods, just buying a drop-in...

T.
 

Mattman

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When you're talking higher power incandescents, they can definitely out throw an LED - there just aren't super bright LED's to compete with a Tigerlight or SF M6. When you're talking minimag mods, even a lower powered sandwich will out-throw an incandescent minimag. I had a Lux3T MM Lite and it blew away a stock minimag for throw and overall output and also in the highly subjective "quality of beam color" test. It wasn't even close. Also, even if a minimag with a better bulb were to out-throw an LED, it would only do so for a few minutes before the LED moved into the lead and stayed there.
 

IlluminatingBikr

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I currently have a Terralux MiniStar and MM Regular Lux3-T. The Terralux is a little bit less bright than the MM, but not a whole lot. The tint is the thing though. The Terralux is greenish! The Lux3-T on my MM is a really nice VERY slightly purple white.

Wayne's sandwiches have lots of options: BB at what ma or MM lite, regular or plus, optics, lux3/lux1, etc.

If you are tight on money, go with the Terralux. Other than that, I don't see why you wouldn't want to go with one of dat2zip's sandwich modules.
 
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