MAXA EBAM

Anybody had bought the MAXA BEAM, and post
some photo about MAXA BEAM. Thanks.

Welcome to CPF Kenny.... probably there aren't many around here who own that expensive light.

I remember there is someone who has that light, a guy from Singapore who used to post here in the early days of CPF.

Found it! His name is phyhsuts (member #33). Here's the topic thread where he gave a bit of description of his Maxa Beam.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000028

I hope this helps.

- verge -

maybe you should give some kevlar out in case you hit anyone accidentally while doing that test

No need for protection as anyone who notices the light wil already be too blind to do anything about it.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kogatana ......formerly Lumenaddict:
................ I've used this ......... It's quite a product! It is well made and quite costly.

I'll see about borrowing one and photographing its effects .......... It'll be my first project of this type. .........<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Kogatana, I had a chance to try one very briefly -

Anxious salesman + his doubts about me actually paying for one = 20 seconds.

This was all at about 25 ft.
I wasn't very impressed by the light output - could this be because the battery was low ? (I don't think they bother to maintain the charge carefully in that place.)

I noticed that the light given out had a lot, say ~30, very thin blue/violet lines radiating evenly from the centre of the circular beam. The rest was a typical HID colour.
Lamp unit was very approximately, about 2.5" long and 0.3" diameter.

Focusing was very smooth, automatic, and quick to act.
The reflector is smooth, deep and very shiny. Spot to relatively wide didn't change the smoothness of the beam much.

The hand unit itself was well made. It felt heavy, and not ergonomically good.

Ummm - that's it !

Any chance of any more info from yourself - I hope so.

lightlover

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by *something ridiculous:
..........
I wasn't very impressed by the light output - ........... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

KT, and y'all -
just realised, this could have been because the HID never had a chance to warm up to a properly working temperature ......

Sorry,
Jahn

I'd love to see kogatograph of that MaxaBeam compared to SF12ZM.

- verge -

The maxabeam is NOT HID (a discharge lamp) - it is a xenon short-arc lamp - the color spectrum is very similar but arc technologies have not caught on because their color can not be altered while HID can. Xenon short-arcs are also not nearly as efficient as HID. The reason maxabeam does not use HID is because of the startup delay - this prevents it from acting like a "flash"light - the arc can be started and stopped on demand and will produce essentially the same light immediately after starting as 5 minutes later.

As for usability - when I was considering buying a maxabeam, I spoke first with several people who had used maxabeams and they had several complaints ranging from reliability issues due to the overall complexity of the unit, to noise emitted on their 2-way radios when the unit was in close proximity due to the arc driver circuitry. (pulsing a xenon short-arc bulb is a complex process compared to running current through an HID bulb)

HID lighting is just starting to emerge in the portable battery driven marketplace - I'd keep a close eye on people who are developing HID based systems if you can deal with the 10-30 second warmup time with only partial power (some give 50% at startup and ramp to 95+ in 20 seconds which isn't bad considering the typical use of a searchlight sized package).

HID systems will also provide regulated light output, constant color dimming, and near perfect beams thanks to the small capsule used in the bulb. The mixtures used in the halide salts will produce a much more natural color than the arc lamps. 10-30W HID systems are selling (retail) in the $400 range today and should drop rapidly into the $100-$200 range within a year. It's only a matter of time before a metal halide based HID spotlight is released that outperforms today's maxabeam for 1/4 the cost and produces a better quality light (not to mention longer run times)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hmmwv:
HID lighting is just starting to emerge in the portable battery driven marketplace - I'd keep a close eye on people who are developing HID based systems if you can deal with the 10-30 second warmup time with only partial power (some give 50% at startup and ramp to 95+ in 20 seconds which isn't bad considering the typical use of a searchlight sized package).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As you probably know there is a lot of effort put into this development. Especially Bosch, who was pioneering its use in automobiles, tried to manage it. They overload the bulb until it gets to it's working brightness.
Another problem is the restart. There are companies who claim that they can do a restart just after half a second off.
And they also claim to run at full brightness after a couple of seconds (don't know the exact number).