Help! Incans now dissappointing

Just spent an hour reviewing a few lights in the backyard with my 9yo stepson, no........I wasn't reviewing......it was "quality time". Anyway, what can I do to these orange SF P60 lights? I am now approaching the point where 3V&6V incans just don't do it for me anymore. Lux LED's are much more appealing to me. I really like the body style of my G2Z and Z2, but the output? Any experience with this problem from those that have been there would be great.

Grab a P61, load it up and keep it as is.

Get a bigger backyard, the LEDs have no throw. I like the lux LEDs too, but after about a hundred feet, the incans are more useful.

I started to write a response/rebuttle, then it crossed my mind that I should do another test. We started earlier tonight exclusively with LED's, then brought out the incans. It might be a situation where I had adjusted to the LED being "normal" which made the incan appear to have a much lower Kelvin. Second test I started with the incan, looked pretty good, then switched to the LED which wasn't as "perfect" as earlier in the night. Anybody else share this experience? BTW, borrowed the neighbors backyard for a moment, you are right cheesehead, beam looked damn nice too.

To be fair, the LEDs have a much much whiter and nicer color, just not as much throw. Walking around the house, the LEDs are fine, just over 100 feet they don't throw that well, although the Inova T3 is pretty close.

In my experience, the output of SF incans only look yellow when (1) compared side-by-side with an LED, or (2) the batteries are getting depleted. By themselves, the output looks quite white to my eyes.

However, if you are determined to switch to LEDs and you like the form factor of the G2Z and Z2 I believe Bug Out Gear USA has a drop-in LED module for the 6P and other SF lights with the same form factor.

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deranged_coder said:
In my experience, the output of SF incans only look yellow when (1) compared side-by-side with an LED, or (2) the batteries are getting depleted. By themselves, the output looks quite white to my eyes.



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I agree with this post 100 percent.

When I want throw from my LEDs, I just point both my T3 and SL 4AA Luxeon at whatever I want to see. That's about 5,100 lux in total -- or only 20% less than a Pelican M6.

Get a Mag85 with CBP 1650 batteries and you will think differently. Out comes WHITE light not yellow or brown. Makes my L6 Surefire look like a candle. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Analog, perhaps you should edit the title in your original post, now that you've been "enlightened" to the value of incan's. IMO there will always be a place for incan's. For those of you LED Heads who refuse to accept that - I know you're out there - all I can say is /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif I totally agree that if you want some awesome throw, go with a big incan like an M6. Then we'll see who's talkin'. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

If you want some fun "throwing" LED lights check these out.

Elektrolumens

Funny....I went on an LED jag for a while. Certainly do like the TriStar Phazer for an LED light with great throw....but came back to the wire. P61's, Mag 85's and 2C Mag mods provide a huge amount of light that only the most expensive LED can keep up with.Add that to the wimpiness of LED's in rain/fog, and my LED's get used indoors, where they're great. OUtdoors, gimme a wire.

I agree with 'dad'. Got a phazer and L4 and Alephs, but my highest output lights are probably still my incan PILA GL3 and SL Scorpion. Thats what I take when I need a lot of light in a small package.

I just got into flasklights about 3 months ago. I'm spoiled by the white floods of my LED lights. It's made me realize how little use I have for throwing power or skinny beams. So this morning I've rounded up my various 2AA incandescents (Streamlight, Pelican, Bright Star) and am starting to give them away to those I care about. Also some of my cheap Xnovas, now that my Costco 2AA Luxeon has made me "see the light." I still keep a Peak Kilimanjaro 5LED on my keyring and (for now) a Propolymer 4AA xenon in the garage.

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davidra said:
Funny....I went on an LED jag for a while. Certainly do like the TriStar Phazer for an LED light with great throw....but came back to the wire. P61's, Mag 85's and 2C Mag mods provide a huge amount of light that only the most expensive LED can keep up with.Add that to the wimpiness of LED's in rain/fog, and my LED's get used indoors, where they're great. OUtdoors, gimme a wire.

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Me too. I was floored by the lacluster performance of my BB400 in fog...where my $20 UK4AA incan was excellent.
Though I love LED's, I am really moving "full circle" toward incans again.

In fact, I am considering the Surefire A2 which would allow me "the best of both worlds", so to speak.
The Twintask 2L is a sweetie as well.

Bob

I have found out some similar things in my "quest" for a good light. Even though I really love my L6 (modded for 1amp) I find that a simple 6P with a P90 and two rechargable CR123's totally blows anything else that is LED-based.

True, the P90 will only give me like 20-30 minutes vs. the approx 1 hour of the L6, but the difference is HUGE. For indoors a nice/bright LED light is perfect, but outside the hot wires definitely work great.

I also played with the MC85 (almost the upper end of a small/bright hot wire light), which again is simply amazing for the size. Still, as we all know, the MC85 is hardly a practical light given the short run time an intense heat, plus the big weight means it is really not "portable". I also found the MC85 bulb damaging the MC's plastic bi-pin holder, to I "downgraded" to the 1160 bulb and now I have a MC60 which is not as bright, runs longer, and does not run as hot either.

Now, I saw above many posts about how the LED's don't have trow - I am playing with two of the "U" bin LIII that I got from Endeavor and on a Direct Drive 3xcell D M*g body with an UCL, the trow is simply amazing - I am certainly impressed.

My next project is to finish construction of a 5W LED module for the SF Turbo heads (like others here at the forums have done in the past - nothing new here). I am looking forward to seeing how that looks like /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Will

LED and incandescent are both great and useful and have their strengths and weaknesses. I find LED's to be more immediately appealing, but even so, when I have a good incan and a good LED side by side, and I switch back and forth, I usually come back to the incan for color rendition and throw, and to the LED for flood and indoor or outdoor close range work lighting. It's not that LED's can't throw--they certainly can--but the incan beam is better at cutting through fog and ambient lighting, all other things being equal.

To my mind, both are useful and valuable, but if there isn't some sort of quantum leap in incan technology, it will eventually be completely superceded by LED lighting, which just keeps getting better and better. Personally, I don't mind giving up some output for an increase in light quality, for either incans or LED's, but I'm mainly thinking LED's here. And for incans, this is why I love my A2. "only" 50 lumens, but boy o boy, I really like those 50. I'm of the opinion that lumens are not fungible. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

Certainly some good experience has been shared. Overall I have to say I am going to keep everything I own, and continue to compliment both technologies trying to find the unobtainable perfect light. With the weather getting nicer, allowing for more outdoor night time activity, I'll have more need for throw. Realistically most of my activities only require light for 30' or so. Now with the weather changing, so will that distance requirement.

Um, er, well the best of both worlds, HID! Lights that are actually efficient, and color temp nice and cold. Although I'd have to admit, incans are mindless to deal with.

If you want throw from an led you need a larger reflector. A luxIII in a mag reflector throws incrediably well.