Not sure about this LED thing

I just made my first serious trip to a few stores to see what good LED stuff is out there that everyone is talking so much about. I ended up buying the nite ize conversion for my mini mag, which so far seems like a big improvement.

However, at one store where they had several nice ones on display, I got to try them out and was left a little puzzled. For example, there was a Browning Technical light that had 3 modes: 3 LEDs, 6 LEDs and Xenon. When I tried them, the 3 and 6 LED light modes didn't seem overly bright, and I couldn't even see a spot where I was shining it. But I could with the Xenon bulb. So doesn't that make a conventional light better than LED? Or does it look much better in a darker environment. Stores aren't exactly dark.

Anyway, that was my observation and was just wanting to share.

Check out a Luxeon LED - much brighter .......
Luxeons come in 1, 3, or 5 watt models.

Very white, very bright !

Luxeon. I was looking at the Dorcy Metal Gear. It was a little too fat for me for pocket carry, except for my winter coat. That's the one I think I liked the best. Although there was a Garrity Nichia LED that looked similar for only $12.77 at Wal-Mart. Is that a good one. I don't know if it's a luxeon. I actually don't think it is.

Luxeons have shorter run times as a trade off for their brightness, right?

Genxsis said:

Luxeon. I was looking at the Dorcy Metal Gear. It was a little too fat for me for pocket carry, except for my winter coat. That's the one I think I liked the best. Although there was a Garrity Nichia LED that looked similar for only $12.77 at Wal-Mart. Is that a good one. I don't know if it's a luxeon. I actually don't think it is.

Luxeons have shorter run times as a trade off for their brightness, right?

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Nichia is another type of LED and aren't as bright as Luxeons.

A Luxeon in the same form factor light (2aa, 2c, 2d or whatever) would have have shorter run times and be brighter than a Nichia in the same lights.

I have one of the Garrity flashlights and it appears to use a regular 5mm Nichia LED. I'm not terribly impressed with the brightness for it's size. I much prefer the Dorcy metalgear (and other Luxeon or Jupiter-based lights) over the Garrity.

About this LED thing

Genxsis said:

... there was a Browning Technical light that had 3 modes: 3 LEDs, 6 LEDs and Xenon. When I tried them, the 3 and 6 LED light modes didn't seem overly bright, and I couldn't even see a spot where I was shining it. But I could with the Xenon bulb. So doesn't that make a conventional light better than LED? Or does it look much better in a darker environment. Stores aren't exactly dark.

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Humans have two primary modes of vision. Photopic (day vision) and scotopic (night vision) In a well lit store you would be cruising around with your photopic system. It lets us see color and has better resolution. In the middle of the day those 6 LEDs will look pretty wimpy, but that's not what they're for.

In the dark you will switch over to scotopic. If you can see, but everything is shades of grey, you're in scotopic. Now is when those LEDs are useful. They will let you walk around, find things, do a little reading, that sort of thing.

LEDs tend to be well suited for flood (wide) lighting. I am not up on Xenon bulbs but would guess that it is focused in a tight beam (spot lighting) and is the best selection for looking at things that are far away.

The LEDs won't show you what's moving around on the other side of the river, but they will light up your camp enough so you can set up the tent easily, and they probably use less electricity than the Xenon bulb.

It sounds like it could be an OK light.

Genxsis said:

However, at one store where they had several nice ones on display, I got to try them out and was left a little puzzled. For example, there was a Browning Technical light that had 3 modes: 3 LEDs, 6 LEDs and Xenon. When I tried them, the 3 and 6 LED light modes didn't seem overly bright, and I couldn't even see a spot where I was shining it. But I could with the Xenon bulb. So doesn't that make a conventional light better than LED? Or does it look much better in a darker environment. Stores aren't exactly dark.

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If either the 3 or 6 LEDs had been as bright as the xenon bulb, that would have been a pretty poorly designed light: all the levels would have been redundant. The whole point of having the three modes is so that you can use as much light as you need at the time, without wasting runtime and/or ruining dark-adapted vision. In a dark room, you might be surprised at how much you could see with just 3 LEDs, yet under other conditions (e.g. the store) they were pretty useless. Not because they're "worse" but because those aren't the situations that they were designed for. As others mentioned, luxeon LEDs would have been as bright or brighter than the xenon, and would have had comparable runtimes.
Most people who choose leds over incan do so for some of the following reasons:

more efficient (more light per watt)
no "fragile" bulb to blow
less yellowing of the output as current drops
can be made to run at various levels (brightness)

I'm sure other people can add to this list.

I have a one LED light (MJLED) running off four "D" cells at 1-2mA as the "Allways on" mode with 75mA lantern mode.

I keep it in the laundry room incase power goes out on the wife.

The 1-2mA with one LED will light up the room enough for you to not break anything. Just close your eyes and cout to ten. When you open them you will be able to see enough to get around.

Also waking up in a room at night the same 1-2 mA seems bright.

The three LEDs in the Browning light are probably running at 20-40mA each and will light up a dark room VERY good.

The 6 LED mode will give plenty for trail walking in a dark wood but probably not enough for runing.

The xenon incandascent will give plenty for the "what was that noise out there" moments.

If you want a brighter 6 LED mode just replace the second three LEDs with the new Nichia CS LEDs. Just don't mess with the first three because you really need a LOW low power mode.


wwglen

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ZeissOEM2 said:

My first Ledlight was a Nuwai with 6 leds and 4xaa batteries.The quality was very bad and it works only 4 weeks.(only 2 sets of batteries was used)
My second led light is a Surefire U2 Ultra with a Pila 168A,No problems after 2 month everyday use.Very useful light.

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WOW, that's a big jump, from one end of the spectrum to the other so to speek. I started with a Lightwave 4000 and was pretty impressed with it. My Maglight friends laughed at me so the search began for the next offering. I have mostly LED Luxeon lights now and those same guys won't bring their "stock" Maglights out any more.

ZeissOEM2 said:

My first Ledlight was a Nuwai with 6 leds and 4xaa batteries.The quality was very bad and it works only 4 weeks.(only 2 sets of batteries was used)
My second led light is a Surefire U2 Ultra with a Pila 168A,No problems after 2 month everyday use.Very useful light.

Click to expand...

The Nuwai only worked for 4 weeks? I thought LEDs were supposed to last virtually forever! Or was it another part of the light that broke?

The Nite Ize is a nice update for the AA Mag...just did one this evening.

Three key things why I like LED for specific tasks: the white beam characteristics, longer run times over most incan lights and durability. I've dropped enough incans to find the bulb broken and me without light...not fun.

My first LED light was the original CMG Infinity. Compared to the LED"s today, it is worlds different.