Peak Caribbian 1w or 3w...

I read the review on this light at Flashlightreviews and it states Luxeon I, but the Peak web site states 3w LED. I'm a little confused please inlight:help: .
I'm debating between this and the Fenix L1P. I prefer cr123 that's why I have not bought the Fenix yet, but I like the price of the Fenix for what you get, that's why I have not bought the Caribbian yet .

The Caribbean and Mediterranean are both LuxeonIII LEDs driven at 1.5 watts. The Glacier Bay is a LuxeonI driven at 1 watt from what I understand and it makes sense. The L1P is an R-bin LuxeonI driven at 350mA or around 1.2 watts with a fresh battery. Run it with NiMH and it is around 1 watt, hope that helps.

Thanks for the clarification bentheadtx.

BentHeadTX said:

The L1P is an R-bin Luxeon I driven at 350mA or around 1.2 watts with a fresh battery. Run it with NiMH and it is around 1 watt, hope that helps.

Click to expand...

How are you getting 1.2w for the Fenix? Isn't it half a watt (.35 x 1.5)?

From what I have read about the Fenix,
It runs at 350mA using an R bin Luxeon. Assuming it is an average voltage bin of 3.5 volts... .35 x 3.5 = 1.225 watts. LED Museum had over an amp pulling from an alkaline battery or 1.5 V x 1 amp = 1.5 watts of power drawn. If the Fenix can pull off 80% effeciency with a fresh battery, having the LED running at 1.2 watts is easy to do.
A 1.25 VDC NiMH running at 800mA is 1.25 x .8 or a watt of power drawn. Using the same 80% for the converter... it would be driven at 0.8 watts. One of the reasons it is so bright is the R binned Luxeon, drop the power draw and put a more efficient (39--53 lumens at 350mA) R bin LuxeonI inside.
My Mediterranean runs at 1.5 watts and I get around 2.5 hours of runtime on two 2500mAH NiMH cells. The Fenix gets around the same runtime from one cell so I am assuming the Peak runs on the high side of 1.5 watts and the Fenix runs about half that drive level. Makes sense from a power perspective.

Well look at that. That definitely qualifies as my "learn one thing a day". I just measured my Caribbean and even with Peak liking to be conservative it should be rated a 2w torch, which would explain why all the Fenix/Caribbean comparisons are giving me fits. (I did measure a 1amp draw from my L1P on a lithium, but it was dropping like a stone, so i'd say calling it a 1w torch is giving it plenty of credit.)

LEDSABER said: "...I'm debating between this and the Fenix L1P. I prefer cr123 that's why I have not bought the Fenix yet..."

I have both Caribbean and three Fenix L1Ps (or did until last week when I gave the L1Ps as gifts).

Both are great lights and you'd likely be happy with either. However in general the Fenix gives more bang for the buck, and is very high quality. The Caribbean definitely has more overall output but it's not immediately obvious to many casual observers. That's because the Fenix on-axis lux output is about equal to the Caribbean, but the Caribbean has a larger hotspot and brighter spillbeam.

If money is no object the Caribbean is better, has more overall output and (for pocket body version) is significantly smaller.

Very early usage feedback may indicate the Fenix HAIII anodizing is less robust than the Caribbean.

But the Fenix provides lots of performance -- approaching the Caribbean from a casual visual standpoint. The Fenix is a quality light and handles well.

The Fenix is a tail clicky whereas the Caribbean is a twisty. Peak has an upcoming tail clicky option for key lug body Caribbeans, but this will increase the physical size to almost the Fenix.

If you don't care about switch type and want the absolute best that's still the Caribbean. The pocket body Caribbean is significantly shorter. But the Fenix is less than 1/2 the price and gives much of the Caribbean performance.

The Fenix can use an alkaline, NiMH or e2 lithium AA.

Thanks Joema, looks like the Fenix is making more since for the price.