Of course one went into the Legend LX with stock reflector which resulted in a fairly wide and soft flood beam, although it still threw three times farther than my LGI keeper which is no slouch, but I sold it being I had no use for yet another flooder, albeit brighter (I need throw at work!).

But seeing that the real 5W power monsters seemed to be best created from the Mags with their excellent reflectors when cut just right in relation to the height of the emitter, I swapped out one of these new HD's with the 5W SE that was in my Mag 2C Space Needle and did some comparison tests.

Here it is with my Turbo McLux (also with just-installed 5W HD W2 Bin Code) along with the brightest 5W mod I ever made with an unusually super bright 5W SE. This should be one hell of a comparison test:

First I took a beamshot up on my outside patio ceiling, about 12 feet high. The lights were laid on a husk pillow angled upwards in this order (Mag 2D in the center):

And here are the beam patterns they made:

Note the significant sidespill from the SE through the Mag 2D's reflector, and how tight the beams are from the HD's of the 2C and McLux Turbo. Note especially how much larger and brighter the hotspot is from the Mag 2C. It should be stated here that both HD emitters were selected from approximately the same range of brightness during the preliminary testing I always perform, before installing them in any lights. Obviously the Mag's reflector is simply better than the SF TurboHead at grabbing more of the available light output from the emission pattern of the Lambertian.

Then I lined them up on the carpet five feet from the wall for the now-standard LLS (Lambda Light Saber) shot:

And finally the acid test -- I went out back to see what they would do across a small dark valley onto a tree fifty yards away -- and in order of brightness, here are the beams from the Mag 2D (w/super bright SE), the McLux Turbo, and the Mag 2C:

Mag 2D

McLux

Mag 2C

The Mag 2D's more diffused beam made it appear less bright than the McLux Turbo with its tighter TurboHead focused pattern, but the light meter told a different story:

McLux Turbo - 4,400 lux

Mag 2D - 7,020 lux

Mag 2C - 6,850 lux

But those readings were taken from one meter away. 50 yards away is a whole new ball game.

So it would appear that a well-focused High Dome in the big Mag reflector makes for the brightest and longest reaching mod now available.

Introducing: The Space Needle II...

YEEEOWWW!!! I received my UCL Maglite lens package today (Thanks Chris!) and he threw in many, many extras (Thanks Chris!) so I in turn immediately threw in one on the Space Needle II to see what it could really do. The max it made before was 6,850 lux, not bad, but still just slightly less than the Mag 2D w/ultra bright 5W SE at 7,020 lux. But with the UCL, I staggered back in disbelief when the meter showed:

That's correct, 7,760 lux!!!

So now THIS becomes the brightest mod I have ever made...THANKS, CHRIS!!!

You want a brighter Mag mod? UCL, baby!

6.16.03

Actual LUMEN Output Of Space Needle II

Yes, I have Integrating Sphere results and it is crazy. I sent off an "average" Space Needle II for testing and they reported this reading:

216 LUMENS