FWIW, I got a clear C8 last week from Simon with whatever stock biscotti firmware (it is a red PCB). Mine works flawlessly and I truly appreciate all the hard work that went into it!!!
I don’t have the equipment to measure lumens and FWIW, my DMM is an Innova 3320 so I am merely in the ballpark with my observations. That said, with the stock XPL-HI, my readings are roughly:
0.008A
0.07A
0.36A
1.12A
2.8A
This is so fascinating to me as I don’t really have a clue as to what lumens really are supposed to be. I do know that I would like an even lower low if that were possible so that I could move around without waking up my wife or affecting my night vision. That said, my rough guess is that the current low .008A in my case is actually a pretty usable amount of light and probably I am better off just using my Ti3 when moving around the house in the dark. At .008A I am guessing that the XPL-HI actually puts out a touch more than 2.6 Lumens. This is quite amazing to me as I used to carry a Maglite Solitare around and that was all it could put out and it was useful. The C8 can do that on a single 18650 for as long as something like 100 AAA batteries in the Solitare. That is just an amazing advance in my lifetime.
At .07A we are roughly in the territory of a 2D Maglite from my youth!!! 10X the power and 10X the light? Perhaps not but it feels kind of in the ballpark. Yet, with this light this is actually low mode.
Roughly 5X more power (0.36A in my case) and you are in the ballpark of a 6D Maglite from my youth. Certainly quite noticeable compared to the 2D but nowhere near 5X the light.
The next step for me is 1.12A or roughly 3X the power for likely 2X the Lumens. This is still a very noticeable increace but 2X and for 3X the power.
What is most amazing to me is that at the 2.8A turbo setting it is using roughly 10X the power to put out roughly 5X the number of Lumens and to my eye it seems like maybe only 2X the light.
Lumens to apparent light? Power to Lumens? Law of diminishing returns? Logarithms in action? I just can’t quite get my head around it. I do know that I really like the clear C8 and I am amazed at what it can do even if I don’t understand it.
Wade