Magichine MJ-872 Clone:
I bought this light looking for a light well-liked by MTBR users which provided a good wide floody beam with good runtime. My SolarStorm X3 (to be posted about in the future) is a great floody light, but does pull quite a bit of current off the battery, so I was looking for something more efficient. This 872 Clone was bought from Ebay seller sentinel_cases here. I haven't spotted this light (clone) for sale anywhere else. There is a Russian review on a similar clone (likely same light as mine) here (be sure to click on "reading->" to see the full review). A review of the original Magicshine MJ-872 can be found here.
First impressions:
-Small
-Nice controls: dual switches, up for "increase" and down for "decrease". Press-n-hold to turn off, no blinkies at all (could be a negative for some).
-Modes are either spaced too closely, or they could have eliminated one
-Body does heat up which indicates decent thermal properties
-Cool white tint, however it is a really nice "pure white" tint.
-Beam is a wide throwing beam with wide spill (very nice!)
-Light behind switch to indicate battery level (though it is a bit bright)
-Switch button is "squishy" and you really have to press inward to make contact (as if there is too much room between the switch cover and the switches themselves.
-Seems to go to the next mode when you turn it back on (unless you were last in "high" and you turn it on via the "up" button, or last in "low" and you turn it on via the "down" button).
Current draw off battery pack:
(batteries @ 4.06v each)
Off: 0.008A
Low: 0.321A (22%)
Med1: 0.662A (45%)
Med2: 1.280A (86%)
High: 1.482A (100%)
Modes were advertised as "100%~75%~50%~25%".
Seems like the light is putting out an awful lot of light at such low current draw! It also doesn’t make sense to me. If I try to roughly figure out (calculate) current to the emitters, I come up with 740mA per emitter (since battery current is at 8.2V, I double the current I measured ,1.482 × 2=2.964A, and then take that number divided by the number of LEDs, 2.964/4 = 0.741A). Of course that assumes 100% efficiency. Doesn’t make sense to me. If it is true, how awesome would this light be to crank it up a bit!
Here are beamshots:
Distance to the tree is approx. 185 feet. Approx. 275 feet to the house off to the left of the tree.
Med2:
Med1:
Low:
and in the woods (the closest I can get to simulating a mountain biking trail near my house):
High:
Med2:
Med1:
Low:
My camera was on the same manual settings that I’ve been using lately, but the light doesn’t look as “pure white” as it does in real life. I'm also finding that the pics are consistently looking slightly dimmer than in real life. For instance, the trees I am aiming at in the first pic above are clearly lit up in reality.
UPDATE 2018: Mouseovers will disappear when my PhotoBucket Account Use is lost.
Few mouseover comparisons to my SolarStorm X3 modded with XM-L2 T5 5B1's:
Mouse out= 872 Clone High, Mouse in SSX3 High:
Again, Mouse out= 872 Clone High, Mouse in SSX3 High:
That SolarStorm by the way is pulling 2.48A off the battery pack in "high".
I've not torn this light apart yet, but will. I'm contemplating swapping the LEDs to a NW tint.
-Garry