What should I buy now?

I’ve got everything I want:

An excellent keychain light (DQG AA).
A very good EDC (older MTE M3-2 but modded to NW XM-L).
A 5x XR-E throwy light.
A very good high-powered flooder (Dry 3x XM-L).
A P60 light.
Several excellent headlamps.

I have another high-powered, more throwy XM-L light coming soon.

What should I research and buy next?

It is time… to get into HIDs

Moon blaster spotlight?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200799277872?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&\_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Not really into laser beam lights… maybe hid but they seem low-tech. :slight_smile:

Parts for repairing and modding deals you find you just can’t resist . . .

Why do you call them low tech?

Nothing. You are done.

Now you need an extra one of each type. In case one of them breaks.

+1

I find this part of this to be fun and rewarding.

I like modding even if I can get the same result or better and it be cheaper preassembled.

Any cheapo HID’s for roughly 60 bucks?

Get some nice hosts and some aspherics,I have a recent interest in them and currently have none ATM,but they throw like crazy and I feel I am missing out.Totally different universe than reflectored lights.

The cheapest HID you’ll find is probably for $95 minimum, but even those are hard to come by.

Try get a 60W+ HID, since there’s not really a big difference between 85, 65 or even 45 watts.

I have a comparison thread on an 85W HID vs a Skyray King here.

I’m curious about HIDs too, jumped on a Magic Fire Scorpion for $90. Will let you guys know what I think when I get it

Maybe it’s time to test the high-CRI waters ?

If I’m wrong, please correct me, but I feel like they’re old technology, plus they are one-mode, fragile, have a warm-up time, will burn your fingers, can’t turn on/off repeatedly, etc.

No!!!

I’m already on the NW bandwagon, so yeah probably.

I don’t know about old, but they certainly aren’t fragile. I dropped my eBay HID from 1.3 meters and it survived with only a dent in the body. The warm up time isn’t such a big deal since if you’re going to use such a bright light you’d most likely be hiking/fishing/camping etc., which means using it for a long time. And it has a long run time, ~90 minutes on high.

HIDs do get very hot, as they radiate their heat out the front, unlike LEDs which radiate heat from the back, but as long as you don’t touch the lens the bezel will get to 55 degrees maximum (indoors at 24degrees centigrade). My skyray king after being on high indoors gets into the zone of finger burning at 56 degrees (the bezel, the body gets to about 46degrees).
The body of a eBay HID is long, so under the heatsink will be around 37 degrees.

The one-mode statement has some truth to it. Although my HID has modes of 85W, 65W and 45W the highest and lowest modes don’t have as big of a brightness difference as you would think.

About the turning off and on repeatedly, once you turn it off you can wait 1 second before turning it on again (any faster and it’ll turn off automatically because the battery thinks it’s a short).

this is off topic, but have you seen the solarforce L1200? It’s an incan torch with a 72mm head diameter and beamshots of it seem to be very promising. very impressive for an incan

Oh, I thought HID bulbs would break if dropped. I know close to zero about HIDs.

I could probably get used to avoiding touching the lens, but I’d rather not have to.

I use my high-powered lights mostly when walking the dogs in the woods and/or alongside creeks. I switch modes often, because I encounter other dog-walkers and don’t want to blind them, or I turn the light down to low just to enjoy the walk in the dark, but then switch it back to high frequently, if I hear something or think I see something.

I thought turning the HID on/off repeatedly greatly reduced its lifetime.

About the Solarforce incan, I stopped being interested as soon as you wrote the word “incan”. :slight_smile:

Maybe a side switch or magnetic control ring?… slightly different UI?

I’ve got a magnetic-ring light coming right now. I think I’ll eventually want all my lights to have the control-ring UI, except my keychain light, which is too small for a ring.

Another question came to mind about HIDs: if the lens is super hot, and then raindrops hit it, will it crack? Also, say you’re out with your HID, and you need to put your light down so you can use both hands. Where do you put it? If it hangs from a shoulder strap, it might swivel around and burn you or melt something on you. Probably can’t put it in your pocket… With my other lights, I put it in my pocket or I hold it under my arm.

You can just put it on the ground face down or tail stand it. or just put it on the ground sideways. it won’t burn the ground (unless it’s made of black rubber).
As for the rain hitting it, it won’t crack since the air temperature is already quite cool so the temperature of the water hitting it won’t be much cooler than the air temperature. no sudden temperature change = no shock = no shattering.