Sure this has been asked but dummy me hasn’t been able to find out how to search on here yet.
I’m looking to bid on a Maxa Beam mb s-410 search light that I want to use for comparing to say the Tn42 and such for vids. I will most likely have to fab the battery though. is this light worth spending hard earned money on or is there a thrower HID out there that can compete with 3000 meters for around 500 bucks. Thanks, Todd
Just to see the difference between the TN42 and a 70W HID flashlight (Lemax LX70 SP) give a look to this photos: Giants of the throw in the sky of Rome!
No there is no other HID that competes with the maxabeam.
As Enderman posted above, no other generally available light to compete with the MB, Gen2 or Gen3. Although your specific comparison is not really apples to apples. At $500, you’re probably looking at a Gen2 version so about 6 MCP, whereas the Gen3 is about 12 MCP.
There is one light that I can think of that comes super close to Maxabeam performance that you can sometimes find for much much cheaper and that is the Night Hunter 1. It uses a 75watt short arc just like the MB. I don’t know what the candlepower rating is but it’s slightly less than that of the Maxabeam. I found one for my brother on eBay last year in like new condition apart from a bad battery for $50.
Not even close to the maxabeam, check out the list of throwers in my sig.
Wow! I guess my sense of candlepower is way off. It didn’t appear to have that much less throw than the Maxabeam Gen 2 when I tested them. I was guessing around 4 million like the Megaray.
Yeah it takes exponentially more candlepower to go a further distance so having 3 times more candlepower, the Gen 2 only goes 1.7 times further than 2 million, probably even less due to atmospheric conditions.
Thanks, Was thinking of the streamlite lightbox but know this throw is less. The one I’m looking says G2 on plate so it isn’t as bright as G3. Shucks.
I got a vid up on the tube showing a 85 watt hid vs the K70 vs tn42. The 85 watt was a joke.
We’ll see…
Lightforce Hid Blitz, CPF member ginseng or sway modded one and it threw like crazy.
A very nice light and I built an 85 Watt version years ago but not an apples to apples comparison to even the Gen2 MB. Many more Lumens from the LFB but nowhere near the throw. It’s actually a more usable light.
I was posting in another thread. It might be possible to do a 300W HID with an appropriate bulb in a 11.5” reflector (head is 13 inches) and attain 5-6M cp.
You will be overclocking the bulb heaps though, the good thing is that bulbs are cheap.
Note : It’s not going to be a practical use light, just for fun kinda project.
However it’s going to be very difficult to purchase for you guys in the states, europe, austrialia etc. Shipping is not going to be cheap, but definitely would be way below $500. You might wanna search ebay to see if such China sellers sell there?
300W with 18cm reflector. USD 26. That’s to scavenge the bulb and ballast. I am not sure what are they using for the 300W bulb option and the most important aspect of it all that determines the throw ie the arc gap length, but i suspect it’s those H7 base car lights stuff.
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.275.53ab77f94z6JT4&id=528039049306&ns=1&abbucket=12#detail
Alternatively you can get 220W variable power output ballasts (12-18V input) and gun it into a 100W H7 HID 4300k bulb which has an arc gap of 4-5mm, limit your run time to within 1 minute. (well, turbo mode LED lights are all the rage nowadays, right?). Replacement bulbs are cheap, like usd 3.50 for 1 pair of 4300k. :money_mouth_face:
13” reflector host, i need to search for it again, it’s basically a Sunca host （HK/China based)
If i remember correctly that is usd 30 or so on Taobao.
6 million lux should be doable. The hotspot might look pretty yucky though.
My 13” Sunca head host, you’d have to do some DIY work and run some wires out to a PSU, some SLAs or some 4-6S RC Lipo packs.
My version, was able to get 3.8M cp with careful focussing, with a 55W bulb with 3-4mm gap and 100W ballast but probably running on about 80W output (maybe even lower) due to huge battery sag on its 12V 5.5AH SLA. It would give higher output watts when running at the upper end of its 12-24V working range when I connect it to an external PSU. : 13-inches Humongous reflector HID host found (final reading of about 3.8M cd)
Some other guy’s version. He got 2.6M cp on his host and 100W ballast, not sure which bulb was used. :
Sanmak SM5500 13" 100W HID Superthrower | Taschenlampen Forum
Not very practical in reality, but it would be fun for meetups and still doable on a reachable budget + not needing extreme technical skills.
Don’t expect much for such low costs stuff, but for shits and giggles, comfortably over 3000m throw distance (ANSI) for comfortably below usd 500 is doable and still remaining decently portable. SLA Battery also needs to be swapped out for say a 5S 5000mAh Lipo pack.
Ok i searched a bit, the Maxa Beam MBS-410 current gen is 12M cp.
So nope, technically my method would not be able to hit that. I suspect i’d be able to hit 5-6M cp, vs the 1st gen Maxa Beam.
IIRC second gen was 7.5M cp?
Some more interesting lights. But will be below 5 Mcp unless you really push it past 2X the rated power and assuming the reflector is not warped (the bigger the reflector, the easier it is to warp it, built to a certain price point). Basically these are car HID stuff.
Unfortunately still too expensive to try. Not worth it at this price, even with access to pretty low cost shipping over here in my part of the world.
You are basically paying an additional rmb 400 for the host body + lights, connectors, a 100mm and 80mm fans, cable, bag.
A bare bones naked18cm reflector diameter + 300W ballast + tripod mounting hardware combo can be had for about rmb 200.
Beam quality. Typical HID stuff, looks decent, but not going to be very focused for 20cm mass produced reflector so i don’t think it can hit 5M cp. More like 2M cp.
Interesting 
Looks like a used 410 is a lot bang for the bucks still tho.
I simply can’t get the maxabeam out of my head… It seems like it’s the best thrower out there but I find it strange that there is no reviews to find about it. Same goes with YouTube videos… Isn’t it strange that something that’s known as the best thing out there have so little reviews and tests?
So tempted to get one and weld a nice 18650 pack for it for longer run times 
Plenty of reviews/tests over on CPF.
I must be bad at searching then. I can’t find anything but a few discussions about it.