It looks like they’re using a single 30mm to 40mm radial fan. They also made it easily accessible by 2 external screws. This should make it easier to clean dust as well as to replace a fan that gets damaged or stops working.
Notice that Imalent is using non-anodized shoulder strap attachment points on the body and tail. Most manufacturers don’t so you scratch up the body; I’m glad someone is finally doing it right.
The heat sink I describe is finned… It is not a new idea to use a CPU heatsink for a LED; many folks do it here, even I used one for a COB light project.
But think how large a heatsink for just a 100W CPU is.
I was under the impression this was an open forum for the good and the bad. Everything I have seen mentioned on the negative spectrum has been true. If it is “trolling” to give an honest opinion about a product, it certainly must be the ultimate “troll” to market a light as xxx amount of lumens when really it doesn’t reach that mark or come close. If a company doesn’t want to be called out for advertising false numbers, they shouldn’t advertise their products with an increase in output that doesn’t exist.Same goes for fairness. It’s not fair to the consumer who purchases anything and only gets 75% of what is promised. Would you buy that fiat if it only came with 3 wheels and delivered 75% of the horsepower?
However, that does not mean they don’t make bright powerful lights. They absolutely do, their lights are impressive and I don’t think anyone is saying otherwise.
Martin It just so happens that we’re talking about an Imalent light here but I think there’s a growing consensus that’s getting a little tired of marketing hyperbolae… Now if a light was marketed as having a sustained 36k lumens, with a 100k lumen boost mode, I’d find that impressive. But I have my doubts it could even sustain 36k for an appreciable amount of time. Don’t get me wrong; I’m cool with turbo and I personally don’t need it for extended times.
I think if Christian von Koenigsegg says his car will produce 1100bhp, you can be assure it will. But it’s a 7-figure price of entry.
This more or less is the same marketing used in the DIY automation industry, as far as steppers and servos are concerned. Servos have a rated continuous power and RPM. Steppers are rated at their stall torque, which is the highest torque the stepper can produce. But that’s at stand still at full current. But most modern stepper drives decrease current at stand still to reduce heat, thus the torque is reduced. And larger steppers have a faster drop in torque at speed than smaller steppers. So many newbies buy steppers based on their stall torque only not looking at a torque/speed graph and wonder why they have ill-performing machines. Doesn’t stop the manufactures from duping the uninformed.
Here it’s exactly the same. For those that know this is at best a 7000-8000 lumen flashlight with an insane 100k lumen turbo, they’ll be happy. For a newbie enthusiast that thinks they’re getting a 100k lumen light, well there’s going to be a lot of disappointment.
My DX80 is one of my favorite lights and likely always will be. I had suspected until yesterday that it had one of the best available sustained outputs. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the results compared to the X65. 6000 lumen output until battery exhaustion is the best passive cooling sustained output flashlight.
Imalent initially launched a botched product, incurred massive expenses recalling all units and completely re-designing the head. The resulting re-design turned out to be one of the best flashlights ever. I hoped that they’d learned from their mistakes and it seems like they did as I haven’t seen a whole lot of complaints coming from the MS12.
The most disappointing thing was when I learned about how significantly they overstated the actual output of the MS12 and R90C. Imalents DN70 flagship had an extremely high amount of issues, their next flagship the DX80 was a total recall, their next flagship the MS12 appears to finally be of good quality and this is when a brand wrought with controversy decided to begin massively overstating their products performance results.
I love my DX80, I love the price I paid and I do genuinely like Imalent and hope they succeed. I just can’t understand why they keep purposefully destroying their reputation!
I’m sure guys Martin gets your point, he’s asking for one thread without quickly devolving into thread crapping. He’s made it very clear that he disagrees with you that all opinions so far have been fair and constructive. As an example, Skylumen/Vinh was brought up in this thread to compare to the MS18 output by a friend of Vinhs who appears IMO to shill for him every chance they get. I have had multiple poor experiences with Skylumen, they’re no longer even on my radar, and so have others, but there are times to mention that, not every single time he comes out with something. I didn’t post once in Vinh’s “introductory” thread over here, only in threads relevant to lights where I had a personal experience. I own an Imalent R90C and I have compared it and disagree with those who say it can’t hit the numbers it claims. If you felt the need to defend yourself, that should tell you something, and if you’re that wary, stay away until after the reviews and let the newbies do their own research and make up their own minds, I mean it didn’t even hit the streets yet.
For 9 emitters to produce 20,000 lumen each one has to put out 2,222 lumen (OTF). The best XHP35-HI with plenty of power behind it can only do maybe 2,000 lumen (OTF) and Imalent is not using the best leds (highest bins) and they have to share power from 4 x 20700 cells. When Vestureofblood recently measured the lumens on his R90C he got about 16,000 and wondered if something was wrong. I think that’s about right, 1,800 lumen each is a more realistic number. That’s about what the BLF GT puts out at 2.5A.
So I don’t think it’s hitting it’s claimed lumen rating. On the other hand, it seems to be exceeding it’s throw rating.
I really don’t know much about the MS12’s output. I guess not many people that have one have a decently accurate way to measure it’s output.
The MS18 and Imalent are getting trolled I agree. Is it out of line though?
The thread is dedicated to their two new lights. There’ll be some discussion on how they work, how their new cooling system works which there is. The majority of the discussion however will be peoples opnions and potential buyers voicing either their concern or their support.
I swore to myself that once somebody came out with a flashlight that broke the 100k lumen barrier I would buy one. I hoped that 2019 would be the year and based on previous drops X70 & MS12 I expected around Nov 2019 we would get the next versions which may or may not reach 100k lumens. Two months into 2019 its announced that Imalent has done it.
The skepticism is well founded and aside from the straight up bashing that can happen it’s very relevant when I’m considering a small used boat motor or a flashlight because the price in CAD will be well over $700.
I dug up the actual figures on lumens as they’re very relevant:
DX80 stated 32,000 tested 25,401 difference 6,599 overstated by 26%
R90C stated 20,000 tested 15,207 difference 4,793 overstated by 32%
MS12 stated 53,000 tested 38,952 difference 14,048 overstated by 36%
everybody overstates but by comparison Acebeam is much closer:
X70 stated 60,000 tested 49,691 difference 10,309 overstated by 21%
If we look at the way Imalent is gradually increasing the percentage they’re overstating their lights it suggests that the MS18 will very likely be overstated by 40%
with 40% predicted overstatement this light would produce 71,400 lumens at turn on
Incase anyone doesn’t understand my math: 38952 is the MS12 output so the difference of 14048 that is added by imalent represents a 36% increase of the actual output 38952
Probably talking about me! That is ok,I speak the truth backed up by others and my experience.So it is EASY to use V54 as an example,and I do!
,Because his lights have MORE output than these manufacturers do, as they should.I simply pointed out that he crossed[legitimately] the 100K lumen mark before the aforementioned manufacturers.
You obviously are not fond of him[expressed above], so it is no surprise that if someone else is, it seems to bother you. 
Even if Imalent overstates their lumens by 30% and the MS18 peaks at just 70,000 lumens it would still hold the record for output in a production light. That’s still something to be proud of. Imalent has produced some flawed products in the past. However, kudos should be given to them for:
- Being extremely creative and innovative. For example: no other manufacturer ever came out with a variable tint light controlled via a slider on a touchscreen display like Imalent did several years ago.
- Pushing the envelope. They are one of the few manufacturers showing us just what is possible in terms of output with LEDs these days.
- Coming out with new models rapidly. It’s nice to see rapid releases and improvement. No waiting years for a new model from this manufacturer.
- Addressing issues when they are found. From reading this thread it looks like when issues were found with the MS12, they did a recall and incurred massive expense in redesigning the head to fix the problems. The resulting new light is impressive. Not every manufacturer would do that. They aren’t perfect, but their heart appears to be in the right place.
- They appear to be learning from their mistakes and some of their products are excellent.
Looking at the Imalent failure poll, I will never own one. 700.00 for a bulky, heavy light that probably is over rating it’s lumens, and is most likely not reliable is a non starter for me. I also don’t like lights that need a fan. Everyone thankfully can buy what they want, and for those who like this light, go buy several.
I also have no need for a gigantic light. My needs are more about what I can fit in my pocket.
But just because I’m not going to purchase a gigantic light doesn’t mean I’m not interested in seeing what’s happening at the cutting edge. It’s quite interesting watching manufacturers fight to produce the most lumens.
If my opinion was perceived as bashing that was not my intent. I don’t recall telling anybody not to buy one. But I stand by what I say and what I said is relevant. These things aren’t cheap. People need to be informed of possible issues before they go and spend $800+
That being said… Even if the MS18 only does 71000 lumens, that’s still incredible! I hope it hits 100k lumens and I’ll be the first to say that if it does, I’ll be in line to buy one myself.
Imalent seems like they’ve designed a head profile they like and are going to stick with it for many models. As someone else mentioned, a 12 cell set-up would be much better for a 100 000 lumen light.
how much would that thing weigh though? assuming they’d use the same head.
Would it also basically be as long as the infamous 6D maglight?
It’s pure business decision… They’ll “destroy” their reputation to a few hardcore enthusiasts and lose them, but gain a few sales from the uninitiated. Every business does a cost-benefit analysis, and unfortunately many bean-counters are not customer-relations experts. Or engineers.
I think the lights Imalent make are fine, even good, and they have enough WOW factor in them that there’s really no need for blatant false advertising. It’s like playing poker with two crooks - “You got 5 queens? I beat you with 7 jacks!” It’s almost like the manufacturers peruse these forums, get Texas Ace’s or koef3’s or maukka’s or whomever’s test results (that are done on a huge actively cooled heatsink) and multiply it by the number of emitters to come up with their numbers.
Take the DX80 for example. Yes there was a recall, but they got to have known they were shipping a defective product. It’s almost like taking a defective product, selling them as a way to raise money, then ship replacement parts afterwards. Not saying this was the case with the DX80, because things happen, but it makes you wonder if with more extensive testing, there would have not been as much a recall as there was.
I really like the crooked poker reference.
Seriously agree that there’s no need for the overstatement. This light might very well produce 70 000 lumens. Why not call it a 75 000 lumen light. LOL either way it’s still the KING
Kinda like: so I’ve built an oldschool muscle car dragster that has 1700 HP which is astonishing yet I decide to tell everyone it makes 2050 because I think it sounds better.
The difference is, the BLF light will come close to, or slightly exceed, its output and throw specs. The GT4 is not intended to be the swath of light this is. It’s intended for large down-the-range lighting.
That said, I think a higher powered version of VoB’s GT COB conversion would probably be a more useful and practical light than these mega multi-emitter lights.
I have not experienced any problems with my Imalent lights yet.
I tested two R90C in my TA lumen tube and they measure about 14k lumens at turn on with some light leakage because of the large head size so I estimate about 15k lumens. Light is still very impressive though but a bit disappointed that I bought it so soon since R90TS will likely be 30k lumens
I don’t have a problem with the flashlight itself nor concerned about it’s quality….because i will never buy one.
In an open forum, conversation will deviate and the OP should expect that. Also should expect the criticism of the product. Particularly if the claims are not backed by actual testing and proof.
I think there would be a different conversation in here if there was proof of 100,000 lumen running, even for a minute or so. Without proof, it’s legitime conversation to question the claims.
Just saying……