Are NW comparable dimmer than CW for naked eye?
IO does say that the NW is slightly less bright that the CL. What I said in the review was that the hardly noticeable difference in output is a small price to pay for having colors rendered more accurately.
Foy
Thanks Foy again for an informative review. Just by coincedence I have just recieved my first P60 components today from MF, Ultrafire 3 mode T6 drop in and a 504B host. Are you planning outdoor shots? What colour would you suggest the Ultrafire dropin is compared to the IOS dropins. Thanks.
Nice pics & reviews. How do you think the Ultrafire is brighter & decent price as well?
Nice work Foy. I think you made me buy at least one.
The NW XM-L T6 will be ca. 7% dimmer, than the CW XM-L U2 and as bright as a common XM-L T6 CW.
This 7% difference is hardly noticeable by the eye.
Good review, Foy.
I have just the CW version and it's the brightest P60 drop-in I have and one of my brighter XM-Ls for sure. It's a little bluish for my liking, but is certainly intense. The only thing that kinda irks me is that ever so often, it takes a split-second longer to come on when the button is clicked in. Hardly a bother though.
When a fire alarm went off at the facility where I work, this thing got a good workout with a 35-minute run on medium. No dimming and tremendous output. It did get quite hot to the touch!
Now I'm interested in a NW one.
Foy,
Thanks for the detailed review.
I have come to the same conclusion regarding tint and color rendering. I used to be a pure lumen junkie (hey, that sounds like a great username!) but have since discovered a preference of either NW or even WW over the sometimes harsh CW tints of XPG and XML emitters. Pure lumen output is not necessarily the whole story when it comes to the "best" illumination, whether outdoors, or especially indoors. Unfortunately, many, if not the majority, of the overseas budget manufacturers default to the cooler tints (6000K), along with the annoying strobe and SOS modes.
Great job, Foy, thanks for taking the time.
Next step -High CRI
Good review Foy. Two things, can you show a pic of the solder joints where the driver leads attach to the star and how are the drivers fastened into the pill? I see a couple of tiny solder joints in the holes of two of the dropins but none on the other.
Very interesting review, Foy! Thanks a lot for mentioning this option in P60 dropins. Pity it's rather expensive, but as you mentioned, relatively speaking it's a very reasonable price.
Frontpage'd and Sticky'd.
"Foy Finally Discovers Neutral White" .... better late than never, but before you go all out on neutral... buy some high CRI emitters. It's a natural progression CW->NW->HC.
+1 on all that. Foy - thanks for the review!
I never used to think much about tint, until I got to see a few different tints in the T6 and immediately saw how it affected what I perceived about tints. It's interesting if you can get several tints and look at them for yourself, not on a white wall, but outside in the real world. I like some of the NW, but I'm ending up being on the border, where the white is really white without blue bleeding into it. Oddly enough, inside the house I prefer a NW bordering on warm. The incandescent look.
"The Best Illumination" for anyone, is with your own eyes. It's the only way to figure it out. You can look at photos all day, but you have to try them out on your own, to know what you like. It's a very individual thing.
Thanks, Foy. A great (and very useful) review.
thanks for the review Foy! I also got my neutral and I agree with your statements..also would like to add a pro to these drop-ins..lack of PWM or too high of a frequency to detect..this thing is worth 23$ and i'm really starting to dig the neutral..
Thanks for the review Foy!
I like it but I'll stick with the cheaper 3 mode manafont drop-in's in which I have 3 that haven't let me down yet. Maybe if the price drops a bit I'll have to give them a try since I just ordered 2 more ultrafire wf-501a's.
Another one here too, very pleased so far. Little blemish on the emmiter also but not crack like, more chip.
LOL, nice to see some other folks jumping onto the NW ship.
I sort of look at Cool White as going hand-in-hand with SOS and strobe modes. The brightness (glare) and blinky modes impress non-flashaholics, but the folks in the know prefer a more realistic tint and no blinkies. Just my opinion, but I think it is part of the flashaholics journey from the "wow, is that ever bright" stage to the "I really like the way that beam looks, and its tint" stage.
lang - I briefly tried to remove the brass cover for a peek inside. I guess that's why I bought three; so I could accidently de-dome one but I like these so much . . . I also want a look inside so, I will be taking off one of the covers, soon.
I knew comparison questions to sku 5720 were inevitable but the truth is; they are two entirely different products. One is not "better," in my opinion. My affection for the UF XM-L from Manafont is well documented and I still think it should be one of the first P60 modules a newbie gets. This drop-in from IO has a different purpose and is perhaps aimed at a different user.
If you're like me (perish the thought) and have a bevy of CW modules, all purchased with lumens/amps expectations, this is a not-so-expensive way to broaden your understanding a bit. Tint differences can be subtle and I'm starting to believe it's a progression for some people that can only be fully appreciated after wading through an ocean of cool white brightness/sameness.
I poo-pooed it for a long time but I was wrong. Tint matters. Everything we see is the result of light reflecting from the object we are looking at. The color, tone, contrast, tint and yes, even the brighteness determines how we perceive what we are seeing. Like all light, any beam from a flashlight changes the color of what we are seeing. We use a fancy word like "render" but it's perfect. I have a WW that renders everything bright gold. I hate it. Nearly all my Manafont XM-Ls wash everything brilliantly white. Under a dark car where I absolutely need serious lumens and nothing else, I love it. But around the house or, walking the dog for example, I want a green bush to stay green. With these drop-ins, in pitch-black dark my yellow cat "Ted" looks about like he does during the day. That's a pretty neat trick and I like it. I like it a lot.
Foy