My little review on some LEP throwers.

Hello all,
I’m just doing a review of some lights that I offered to give a review about.
A little back story, I was made aware of a new LEP thrower on eBay that was called a Titan-X75.The spec’s seemed really good to me, claiming it could throw 7500 meters (ANSI) had a 10W laser diode and having a head diameter of 90mm, since it was in Australia (as I am) I thought I’d give one a go and take 1 for the team as there was quite some discussion about it. The seller is professional and does have some good products for sale and has a good sellers rating too.

I was a little disappointed that the X75 didn’t beat the Acebeam W30 that I have. I understand that LEP’s, after doing some measurements myself, are hard to measure as the point of culmination varies so much because of the fact that LEP’s use an Aspheric front lens to magnify the beam down to a point. So say for example, you adjust the focus for the tightest spot to measure on a meter at a given distance (say using ANSI standards), then you find that when you then shine the beam way out further to look at something for the purpose you bought it for, and not just nerdy bragging rights, the beam might not be at the desired focus, as to me it seems to take some distance for the beam to mature to the point you want. Not only am I a fellow Nerd/flashoholic/hobbyist, I actually use my lights for real word uses, so I have real world experience.
It’s worth mentioning, from my experience (for LEP lights that is) that quality of the beam sometimes is better than just sheer pin point throw, and “thinking” you have the best thrower on paper.
I have found that a slightly over or under focused LEP beam is better than the sharpest narrowest spot, relaxing your eyes so you actually see more details for real life use.
While I’m on that topic, though some of these LEP’s can throw over 1km, yes you can use the beam to identify a subject at over 300 meters but in reality after 300m we need binoculars just to really see any detail of what we are viewing, so that’s where beam quality/shape comes in - can you really see what you want/need to see if the beam quality/shape is not relaxing to the eye.
I did have my eye on that X30 but thought I didn’t want to spend that much in case it was not the thrower that it claimed. I offered to review it if he wanted me too as I told him that lights are a hobby and I have been collecting and using them for over 25 years. To which they have accepted my offer, which IMO is generous - thanks to LimeLight.
LimeLight sent me 4 lights to test, 3 LEP and 1 mini COB keychain light, plus the one I bought, the X75.

Bare in mind photo’s are hard to do at night of a small dot of light and to get the exposure right - But I got them as close as it looked to me - Also it was a very heavy moist night with drizzle rain/haze/mist as it’s winter here and we have snow.

Ok, lights I tested:



X10 is a 2 in one tactical LEP with a IR LEP that both are zoomable at the same time. It has a soft press SS tail switch with a control ring at the base of the head that has 3 clicks, left is white LEP on, middle off/standby, right click is IR on. You twist the head to focus the beam. The manufacturer doesn’t indicate wavelength of the IR, but I’m assuming it’s 940nm-ish as you can only just barely see it when on if you put your eye close up to it. The tail switch when pressed no matter what output you used last, just cycles to the next output High/Med/Low/Strobe. The only way to guarantee the high level you want to come onto is to use the rotary switch as it will always come on high, so that is the way to make it tactical. Also if you leave the light on in standby via the control ring, parasitic drain will drain the battery over a day or so.The X10’s IR function when activated focuses with the head the same way by twisting the head for focus, narrow or wide. I have 2 other IR torches, one is an eagletac 3 led wide beam drop in, so it is only good for flood, so I didn’t include it in the pictures. the other one is a DIYCON Predator-IR, HL1, (I think it’s the same as the Microfire predator HL1) anyway I think it has a Osram IR led, not sure if it’s the 940nm or the 850nm version (forgot) but I can see a red glow. The predator is supposed to throw 400 meters with a gen3 night scope. So here is a comparison of the X10 vs HL1 @ 250 meters with my Hikmicro Gyphon Thermal monocular that has night vision built in as well.

The X10 throws quite well if you need an IR illuminator.
HL1 @ 250 meters.

X10 @ 250 meters IR wide.

X10 @ 250 meters IR narrower.

X10 @ 250 meters IR narrowest setting.

X10 beam White beam shot on tightest focus @ 75 meters.

X15 is a LEP zoomie and as it has a bigger exit lens than the X10 so it does throw further. Both the X10 and X15 have glass lenses, not plastic, which is nice. The X15 seems to me to be only painted as the tiniest bump chips the paint, but that doesn’t change anything just the looks. It has a rear clickie switch, and always comes on at the next output level in the sequence High/Med/Low/Strobe no matter how long it stays on or off, as in it seems to remember the last mode then just goes to the next output when turned on, making it more of a general light not tactical as you never know what you are going to get (like a box of chocolates :0)


X15 beam shot @ 75 meters.


X75 is a LEP with a fixed focus for maximum throw. It uses 2x 26650 batteries that are supplied with a charger in a waterproof ABS case. It only has one mode and that is High with an on/off tail switch. IMO this light would make a good Search and rescue light as there are no heat issues like all the smaller LEP’s have) and will have a real long runtime. The light is big enough to dissipate heat but small enough to carry.

X75 @ 250 meters.

X75 @ 530 meters.

X30 is a beast of a light, weighs heaps, and has no heat issues. I can’t look inside but must have some massive amount of batteries in there. It has a big handle, no strap and no tripod mount, but any shoulder strap could be easily tweaked to make it work. It comes in an aluminium with foam insert case with a charger that twist/couples onto the end of the light - the light on charger is red then goes green when charged. The charger is 100-240vac 50-60Hz 18.2v @ 2 amps. When the head is twisted the laser module slides forward or back on a rail internally to adjust focus, most LEP’s, when you twist the head, it changes the distance between the aspheric exit lens and the light source.

X30 @ 250 meters.

X30 @ 515 meters for the font pole and 605 meters for the back pole.

X30 @ 530 meters.




I used this meter to test, set on LUX.

I’ll mention the settings I used. I may not know the exact equation output figures, but I know you guys are the math guru’s that will give the proper interpolation. I use the meter to see the general difference in output at a given distance, but to me the eye does not lie in real world use.
I threw in a few of my other lights too for comparison.
Meter turned on at 20000 setting.

X10 @ 10 meters = 133
X15 @ 10 meters = 153
Notigon DM1.12 - just the single centre channel throw optic @ 10 meters = 82

Still meter set at the 20,000 setting, I changed the distance as the heavy hitters blew out the meter @ 10 meters.
X75 @ 30 meters = 85
X30 @ 30 meters = 429
Acebeam W30 @ 30 meters = 107
Acebeam K75 @ 30 meters = 120
MK38(SFT40) @ 30 meters = 25

OK, I tried some at 20 meters on a higher setting, 50,000.

X75 @ 20 meters = 16
W30 @ 20 meters = 20
X30 @ 20 meters = 107

Now try at 10 meters on 50,000 setting on the meter.

X75 @ 10 meters = 130
W30 @ 10 meters = 160
X30 @ 10 meters = 674

Not that I think it is a fair comparison as there are so many factors, IE spread/reflection/focus and that’s why they use an integrated sphere (which I don’t have) to measure lumen output - but a ceiling bounce is a kind of a way to compare lights side by side, so I did some.
X10 = 18
X15 = 30
X75 = 24
W30 = 39
X30 = 77

Some pictures of the 3 lights together the X75/W30/X30 @ 30 meters.

X30 @ 100 meters on wide beam.

Looking forward to your opinions and questions.
Oh yeah the other little light LimeLight sent was this one.



It is a solid aluminium keychain COB led EDC light. It has a carabiner at the top and a built in stand & a strong magnet too to attach to metal. It has a USB-C charge port, and a side switch that with a click turns on at 60, then when clicked again cycles to 30 then strobe, then off. while on, if you hold in the switch it goes to 100% then one more click turns it off. It doesn’t say how many lumens but I would guess 40-50. It’s quite a well built light at $25AUD - good for keys/glove box/emergency. It has a red led while charging that turns green when charged. also another handy thing I noticed is you can still use it while it’s charging, so you could use it with a battery pack for a huge runtime for camping/fishing.

I will be tweaking the post over time as there was so much work and was hard to get the format just right.

Hmm the format of the photos is just so stuffed up - I’ll come back and try as I’ve been at it for hours :rage:

Thanks for sharing these tests! That X30 performs pretty good ! :D

Sorry for all the stuff up of photo’s, they were all over the place and some were wrong - hopefully they are OK now.

I’ll repeat what I added to the review - Bare in mind photo’s are hard to do at night of a small dot of light and to get the exposure right - But I got them as close as it looked to me - Also it was a very heavy moist night with drizzle rain/haze/mist as it’s winter here and we have snow.

The meter shows x10 on that setting, so 4290 lux.

Using Lux to candela (cd) conversion calculator to convert lux at a distance to candela, that’s 3,861,000 cd (about 3.93km throw).

Using the 20m reading, you get 4,280,000 cd

That X30 has caught my eye while web browsing before but I figured the claimed spec’s were bogus. Nice to know it’s a solid performer. Chunky bit of aluminium too. How much is RRP ?

I forgot to put the spec sheet in, it’s done now and it’s $2560AUD. Yes it is a big chunk of Alu, and it doesn’t get hot - no need for fan or step down.

The only possible rivals I can see is the Acebeam W50, costs more throws less.
The Microfire OptiSpire S50, more than twice the price and from beam shots I saw doesn’t throw as far.
The Maxtoch OwlEyes W Pro, throws less but cheaper and would get hot.

2.4 miles of throw for about $1730 US…the W50 does 2.4 miles (and some change) for about $2300 US, but we all know it’s unobtainable at the moment unless you know someone in the Chinese military or a very generous friend who works at Acebeam. That X30 is the closest regular folks with deep pockets can get to a W50-levels of performance. Or just get the OwlEyes Pro.

Okay,
It dawned on me when I was at work, I was thinking because the X30 is focusable and not fixed focus like almost all the other LEP’s out there, then logically if I focus the beam down to the tightest sweet spot when measuring, that would give the correct output at a given distance.
Soooo, I set the meter to the 20,000 LUX setting @ 20 meters, locked the reading so it would record the max output, adjusted the light optics to the furthest setting in then wound out the optics till they made a wide beam - so I know at some point I got the pin point sweet spot (if I had 2 people I could do it easier) - so the new reading I got was 1096 (@ 20 meters on 20,0000 setting on the meter)
So using the math I’m thinking it’s now getting 4384000cd - and that’s with not topping up the battery after extensively testing the light the other night and I was running it for about 5-10 minutes before the test as well - also I know my meter is a very cheap old very average one so a better quality one would give a way more accurate measurement, but is good enough to test outputs between lights.

I think I might go get a professional meter tomorrow (I hope) to make the readings more accurate.
It was windy/cold/foggy air and was a guts effort, but I managed to get some long night shots in.

Distance 1241 meters.

Distance 1789 meters.

And the extra long one is 2908 meters

OMG for that kind of money it’s a good thing it performs well… :confounded:

Okay, bought a good meter and did a test of the X30 - so I got 810lux @ 30 meters = 729000cd - 729000 x 10 (as it was on the 10x setting) = 7290000cd yay! even better - defiantly a keeper.

OK, new output figures with the new meter that was suggested by the seller, Dr Meter LX1330B - I also used a laser range finder for distance.

KCD taken @ 30 meters:

X10 = 81,000cd

X15 = 108,000cd

X75 = 1.314,000cd

X30 = 7,290,000cd

Threw in my Acebeam W30 for interest/comparison = 1,566,000cd

Thanks for the reviews, I’m very interested in LEPs but just taking my time and seeing what’s around.