40 metre beamshots - Lots of large pictures

The ones I left at home were the ones I couldn't find or didn't work. And all the supermarket plastic 2D ones.

Here are some more

Roe Deer stag. They are about the same size as the assistant and she wanted to play with them. They could run a LOT faster than her. He was accompanied by his harem of four does.

Here's one of the does.

Didn't see any deer this visit, it has been a very unusually hard winter and I suspect that most of the local population have died. They are quite common, even in urban areas but are often very hard to see. There are roe deer living in the hospital grounds that I work but I have only seen them when I've been working through the night - the earliest I've seen them was 2am.

And you may just recognise this one.

In the week I was there, the squirrels consumed about 20kg of groundnuts. Watching a squirrel at a bird feeder is hilarious.

Even the assistant enjoyed watching them - and she probably can't see out of her left eye (She's ten years old and has a very bad cataract in her left eye). Here she is raptly watching the squirrels.

She is a beautiful giant schnauzer. Until she was five years old she was a show dog and has prizes from big shows, including Crufts. Now she's a full-time mutt. Who wants to empty herself roughly every two hours at night.

Great job and awesome shots!! I really appreciate your work! That XML from Manafont is just crazy...

Great topic and photos Don, I loved the place and the beamshots.

Also I am a little happier now that I read it because I am waiting four MF XML dropins and in your pictures it looks much better than the KD one (which probably is my best p60 dropin until now).

I wonder if you got a really good one from Manafont or a bad one from KD? Some people have been saying they weren't impressed with the KD light, but I have the Manafont and KD both and they both seem really bright, though I might give the edge to the Manafont. Plus the Manafont skips the flashy modes. Maybe I'll do some comparison shots. Not that it would necessarily be of much use to new buyers since they have changed the board on the KD T6 since I got it.

This dropin is great: http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=11096 . Mine pulls something less than 3A.

This sucks: http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=11106 . Mine pulls about 0.7A on an AW18650 and 0.35A on two AW18650.

that's why i'm trying to get don to weigh in on the tailcap draw of his kd drop-in..my kd drop-in draws 3.2-3-3a and is just as bright as my solarforce masterpiece which is accurate at 700 lumens..that manafont drop-in looks twice as bright as the kd one which we all know to the human eye equals 4x the lumens..things aren't matching up here..there's no way it's a 2800 lumen drop-in..

The KD one is still extremely bright, but I do feel it isn't as bright as it ought to be. Even the KD one pretty much renders every incandescent light below 30W pointless. There are a few folks here with lightboxes and (hopefully) the KD dropin so with luck we'll find out.

Thanks for the beautifull pictures. Great squirrell shots! :) The squirrel on the fence is now my desktop background. :)

The huge collection of outdoor beamshots is very impresive. Thanks.

Thank you Don for this great job. It's awesome to take a look at so many beamshots. Now I know, that it was a good decision to buy the 2 drop-ins XM-L of Manafont - hope they will ariive as soon as possible.

Well, this thread managed to crash my phone and I don't just mean my phone's browser - I mean, the phone itself: hard reboot, "you don't seem to be in your timezone so here's twenty questions" wizard and all. :D And I have got to say it was well worth it. :)

Thanks, Don, and welcome back! :)

That Varapower 2000 really does put out a lot of light, the beam shot really could pass for an average day time photo.

I've got one of the KD XM-L dropins, when the light is focused with an aespheric lens so you can see the details of the emiter, I can see that the light given off is not even.

There are darker areas on a couple of the five bars (complete mental block on the right word) that make up the XM-L.

It would have been much easier to post a picture, but sadly for the moment I'm not quite sure where I've hidden my 28mm aespheric.

it is awesome anyway you took so many beamshots with you, maybe you not only took a trip but also make some experiments. cheers!

I took a couple of pictures of my KD (first version, reviewed here) and Manafont Ultrafire XM-L drop-ins. The KD came with a OP reflector, but I swapped in a smooth one to match the Ultrafire one. The output seems comparable, but I think the reflectors are still a little different, so you see a different beam pattern. Probably need to take the pictures over again using the same reflector on both pills. The mouse out is the Ultrafire, and the mouseover is the KD drop-in.

Both of these drop-ins have noticeable PWM. In this picture, the Manafont Ultrafire is on the left and the KD is on the right. Looks to me like the Ultrafire has a little bit higher PWM rate. But either way you shouldn't be able to see separate dots.

I ordered an XM-L drop-in from Manafont a few days ago. Tonight I see this thread and hurry back to check if the "Ultrafire" drop-in I ordered was the same SKU as the blazing howitzer in these beam shots. I just about yelled out loud when I saw the 5720 on my order. I came this close to getting that strobe one. The Ultrafire name threw me and I almost didn't get it.

Don, you are the man. I'm gonna have the brightest L2P on the planet!

Foy

Sorry for the long delay in measuring. Kept forgetting about it. Just measured it at 2.285A and 3.153A on the Manafont one. The Manafont one may be being driven too hard for the longevity of the LED.

no problem Don..appreciate the work..and the readings show that your kd is a tad underdriven comparable to others (my kd is 3.2a)..not that that's a bad thing like you said because you get longer led longevity, added runtime and decreased heat..I rarely use my xml on high and prefer the medium (1.2a) for most things..nice that things added up though..had your kd read 3a I would have been really confused with the output difference..

I'm going to jump in here and say that the beautiful beam shots in this post are largely responsible for spurring me into this madness, especially when I saw the XML compared to everything else.

Good stuff, this and nice to see the assistant again.

hismusicvideosarecooltooFoy

Welcome back mate.

We'vereallymissedyou

Welcome back Foy

back, Kotter Foy!