Well I Just Ordered An Elektro Lumens ST90 Search&Rescue Extreme Flashlight

More interesting comparison would be against Trustfire X6 and “50w”+ HID’s.

Waiting for the 4xAA version :stuck_out_tongue:

Congrats on the purchase, I’m sure its worth the money.

Beamshots anyone? I do have the X6 & HID… it’s on holiday sale for 199.99 instead of the 259.99. Makes me really want to get one.

Will do. But that won’t be a very fair comparison. Nothing I have seems to touch that light.

And yes I will compare it to the TK70 and K40.

We all know that there is not just one light for us. Its a never ending journey that is never satisfied. LOL.

Congrats, I have always had my eye on this bad boy. Cant wait for your impressions of it.

ILF, if your neighbor won't move his pickup truck for your beamshots, you can just burn a hole through it with this beast.

Bleh…! Does not have a carry clip! J)

Congrats on your purchase! :bigsmile:

Can you do 300m & 500m beamshots? would be awesome.

That’s probably right. LOL!

Thanks a lot guys for the congrats. I have been wanting this light since I first seen it. I called my buddy Rick this morning and ask him what I should do between buying this Electro Lumens ST90, the triple XM-L TK70 look alike shorter clone that Ric at China Quality Goods had, or the TN31 that ThruNite was offering to us here. I told him which one I was leaning towards which was the Elektro Lumens and he agreed. The only thing that it had against it really was the weight at about close to 4lbs. But like Rick said and I told him the TK70 weighs 3lbs with batteries and it don’t bother me one bit. Heck I carried it down to the subdivision lake once which is probably about 500yds there and back and never noticed the weight. But when your used to packing a 8lb shotgun around the turkey woods, 4lbs is a relief believe me.

I’m am more excited on this light waiting for it to get here than what I was when I bought the TK70. And I can’t tell you how much I love that light. It’s just incredible. And it’s probably my best LED thrower so far. But the K40 I will admit is just so much more practical to handle and carry, and it throws just about as good. But I can’t wait to see what this ST90 will do to that horse barn at 445yds and all the area in front of it. It ought to even go a lot farther than that very easily according to what Wayne told me. I believe him. That’s why I bought it.

I’ll show you some at 445 yds.

nice can’t wait. Kinda stuck on another HID, BTU Shocker or this for Christmas.

There’s a lot of cons to HID’s. There’s the dreaded warmup. The bulbs can’t take the abuse of being bumped around like an LED. A lot shorter bulb life. They get hotter than all get out. Plus the turning them off and back on quickly after they are once hot drastically reduces your bulb life. All this for some better throw I just don’t see the benefits vs what you lose in return. I guess that’s why I don’t own a HID yet.

ILF, allow me to give you some new knowledge regarding HIDs backed up by first hand experience!

  • The dreaded warm up - This depends entirely on what you’re using it for, if it’s to check the backyard you’re using it wrong. An 85W eBay HID gives off 5300 OTF lumens and 225k cd. This is not for indoor use (although I use it to stun bugs before swatting). The warm up takes around 15-20 seconds. Which doesn’t matter at all if you’re going to use it for night fishing/hiking/setting up a tent/search and rescue. That being said, a HID is not very versatile for someone who won’t use it for their job.
  • The bulbs can’t take the abuse of being bumped around like an LED - Let me prove you wrong on this. Before I destroyed my Jacob A60, I did a drop test. Since I bought a 4300k bulb for my HID I had a spare 6000k bulb. I bought a new body for $20 in order to settle this with hard information. I installed the 6000k bulb in the empty body shell and left it without a battery. I also left the Jacob A60 batteryless. So far, both HID and LED light were an empty body, except for the insides which are an emitter and a driver for the A60.

I systematically dropped both in increments of 50cm. After I reached 2 meters I stopped due to the lens on the new HID body shattering. I put in batteries, and both were fine. These were dropped onto concrete. I hope this puts the myth that ‘HID bulbs are weak’ to rest.

  • They get hotter than all get out - I’m not sure what this means, but yes they do get hot. the head will reach 80C after 10 minutes, and the lens 130C.
  • turning it on for short bursts reduces the life of the bulb - Is there evidence to back this claim?

While it indeed does throw better and has more brightness it only shines when used for long periods of time, due to its 90 minute runtime. I actually tested and got 93 minutes, so that’s quite good. A HID is not something that you will use as an EDC or a toy to play with when you’re bored.

If you ignored everything else, just remember this feilox; a HID is not something you can play with when you’re bored and just flash on for short periods of time because of the warm up time. I made this mistake when I bought it. Get the BTU shocker even though it’s more expensive, because it is much more versatile and has so many more uses.

Drop it while it’s hot and see what happens… J)

I dropped it at 1.3 meters onto tiles in the backyard (pretty much like concrete) accidentally after being turned on for 20 minutes. Only a dent in the body. This was when I first got it.

Well most bulb life for HID’s is around 2000 hrs or so, but turning one on and off for short uses probably does decrease the life to much shorter than the 2000hr avg. They get very hot and will melt a lot of stuff from the bulb heat so you have to watch where you put them or store them in once hot. Turning one on and back on once hot I read that it is very hard on the bulb and will shorten its life. True they will out last a halogen bulb, but won’t come close to the life of an LED. Some will have a safety feature preventing you from turning the light back on until it has time to cool back down. I’m not saying they can’t be durable, but I don’t think they are as durable as an LED. And then you have to worry about the ballast if it goes bad. And a lot of HID bulbs are 6000k bulbs and are so blinding that you really can’t make out objects from the blinding hotspot. I’m sure they are cool for the wow factor of throw, but I’m sticking to LED technology for now.

I don’t understand the part where you said ‘and then you have to worry about the ballast if it goes bad’. The bulb is attached to the ballast. It’s just one unit. When replacing the bulb, you effectively replace the ballast too. And it’s around $30 to $40 for a new one.
Just tailstand the light if you don’t want it to melt anything.
And again, it’s easy and cheap to replace the 6000k bulb with a 4300k bulb. The 6000k isn’t even blinding, it’s dimmer than the 4300k bulb, unless you look directly into it then it’s a different story. The 4300k hotspot will only blind you if you shine it at a reflective object close to you or on a white object close to you.

Honestly, an LED may be more durable, but for what? Are you going to be dropping your lights from higher than 2 meters? That’s taller than 6 feet.

But as I said before, a HID is entirely dependent on the intended use. If you see 2100’s pictures of his tk70 vs his 65W eBay HID you will realise it’s only meant for outdoors. LED lights are still entirely satisfactory for outdoor use, but if you want something a little more, you’ll want to go HID without breaking the bank.

Ok I see your point. And maybe one day I will try a HID. My understanding is the 4300K bulb tint is more lighter in color like natural sunlight.

6000k is a more pure white colour. 4300k is indeed like natural sunlight.

6000k is a bit blueish. 5000k is considered as pure white. 4300k has slight yellow tint.