The first time I did a direct drive on the XP-G2 it was an accident. I walked outside and turned it on and was like wow this sucker can throw. Then I went to switch modes and realized what I had done. The first time I used a bigger hole on a thrower was on a Trustfire T8 with the Huge head. I put an XM-L2 in it and at the advice of a couple of members I drilled the hole out until I got the hotspot that really worked well. So I figured I would try the XP-G2 in a XML because of the bigger hole and it worked. I have drilled out a Small Sun ZY-T08 with a de-domed L2 and a Jacobs A60 and it helped on focus both of them. The Small Sun modded now throws almost as far as the T8-SST50 stock.
I have tried taking beam shots but I stink at it. I might try and talk my wife into taking some for me. She knows her way around a camera better than I do. I am pretty much a point and click guy.
I think I’m going to be buying a lux meter soon. I could always at least take pics of that.