Beamshot comparison: Led Lenser X21R vs various modded lights (XP-G2@5A, XM-L2@5A, SRK@30+ watt etc etc) Picture heavy!

Beamshots time! Or even better mouseover time! :party:

Some music to go with the pictures.

Camera settings: 1 sec, F5, ISO 400, WB 5200k

My 9XM-L light is under a rebuild, so it did not participate. My little pocket rocket thrower (N-Light XT50) borrowed its emitter to another light, so that was not included either. X21R belongs to a friend.

Lights included in this beamshot comparison are seen below. First picture X21R on the right. Last picture. ZY-T619 on the left.


First set of pictures are close range (wide angle, 17mm focal lenght on APS-C):

First picture, Led Lenser X21R flood vs Led Lenser X21R zoom

Flood is ok, throw is where this light shines.

X21R vs SRK XM-L2 T4 5B1 (80+CRI) 3,1A to each emitter. 9+A total.

In terms of light output and flood, there is no competition. SRK kills it, when comparing flood vs flood that is.

SRK (9A+) vs SRK at 2,3@ to each emitter (close to 7A total). 2 emitters de-domed, color corrected with a red-ish emitter. More info here. I really like the beam profile of the SRK with 2 de-domed emitters. Its great for up-close stuff, but also have good reach without getting stupid hot that quickly.

SRK in previous shot vs Supfire M6 with SRK reflector and XP-G2s. More info about the XP-G2 light here. About 2,5A to each emitter.

As you can see, more throw.

XP-G2 M6 from previous shot vs a thrower. Uniquefire UF-6Xs. Sine I made that thread, I changed the emitter to XM-L2 T6 3A. 5amp to the emitter btw. Due to limited spill the thrower this is not as good for general purpose walking compared to the XP-G2 SRK/M6. Light output is less, and throw is not that much better. Yeah, I prefer 3x XP-G2 @ 2,5A each vs 5A XM-L thrower for most things. Especially when the thrower does not have a super wide reflector and can not fit in my pocket as easily.

Uniquefire from previous shot vs de-domed CW XM-L2 at 3,75A in a ZY-T13. This shows nicely the throw of a de-domed emitter. Remember, de-domed is around 3,75. Domed is around 5A. But the de-domed one, well, its only useful for long range IMO. And everything becomes a bit more yellow-greenish in terms of tint.

Now, what about de-domed XM-L2 @ 3,75A ZY-T13 from previous comparison vs de-domed XP-G2 @ 5,1A+ in a STL-V6 with a custom "copper pill". The XP-G2 is not 100% perfectly centered btw, but not far off. Im not that impressed by the XP-G2, but I rarely am impressed by these small emitters.

STL-V6 from previous shot (XP-G2 dedomed @5A+) vs a max driven XP-E2 dedomed (2,1A+). The XP-E2 is driven at up towards 2,8A. But the battery was used, so emitter current was down to about 2,1A when these shots were taken. XP-E2 sits in a Small Sun ZY-T619. Look at that tiny hotspot from the XP-E2.. lol.. When compared to XP-G2 at more than twice the current, well, no surprise the XP-E2 looks dim. That emitter and the reflector in the ZY-T619 does not match up well it seems.


LONG RANGE BEAMSHOTS. ZOOMED IN LENS, not wide angle. Treeline in the distance is about 120m. Same camera settings as before.

No mouse overs here...

X21R flood- beleive me, there are trees in the distance.

BOOM, there they are. X21R zoom

SRK, 9A+

SRK, the classic original driver circuit. But 2 dedomed XM-L2 and some tint mixing. Close/around 7A.

SRK- XP-G2, 7,5A

Uniquefire 5A XM-L2 T6 3B

ZY-T13 3,75A de-domed CW XM-L2

STL-V6 de-domed XP-G2 5A+ (and copper pill)

XP-E2 dedomed in ZY-T619 2,1A.


Bonus mouse overs:

X21R vs SRK XP-G2 (7,5A, 2 de-domed emitters)

X21R vs ZY-T13 de-domed XM-L2 3,75A

X21R vs XP-G2 @ 5A+

No doubt the XP-G2 will generate a nice lux number and throw longer. No doubt the X21R is more useful for most peoples type of long range use.


Thoughts

I have no plans of keeping the XP-G2 or XP-E2 in my large reflector high current throwers. But like most things when it comes to flashlights, I just had to try it out. I rarely prefer the smaller emitters unless the light is really small and current/reflector size is limited.

A modified SRK will spank the X21R when it comes to output in close/medium range. In will beat it in terms of runtime, it will crush it in terms of size. But when it comes to long range, the X21R pisses on most budget throwers, even the stuff that is modified. The light has got ok lux numbers, but not anything extreme, but because of a wide useable beam that have great reach, its impressive as a thrower. The light uses D-cell batteries and "outdated emitters". The X21R also got 3 different mode groups. Its got momentary. It can be adjusted to be regulated or not depending what output/battery life the user wants. Its got ramping. Its got a light showing when battery is low. ....Ok, modes are mediocre, there is no proper low, ramping is mediocre too, and the battery light is either green or red, saying its time to change batteries, so its not that great despite fancy features on paper. But its more sophisticated than most throwers.

Judging a light based on lux and lumen, well, it does not tell the whole story. Would I buy an X21R? no way! Various li-ion hotrods like the BTU, J19 etc will be much better throwers with much more impressive light output, and also much better reach. But still, what the big "old" X21R does, its impressive. And the light output it does, it can do that for more than one hour with basically no sag in output, which is something most of the typical "hot-rods throwers" can dream off.

Led Lenser X21R not recommended by me considering price, size and everything, but highly respected for what it is and can do.


Hope you found the beamshots interesting and useful..

:beer:

Nice work RaceR ! Also nice to see that the Led Lenser is still such a good performer. I have a small Led Lenser M5 with an XR-E in it, its performance is still very ok compared to more modern lights.

Thanks djozz. Im still amazed what 7 XR-E LEDs can do with the right optics.. In terms of throw that is..

Nice beamshots. Thanks

Thanks.



Edited first post btw. XP-E2 is de-domed.

Wow. This is an amazing thread. Love the segue way from one light to another. It provides a way to kind of mouse over 3 lights at once. What an awesome way to compare beam shots. This thread should be stickied.

Great thread, thanks for posting up the beamshots :).

Im glad you guys liked it. Hope the way I described the lights wasn't too messy.

yes, cool way of showing your beamshots man.
thanks for having the led lensor in here, ive been curious to see what it can do.
in flood mode, its very dissapointing. zoom mode is nice though esp. with all that light coming out too

Thanks for the shots RaceR86. Very nice comparisons.

great thread, thanks for sharing, I actually prefer the xp-g2 in most builds but I’ve not built an xm-l2 light in a while, I need to try a dedomed xm-l2 u2 in my convoy l2 for comparison purposes.

Thanks, great comparison.

I guess it’s also worth saying, that while the SRK’s easily out flood the X21R, the Led Lenser still seems to perform rather well in this regard too, making it highly versatile. Ok it’s big and heavy. But versatile in the fact you could use it say inside a warehouse, where a dedicated thrower wouldn’t be so handy. Yet it still retains the ability to kick ass one you get outside too.

What the budget community needs is an XP-G2 X21R running on an SRK sized battery tube but retaining the Led Lensers head and optics.

Thanx for the great beamshots!

X21 optics are easy to use and work well.

Yes, would be interesting to see a modded X21 vs the stock version. Lithium cells vs D cells would allow a nice cut-down, play with some LED upgrades and then see how it compares in both form and performance.

Now, where are those more affordable Lenser clones again? :slight_smile:

Awesome work RaceR86 !

Thanks borg, and welcome to the forum!


+1 to what Chicken Drumstick said.


My de-domed XP-G2 is now dead... Maybe I had touched the bond wires with the reflector once and weakened them at one point in the assembly processes? Maybe a short circuit in the reflector or something?? ( I had not made it safe like I normally do) Maybe I should not have used some cheap thermal paste for the testing? Or maybe the driver "had a high output spike" or something, pushing it beyond 5,3A (max output I had seen on my DMM)? Or maybe my reflow job was not perfect (which I doubt, because I always press it nicely down these days).. Or, maybe XP-G2s dont like going beyond 5A that much.. Either way, its dead and its cheap. :p XM-L2 in that light next, which was my plan anyway...

Images are really very impressive and in nice order and Wonderful Design post, Such a great list. Thanks for sharing all these blogs all are very useful to every one also u can check my LED lights these are very bright and attractive lights.

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: