With the 3 lights put together, utilizing Ryans copper pills and Qlite drivers all in stock power level, the 3 lights are exactly the same. Vastly different. From beam profile to output level, I took a quick and dirty first comparison with rested Sanyo lap pulls in the 2 smaller emitter lights and 2 well rested Efest IMR18350’s in the MT-G2 light. Canon G1X on a tripod, ISO1000, f/2.8 @ 1/400 sec.
The XP-G2, as expected….tight
The XM-L2, as expected…not quite so tight and brighter
The MT-G2, as expected, difficult! lol, wasn’t easy to cram this large emitter in the Convoy C8. And no surprise that it’s all the light of both of the others!
I’ll get some outside beamshots, better OTF lumens readings at different times as the batteries drain to give an idea how each light will run, and some lux readings for distance measurements. But it’s COLD out, and I’ve been sick for a week, so that’s gonna be another day…
This makes it very easy to see though, how each emitter performs in a direct apples to apples comparison as these are the same lights, same reflectors, same drivers and same copper pills. I did use Sinkpads on the 2 smaller emitters, while the big gun is on a Noctigon cut down to 16.3mm. So if you’re having trouble deciding which series is for you, by the time I’m done here hopefully it will be much easier to pick.
For the next 3 pictures, I stood each light on a work table. Took the 3 shots at minimum focus length in macro mode on the G1X, manual focus. All are the same, they’r processed the same, but one emitter stands out….
Here’s the XP-G2 in the Convoy C8
And there’s the XM-L2 in it’s own C8 host
And the MT-G2, crammed into a bored stock reflector in it’s own C8, with the tail cap modified to enable 2 18350’s to fit…
So much the same, yet so vastly different!
And here’s the emitters in the copper pills
The 2 that got reflowed show darker, the MT-G2 is in with Arctic Alumina thermal paste.
Here’s an animated GIF showing the 3 lights on a football field, looking towards the opposite goal post from the back of the end zone…120 yds distance between the goal post and the light.
Wide angle shots from the side didn’t show the light well at all. Might try that again with a better camera and lens.
Here are the 3 individuals, sized to 2048 on the long side for a better look at the throw of each light. There is apparently a soccer goal in front of each football goal post, with the corresponding net on the soccer goal. This might help to see just how much light is hitting that 12’ (?) wide target at 120 yds. Starting with the XP-G2, then XM-L2 and MT-G2 last. Click for a larger view…
Got some beamshots in a wooded area out at the lake. Distance is ~43 yds to the tree where the quasi-trail hooked a right. For chits and grins I also added the MAXToch SN-6X 2X, doing around 1500 lumens and 338kcd. Of course, the Convoy lights just can’t touch that! lol
My standard beamshots, 97 yds to the Red Oil Drum with the Canon G1X @ ISO 1600, f/5.6 (f/5.8 zoomed) 1/2 sec exp.
Standard beamshots again, this time de-domed emitters, 97 yds to the red oil drum again using the Canon G1X @ ISO 1600, f/5.6 (f/5.8 zoomed) and 1/2 sec exp.
I have some shots of these 3 powered up. Taken here at the house in my standard beam shot setting of the red oil drum at 97 yds. I’ll not do the GIF’s here, but enlargeable shots of each light at wide angles of 28mm, then again of the 3 at zoom of 112. As always, s-m-l (XP-G2, XM-L2, MT-G2)
Bumped with 4 chips on each driver, they now have 4.27A, 4.37A, and 4.45A respectively. With 30 sec OTF lumens of 655, 1000, and 1708, respectively. The XM-L2 is not de-domed. Both the XP-G2 and MT-G2 have either been de-domed or severely sliced (the big emitter has approx 1/16” of the silicone left)
Now zoomed in, same order
The new data for the power levels with all 3 lights being bumped is in the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet now has the 3 lights color coded, red (xp-g2) green (xm-l2) blue (mt-g2) to make it easier to follow each light through the multiple stages.
And this should be the last set of pics, with the lights all being bumped in power and taken out at the football field. I used gallon jugs (windshield washer fluid) with a reflective number taped to the jug for visibility…jug 1 at the 20 yd line, jug 2 at the 40, jug 3 across midfield at the other 40, and jug 4 at the opposite 20 yd line. Again I shot from the back of one end zone towards the field goal 120 yds away. Again, following the S-M-L format and using the Canon G1X at IS01600, f/5.6 for wide angle and f/5.8 for zoom, 1/2 second exposure for all. Wide angle is 28mm, zoom is 112.
Base shot, no lights on at the field, no lights any closer than 30-40 yds away to the side at the opposite end zone (those were to the right, everything else was further away) Base shot is at 112mm.
XP-G2, wide then zoomed…
XM-L2, wide then zoomed…
MT-G2, wide then zoomed…
And for the fun of it, I also shot my Solarforce S2200 with it’s power bump (2657 lumens OTF @ 30 sec) in wide angle, just wanted to see how much of the field it lit up…
So, there you have it! All 3 are pretty impressive, and the copper pills from Ryan make them even more so. The XM-L2 is not d-domed, the original U2 1A went green so I put a domed T6 3C in it for the tint. All in all an interesting experiment! For me, the MT-G2 takes the cake. The little XP-G2 is a serious little performer and not left behind by any means, but of course the XM-L2 can still be driven harder, but probably not much in this light due to space constraints. I would stack one more row on the battery side and replace the spring with a brass rod if I wanted it to really scream and in such a case it would be visibly brighter than the XP-G2 by quite a margin. Not sure I’d want to drive the MT-G2 any harder in this light, as it’s already getting over 5A to the emitter and making 140º at the head in 3 minutes…probably not a great idea to go further here!
All these will be up for sale here directly, as I think the merits of each emitter have been proven fairly well and the convenience of the Convoy C8 host has certainly been exploited! Thanks Richard for all the help you’ve been in lining up all the parts and hosts for this, couldn’t have done it without you! (ok, I probably could have, but it wouldn’t have been finished before summer and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much! )