I used the characterisation tool so that I could set the temperature at 25 degC, with the cooling that my set-up provides, at 3Ax6.5V=20W, I think the junction temperature is way closer to 25 degC than 85degC.
My personal thoughts?
- I’d be more excited if we had a strong 17mm boost driver. Max output voltage would need to be at least 6.1v, preferably at least 6.5v. Maximum output current could be as low as 1.5A to 2A, but preferably 2.5A to 3A.
- The XHP50 currently runs approximately double the cost of cheapy MK-R emitters. Once it’s down to approximately 150% of the cost of a cheap, mounted MK-R then I’ll be more interested as a budget MT-G2 replacement.
I realize that the XHP50 involves less reflector hassle than the MT-G2 or MK-R. Right now the XHP50 not widely available and it’s not as cheap as it’s going to get… and it still remains to be seen exactly what’s going to be required to get a nice beam out of it. Triples still look good in comparison:
- Optics available to get a good beam w/ no donut.
- Single cell operation w/ existing linear, DD, and buck drivers.
Gotcha, thanks for clarifying that.
It was the led that I had at hand, it is what it is. The XH-P50 was again another tint... I think the main message of the test is not the exact outputs, although in any case they are clearly very good, but that there's a good idea about voltages now and (at least for the XH-P50) what the useful drive currents are.
An update for the set-up could be a thermocouple on the thermal junction of the led, like Relic38 did in his amazing copper board tests. It will also make the tests more work (and I am a -let's call it- 'efficient' person ;-) )
Taking cheap shots at poor ol Dale. Y’all should be ashamed. Here I am, trying to help, reading the box and reporting the numbers and I get ridiculed. Guess I can just play with my lights and not tell anyone and let someone else do all the testing, figure it all out.
Rivers of liquid nitrogen in Texas, rich, real rich. You’re invited to come lay in the Texas Sun for 3 hours on August 9th, we’ll have a nice long conversation about cooling.
Haha yeah I bet! Your ambient summer temp probably isn’t far off the 85deg C temperature that Cree uses to test, perfect conditions! 
I’m excited because:
-prices should be cheaper than MT-G2
-can use a normal XM noctigon
-with a Zener driver, I finally have a use for my 2x18650 solarforce.
-should be much less heat than any other comparable output single-emitter, and less work than a triple
Having said that, I’m not familiar with the MK-R, maybe I should look into it.
I’m not a whitewall hunter, a slight donut is meh.
The XHP70 Shadow JM26 with DQG Tiny boost driver at 2.64A, the X6 XHP70 at 3550 and 5.43A, the X6 Triple XP-L V5 2D at over 11A, and the X6 Quad XP-G2 S3 3C…can’t find the sheet lol (10.54A, just checked it again)
I have a Convoy M1 host here needing to used for something. Hmmm?
Do you have a permanently installed tripod for easy light/camera mounting?
I notice all your photos are taken with no photograph jitter
Frozen in place… 
Ok I’ll stop now 
Awesome to see such varied lights going up against each other, is the JM26 a reflector light or TIR? Interesting tint variation on the hotspot there.
The Shadow JM26 is a lot like an HD2010, but with a side e-switch. It has a big 28mm driver that is regulated. But it only made 900 lumens. The hot spot was gorgeous, very well defined, the reflector in it is unusual in that it is more bowl shaped that parabolic, but it’s perfectly made with no blemishes and no visible machining under the shiny mirror finish. I’m surprised that it is able to focus the array die so well, but it really does a nice job. The inside base of the reflector is about 2.5-3mm above the substrate of the die.
I take a tripod out to the same place every time. I do a quick leveling on it, then use the vertical line of the house to make sure it’s true. Then I zoom in and lock the adjustable head down with the oil drum in the center of focus. Once that’s done, I set the camera for a 2 second timed exposure, manual focus, infinity focus, 1/2 second exposure at f/5.6 and ISO1600 and take wide angle shot and zoomed in shot (24mm and 112mm), then run back in the house before the cold gets to me.
Laughable, I know, but I’ve had an issue with muscle spasms for 15 years that can be triggered by my core temperature falling. Not funny when your body is jacking you around. Bet it looks funny though.
And Paul Harvey says “And now you know…the rest of the story!”
Oh, and I held my breath during the exposure so as to avoid the “smoke” (breath vapor)
Ah thanks, yes that sounds like it’s actually a fair bit out of focus perhaps? I think the quad dies really do like this type of setup best, or else the dreaded donut makes an appearance.
Of course I’m only joshing about the cold, man I’m the worst when it comes to heading out into the cold to take beam shots. I can always find an excuse to stay inside near a toasty test rig and scribble numbers onto graph paper instead. 
I’m sure we all really appreciate the effort you put into your beamshots and testing, it’s always a really good and varied shakedown of a new emitter.
Edit: Looking at the emitter pics of the XHP50 above, compared to the XHP70 it looks like the spacing between the dies is actually rather larger on the smaller emitter. Maybe that’s just an optical illusion because of the differences in the dome but those gaps look rather too large to my liking. I guess once they are dedomed we’ll see just how far appart those dies actually are. Could it be worse than the MK-R?
Oh I see! (I think, heh.) Does the spacing look worse larger on an absolute scale, or a relative one? To me it looks as if the inter-die spacing is the same distance for both emitters. It’s just that one emitter has much larger dies than the other, so the relative spacing appears worse on the smaller emitter. Or at least maybe. Eh?
Looking at the bond wires, the gap appears about twice as wide as a bond wire. So it’s really quite small then. The dome is making the die look big, it’s also magnifying the gap between em. We know the bond wires are very thin, so twice the width of a bond wire is what, about .2-.3mm?
You do realize the metric system is the tool of the devil, right? 0:) 
Ok then, it’s about a hair, I ain’t gonna say what kind o hair…
Horse hair?
It was a simpsons reference, Grandpa said: “The metric system is the tool of the devil, my car gets 40 rods to the hoghead and thats the way i likes it”
I’m shocked i can’t find a youtube video, but here is some more info: