That's correct. The P31 still has decent spill, but most of the beam is concentrated in the hotspot. The AA-S1's beam is more spread out evenly. I like the tint of the Hugsby way more.
In Don's review of the Hugsby P31, he claims that it's the brightest AA light that he's seen. It's very true.
I'm sure it did affect the throw on the R5-A3 by a little bit. However, the smooth reflector never threw far either because of its small size.
In one of the reviews from DX, someone tried a 14500 in the Hugsby and said it didn't make a brightness difference, only that it got hot really fast. Based on that review, I'm not going to even attempt it on mine.
The reason for the lack of P31 numbers is that it was bought to give to someone as a replacement for a failed light - it was only in my hands for about 2 days. It is now in regular use by a cop. Our local constabulary only issue alkaline AAs so i looked for something with good performance on those.
AFAIK the P32 is just a P31 with modes and I like it a lot. It certainly seems to be just as well made and is certainly exceptional quality for the price which is less than I paid for the P31 which was $14.31. The P32 was $13.something. Unless you are hooked on single-mode lights I'd definitely say get the P32 instead of the P31.
Yes, the lightbox measures total output, the throw number is got by clamping the light to my desk, the base of which is exactly 1 metre from the ground, so that the emitter is level with the base of the desk. Then I move a lightmeter around in the hotspot till I get the highest value which is sometimes not in the bit of the hotspot that seemed brightest to me. In other words, the throw value is the absolute highest value I can get out of the light. This tends to favour lights with small hotspots - a light can have quite low lumen output but still throw farther if just about all the light is put into a very narrow beam - think the useless light you get in Doom 3.
It would be more accurate to measure the value at 5 metres and calculate it back to one metre using the inverse square law but I have no light-tight part of the house that has a clear path of 5 metres. Maybe the basement after dark but it is cold, damp and doesn't have enough height to stand up in. Also the hatch hole is very small and I have to empty out a cupboard to get in there in the first place.
The reason for the lack of P31 numbers is that it was bought to give to someone as a replacement for a failed light - it was only in my hands for about 2 days. It is now in regular use by a cop. Our local constabulary only issue alkaline AAs so i looked for something with good performance on those.
AFAIK the P32 is just a P31 with modes and I like it a lot. It certainly seems to be just as well made and is certainly exceptional quality for the price which is less than I paid for the P31 which was $14.31. The P32 was $13.something. Unless you are hooked on single-mode lights I'd definitely say get the P32 instead of the P31.
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Thanks Don
KD has the P32. Kost 13.57$ They state its a 90 lumens light. DX says 160 lumens. Both are Q3.
They are probably unreliable both of them. I trust your measurement. midieval10 says that box says
The AA-S1 with a 14500 is clearly brighter than the P32 with NiMH - the hotspot is several times the size though the spill is of similar brightness - the beam from the AA-S1 is wider. Here's a beamshot about 60cm from the ceiling. Will try outdoors beamshots of the two once it gets dark.