Just to compare 2 talked about lights side by side. The Mag is completely stock with 2 fresh D cells. It is the 134 Lumen model sold last year on Black Friday at Home Depot for $14.75 with 2 Duracells. The HD2010 is UltraFire branded bought from TMart a few months ago for about $30.00 after 5% off. It is running on an UltraFire 26650 fully charged. The barn is about 150 feet away and the spill you see is from the HD2010.
In real life they throw about as far, however the HD2010 throws much more light and way more spill. The Mag is of course adjusted for the tightest throw in this photo
I’ve got a Small Sun ZY-T13 and a modified MagLite running a 180 lumen XP-E drop in. In my case the Mag slightly out throws the XM-L Small Sun, but as per the OP the XM-L chucks a lot more light down range and has brighter spill. But considering there must be 450-550 lumens difference in output I think the Mag is doing rather well.
You are right, the original picture is saturated. I took a number of pictures with different shutter speeds in the dark, trying to hold both lights in my hand. A side by side comparison is the best way, I think, to show relative throw. My intent was to show relative throw with a picture that most closely represented what I saw at the time. The first picture did this. However here is another picture that is purposely underexposed that shows relative throw, however the total spill is under represented. I Think ultimately, the best way to know how a flashlight performs is to be there.
My reason for posting this forum topic is to let people that don’t know (or refuse to believe) that last years 2D Mag LED at 134 Lumens is a pretty good thrower. With Black Friday coming up and Lowes offering the Mag at $14.97, everyone that reads this should have the opportunity to decide if they should run out and add one to their flashlight collection.
