I saw on one of the sites (DX?) that they had a $129 Palight with HID. Not a bad price compared to the $200-400 you see for some HID's out there.
I've never had one, anyone here own an HID? Might satisfy my need for an incinerating torch...
At the low end (Anything under 25W) a well driven XM-L will do as well though the ultimate throw will be better from an HID as their surface brightness is higher - the arc that actually produces light is tiny.
But how many people need "white lasers"?
Palight BG-002. 28W HID.
Lots of throw and flood, 50 min run time, useless 'focus' feature.
Beamshot.
Well I did say under 25W
;)
Tas, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. A white laser suits me just fine!
What is the bulb lilfe and ballast life on an HID? Other downsides? Do you like the light or prefer an XM-L as Don mentioined?
I have two hids (35/50W,(35/28W) . bulb life I believe is around 2000 hours. Only downside is warm up times to reach max brightness. I usually prefer 4300K-5000K color temps on HID anything cooler to my eyes just makes it look wierd
These days though there's a few LED's in that ~$100 price range that would come close, and be better executed.
That HID has a ringy beam, and shares the long warm up time of all HID's (2 min)...they degrade if used for short periods.
Lifespan of the bulbs is ~2000 hrs........not sure about the ballasts. Replacement combos are available http://www.aliexpress.com/store/312615/210640250-428640194/Cheap-shipping-35W-28W-bulb-and-ballast-for-HID-Flashlight-35-28W-Dual-Power-3200LM-12.html
Heh heh....actually these Chinese generic hosts type with 3" reflector has very little throw.....the corona is quite bright and huge though. More of a flood light. Some people do not like that its floody, but in reality a floody powerful beam has more uses than most think. Only very specific uses are for long range spotlighting (and you'd need a very steady hand).....unless its a super powerful bugger like a 360W Locator. (4.5" high-end milspec reflector, 360W bulb with 5.5mm arc length IIRC)
If your battery is the 6600mAH type, you can get the 65W ballast as an upgrade. Its just 48usd shipped with EMS to USA (Express Mail) from aliexpress.
All exposures are the same in manual mode, even the WB is manual.
65W Ebay/Aliexpress Chinese generic HID host.
Dereelight DBS V3 XR-E R2 50mm aspheric (you can see the spot on the building, just that it is quite dark). Yep...that's ~ 60k CP for ya as measured by others. SR90 is about twice of that as measured.
XM-L with 40mm reflector (Ultrafire U-80)
65W HID
Dereelight XR-E R2 with 50mm aspheric
I like doing cloud bounce shots when its cloudy out
Me too, haven't got any good ones because if its low clouds here then it usually means HEAVY RAIN. I'll need to wait for the LP-250 narrow spot to come.
Managed this just now from my apartment with just 55W 6" (my 75W was empty and just started charging! This was supposed to be 75W but i swapped it out to have a comparison). The best would be to shoot 45-90 deg up to minimise distance. This is probably some 1.5km away at least. (that bldg at lower left is some 450m away)
This is the SM5200, same reflector/body as the Yao 35W/80W (they call it the Mule 35/80W at flashlight forums or something, by a guy called LIPS).
What color temp are the lights?My two hosts are empty right now as one of my 75W ballasts died and other is for bike use, might have to order 100Ws for them next month.
The colour temp of that beam is 4300K. The cam WB is incandescent i believe. I have 3000/4300/5000/6000 beams, having 2 lights helps too as its a chore to always change bulbs (my Amondotech 3152 is H4 so its incompatible).
The Yao/Mule 35/80W host+reflector I mentioned above is actually purchasable at aliexpress as a SLA light. You can mod it to dual wattage with those HID kits supporting "dual colour temperature" on ebay/aliexpress. For me I just shoehorn the biggest wattage kit into it, if there are 150W auto ballasts/bulbs i'll just whack it in. But problem is the light is quite "small", it can only take the Ultra Slim ballast style.
Be sure to watch this youtube vid by CPF's stollman....it demonstrates the Yao vs some cool lights like Barn Burner, 192W BFL, and the Ebay style Oracle 28W (the 40/55/65W 3-mode version with SMO is now selling at $95 only) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIIFBbhCOWw
Cheapest 100W I found (free shipping via DHL to States). http://www.aliexpress.com/store/204264/210557757-439075432/12V-24V-100W-HID-XENON-KIT-H9-H11-single-or-lots-be-chosen-high-power-and.html Do a search on flashlight-forums or aliexpress or CPF, am sure there are dimensions around, I think BVH did measure them...seen them before. It may not fit your host unless its a Thor X Colossus.
Anyway, I presume that you know that such ballasts spec the wattage as input power and it usually is underspec by a bit, ie a 100W ballast may only draw 93W, which in turn at say 82% eff its 76W. So you usually can get away with using a 75W bulb. 75W ballasts can match with 55W bulbs even if the ballast is an upper spec unit, unless you are the type who runs the HID for > 20 mins at a time.
Seriously, LEDs also has similar "issues", just factor them "losses" in. 
I have the mozo 35w. I think it has 6 18650's inside though I'm too lazy to take apart the battery. The only thing I don't like about it is that the colors of the beam is kinda odd, with slight greenish or other color tint that's not even across the beam, and I'm not sure if focus is quite right because it's not an even hotspot like LED, but gets brighter at the very center and not perfectly symetrical (ie. it's not "round" but slightly star-ish shape)? Quite workable in actual use, but frankly I don't get a chance to use it much as showing off. It's a 6K bulb, kinda white but I can live with it, 4.3k would be better though but I'm not sure about buying bulb off ebay.
Is there something I can do to tweak/improve it?
Buy a 4300K bulb, and then a 20000K-30000K for fun. You need to buy a pair. 11.30 bucks shipped, can't go wrong with that. Contact the aliexpress seller, he's a nice guy, he can sell to you each bulb at a different K.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/500837/200469628-320290764/free-shipping-H3-bulb-3000k-30000k.html
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/500837/200469628-320289125/free-shipping-H3-bulb-3000k-30000k.html
Yeah with HIDs, usually the big reflectors are more difficult + expensive to manufacture. Smaller reflectors like those in LEDs (26.5-55mm) are cheaper to make.
As you can see in the youtube vid, there are quite a lot of artifacts.
lol I've always wanted to try those pink and green ones. Hate seeing people illegally using hid pnp kits with 30,000K and purple headlights
good deal for a 4300k 85w ebay HID
bought my 6000k 85w from leo, but yesterday i ordered a 4300k 85w bulb/ballast from the same seller as the link above
my 85w ebay HID 6000k
Tree at 220m
Tower at 500m
New to HID. Picked up a Titanium Innovations Mega Illuminator off Ebay for $39.95. Put in a new SLA battery and it was good to go. Asked MR 2100 about the most improvement for the least cash, he answered and installed a 55w ballast. Am pleased with this monster. A couple of weeks ago picked up a 5.5or6” reflector 15MCP dead halogen for $12.50 @ Tractor Supply. Used my left over 35W ballast, made a Li-ion 4s3p balanced pack from scrounged matched laptop pack cells. and used a 9006 HID 8000K? bulb from a free auto set given to me. Had to make an adapter/spacer to focus. Hated the color and bought a 5000K H3 and removed the spacer. Found a Spectrum Lipo Battery Monitor on Ebay for less than $10 that will be installed to monitor the li-ion pack. All total have about $125 invested in two budget HIDs. Another bonus, was able to salvage one of the TS spotlight 6v4a SLA batteries for one of my feeders.
Did you already buy something troop? Fall and darkness is coming soon enough and I too need a new toy :bigsmile: Manafont has the Palight BG-002 for 129,99$. Looks pretty decent to me. But how about these aliexpress random 1000000w hid lights? Cheaper and/or more watts but wondering about the quality. Not looking to spend over 130$ and even that is really stretching the budget, 100$ would be nice…
There is a 700k cd one 55W one that i just posted, usd 77 shipped to Asian countries via DHL. 87 to the USA also via DHL.