Mod comparison: Modded SRK, vs de-domed SRK (UV-S5)

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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I have two SRK type lights. A SRK and a UV-S5.

The SRK is modded here

It currently uses 3x XM-L2 T4 5B1 MINIMUM 80 CRI emitters mounted on Noctigon. Driver adjusted to 3,09A average to each emitter.

The UV-S5 uses the stock driver (3 toroid). Emitter current are 2,29A average to each emitter.

Currently, its got stock XM-L CW emitters, but they have been de-domed and put on Noctigon.

So how does these lights compare?

For the record, this is not a SRK vs UV-S5 comparison, or a CRI comparison. Its mainly meant to be a beam/throw comparison.

But first. Lets see how the modded SRK compares to the stock stock UV-S5 (without de-domed emitters and Noctigons.)

(These pictures are exposed darker than the following pictures and with AUTO whitebalance). Mouse out for modded SRK. Mouse over for 100% stock UV-S5.

Camera settings on the following pictures:

1,3s, F4, ISO 400, 17mm (APS-C), WB set to daylight (5200K)

Now, modded, vs modded. Short range. Modded SRK is shown, mouse over for UV-S5 de-domed

Long range. Treeline in the distance are 120 meters away. Or 393 caveman feet. :p

Modded SRK mouse out, mouse over for UV-S5 de-domed

Comments on color rendering

Due to white balance setting, the 80+ CRI SRK looks slightly warmer than it is.

The de-domed light (UV-S5) renders everything too green, kinda like you see in the pictures, and does not show red colors well. I would say it looks better in the pictures than in real life. But its not bad in real life.

Conclusion

If you want a pocket light with good spill, and also good throw. Then a healthy SRK with de-domed emitters does the trick even if its not pushing any extreme current to the emitters. I think the treeline that is 120 meters away show the throw ability quite nicely compared to a "normal" hard driven and modified SRK.

Ill probably do more mods to the UV-S5 in the future, but for now, ill leave it as it is for some time. I often mod the same light several times, or in several stages. :)

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Nice mod! I’ve thought of Dedoming my TR-3T6, which should give similar results. Because the Modded SRK I have smokes it in total output, it’s kind of not useful. I already have the (XM-L U3) emitters on copper, would need to gas-dunk them and put em back in.
Did you have to mess around with the reflector focus? Did you use the stock emitter spacers?
Edit: one of the pictures isn’t showing, maybe a bad link?
Edit2: working now, dunno.

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Edit: They should work now I believe. Im new to all the advanced settings I just enabled and have edited my post a bunch of times!

I used the stock emitter spacers/centering stuff. No issues or extra work with centering when I used those.

I recently sold my TR-3T6 modded with 3-18V intl-outdoor driver and 3C tint XM-Ls. It did not serve any purpose after i modded my SRK. The SRK was more compact, better battery life, better tint (IMO), better color rendition, and more output due to (2nd gen emitters on copper). When I used my modded TR-3T6 with 2 batteries it "only" had 2 amps to each emitters. About 3 amps with 3 batteries, but that was just too long for me to like.

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Pic is working fine now, not sure what happened there.

I agree, the TR-3T6 has a less useful status these days, but it was my first real ‘big’ light so I cannot part with it :wink:
If the focus isn’t an issue, I will have to try this some day. :beer:

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It was my mistake. I messed up a link for a little while. I figured it out and fixed it.

The TR-3T6 was my first real powerful light too, but I have too many lights, so I have sold or gifted a few. Im not very good at selling lights. So much easier to buy. :p

(edit, there can never be too many lights)

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Good edit, had me scared there for a minute. :wink:

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This helped make up my mind - whenever texaspyro's driver is in my grubby little hands, I'll be doing one with de-domed XPG2s (and my homemade P60 triple reflector). :evil:

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Nice mod.

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Glad to help with inspiration/choices comfychair. I have various other plans for SRK type reflectors too. :) Some might be further in the future than others.

Thanks 18sixfifty. I know you are a sucker for de-domed emitters! ;)

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Good mod RaceR! It is nice to see what different emitters do outdoors. I still prefer your high CRI-mod. I am on a (family) camping trip right now and brought a 2500 lumen MT-G2 modded flashlight with me and I just love a good tinted high output light in nature :-)

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Thank you for the hard work and reporting.

I had the same green tint thing happen to me when I dedomed a srk with xml t6’s of unknown tint. They were CW of some sort. I really can’t stand that tint of them. I’ve been playing with the idea of stripping the phosphor off those emitters and getting some remote phosphor sheeting to make a lantern.

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Great beamshots!

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I hear you. Id certainly take the 80+ CRI light over the de-domed one for general use. Maybe if if upped the juice and swapped in an XM-L2 with more red color tone and 80+ CRI (6A1) my UV-S5 would be better at almost everything.

Hard work? Who? Where? ;) :D Im just toying around. :) Thanks for the appreciation though! :)

Im not sure if we ended up with a same result, or just perceive it differently. Just to clarify, the tint aint green-ish, but it renders nature to be greener than it is, and CRI is no comparison with with my 80+ CRI SRK. But I like the tint much better than CW, and I enjoy the beam way more. Especially considering that a have a SRK that is great for flood and short to medium-ish range stuff. To me, the de-domed light makes most throwers pushing 3 amps to an XM-L useless. I also think the SRK UI is nicely suited for a thrower too. Better suited for a thrower than a general purpose light IMO.

I know you (too) are into emitter mixing. You have probably done more than me, at least when it comes to combining emitters in lights. Not sure if you are mostly into mixing due to getting the kelvin range you want, or the color. But did you ever try to mix in a more red-looking emitter with good CRI in between the de-domed ones? I believe that should do wonders in neutralizing the tint the and make a nice bump in color rendering. But im not sure how the beam would end up. Have you (or anyone?) tried combining de-domed and domed emitters in a 3 emitter reflector?

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Lets talk throw, that was the main purpose behind this thread.

I was just out comparing the de-domed UV-S5 to some of my other throwers. Single emitter large reflector lights pushing 4 amps to de-domed XM-L U2, 5 amps to XM-L2 T4, 3 amps to de-domed XP-G2 R5 in aspheric (I did not bother with my C8 with de-domed XP-G2 3A and copper)... Compared to those, the UV-S5 did a very good job IMO. Not a huge difference in throw, but the SRK had way more output, and good spill. Its a very good general purpose light combining throw and flood.

it seems that throwers=hard driven single emitter lights.

Throwers are mostly long lights. Unless we are talking about the ZY-T08 and similar lights. Alternatively, lights like the one below.

But why not make SRK type of lights and such into throwers? We have XP-E2s, XP-G2s, XM-L2s. All can be de-domed too. There are many possibilities. Are they not explored that much due to lack of success, or due to other things? Do people who have tested the combinations think that throw aint good enough?? Or is it that most people have not tried it?

I have just dipped my toe into the "multi-emitter compact thrower class", but so far, Im quite impressed.

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Nice pics. I really like the light in comparison from your modded SRK. I noticed my Kung is warmer and floodier than SRK and because of that, even though it didnt come in the best shape, I still used it in preference to my SRK. I’m not sure why its warmer (maybe its really 4xT5s or T4s too instead of advertised T6’s). Now, I really like my Warrior’s output and throwieness, but I’m missing the warmer tones I got from the Kung. I think this flashoholic disease leaves you permanently not quite satisfied and wanting to try out the next light…last night I did a long walk in the dark alternating Kung and Warrior…

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You certainly did get some great throw out of that mod. I did my dedome to warm up the tint and improve throw/reduce flood, but I didn’t do get nearly the result you did. I imagine that was due to much lower current.

I haven’t tried the ideas you mentioned. They sound interesting. I have only mixed tints to get closer to a tint I wanted. Someone on here on BLF wanted to mix dedomes with domes on one of those bigger multi-emitter lights. I don’t recall who it was and I don’t know if he went past the idea phase.

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Who does not like very green nature? Problem is, you are only seeing a photo, its much harder to judge. Just look at the first and second picture in OP without holding the mouse over them. Its the same modded light, same place, only slightly different camera settings, mainly the white balance, and different weather (all the grass is wet and filled with white looking drops of water in the first picture).

Looking at the first mouse-over picture. I would assume most would pick the modded light over the stock UV-S5 (which is about as bright as a stock SRK gets). My point is, a picture does not always tell the full story. Its also discussed in the tint photography thread. When that is said, you might prefer the de-domed light in real life too. Green nature is quite nice. :p

I kinda agree with the "flashoholic disease". Although, im often quite satisfied, otherwise I mod things differently, but even when satisfied, its only a matter of time before I need to try something new or change a light. On average, my lights have probably seen about 1 driver and 1+ emitter swap after they were "done".. :p And I have only been into modding for less than half a year.

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18sixfifty have mixed de-domed and domed emitters, but all was CW as far as I remember. And I assume that mixing emitters in a 9 XM-L light blend much better than in a 3 emitter light.

I was probably the one who talked about de-domed CW combined with various other stuff, basically WW emitters. Problem is, that might get me into the 4000-4500K range, which probably will be nice. But tint will probably be too yellow. I don't have any red-looking XM-Ls. So i might end up mixing more rosy XM-L2s in there.. Time will tell. Ill get to it once the time is right. ;) First Im going to play a bit more with some of the emitters Im going to put in the light. De-domed NW will go in there, have used that for some time. De-dedomed WW among others too. The WW de-dome I did the other day.. I think I made a "7" tint into more of a "8-9" tint. :p I will compare it with an "8" tint XM-L2 once it arrives. I have several flashlights waiting for emitters now.. :party: So will do lots of emitter comparisons and see how I like various stuff. Hopefully I can combine various tints that I like less, and make something that is great by blending opposites togheter! :)

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So which of these pictures are closest to reality (in the sunlight)? And yes that does make a difference that the first picture had dew and the second set doesnt…big difference. Yes, its very hard to tell from a picture, I’m assuming the modded SRK is more close to “true” colors, and the dedomed one is making it look extra green. I can see more detail easier in the SRK pic as well, UV-S5 you can see further but details dont jump out as well to me…in the pictures.

You talk about riding with the lights, sounds similar to what I’ve found in the forest jogging: when going fast downhill I prefer my Warrior XML2 T6 1A, but when walking I prefer the Kung (probably T5s, appears “neutral” to “warm” to me).

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Its hard to say exactly which of the pictures are closer to daytime lighting.

Maybe you should mix a bit off all of them, and add some blue skyes, and more CRI? :D The thing with daylight (100 CRI) is that all the colors are easier to separate. And you see that effect way better with the 80+ CRI SRK.

The emitters in the SRK are NW, but they have a slight warmth too them. When the White balance in the camera is set to 5200K I would say it looks warmer in the pictures than in real life when the eyes have adapted to a slightly warmer tint (closer to 4000K). By indoor lighting standards that is by many considered to be "cold".

The tint in those pictures can be discussed a lot. Does not mean anyone will get wiser. If you want the details you have to be here, or make the lights for yourselves.

As most pictures, they are better suited for comparing beams. And I think they show quite nicely how the de-domed SRK just suck light into the hotspot while maintaining large spill that is still bright.

Edit: I was not the one talking about cycling and stuff. That might have been Flashpilot in another thread.

Also, Bin (like T5, T6, U2), does not directly say anything about kelvin (/tint). Bin only describes output.

As an example you can have T6 bin with 7500K and T6 with 4500K. Same lumen output due to same (T6) bin. Colors and CRI are different though.