My dad has had his MagCharger for years. It is was pretty impressive for it’s day. But now the LED tech has completely passed it up. I looked to see if there are off the shelf mods to switch to LED but I didn’t see anything. So, I guess the next best thing is to get him a new light with an Intellicharger i4 V2, a couple of Panasonic NCR18650Bs. He is used to zoomie lights (redline 220, ZB-006, 18650 XM-L U2) but now he wants to get a good, bright light.
Battery: 18650(s) or 26650(s)?
Emitter: I assume XML or XML U2 is the way to go here right?
Modes: let’s not limit here
Runtime: short is okay
Price: I’d kind of like to see what is suggested before narrowing this down.
Beam Profile: He is used to zoom lights so either zoom or a thrower.
Do you guys have any suggested lights based off of that criteria?
Thanks,
John
Malkoff makes an 850 (true/OTF) lumen Mag Charger XM-L2 drop-in. It may be pricey but it has a great company and performance to back it. I’d rather have a Malkoff’d Mag Charger than one of Mag’s new XM-L2 Chargers, lol.
TerraLUX Ministar 31MR
A lot of folks knock the TerraLUX products for various reasons but I have 3 similar products in 3D Mags with Mag-Charger batteries and gave the earlier version of this drop-in to a couple of State Trooper friends of mine.
My oldest one is over three years old, the rest about two years. Never a problem with any of them. My lights don’t get heavy use but my friends lights are used every night, so much so that I’ve had to order switch boots for them several times because they wear them out.
I also have a Malkoff, Mag drop-in, XP-G though, not the newer XM-L. Again an excellent product.
Both are pricey, it comes down to what you want if you want to keep the Mag-Charger. Being a single emitter the Malkoff is more throw with good flood, the triple emitter/TIR TerraLux is just a larger hot spot with little flood.
Either choice will be pricey but bright and reliable, no reason to trash the Mag-Charger.
I think he has them made in small batches that move quickly. I haven’t checked in a month or two but the current product had changed since I last checked: some changes include higher drive current (probably in response to Mag’s new LED Charger, which is ~650 lumens I think), compatibility with E-switch Chargers and a non-faceted reflector. If you’re looking to buy one of their products I think they have a notification/mailing list system.
I should have added that the 5x 1/2 D cell NICD battery is worn out. So I think a mod is out of the question. Thanks for showing me those products though.
As far as a C8, I have a few to show him - one of these cheap C8s as well as this XML headlamp which is similar. I’d have to guess the XinTD C8 V4 XM-L2 is about 20-30% brighter?
Any other good suggestions? Is there a good all around, bright zoom light? Should I look at any 26650 lights?
The XinTD C8 from intl-outdoors is probably the best C8 flashlight you can buy, heck it’s probably one of the best flashlights period. Definitely one any flashlight enthusiast or amateur should have. In terms of quality and features it’s extremely hard to beat. XM-L2 led and you can select your tint, the neutral white 80+ CRI is amazing with an output that looks a lot like a high performance halogen. The new driver drives to a full 3.04 amps so you get very good output. AR glass lens which does help boost output at least 10% since there’s less lens loss and scattering. Very good water resistance I wouldn’t recommend swimming and diving with it but I’ve had mine dropped to the bottom of a hot tub lighting it up for a few hours no problem. But I did take mine apart and lube the o-rings well. And even better you can select from different mode options including a newly available firefly mode.
Interesting example about the hot tub.Which mode count is typically preferred? They have 2, 3, 4, or 5 modes… Same question for the tints. The V4 is an extra $20. Why is that?
I recommend the Malkoff drop-in’s like some of the other’s mention.
Even though I started using the more high performance budget light’s that can be found I still have an attachment for the good old magcharger owning several of them from over the year’s.
First I had them modded to Terralux’s drop-in’s which provided decent performance but only one of them has lasted over time….these just don’t hold up.
I own 4 of malkoff’s drop-in’s 2 use ribbed reflector with an XML U2 LED with a cream color lighting and the other two more recent ones use a ribbed reflector with an XM-L2 LED both of these have a very yellowish tint to them I was about to buy two more when they recently came back in stock but they were gone about just as fast as they were put up….like other’s mentioned sign up to be notified to even have a chance a snagging one as he only put’s out around 6-8 of them at a time.
I am curious to see whathis latest batch will do as I see he used a smooth reflector on this batch with XM-L reflector….still say’s in description that the characteristic’s of the beam are the same while increasing the lumen’s from 800 to 850.
The Malkoff drop-in’s are built so well and heat sinked properly to last the long haul the only issue I have with them is they turn your magcharger into a massive flood light……the spill on these drop-in’s are insane when you point straight ahead and turn the light on the spill is wide enough to see everything in front of you……but the throw is just not as far as a lot of folk’s would like that are in the scene……for someone just wanting to yard search or a little farther they do great we live in 3 acres and they covor every bit of it I’m realy hoping with his new smooth relector that the throw improves.
You might ask why do I still buy these over-priced drop-in’s?, answer is I like my wife and daughter using them when they go outside as they double as a baseball bat to plus when we go on vacation these are the light’s we bring with us and it doesn’t hurt to have a certified Maglite repair guy 5 miles from my house that has repaired our maglites countless times free of charge.
Can’t wait to get ahold of the smooth refelectored drop-in and will report how it does.
Like many others here, I have both along with aforementioned charger. If run time isn’t a issue, I would suggest the 18650. Its more readily available, lower cost, and much shorter charging time. I haven’t analyzed each battery and I haven’t measured the charge times, I am sure one of the math wizards hear can chime in. But I know it seems like about twice as long charge time for the 26650?
( Comment Disclaimer: I failed 7th grade public school & have dyslexia so it takes me twice as long to read things as others, but I trudge through!! Kinda like a Squirrel just trying to get a nut!)
Speaking of nuts, its so cold down here this am, I saw a squirrel rubbing his nuts!
Seriously, if you want to trash the Mag, do a give away? Some of the members here are MMM’s!! Mag Mod Masters!
Good luck with your search! Your’re a good man for helping your father! 8)
for a little cheaper than the XinTD C8 and you are willing to wait for delivery, there is a Convoy C8 at banggood (take with XM-L2 and SMO option)
but there is chinese new year so it will be very long to come.
If you have to buy batteries and charger in the same time, it will be cheaper buy from a chinese website (but long delay on shipping, I’m used to that delay).
And don’t forget to use coupon code BLF.
If I had to have one light, it would be an SRK SkyRay King, but one of the originals like CNQG has, or the Dry from CNQG. Throwers are fine, but having a huge spot and lots of spill that lights up everything is just the best all round light, in my opinion.
I would have to second the two lights that OL suggested and also add in a Defiant 3c (Home Depot). The defiant puts out lots of light and throws really well and runs off of 3 C cell batteries. I have all three of these lights and they are completely awesome.
I would also throw out the Small Sun ZY-T08 - don’t have one but its one of those light I will own sometime in the future. Also the Small Sun ZY-T13 pretty much the same as the T08 but battery setup is different. Small Sun ZY-C10-S is a zoomie light that is not as bright as the XML lights but when focused throws a long ways in a square pattern and no spill.
Another light that I am wanting really really bad, and might be something to look at is the DQG Tiny 26650 it has 3 emitters XPG-2 multiple tints available what looks like nice modes.
Good luck. Heck just buy him 2 or more lights and he can decide what he likes…… lol
EDIT - some one on BLF might could even mod the mag charger in to a beast of a light
I failed 7th grade public school & have dyslexia so it takes me twice as long to read things as others, but I trudge through!! Kinda like a Squirrel just trying to get a nut!)