Haha you see it that way but I see it as: Is that a person over there 300m.away? A60=yes, definitely is. Yezl= Um, it could be. Or it could be a bush. Its too dark to tell…
You’re obviously a pencil beam fan (and that’s cool ) and its also clear you got a very bright wee A60. Who knows - could well be 80kcd? My A60 is not close to a stock M24 over 300m.
If you’re after increased brightness on target within a $75 budget you could try an M24 or better still a 2X and get someone to dedome it. But it will still be a wider spill XML2 beam profile. Good hotspot but still wider spill - designed specifically to be long distance spotlights. We have a test we use for long distance throwers and in clear NZ mountain conditions, well away from ambient light, the dedomed M24 and 2X quite strongly light up a cream house on the farm on which we shoot at 1002 meters (1100 yards). This a combination of their extreme throw (179kcd/850m and 256kcd/1000m respectively) plus a degree of reflectance from the house. Doors/windows easily visible through scope.
But…if you are after a single, small, distinct hotspot contrasting strongly with unlit zones beside it then perhaps save some pennies and grab a Dereelight X-Searcher. Or get someone to hot up your A60.
Rusty - give some thought to having yr 2X dedomed. Mine jumped 110% to 256k lux - stumping throw at no extra cost. Does change beam tint though to more lemony halogen tint which may not appeal. Even stock the 2x Shooter is a beauty.
Even if A60 sees it, it won’t recognize what it is. Remember pencil beam, blind men and elephant? Anyway you don’t see a thing 300m away. 300m is a lot of distance. Try running flat out for 20 secs and measure the distance. That will be 100m if you are a good runner. Olympic 100m record is just shade off 10sec.
It is big difference in declared ansi max distance and usable distance.
Manufacturers are really not thinking about that... Throw xxx m/yds according to ansi standard.
I would add new standard: UD (usable distance) at which we can clearly identify target.
But there are other factors like full moon, highly reflective surfaces like snow that almost slices at half your lux/kcd etc.
Stock A60 will throw 150 yds of ud in very dark nights and 100 yds at bright nights(moon, stars).
You need at least 200 kcd in your light to always clearly identify your target up to 250 yds in almost all night conditions.
I’ve recently switched from a single 18650 battery to two rechargeable 3.7 V cr123’s in my a60 and my subjektive impression is that this makes the a60 throw a bit longer.
The a60 is clearly outthrown by my Solarforce M9 with two 18650’s or 4 cr123’s.
However the M9 without the extension tube barely outthrows the a60.
Anyhow I prefer to carry the a60 in my pocket during dog walks at night since the reflector house of the M9 is rather bulky.
As for now I’m waiting for the arrival of a Thrunite TN32 which will outthrow most flashlights with a few exceptions.
Another budget flashlight, the Suterfire c10 matches the Jacob a60 in throw. I have both and have tested them against each other.
Luxmeters do lie a bit, the very cool white XR-E (7000K?) reads 7% too high by my cheap luxmeter, compared to a 'normal' cool white xpg or xml (6000K).
Also if you were to measure the A60 and the Suterfire? C10 mentioned couple of posts above at 5-10m you’d record a big difference in throw capability. A60 will read alot higher lux than a small reflector (45mm head) XML. This is C8 size and my C8s running XMLs and 44mm heads have read from 15-32kcd. A60 = 50-60kcd.
It would be nice to know how to adjust lux readings to different colour tint. From very CW to dedomed lemon tint is a big colour tint variation, whereas the machine may be calibrated to say 4000 or so. A +/- chart would be great - if possible.
I'm afraid the adjustment will be different for every different luxmeter, it is all dependant on the characteristics of the colour filter before the sensor, for the widely used chinese luxmeters there are at least two, probably more, different types of colour filters out there.
Very expensive luxmeters read close to correct at every colour temperature.
I just came back from a night walk with a floody XM-L C8 on low as the walking light and the A60, which never stops delighting me, as the game searchlight.
It has been two and a half years since I posted my first impressions of what was the first A60 in this community and I'm glad to see it's still holding strong among thrower fans.
I treated mine to a coated lens, more as a gesture of appreciation than for light gain.
I think it all comes down to individual preference, as people have argued about "throwers" for as long as I have been on forums. Personally a good thrower is the one I can throw the farthest away from me. Pencil beam throwers really don't have much of a practical use for me. It's more like being able to "throw the farthest" is the same as having the fastest or quickest car. It's always a controversy and that's why it really isn't good to recommend throwers, because no one agrees and I agree that the only thing that counts is how bright I see, not how bright a meter tells me. I don't carry a meter on a walk, I carry a flashlight and I determine how I like the light, by what I see, not by what a meter tells me.
Being able to determine the hair color of a human at 300 meters might be great, but I would rather wait till they get to 35 meters and blind them so bad they can't see anything at all, the heck with their hair color. Hence the love of massively bright floody lights.
There will probably never be a led better than the XR-E as far as surface brightness and pencil style beam. At least I don't think so. Leds were never designed for flashlights in the first place. That market is just too small to mess with. XM-L throwers are terrible throwers. The beam is way too large on every one I have ever seen. A true thrower is a pencil beam, in my opinion and the A60 is the king for that.
Gearbest seems to be out of stock on the A60. Are there any other sellers who have them in stock for good prices ?
But I don't know if either of them really has the light.
There is this side switch style that should be about the same as the A60.
http://www.aurabuy.com/new-c20-cree-q5-3-mode-210lm-led-flashlight-torch-with-clip-1-18650.html
I thought Aurabuy had closed down.