In trying not to step on anyones toes in the threads these lights have been discussed, I thought I’d open a new thread and post this massive 4 way comparison. The Solarforce K3, modded with new driver running at 4.40A vs. the Solarforce S2200 in stock form, vs. the HD2010 with just about all the stops pulled XM-L2 de-domed at 4.18A, and the M3 from Solarforce also modded to the hilt running an XM-L U2 de-domed at 4.28A. Camera for this was the Canon 5DMkII in manual mode, on tripod as were the lights.
Picnic tables as listed in the pics were at 168 yds, 329 yds, and 476 yds. This was not the best of nights to do this with lots of dust and trash in the air. Oh well.
As usual, a much bigger picture can be viewed on Flickr by left clicking here, then left clicking again in Flickr then right click and select original for up-close-and personal high definition.
The first shot on the left was at 105mm, the second shot at 24mm. This is a full frame camera so there’s no crop. What you see is what you get. F/4 2 second exposure at ISO 1600.
I’m pretty shocked by that K3. I have the SF S2200 and the Niwalker BK-FA02 (MT-G2) and they are no slouches, but that modded K3 poops all over them by the looks of it.
Do you have any details on the K3 mod? What body are you using?
I resized the width to 100% since the original was a bit large for my phone screen to handle, hope you don’t mind.
And is it just me, or is the M3 throwing further than the HD2010? It looks way brighter.
This has been a fun one. Yes, I modded it myself with some excellent input from Comfychair. It does indeed “poop” on the S2200! lol But in doing so it also makes some serious heat as the light is quite small in comparison to the S2200, so it’s difficult to compare the 2 as the bigger light ends up the more useable due to the heat issue. The job at hand would dictate which one to grab, as usual, so the intention of portability and ease of use was met in this mod…all the power of the bigger light in a quick use small package.
I’m glad I took the wide angle shot as well, really gives a good overall idea of what the light is doing. The M3/HD2010 comparison is an excellent example of that. Downrange they’re fairly similar, putting quite a lot of light really further than the eye can see small detail anyway. But the spill and corona are vastly different in these 2 lights, with the M3 having a more controlled, defined total output. And yes, that’s pretty much the way it looked. I took the pics a bit brighter than they were, pulled the exposure back just a bit on all the shots the same amount. Difficult to tell exactly in the night, looking at the 3” screen on-camera, when I got home and brought em up on my Dell Pro 24” Monitor they were a little brighter than what I saw. Lightroom 4 made the adjustment and applied it across the board.
The M3 and K3 are both on L2P hosts. The K3 host is also using an extension tube for 2 cells and the pill has the added benefit of a copper 1/4 x 3/4” chunk of copper inside the pill under the emitter . I plan on doing this a bit differently in the near future, and have a 7/8” x 2” piece of copper standing by. Will probably bump the output a bit higher in the process, and of course I’ll bring that back to the mod thread when I get it done.
Thanks Comfy, for the mod thread link
I have to agree Ohaya, the M3, HD2010, S2200, K3 by order of throw. But the K3 is taking total output winner and I’m really loving it’s intense hotspot and wide overall coverage.
The original emitters were worlds apart, with the neutral white XM-L2 T6 being much preferred over the almost disappointingly blue XM-L U2. But the M3 came as a complete head unit and there wasn’t a choice of emitter. I really loved it’s style and compactness.
Taking that emitter off their aluminum star and reflowing it on a SinkPAD, then de-doming it really brought it into perspective! Put one of Erik’s 5 mode drivers in and added a couple of chips, yeah, it’s really a neat little compact light putting some serious light downrange! Still a favorite.
At least until my 18350 IMR’s come in. We’ll see if the K3 in the same compact form can still put the power on the line.
Race, they’re different animals for certain. The HD2010 has an XM-L2 T6 while the M3 came with an XM-L U2. The HD2010 has more tricks, come to find out it’s got about 4 more chips than it can use as it’s carrying 15 chips but producing the power of 11. It would appear that the Vf of the emitter at that power level matches the 26650 at around 4.2A, just won’t get any more power from it with this kind of driver. I’ve got the XM-L2 mounted on a little pilon of copper that is in turn mounted on the SinkPAD. Reflowed the pilon and star and emitter simultaneously. This gets the emitter up off the star about an 1/8” so that it can be fine tuned inside the reflector as a de-domed emitter. I had to relieve the inset into the head for the pill so it could set down that much further and give me room to adjust for optimum focus. Also put that slab of copper (1/4” x 3/4” round times 2) up through the aluminum shelf the SinkPAD sits on as a heat sink. So now the SinkPAD sits directly on a 1/2” thick copper heat-sink. So it’s got about all the bells and whistles I can think of. Notice in the pics below the fried switch. Had to put a McClicky in. Oops! lol
The M3 head I simply removed the star, took the emitter off the aluminum factory star and reflowed it onto a SinkPAD then de-domed it and put it back into the pill. Changed the driver to a 5 mode E1320 and stacked 2 chips. Bingo! 4.28A and mega throw with no other fancy tricks. Well, they both have 22 ga silicone wires added and the same wires bypassing the springs.
It’s called LiNiMnCo26650 and is rated at 18A continuous discharge rate with less than or equal to 20 milli ohms internal resistance. Do you think there’s a 26650 cell that might give me better results in the HD2010? This one is made for Electric Cars and Electric Bikes.
That “little thing” is a cube of copper cut to match the pad size of the XM-L2 emitter. Pure copper 1/8” thick cut from a bus bar used in the telephone company back in the 50’s.
I used a strand of copper wire, approx 28 ga. ( I took it from a piece of 00 gauge wire, the strand is about a 1/32” thick), soldered in between the SinkPAD and emitter for electrical transfer. Which was not easy by the way!
Will probably bump the output a bit higher in the process, and of course I’ll bring that back to the mod thread when I get it done.
