I want it to work good both at short and long ranges.
I see that UF-1504 fits the needs. I don’t see anything that would beat it, but I’d love too be shown such light. Bonus points for e-switch, but this time performance matters more than convenience.
Now, let’s assume that I go with 1504.
What emitter should I get?
I see that XHP35 running 3A does 250 kcd, which I find disappointing (especially considering much higher price of a boost drivers in general and the fact that 17 mm 3a 12v driver isn’t available).
XP-G2 won’t have much output, so I’d skip this one too.
So 3 options available:
XML2 U4 (chemically dedomed)
XP-L HI V3
XP-L W2 (chemically dedomed)
If HI is really just a factory-dedomed XP-L than it should be worse than dedomed W2. This suggests it has a smaller die though. It will definitely have lower output. Any suggestion on the throw?
What mods should I do?
I see the following:
diode change (duh)
driver swap (some big FET + 1)
shortened springs
better switch (which one? Available in EU with reasonable price please)
FAT wires
I considered a collar, but since it makes it narrower when zoomed out, it’s probably not a good pick for me, right?
Any mods with good return of investment that I’m missing?
As to batteries, I see that VTC5A will result in better output than any 26650. And I’m getting them for my Emisars (D4 that I have now and several that I will have later). But Samsung INR21700-30T seems even better. Are there any 26650->21700 adapters available? It will not kill a LED, will it? ADDED: I see it will not. Good.
I considered it and the simple logic was:
1504 is bigger, but within limits and will perform better.
Just that. Here I’m very performance-oriented and can sacrifice other qualities. But only to some extent, this light is meant to be useful. If Z1 is generally a significantly better host, I will reconsider.
ADDED: I just noticed that there’s XHP50 version.
Nice. But won’t throw…something to think about though.
The Uniquefire is big and clunky
Jaxman Z1 gives better light, both zoomed in and out, it has a good lens. Also zooming is smooth and you can stop anywhere without it rattling.
It is smaller so fits in pocket.
Brinyte makes some nice zoomies too, smaller the Z1, cheaper, also good zooming action.
The Z1 really does have an exceptional quality lens when compared to the UF lights, which tend of have a real lottery in lens quality, some are OK, some are pretty bad. In terms of throw per frontal surface area of a lens the Z1 is well better than all the UF lights I’ve tested. I’ve gotten over 400kcd from the Z1 in my custom lights. Also a piece of 1in PVC is an amazingly good spacer for a 20700 cell, haven’t tried a 21700 since the 30Ts are still hard to buy it seems, that 1 extra mm means it may not fit though.
It’s hard to find Z1 numbers with dedomed XP-L/XM-L2. Even with XP-G2. I may add something to the list later. I skipped “something must be wrong” numbers that I found. I skipped the numbers where I knew there was a collar too, but left SoH which likely has one. Anyway, with the only emitter where I have semi-direct comparison, 1504 roughly doubles Z1’s beam intensity…
1504 numbers are indeed all over the place.
Was there something with 1504 quality dropping over time? I’m still reading on this topic, but I see many comments from owners satisfied with this light.
I’m wondering about dedomed XHP50.2….if it does 190 kcd in Z1, it should do 300 in 1504 with 2000+ OTF lm. scianiac, could you tell us more about this result? Did it involve a lot of black magic that you use normally or just regular well-known stuff? Was it with a collar? Direct drive with a pair of high-current batteries?
From what I’ve seen, dedomed XHP50.2 should have very roughly half cd/lm of XP-L HI, which suggests that you have driven it really hard and / or used some good tricks.
I think that the Z1 is such nice light it tends to be kept stock.
The UF has terrible driver and before cold tints so they get modded more.
The quality of the lens can vary widely on UFs lights, Jaxman has high standards and will not use lenses that do not pass inspection.
I have updated the above post with more results (especially B158). I discounted B158 because it looked smaller (and thus weaker) than Z1 / UF-1504……wrong. It’s throw numbers look very good, actually better than that of Z1. Is it just that a sampling error (lights work the same, but I found people with better ones in B158) or is B158 really throwier? In the most direct comparison found they were within error margin.
Also, I don’t understand why does 1504 look so much better than Z1. It has roughly 85% larger lens. scianiac, I know you know this stuff, you say that 1504 throw/area is better in Z1, I trust you. So throw should be less than 85% better. But it is 100% better. Here I see a direct comparison between B158 and 1504: same led, same builder. It shows 50% difference. The impression that I have by comparing other results is the same, 50%. It should do 250+ kcd with XP-L/XM-L2, enough. Though those 400k+ 1504s do look tempting.
I see an Edmunds lens that may fit 1504, but it’s uncoated and costs $70. Too much…
Assuming B158B and Z1 work the same, I like Z1 more because:
It’s slightly smaller
Accepts 26650, so 21700 should fit too
Accepts 26650, so 5000+ mAh batteries are available
For a modded light, there’s no real difference in price (am I right?)
In the meantime I bought a stock B158B with XP-L HI. Until a week ago it was my best thrower.
I also have FET+1 and FET+n+1 drivers laying around. And factory reject SST-40s.
So from time to time I’m thinking about making a good budget zoomie out of these once I train myself with cheaper hosts.
But going high end like I talked about at the start of this topic? Now I think that Waiven collar is the way to go. As these are unavailable, I drew a couple of zoomies as a future BLF project proposal and made further improvements to the design which I didn’t publish because there was no interest. Also, I’d like to experience the Led Lenser way and I’m waiting for a Severe Cold zoomie to arrive (maybe not LL, but reported to be good)….despite that I’m really interested in large-lens zoomies yet I don’t know any large dual-zone TIR.
I return to the thought of owning UF-1504 or Z1 from time to time. As well as to the thought of getting UF-1508-T75 though I don’t like its battery choice.
I also own a modded Brinyte B158B with a d-domed XP-G2 S4 2B and it does 330kcd without a collar. I think the B158B is generally a very nice light. The plastic lens is a big benefit because it is light and the quality is always good.
I also own a modded Z1. Because of it’s size, the massive brass pill and the glass lens it’s much heavier. Almost too heavy for the jacket pocket. The lens is also smaller than the B158B lens, so it will get less throw. The quality of the light is great except for one thing: the focussing bezel is very loose when the light is not at full focus. Everytime I pick up the light the focus changes a little bit. It also requires much more turning of the bezel to get to flood mode and back compared to the B158B because it doesn’t have the special, steep threads.
Both lights have lenses with a medium to high focal length. This is good for a wide flood mode on a zoomie, but bad for efficiency of the focussed mode (most of the LEDs light is wasted). A pre-collimator can fix this partly, but reduces the wideness of the flood mode.
Instead of collecting throw numbers from others I think it would make more sense to find out the (optical) diameters of the lenses of the different lights and calculate the throw using the luminance numbers from my thread.
Brinyte B158B: 50mm
Jax Z1: 41mm
I don’t think so. That’s because neither lens is perfect and collected numbers naturally account for that. Also, there are the unknowns of clear aperture and transmissivity, though they are not a big deal.
I guess both methods are complementary.
Cool thanks for all the measurements and comparisons Argo. I have a UF-1504 DIY build from MTN, and I really don’t have any complaints. I don’t have anything to compare it with though. Its too bad the lens quality varies so much on these lights. I think for what it cost me, and that it far out throws the range of my vision I made a good choice. I’m thinking about building another one with a different / better driver. One thing I do like is how far out it zooms, its very useful in flood beam mode too. the lens retracts far back enough to help eliminate lost lumens.
