Ahh, yes! I had one thing in my mind and just ran with it lol.. my apologies.. I forgot the L2 even existed, obviously i have never owned one. So thank you, i wouldn't of even remembered it had it not been mentioned, or pointed out to me.
Quick one; beam shot comparison of the K1 W2.2 CULPM1 and the L21a SFT40. The K1 definitely throws further, but between the osram and the 10mm+ larger head size, it makes sense. But, the spill, brightness & corona/hotspot of the L21a is massive in real life compared to the K1 w/ CULPM1.. This makes me excited for the FT03 sft40 mod i will (hopefully) be doing Monday - i think the ft03 head is 69.5mm compared to the K1 72mm head.. so it should be a more fair comparison of CULPM1 vs SFT40.. Hopefully my Lishen 21700 9.6 amp 5000mah battery can stop the FT03 from turning the SFT40 AngryBlue (TM)...
Alright, its happening today! this was at the house when i got home today. Is it bad that I am not even going to wait for night fall to see the sst40 in action before i reflow the SFT40 in this? I don't know, i can always put the sst40 back in at some other time. lol. So tonight i will hopefully have some good shots of this thing. hopefully dont have any angry blue going on. there is a slight purple tint on turbo with the stock sst40 NW, could be a reflection of the AR coating? I don't know, i am just hoping the SFT40 handles the current. Using a Lishen 9.6a 5000 21700 (pink wrap).
Also, i was fully expecting the SS bezel, ordered from Neals Gadgets. But really the SS bezel creates a ring in the beam that the black bezel does not, so I'm actually fine with the black bezel.
SST40 5000k ^
Kindve crappy beam shot, because my one neighbor is at his house the one time a week he is actually here, and i have a inkling that he HATES my flashlights. He has flashed his outside lights at me before. out here in the woods our houses are a good 100+ meters away from each other, but still his side of the street provides the best vantage point for beam shots :))
Here is the one i could get in before i felt uncomfortable. of course it doesn't help i got 4 other new light today i was trying out and i had to compare the mt35 to 3 other throwers. Ill try again later.
Also - side note. - i tried using my lux meter, and i recorded, but the "denominations" of 2,000 / 20,000 / 200,000 and then "Auto" were really messing with me. I ended up using "200,000" but i need to do the measurements over and also i need to figure out what the math is to turn that into meters...
Another thing: the beam on the L21a is much better focused than the MT35 with sft40. now granted i just swapped the emitter right onto the sst40 mcpcb of the mt35, and i did nothing in the way of focusing it, so there is a pronounced ring around the hotspot and then another around the corona which you cannot see as much, but it pales in "cleanliness" compared to the near Perfect beam of the L21a with sft40.. Kind've disappointing, but that being said - visually, it threw further than the L21a. of course i compared with the LUX meter the MT35 sft40 to the K1 sbt90 and K1 W2, but i forgot to grab the L21a sft40.. anyway - i am wondering if i should even bother trying to raise/lower the reflector because when your using it at a distance you really do not notice the ring around the hotspot, i just wonder if i could maximize the throw if i adjusted the reflector to eliminate the rings (i am sure it would increase the throw). but i have tried to raise/lower reflectors before and for me it becomes a downhill battle quick. i may give it a quick try, but for now i am going to just enjoy the light! OK, beam shot:
Oh, but i got no AngryBlue (TM), which was awesome! the light runs nice with this sft40 emitter! Its probably 2/3 the weight of the L21a, and the side switch is perfectly located. the mt35/ft03 is just a wonderful light, and it feels like the sft40 was MADE FOR this light. i have owned every rendition of the ft03/mt35, and this LED seems to be the best fit for the light. THAT was satisfying. just seeing the massive bright beam coming from the torch without it getting 200F degrees in 60 seconds was really nice! the sbt90 is nice too, but gets way to hot and smashes battery life in 21700/26650. of course the QB26800 is probably a perfect fit for the sbt90.2 version of this light too, but i dont dare use that powerhouse battery with the sft40...
Sounds like you need to gift a light to the neighbor. 
That’ll fix it haha
What distance are you taking it from? Most meters have 10X, 100x, etc. I tested from 5 meters and for most throwers, the 10x scale at this distance is good enough. Generally you want to use the lowest scale you can still get a reading on. I wouldn't test any closer than 4 meters. The best distance is probably 10+ meters, maybe 10-20 is the sweet spot. Outdoors for long distances, guess humidity may effect the readings.
For candela, take your distance in meters and square it, them multiple by the lux reading (ex: at 5 meters, lux reading x 25 = candela). I'm using a better meter now for measuring throw, an Extech LT45 and it auto scales, and just set it to "MAX" for it to lock in the max reading. You can even configure it with the distance so it auto calculates candela!
good idea!
ok yea, so I have a digital laser for measuring distance for work, so I made my measurements at 5 meters. But I wondered if 10metwrs would've been better.
I also was wrong- it was 10x and 100x, it read something like 20,000 and 200,000 underneath it as some kind of "standard" for the Lux meter.
I mostly did 5 meters and not 10 meters so I could still read the layout. But I will try again. On 10x the K1 W2 just read "Hi" so I needed to go to 100x. All others were fine at 10x
I didn't realize that the number is showed was the meters. It showed the following, this is how I recorded it in my phone:
Lux numbers
@ 5 Meters
--------
E07 (sand, sst20 4000k)= 75
-Crap gray 40t battery
Ea01 (blue xhp50) = 180
-18350 battery
Mateminco mt35 (sst40 5000k)= xx
Lishen 9.6amp pink 21700 battery
Mateminco mt35 (sft40) = 1575
Lishen 9.6amp pink 21700
Sofirn if25a (sst20 4000k) = 55
Sofirn 21700
Gt micro (xpl-hi nw) = 200
Epoch 14500
K1 (sbt90) = 1645
40t battery
K1 (w2) = 2450
40t battery
So obviously I have to remeaure. But it's a start!
The meter shows lux. If you are in a scale of 10x, then multiple the # shown by 10 to get lux.
For example, above you measured 1645 for a K1 SBT90.2 at 5 meters
So:
1645 * 10 * 5 * 5 = 411250 candela, or 411 kcd rounded.
For the K1/W2:
2450 * 10 * 5 * 5 = 2450 * 250 = 612500 candela, or 612 kcd rounded down.
Sounds about right depending on the batteries. Actually it's about dead-on accurate with Hank's numbers! So congrats!! 
If we are in 5-10% range, we are good!
@artiet59 Are your FT03 mods done on a SST40 or XHP50 base model? Does it matter?
I’m looking to buy this light and am leaning towards the XHP based on beamshots (I like the useable spill). Also, does anyone know any notable differences between Mateminco and Astrolux?
I'm not aware of any differences except the labeling. The Astrolux drivers even have Mateminco printed on them. I got several Astrolux's and 1 or 2Mateminco's - can't see any difference. Might be differences in availability of colors, LED choices, etc.
agreed I have owned and do a couple Mateminco that have Astrolux equivalent and there is no discernible difference, at all. In some cases the Mateminco is a little better (cleanliness of assembly particularly)
hey there, the base model I used was the sst40 but I do not think it matters whatsoever. I already hd the xhp50 version but I wanted to keep that light the way it is. I ordered the Mateminco because nealsgadgets has a good price for the colored body version, basically it's the same price as BangGoods Astrolux black body version when on sale. Neal only carries the sst40 version, so it worked out well for my needs.
I would say the best version of this light (my beliefs) is the in this order, considering all factors like heat, runtime, battery life, throw, spill, etc.
Sft40 (best throw**)
xhp50 (second brightest/best general use)
sst40 (next best throw, bit as bright as sft40)
sbt90.2 (brightest with most throw**, but could be better at both as compared to the very similar K1)
** the throw between these two I need to measure, it must be close
I Only put the sbt90 in let place because the reflector is not optimized for the led, kind of like it's bot for the sft40, but it is more noticeable on the sbt90. I couldn't tel it wasn't good until I bought a K1 with sbt90 and compared the hotspot/corona/spill and focus. The sft40 really works well in this host with this driver. I would say if you go the sft40 mod route or sst40 route, just be aware of the battery you use. Too many amps I believe will overdrive too hard. Xhp50 doesn't have this problem (I run molicel p42a and qb26800 with no problems).
thanks for explaining the math Tom, pretty interesting that my numbers were so close to Hanks! I used fully charged Samsung 40t for both of the K1's. I am going to test again. Do you think I should do the testing for the sft40 and K1 at 10 meters? Would that be more accurate?
also- I see you do the number of the lux meter x 10 (the multiplier) x 5 (I assume the meters) x 5 (what is this second 5 for?)
Intensity decreases proportional to the inverse square of the distance from the source.
JaredM is right.
Good basic ref source: https://flashlightwiki.com/Main_Page, on measurements: https://flashlightwiki.com/Light_Output_Measurements
Thanks for your responses gentlemen!
im not 100% understanding of the phrase proportional to the inverse square of the distance from the source. Isn't there a sweet spot for accuracy purposes, or is it all relative. I mean I could measure the K1 w2.2 at 1 meter but that probably wouldn't give me a "real" accurate number, right?
He's explaining the reason why I was using 5 x 5, which is 5 squared. If you measure at 1 meter, the lux reading is equal to the candela. But if you measure at 5 meters, you have to multiple the lux reading by 25 (5 * 5), or if you measure at 12 meters, you have to multiple the lux reading by 144 (12 x 12). So you can measure it at any distance, just square the distance, in meters of course. So the lux reduces dramatically as you move the light source further away from the meter.
I use 5 meters - it's easy for me indoors, and it's the distance others use as well. Some lights might have a well formed hot spot at 5 meters though, but it's worked well for me. It's probably better to be 10 meters or little better. If you are much further away than 10 meters outdoors, then atmospheric conditions can reduce the reading.
At shorter distances, you have to be more accurate. 2 inches at 5 meters is more critical then 2 inches at 10 meters.