Ok, it’s one thing to look at charts and theorize… another thing altogether to get real world test results. My light box has been accurate with a lot of lights. Most recently, the Olight M3XS-UT Javelot tests out almost exactly like Olight claims. So why then do I show 12,524 lumens if the emitters are not technically capable of this? And how does it illuminate large rooms like daylight? The thing is intensely bright, meter’s be dam*ed!
Uh, something just occurred to me… I need to check my camera settings. While the ISO and shutter, aperture may have all the same settings I always use… I was shooting some sunset shots prior to these beamshots and I had turned on the NR filters. Might not have turned them off. brb
The beamshots I took had the ND filter turned on. That explains a LOT! Will have to redo beamshots tonight. Sorry about that. Being forgetful really truly sucks.
The thing is that CREE generally overstates their lumen output, but based on your results they are underrating their output values. It's fine with me either way as long you know your mod succeeded :)
But still what XP-L HI did you get the U4 or the U5?
Aren’t CREE brightness bins something like ± 20% of the listed number for that bin? It’s possible Dale lucked out and got LEDs mostly at the high end of the brightness bin. That could explain how he’s getting such high output.
I don’t have a lightbox to test the XPL HI I received yesterday, but inside my DQG Tiny III it’s a lot brighter than before with XPG2. Previously, with a 3.8 amp driver and triple XPG2 5A2 it looked roughly as bright as my Zebralight SC62w in a ceiling bounce test. Now equipped with two 4000K XPL HI and one 5000K XPL HI and the same 3.8 amp driver the output is very noticeably brighter than the SC62w.
I figure actual output went from maybe 1000 lumens to at least 1300. Maybe 1500.
finges, for flashlight beam shots I pretty much always use my little Canon G1X. It has an electronic Neutral Density 3 stop filter, which I had turned on when taking some sunset pics yesterday evening. Totally forgot to turn it off though. So my beamshots were 3 stops underexposed, while maintaining my normal settings. I checked the settings, all was right, did not even notice the little ND at the bottom, telling me it was on. Getting too old for this stuff.
My Canon 1DsMkII is a very complex camera, takes two and even three buttons at once to make changes. Even to preview an image takes holding down multiple buttons simultaneously. Sometimes I forget, can’t find how to work the dang thing! lol Or I might engage exposure bracketing to get the depths of shadows, then forget to turn it off for normal exposures. Always something, keeps life interesting I suppose. :bigsmile:
Received my dark grey S4 2B Meteor today… This thing is crazy!!! The programmability of this light is just mind blowing.
-For me UI1 was a no-go because there was no way to directly jump from low to mid. Submodes are confusing if you’re not sure which more you’re at.
-But then U2 was even more confusing because mid/mid2 can only be accessed in low, and high/high2 can only be accessed in moon which made no sense.
Correct me if I’m wrong!
So I switched to UI3 and it’s perfect! 3 custom programmable modes, it goes 1-3-2 and not 1-2-3 (if turned on with short click), So I programmed mine as 1.Moon 3.Mid 2.High. Two clicks to advance mode, 1 click to on/off. Easy!
The only thing I would like is some way to jump to turbo (not momentary turbo) in any of the modes, but it seems it can only be done while OFF.
FYI in case some didn’t know, you can set the switch light to act in 4 different ways when off:
-Switch light does not light up at all.
-Switch light blinks once every 4 seconds to indicate charge status.
-Switch light is constantly on to show charge status (much dimmer than the blink).
-Switch light is constantly on AND blinks every 4 seconds to show charge status.
All the above the light is red-green-blue depending on battery voltage.
I hope that spare MCPCB will be released some day, 12x XP-L HI in the meteor makes it the holy grail of led lights.
The Holy Grail, sans ND filter… and I will state as forewarning that the standard settings I always use were decided upon quite some time ago using lights that were far inferior.
The Canon G1X, ISO 1600 1/2 sec shutter at f/5.6 in manual mode, manual focus, 2 sec shutter on a tripod. The red oil drum in the center of the frame is 97 yds away from the camera/light.
This first shot is for comparison, this is the Triple 9V MT-G2 BTU Shocker , with Efest 35A cells freshly charged.
Same settings, the Holy Grail Meteor M43 with XP-L High Intensity emitters (5700K) running 4 LG HE4 cells, also freshly charged.
You can see that the BTU Shocker has a hot spot, the triple reflectors cause a flower petal design on the perimeter of the beam. The M43 is just a massive wash of intense light. The BTU Shocker tests out at a little over 10,000 lumens, the Meteor is besting it, more light wider.
See how much difference a 3 stop ND filter makes? lol
In order to better see what the beam profile is like, I reduced the shutter speed 2 full stops and took these again… this is 1/4th the light coming into the picture
And the Meteor M43…
So you can see that the Quad Triple optics are a much wider central hot spot, with less spill around it. This is great for walking and really a lot of situations. The Meteor doesn’t have the best throw by any means, but it’s a good mix of general purpose beam profile, great in confined areas like attics and basements or a clearing in the woods. I’m sure everyone will find a sweet spot for this exceptional light.
This also shows you in a way why it’s so difficult to tell the difference in lights once you’ve reached a certain level. The pupils only get so narrow, and with your eyes automatically adjusting like the 2 stop difference shown above, it’s just really difficult to see a couple of hundred lumens, or even a couple of thousand, once you’ve reached pretty big numbers. A single stop in a camera is a doubling of light, so 2 stops is 4 times and 3 stops is 8 times more light. See why the 3 stop ND filter made such a difference? The 2 stops shown above is 6 clicks of the shutter wheel, from 1/2 second to 1/8 second shutter speed.
The camera can, pretty easily, make a 12,000 lumen light look the same as a 60 lumen light. So it’s difficult to dial in a specific setting and try to duplicate what the eyes see. What DO the eyes see? Depends on if you have dark adjusted eyes, if you’re looking at the hot spot vs the spill, a lot of variables change what we see constantly. Subjective, which makes it nearly impossible to duplicate with a fixed camera setting.
@Dale, reading in this thread makes me understand what you wrote about that ND-filter problem in the XP-L HI thread… thanks for the beamshots, nice work!
is the M43 with XPL HI likely to be produced soon?
whenever (if) it does, is it possible that it will put out those 12K lumens or due to heat problems it’s probably going to be capped around the same lumens of the current M43s just with more throw while keeping a good tint?
I’m very tempted to pull the trigger on a S3 3D but I definitely don’t want to regret it in a month if a new 10+K lumens version comes out…
That is simple to do, by taking the candela values and calculate it based on ANSI/NEMA. Shouldn't a reviewer know this :) :) :)
For 70Kcd is 526meters. I will assume you are surprised to see that distance, if you want you can choose not to use 0.25, but then you would not do it like everybody, I mean that is the standard.
Yes, a reviewer should. I often concentrate on other things because I don’t have a proper set-up for candela measurement. In my defense, flashlight manufacturers are often really bad at it too! And you sure as heck won’t see any auto iris auto focus issues in my nighttime video shots, so there’s that. Ok yeah there’s not really an excuse… Anyway thanks again, I needed to answer a question for someone on Youtube, and this helps me do it. I’d really like to integrate this stuff in future reviews, and take my own measurements, and I’d probably have to ask a few more embarrassing questions to make sure my info was accurate when I do my testing. Plus i still haven’t built a lumen sphere yet. Ugg… I do feel a bit guilty about that.
