I’ve got the Convoy L6 and it does everything it’s designed for. Another light junkie I work with bought the Olight X7 Marauder. We were lighting up the side of a building last night and we both notes his triple throw less than mine. Both both had enough spill to see at a wide angle on both. Granted the Olight X7 Marauder completely flooded the area. It also got hot and drained the batteries pretty quickly. Bronte BT41 is coming out and it has a much bigger head, better throw. I think these triple emitter reflectors are a step backwards. Lots of wasted space from the reflector to the bezel. Poor shape trying to fit them in.
This is also a possibility http://www.fenixlight.com/ProductMore.aspx?id=26&tid=8&cid=1 It gives each LED it’s own reflector. It shaves off those wasted spaces and could hold 6-18650’s. The triple heads could be milled as one with the bezels holding in the reflectors making less wasted space between the heads.
Anyway, I’m still waiting on my fisrt XHP70 triple (MT03), but in general I actually like floody lights and wouldn’t like much throwier lights than the L6. It all depends on what you want to do. Bringing a floody light to a cave can be very nice
Well, it’s a lumens world. But can’t you change the emitters to xhp50 for a bit less lumens, but more lux; wouldn’t that give you a more balanced beam?
The design of the klarus is really nice however, I’m having a little difficulty imagining that light with much bigger reflectors. The soup can style lights i don’t see as wasted space, I do however see them as wasted heatsinking. The reflector can be designed in conjunction with the shape of LED stars to help transfer heat away from the LED in an upwards direction. I think someone here did something along these lines when modifying a BTU thrower.
Dedomed emitters or using the XP-L HI emitters in the triple emitter lights will give you more throw while still giving a lot of flood at the same time , if you wanted to go that route.
I have a Trustfire triple emitter (TR-3T6) that has dedomed XM-L2’s in it , with the factory driver still in place and there is a huge difference in the throw from that light compared to the “dome on” emitters , although it still has a really good flood to it. It also warmed the tint enough to make the colors outside appear much more natural than the “dome on” cool white emitters.
Here is the before and after of the Trustfire Triple , dome on compared to the dedomed emitters.
Also the Trustfire with dedomed emitters compared to the L6 (neutral) and the Thorfire S70 (cool) at 140 160 yards to the front of the barn.
TF Triple Dome On 175 yards
TF Triple Dedomed 175 yards
S70
L6
Trustfire Triple (dedomed emitters)
I think having a quad XPL HD V6 light with a deep reflector and 4.5A per emitter would easily outthrow a triple XHP70, while having more than half the lumens
Just looking at ways to improve multi XHP lights. Triples get fat real quick, and soda can designs just don’t have the reflector to do it properly. I like doubles and have a few in XM-L’s. Nice thing about a double is it increases width but not thickness still leaving it almost a pocket light. Because of the reflector needs so far all my XHP’s are singles. Don’t get me wrong I’m a flood type but after the surrounding area is lit then lets push throw. The Olight X7 Marauder almost throws like a mule. So much light in the flood area but loss to throw. The single LED Convoy L6 put enough light in the flood for proper vision and then threw a bit more. Breaking it down even more I’ve got 2-26650’s running 1 XHP so I’ve got throw, flood and runtime. 4-18650’s running 3-XHP’s I’ve got no throw, washed out flood and no practical run time. This year Olight is coming out with the 4-XHP70 using 4-18650’s that’s not much bigger than it’s triple X7 Marauder. The numbers will say it’s got more throw with higher candela. It won’t, it’ll glare out the beam reducing the pupil size. It might light up the distance we just won’t be able to see what it lights.
I’m just thinking out loud there has got to be something better than what’s being used now to get the most out of the XHP’s. What was done with XP-G’s, XM-L’s and XP-L’s might not be practical to scale up for XHP’s. XHP-50 and 70 need better reflectors. XHP-35,50 and 70’s need more voltage and total wattage. I’m thinking as a designer, as a builder I’m pretty much worthless.
Lumens, throw, and range to target are all tied together. Even a few hundred lumens can wash out and anything illuminated in the foreground tends to ruin our ability to see throw. Try tying a rangefinder into driver output and calibrate it so that it puts the same lux on the target regardless of distance. Once a light has been optimized for either throw or flood it seems a floating calibration is needed in realtime to keep it illuminating consistently.
