I’ve already ordered a BLF x6 host that is on the super slow boat world tour from china with my group buy x6. I just ordered the copper x6 heatsink. I was looking at IOS and they have triple xp-g2’s for half the cost of triple xp-l’s, both on 32mm pcb’s. How much of a difference is there between the 2? I know the XP-L’s have more lumen, higher current, and a wider viewing angle. If it were a single emitter light I’d likely just go XP-G2 and dedome it, but this will be my first multi-emitter light and I’m not sure how everything plays out with the cute-3 lens.
lumens
You get comparable outputs from a XP-L (on a XP-G footprint) roughly equivalent to that of a XM-L
Get it XP-G/XP-L = XP-L 
The thing is those optics are built for the XP-G, you have to lightly bevel the bottom edge in order to fit around the XP-L’s dome…or dedome them
I’ll let djozz (one of the forums data gurus) explain it much much better 
Make sure you buy the right triple parts.
The X6 uses the 32mm triple with the Ledil optic when using one of the heatsinks that are being made by nitro. No dedoming needed.
The XP-G optics are used in the 20mm builds for the Convoy style tube lights……
Int’l Outdoor sell two different triples for XP-G2’s, the 20mm ones like you said, but also the larger 32mm one.
http://intl-outdoor.com/noctigon-xp32-mcpcb-cree-xpg2-s3-3c-leds-p-853.html
I have a couple of both LED setups XP-G2 and XP-L dedomed and dome on—they are pretty close in output till around 4amps—with the XP-G2 being a slighly tighter beam—as you raise the amperage the XP-L leaves the XP-G2 behind—with a fet based driver the XP-L high mode leaves you in awwh and disbelief
But what is the runtime on a triple xp-l over 4a?
Depends how far you go over 4amps—most of the batteries that can produce 6amps and above are only 2500mah—therefore at 7amps the battery would only run around 20min give or take because as voltage drops so does the amperage—then you have the heat issue which most of the time limits the runtimes more—-with a P60 type drop in brass shell thats around 4min 6min tops—— I usually have RMM program my drivers with a nice medium 4amps for a P60 and 2.75amps for a tube light— then have a high/turbo mode if you need it P60 6-9amps tube light 4-5.5amps with a step down timer at 90sec—by making the medium in that range you can get good runtimes for heat and battery life—I’m partial to XP-L because of the lumen/flood—it’s kind of what these lights are all about for me
I need more run time than that. How bout if they are pushed at say 2-3a. This being a single cell light (x6), I would want to use it trailing a deer or something like that. I’m not looking to push it that hard, just need a functional run time (an hour on high if possible). If the xpl’s are that much better I’ll do that, just thought I’d ask since the xpg2’s are only $13.
No, they are made for XM-L… no beveling required. You are thinking of the 20mm optic.
The rest of your post was accurate though, and you know I love linking to djozz’s testing. The results you linked can be used in conjunction with this other testing to compare XP-L and XP-G2, see post #51 - Crash-testing a XM-L2 and a XP-G2 on copper Sinkpads
That puts us in the ballpark of the XP-L doing over 165% of the XP-G2 at 3 amps.
Nobody has asked how you are powering this and if wired in series of parallel.
Eg
Would you want to put say 3 amps to each emitter. Total 9 amps. Or 3 amps between three emitters, so one amp each.
In the latter situation you should get less heat, better runtime and more lumens than running a single emitter at 3 amps.
The former however is essentially running 3 torches. So 3 times the potential output and heat and much lower run times.
It’s funny how you say trailing a deer—I have given my stepson (Deer hunting nut)numerous lights as to what I thought would be good light for him—at Christmas he informed me that a Klarus ST11 cool white orange peel reflector worked best for tracking a wounded deer in the dark—not sure if the orange peel has anything to do with it but I’m sure the cool white does—cool white has lots of blue tint—that light with a Panasonic B with run hours—it only hits around 3.2 amps—-I’m guessing any cool white light would do the same—he said his freinds with warmer lights couldn’t see blood at all
None of this makes much sense to me. OP mentioned the host, that defines the battery config here: It’s an Eagle Eye X6. That makes it an 18650 in the 1s1p battery config. There is no appropriate boost driver available which fits in the X6, so the emitters will be run in parallel.
EDIT: oops, I think I start to see your point Chicken Drumstick. If I ignore your first sentence the rest makes sense, and isn’t something I’d thought about earlier! At 1A each (3A total into 3 parallel emitters) we’re looking at the XP-L emitters producing over 150% of the output generated by the XP-G2 emitters.
Yes, a triple in parallel running 1 cell
I have the opposite results. I track better in a warm or neutral color. I need close color rendition and cool white doesn’t do that. In my opinion, the best tracking light is a Coleman lantern. That’s what I grew up using. It makes it easier to differentiate blood on dead grass, brown oak leaves on the ground, and top soil/river dirt or red clay. I had a deer run about 40 yards in some thick stuff this week. There were a group of deer and they scattered so I had difficulty knowing which path out of the field it took. I tried with my maxtoch m24, a T08, and one of the cheap 18650 zoomies. I could trail the blood about 5 yards from where it was shot and I lost it. Went back to the truck, got my hc50 headlamp and an old 3d incandescent mag lite and had no problem finding the blood. The deer was piled up about 15 yards in the woods. Cool white lights tend to bleach everything out and may it kinda grayish. The blood shows up as black against the other objects. Problem is, in dead grass, there is black all over the place in the shadows. A little speck of blood is easily missed. Take a neutral/warm light and the blood is red on a light tan dead grass. To me it’s easier. If all else fails, I just get my dogs.
This above, is my reason for either as IOS has both xpl and xpg2 triples in 5000k range. I think either would work, but sounds like at 3a the xpl’s are the way to go.
Deer legs, nature’s chew toy
