Torch Testing. Part Two.
This time around I have acquired a few more examples of what is available in the smaller torches and LED technology. I have also introduced some old technology and kept our trusty example to compare everything against. The Maglite 6D cell. The pinnacle of popular portable personal lighting systems over twenty years ago.
I have also been concentrating on single AA cell torches. I like these as I consider the AA cell to be the most commonly available battery around the world. They're cheap and easy to carry and the energy density of the latest rechargeable NiMh AA cells is now almost five times greater than it was twelve years ago, with capacities being advertised as much as 3000 milliampere hours for a single cell. This sort of capacity can provide light for many hours, even with the most basic LED torch. Mind you, I've yet to actually get 3000 mAh out of an AA, but I've seen 2400.
So without more ado, lets look at the current crop of testing subjects. As you can quickly ascertain, some are more amenable to placing in your pocket than others. And quite possibly you would make other choices again if you wanted something to inspire confidence in the face of a zombie invasion.
But first, a big thank you must go to Chris who took photos of what was being used and triggered the main beamshot camera on queue. Without that accounting practice I wouldn't be able to identify half the beamshots. Also thanks must go to Chris's dog Elvis, who kept us safe from the flattened baby pigeons who lurk on the bikepath under the overpass.
The test subjects are:
A. 2xAA Maglite with NiteIze LED conversion. B. 2xAA MagLED, C LedLenser 4xAA P14, D 4xD Terralux Conversion, E 6D maglite
F Ultrafire 1xAA, G $3 Ebay 1xAA, H $3 Ebay 1xAAA, I Jaycar CR123a, J Frankentorch, K 1xAAA Trustfire, L 1xAA Romisen, O DealExtreme C76 P Jaycar 1xAA X-Glow, Q 2xAA Ebay MultiLED, R Ultrafire SSC-P7 with 1x 18650 Lithium Ion Cell.
Frankentorch Mk1 consists of a CR123a housing with a stripped 400 lumen drop in fitted. Mk2 will be the same torch with a 900 lumen drop in fitted. It will however become unfriendly to use on high power for any real length of time without thick gloves....
The Energiser 3xAAA headtorch. Available at a Coles or Woolworths near you for about 32 dollars.
The Led Lenser H7 3xAAA headtorch
The Deal Extreme Cree Focusable 3xAAA head torch, which you may detect bears a STRONG resemblance to the LedLenser H7
The Deal Extreme 5x Cree P4 LED insert.
And my old home made bike lights. They have a 20 watt 13 degree low beam and a 55 watt whatever degree high beam. They were made for 75 dollars total in late 1997. So that covers the contenders. At the bottom of the page, I have included shots of the torches and their LED's if relevant, so that you can have a look at the front of a torch and get an idea of how it's going to perform. Let's see how they shape up under the overpass, with fully charged batteries and nothing but the pigeons to annoy..
Please take note that the explanations are UNDER the beamshot photos. This convention is held for the entire beamshot sequence.
The other side of the overpass support is slightly over 23 metres away.
The overpass is right here
Let's revisit the 6D maglite on wide.
It has a horrible dark hole in the middle of its mediocre output. The pigeons are hardly disturbed at all.
Their sleep patterns were about to be adjusted by the rest of the test.....
The 2xAA MagLED versus the 1xAAA Trustfire.
The single smaller battery Trustfire convincingly dominates the old MagLED which has twice its voltage.
Here we see the battle of the two brightest single AA cell torches. The C76 clone trumps the Romisen convincingly. The ability to focus the C76 optimises the light output very well. The focus mechanism lets you project the image of the LED emitter precisely and on white surfaces you can see the sections of the LED quite clearly. The indents in the square you can see on the wall are where the wires solder onto the face of the LED emitter. Thus they make that shape.
It looks like a bat signal for the Autobots.
The Deal Extreme C76 on spot beam versus the X-Glow 1xAA.
The Deal Extreme C76 on wide beam versus the X-Glow 1xAA. Er. Yeah. Pwned.
The Deal Extreme C76 on spotbeam gives the 6D maglite a sound thrashing. Bet you didn't see THAT coming. Or maybe you did....
The Deal Extreme C76 on spotbeam versus the Trustfire 1xAAA. It's a little unfair really, but it has to be done.
The Romison 1xAA versus the Trustfire 1xAAA. I bought the Romison because it was reputed to be one of the brighter single AA cell torches currently available. If you're talking non focusing, it is correct for the moment. It's a very solid little AA torch. It's not as pretty as the Trustfire AAA though. Hmmmm shiney......
The Ultrafire 1xAA versus the Trustfire 1xAAA. Yes. That was a surprise. The trusty little Trustfire punches above its weight. Actually, being made of stainless steel, it's heavier than some of the single AA torches for a AAA torch. But it looks sweeter too.
The $3 Ebay AAA verses the Trustfire AAA. Here we see the dangers of buying on Ebay via just a description.
I would recommend not doing it. It's easier to get a decent torch for ten or eleven dollars than to risk buying a crap torch for three dollars. You can hardly see that the cheap AAA Ebay torch is even on. I will test to see how far I can throw it at night with a long exposure photo at some point.
Here is the Ebay MultiLED 2xAA torch giving the $3 Ebay AA a caning. The multiLED was my general purpose work torch in 2004. It's seriously outclassed now, but still a sturdy torch.
The Ebay MultLED gets a pasting from the shiny little Trustfire single AAA. No surprises there.
Here is the Energiser 3xAAA headtorch taking on the LedLenser 3xAAA H7. No contest. However, the Energiser sits in my glovebox and will stay there for the forseeable future. It's quite robust and simple. Reminds me of some people I know actually. Oh, hang on. They're dimmer.
Here's the Energiser headtorch being pantsed by the LedLenser H7 headtorch on widebeam.
Ah, H7. I love you so much.
Dodgy camerawork on my part. I wasn't checking between shots.
Frankentorch Mk1 comes up against the DealExtreme C76 on narrow spot.
Frankentorch Mk1 shows the DealExtreme C76 how to throw a real wide beam.
Here Frankentorch Mk1 loses out to the superior light output of the Ultrafire SSC-P7. But I knew that was going to happen. Frankentorch Mk2 will even the score.
Here we have a very respectable showing of old technology. Not much competes with a 12volt 55 watt Halogen in this torch collection. On the right hand side is the 6D maglite.
It's that dark spot.
The Halogen Homemade bike light does pretty well. I'd still ride around with it if I had to. It knocks the 6D maglite into a cocked hat.
I am using that expression because it sounds good. Not because I actually understand what it means.
What the hell is a cocked hat and how do you knock something into it?
The Jaycar CR123a has a nicer spot than Frankentorch Mk1. They both use the same battery. The original Frankentorch LED was slightly better than the Jaycar CR123a and 2/3 cheaper. So buy the original unmodified Frankentorch which is one of these
When it comes down to the Jaycar torches, the CR123a gives the X-Glow 1AA a flogging. I still quite like both of them though. If you're too chicken to buy over the Internet, they're your choices in simple cheap non zoom torches from a real store. You won't be embarrassed pulling either out of your pocket.
Unless of course you bought them to a gunfight.
Here we see the LedLenser H7 headlight whip the Maglite 6D. When the zombies come, you'd possibly still want the maglite though. Unless you've also got a firearm. Then it's all H7 again for handling convenience, until the ammo runs out.
The Ledlenser H7 doesn't quite go as narrow as the Deal Extreme Cree clone. You can start to see the LED being projected like the little single AA LedLenser clone. The pigeons by now were making nasty hand gestures.
Well they would have, if they'd had hands.
The LedLenser H7 goes a little bit wider than the Deal Extreme Cree LED clone.
Hmm. Interesting. If something breaks, one of these two torches has a warranty. The other goes in the recycling.
Above is the LedLenser H7 on narrow focus going head to head with the DealExtreme C76 on narrow focus. The C76 is brighter in this case.
The Ledlenser H7 on wide beam however, shows the C76 how it's done. Wider and fractionally brighter.
The LedLenser P14 on spot focus shows up the little C76. Well, no surprises there. It's not a bigger torch with more batteries just to stroke your ego.
With both torches on wide, the LedLenser P14 convincingly buttstrokes the C76.
The LedLenser P17 goes wider than the Ultrafire SSC-P7. The Ultrafire has a hotspot which is brighter, but that's not the point really.
Here the LedLenser P14 shows the Ultrafire SSC-P7 how to get it's arse kicked in a hotspot competition. It's a little uneven though, considering the Ultrafire has no focus.
The 2xAA maglite with the NiteIze conversion is seriously embarrassed by the diminutive Trustfire 1x AAA.
The converted maglite went home and cried. Then it went emo.
The Trusty Terralux blasts the pigeon's night vision into shards as the Ultrafire SSC-P7 spills over everything, like a drunk Uncle at your 18th birthday party.
At both ends of the size spectrum, here's the tiny AAA Trustfire beating the 6D maglite for spill and losing on brightness. If you had to hold one in your mouth to free both hands to do something, your choice between the two may not require much thought. (Unless you're Linda Lovelace.)
The Deal Extreme 5 x P4 Cree LED insert is being driven by a single 14500 Lithium Ion 3.6 volt battery here. This battery is about 3mm longer than a normal AA. In terms of pissing off the roosting pigeons you can just make out in the space on top of the wall, this is the light for the job. Several pigeons put on welding masks and went back to sleep. I haven't bothered to put it up against any other torches here. I know that it will kick arse. We saw that on the last test.
If you put the insert onto strobe mode and wave it about for 2.5 seconds, it looks like this. The pigeons must have been experienced at attending rave parties. None of them had seizures.
That's the end of the beamshots for this round. Essentially, if you're after a versatile single AA torch, you pretty much can't beat the Deal Extreme C76. I've just bought a few more of them to give away as presents.UPDATE: They haven't proven to be totally reliable.. Oops!
For an AAA torch, the Trustfire gets my vote. All around practical torch is still the Terralux conversion IF you have a maglite already. The P14 is pretty compelling for the quality, size, weight and focus ability, not to mention dual power. Compact and grunty, the pre conversion Frankentorch has it, as it's just better than the Jaycar CR123a at a third of the price. When Frankentorch Mk2 is finished, it will be my every day carry, but it won't be lent to anyone because it becomes something that requires some awareness to use.
Here's a shot to give you an idea of the reflector sizes.
Here's a bit of a closer shot to show you what to avoid. The second and third torches from the left in the front row are the absolute single LED dogs.
The start of the detail shots. The Energiser AAA is for scale, by the way. It doesn't power many of these torches.
The Deal Extreme C76. Very good, but not as reliable as hoped.
The once all conquering SSC P7. Although I don't know from what bin it is, I expect it won't be up near the top. (LED's are sorted into grades, like diamonds)
The vomity ebay AAA torch.
It's miniscule LED is below. If you see something like this, shovel some dirt over it and place a sign on the pile that says "Beware of the Leopard poop"
Below is the old tech MultiLED ebay special. Not bad when you've only got Maglites to compare it to.
Frankentorch Mk1. With the conversion, it's better than the original which was pretty good anyway. When it gets to Mk2 with the P7 insert, it won't be so practical and will go flat pretty quickly. It will be bright until it does though.
This is how you get more grunt out of an LED emitter. Cheat and put four of them together.
Below is the original Minimag work torch I had over twenty years ago. Then it was good. Comparatively now, it's abysmal. It sucks LESS with the LED conversion but the newer double AA magLED makes it look pretty bad. And the MagLED itself is no real paragon of illumination. It shows you just how much better things have got since I was 20 and these torches were considered a status symbol to illegally use on the flightline for aircraft examinations. Whoops. Did I say that? Best I not put this on the Internet. After all, nobody else did that kind of thing all that time ago.
The insert below is actually turned on in this shot. (Nah. I'm kidding.) I don't know if it's on or not.
Here you can see the solder pad connections and divisions on the Led Lenser H7 LED emitter. You can see this shape also projected on the wall with the little DealExtreme C76.
For one torch to do everything.. just get a P14 and keep it in your glovebox.
Even when I bought this MiniMagLED new for 85 dollars when they first came out, I was a little underwhelmed.
It's been around the block a few times and performed admirably in one bushfire. The 6D maglite.
So much torch for so little relative cost. The Trustfire can now go off to live in Marilynn's handbag. (It was bought as a present.)
The single AA ultrafire. It can also handle a lithium cell which increases it's output a bit. But that's cheating against the single AA's. The LED is similar to others already shown.
I hope you found that somewhat educational and didn't blow your download limit too much. If you're on dial up, I hope your roast cooked nicely while you were waiting.
Maybe when the prices go down on the SST-90 powered torches, I will be able to show you what a portable 2200 lumen searchlight looks like.