LED vs Incan Bulb life

[UVvis]

Toasterlocker,

I'm not sure what crushing a light has to do with quality.

What many folks do have issue with are inexpensive lights, made overseas, that do not have as strong of a service and support history like that of Surefire. I'd rather pay more money to a company like Surefire that employs Americans and will work their tails off to make sure folks are happy and get what they need, wherever they are on the planet. Surefire also has a long history of providing reliable 'stuff'. Fenix lights haven't been around all that long.

Personally, I've found the Fenix lights to be alright. I'm not a fan of their switches and control.

And related to LED DROP INS,

I got a pair of Lumen Factor D26-LED drop ins. I selected the warm white tint version. Side by side they put out more light than the Surefire P60L, and put it out in a tighter spot. The downsides are that the beam has a pretty noticeable halo and some junk floating around in the side spill from the light. Granted you only see these indoors, they are a bit noticeable while hunting walls. They are also bigger dimensionally and don't allow me to close the bezel all the way on a few different Surefire models.

[toasterlocker]

Toasterlocker,

I'm not sure what crushing a light has to do with quality.

What many folks do have issue with are inexpensive lights, made overseas, that do not have as strong of a service and support history like that of Surefire. I'd rather pay more money to a company like Surefire that employs Americans and will work their tails off to make sure folks are happy and get what they need, wherever they are on the planet. Surefire also has a long history of providing reliable 'stuff'. Fenix lights haven't been around all that long.

Personally, I've found the Fenix lights to be alright. I'm not a fan of their switches and control.

And related to LED DROP INS,

I got a pair of Lumen Factor D26-LED drop ins. I selected the warm white tint version. Side by side they put out more light than the Surefire P60L, and put it out in a tighter spot. The downsides are that the beam has a pretty noticeable halo and some junk floating around in the side spill from the light. Granted you only see these indoors, they are a bit noticeable while hunting walls. They are also bigger dimensionally and don't allow me to close the bezel all the way on a few different Surefire models.

Take the crush video how you will.

As for your thoughts on Surefire:
In the globalized economy we live in your argument really doesn't hold a lot of water, and it really isn't relevant to the main points of this discussion. I won't discuss it further except to suggest you read some Thomas Friedman if you disagree with me.

By the way, not all Fenix lights use reverse clickies if that is the switch problem you are referring to.

Also, your opinion of drop ins is a little flawed considering the ones you basing your opinion are aren't even close to the best available, and were never ones I recommended. Try a Malkoff out and see if you still feel that way (and he is American, unlike those Hong Kong Lumens Factory commies you bought from, if that makes you feel better)

[UVvis]

Take the crush video how you will.

As for your thoughts on Surefire:
In the globalized economy we live in your argument really doesn't hold a lot of water, and it really isn't relevant to the main points of this discussion. I won't discuss it further except to suggest you read some Thomas Friedman if you disagree with me.

By the way, not all Fenix lights use reverse clickies if that is the switch problem you are referring to.

Also, your opinion of drop ins is a little flawed considering the ones you basing your opinion are aren't even close to the best available, and were never ones I recommended. Try a Malkoff out and see if you still feel that way (and he is American, unlike those Hong Kong Lumens Factory commies you bought from, if that makes you feel better)

Toasterlocker,

Sorry, I can't read...

For Fenix switches and controls, I just haven't been impressed with their function, or feel. Including the non-reverse clicky types.

And no, my opinion of drop in units is very accurate. Reread my post, you will note that I'm comparing Surefire's P60L to a Lumenfactory D26-LED. Don't know what you were assuming.

[cronus5116]

I didnt read all the posts just a few, but let me see if I'm getting this right, do you want to know about the bulb life in a LED?

[Pk14]

In considering how much light output I needed, the Incan offerings from Lumens Factory appeared to have reasonable outputs, however the advertized bulb life of 20 hours caught my attention. It appears LED bulb life is significantly better, which can be a big plus for durability and long-term use.

A Malkoff M60 drop-in on a SF G2L with the SF FM-34 diffuser is my initial heading for the indoor / outdoor coverage need.

Pk

[cronus5116]

Okay, well a LED never burn's out unless of course you run more amps or volts than they are designed to handle, but with batteries the chances of that happening are slimmer than me ever going out with Hillary duff, I'm not trying to sound cocky, but I went to school for two years and became a electronics technician, and LED's are something we had to study about for two weeks or so, like I said, I don't want to sound cocky, but I do know a thing or two about LED's. With todays advances in LED technology they are as bright if not brighter than most incan. bulbs out there, and easier on batteries, plus you dont have to worry about g shock, because there is no filament to break either. I would advise getting the surefire scout light they are fine lights.

[BackBlast]

Okay, well a LED never burn's out unless of course you run more amps or volts than they are designed to handle

LEDs do eventually fail, and it depends on how you run them. Take a Cree XRE, their modern white LED. How you install it and what kind of heat sinking you give it will determine what you can run and still meet spec life span. I believe the CREE's lifespan is spec'd at 50k hours to 70% lumen maintenance with a given assumed junction temperature that is plausibly maintainable.

For radically over driven lights (Generally 1A+, which can be identified at present as single LED light rated over about 200 bulb lumens, and some that are lower), you are likely to see a 500 to 1000 to 5k hour life span, maybe more or less depending on drive level vs heat sinking mostly. High current means high temps, high temps tend to cook off the phosphor and dim the die. "life span" is different than an incandescent, rather than instantaneous failure they will typically dim over time. "Failure" is some threshold of spec brightness, 80-70%. It happens slow enough that it's rather imperceptible without a direct comparison to an original light, even when you're usage pattern puts you on the very short end of the spectrum.

All that is a fancy way of saying, the more power you use the lower your life span. Ranging from 500-1000 hours for the hardest use to 50k hours running spec'd currents of ~700 mA with adequate heatsinking.

Even at the low end of the spectrum, LED life and durability is much superior to the average incandescent. The only disadvantage to (most) LEDs, IMHO, is that the spectral coverage is inferior to a well built incandescent bulb.

[BackBlast]

A comment on the field of lights (where the thread seems to be mostly focused..).

I pick my lights around batteries, in my case I picked the generation old AA battery to narrow my logistics and overall cost. Unfortunately, the nicer US manufactures have tended to ignore this subset of lights and the Surefire pickings are non-existent so I've actually never owned one...

I like fenix lights for their strengths, and I have a few - but they're mostly relegated to my kids. I also love the fact they took some feedback I offered and made an accessory based upon it - of course it's my favorite accessory

I like nitecore (not mentioned here yet), and that's what I intend to mount on my rifle when I figure out what mount to use. Nitecore is also my EDC.