Streamlight Siege Review --- Now in neutral white! (September 2014)

[Poppy]

Gee... without doing a close comparison, it appears that you would do equally well with NiMH D cells. I never heard of 26550 cells before, and don't know where they are sold.

 

[martinaee]

I have to say, I think the big thing for me about the actual NiMh D cells was that I didn't want to deal with yet another battery type and charger, but I am LOVING the Tenergy Centura D cells now that I dove in and got them. It's like having giant Eneloops. They really are so awesome which is why I hope they make a version of the Siege in the future that uses 4 cells.

 

[martinaee]

I contacted Streamlight to see if they could tell me about future plans for the Siege platform or other lanterns. They said they don't have any plans at the moment, but maybe they just can't tell me about things in the works either.

 

[kingofwylietx]

Looking at the wire leads on the board in the OP's review, I wonder how the tint would be if the red led positive was jumpered to the white leds positive. Do you guys think having the red led lit with the white ones would make the lower levels a significantly warmer tint? I remember reading about an led light bulb that used that trick, they added a red led to change the tint or improve CRI.

 

[AA#5]

Thanks for the detailed review. I bought three of them for emergencies. Amazon had a good price. Great lanterns. I especially like the smooth diffusion of light & the extra hanging options.

 

[martinaee]

Looking at the wire leads on the board in the OP's review, I wonder how the tint would be if the red led positive was jumpered to the white leds positive. Do you guys think having the red led lit with the white ones would make the lower levels a significantly warmer tint? I remember reading about an led light bulb that used that trick, they added a red led to change the tint or improve CRI.

You know, that's an interesting question and I have no idea. I'm guessing it might make it somewhat warmer, but I don't know if the red mixing with the fairly high kelvin white (at least of the version I have) would make for a warmer white color instead of still a pretty cool white with a weird red twinge. I don't know though. I wish I could turn the red on at the same time and see if the results are similar or different to my mod with the shaving cap diffuser. In my experience the red light emitted is visible, but doesn't light things up in the environment very much if that makes sense so I don't know if it would change the overall white light color/temp very much at least as it is now with the amount of light emitted in the red mode.

Thanks for the detailed review. I bought three of them for emergencies. Amazon had a good price. Great lanterns. I especially like the smooth diffusion of light & the extra hanging options.

Hey no problem. Yeah, it's a nice light. How is the color temp on your versions? I still haven't found out if they switched them to using an actual neutral tint emitter or if they are still cool white.

 

[KeepingItLight]

For kicks, you could try a double-exposure with your camera. Shoot the white beam, and then, on the same frame, shoot the red one. Set exposure using the brighter beam, and then dial back about 2/3 stop. Use the same exposure for both shots.

Otherwise, shoot two shots as described, and layer them in a photo editing software program such as PhotoShop.

 

[AJMAUDIO]

anyone else start thinking of mods when they saw the current limiting resistors?

 

[martinaee]

What kind of modding do you think could be done to it?

 

[AJMAUDIO]

well, my main thought is that if its using current limiting resistors, there is runtime to be gained by driving it with a real driver.

 

[vadimax]

BTW, there is a Super Siege available: http://www.streamlight.com/en-us/product/product.html?pid=341.

 

[martinaee]

BTW, there is a Super Siege available: http://www.streamlight.com/en-us/product/product.html?pid=341.

That Super Siege is awesome, but unless you have a generator you can't charge it if you need it for days. I don't think it charges via usb either (maybe I'm wrong). That means it might be hard to use a power bank or something. Maybe there is an adapter that would let you use a usb power bank though? I don't know.

I hope they keep making lanterns and maybe we'll see more versions in the future with removable and/or rechargeable cells.

 

[vadimax]

Noticed unpleasant moment on videos about Siege lanterns: looks like they all use PWM... Noticeable video blinking here at 2:10:

 

[martinaee]

I think somebody asked that before. I tested it myself and honestly I had never even noticed it in actual use until somebody asked about it. It doesn't have it in high mode at all. It does seem to have it in the lower modes, but unlike a flashlight you move around where it would be maybe more noticeable I didn't notice it at all if you just have the lantern sitting still. If it's prominent on video I assure you it's not at all in real life.

Thanks for posting that video too. I haven't seen a video with both the big and small one together. I love the Jacuzzi/bathtub testing with dogs

Edit: Actually, I shouldn't speak for the little AA version with one emitter as I don't actually own it. Maybe the PWM is worse on it in real life. I don't know. I kind of want to get one of the little ones as a gift for my dad in the future so if I ever do I'll post it here.

 

[JBS]

Have you tried comparing the Siege using (3) 3AA to D parallel adapters (9AA total) to the 3 Tenergy Centura D cells? I have the 3AA adapters and plenty of Eneloops but I'm wondering if 3 Tenergy Centura D cells would still perform better.
Adapters: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K86RXQU/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[Poppy]

3 AAs have 3*2450 mah = 7350 mah
1 D has 8000 mah or 10,000 mah, depending

The performance should be pretty similar to an 8K mah D cell and 25% less than a 10K mah D cell.

 

[kingofwylietx]

You know, that's an interesting question and I have no idea. I'm guessing it might make it somewhat warmer, but I don't know if the red mixing with the fairly high kelvin white (at least of the version I have) would make for a warmer white color instead of still a pretty cool white with a weird red twinge. I don't know though. I wish I could turn the red on at the same time and see if the results are similar or different to my mod with the shaving cap diffuser. In my experience the red light emitted is visible, but doesn't light things up in the environment very much if that makes sense so I don't know if it would change the overall white light color/temp very much at least as it is now with the amount of light emitted in the red mode.

If the dome was easily removable, I'd be happy to connect the black wire to the blue wire and white wire to the red wire. That looks like it would run both red and white leds....

We used our lantern last weekend. We were at a ranch and lost electricity. Frankly, the lantern had an annoying blue tint. I now want to put some tint film over the clear dome. I really didn't like the color temp. My son used it to draw and color, as I mounted it directly over the table he was using.

 

[Poppy]

That Super Siege is awesome, but unless you have a generator you can't charge it if you need it for days. I don't think it charges via usb either (maybe I'm wrong). That means it might be hard to use a power bank or something. Maybe there is an adapter that would let you use a usb power bank though? I don't know.

I hope they keep making lanterns and maybe we'll see more versions in the future with removable and/or rechargeable cells.

I see a common complaint is that it can't be charged by way of USB.

I suppose that one could use a 12V to AC power inverter to charge it from the car's battery.

 

[martinaee]

I don't own the mini Seige that uses AA batteries, but I just saw you can buy a pink or yellow version also... which is pretty cool. I don't know if that's new but I like that it's offered in more options than just the brown. Also the base is magnetic on the small version? I did not know that.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016R0N300/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[Subterrestrial]

Regarding the PWM on low, I don't have the means to measure it but IMHO it's pretty high frequency. It's not really detectable, unless you swing it back and forth rapidly and even then it's barely noticeable. At the very least, it's not like some lanterns I own where it's very noticeable.

Yes, the Siege AA has a magnetic base which is very strong (comparable to Fenix CL20 and CL25R). I have it in yellow.