Will I turn into a Maglite fan once again?

[bykfixer]

Tony's first job was making clothes. In time he was making stuff for the military. I somehow doubt any tactical gear that meets Tony Maglica approval is half***** crap.
Over priced? Perhaps.

http://www.croatiafest.org/stories/view/153933649
Some details some may not have known.

 

[maglite mike]

Tony's first job was making clothes. In time he was making stuff for the military. I somehow doubt any tactical gear that meets Tony Maglica approval is half***** crap.
Over priced? Perhaps.

http://www.croatiafest.org/stories/view/153933649
Some details some may not have known.

I recently purchased the shotgun shell holder and both style backpacks. Extremely high quality and made in the USA. I also own 5-11 Tactical bags and prefer the maglite bags more.

 

[bykfixer]

The ship has sailed on Maglite dominating the world of flashlights. To see Tony and his merry band of lab coat wearing blokes turning to "gear" may be just what the doctor ordered, not unlike CREE turning towards making computer chips. Will it pan out? Eh, we will see over time.

Again this is a company plagued by their own destiny. Like Elzetta and some other US light makers, making very durable products means repeat buyers can be a problem at some point. New customers have to be generated in order to remain viable. The flashlight market is saturated with competition galore. Products made better and less expensive over time makes the task more daunting. Tony seems more concerned with keeping his employees working than generating huge profits. If profit was the first criteria I honestly believe Maglites would not be a domestic product anymore.

Mrs Fixer and I bought a tv series box set that went on over a decade. (Bones) As the series progresses it is interesting to see the changes in flashlights they use. Most viewers would not notice they started out with classic shaped Maglites and as each season progressed the Maglites were replaced with what looks like Streamlight, Fenix and other brands of lighting tools.

 

[xxo]

The flashlight market seems to be shrinking.....most people just use their phone or the light they got for free at harbor freight. Those that do buy a flashlight often end up with some bat light, atomic Navy SEAL light or whatever supposedly has the highest lumens at walmart. Many young people never heard of Maglite and don't know how much higher quality and performance they would get by getting a USA made Maglite for around the same price as they are wasting on junk.

 

[bykfixer]

I have failed as a flashaholic. Yup. As much as I have tried to educate, as much as I have given away, Mrs Fixer is using her celphone for light now. Aaaaauuugh!! It was bad enough that the plethora of camera gear I set her up with is now shoved under the bed, in closets and who knows where else. Now the iPhone is her flashlight too.

Sigh.

It's my fault too. I gave her the iPhone 11 pro for her birthday after she joined some kind of iPhone photography school online. That's ok though. I now have all those flashlights she kept confiscating back. Hmmm come to think of it, this is a win-win. My warm Solitaire is back on my side of the bed. Hmph. Take that celphone light user. And when her phone is on charge and she needs a flashlight? ……… too bad, so said. I'll just hand her a 3D ML300 Maglite with the tail cap loosened to cut power to the parasitic drain.

 

[Devildude]

Always find the silver lining, my better half confiscated my my green mag clone that is an incandescent light. I bought it for myself but that is the breaks. I need to get me some of the newer varieties, all I have are incandescent and early led varieties from Lowes black Friday sales from years past. I haven't bought a new one since I bought the 2c with the solitaire 3 or 4 years ago. Nice lights though.

 

[bykfixer]

Last evening when lurking the Maglite clearance page I saw XL100's for $20. Comparing specs it appears the 100 is a better thrower. Not a lot but better. 105 lumens, 7619 cd, 5 hour 45 minute run time for the 100 and 230 lumens, 6663 cd, 1 hour 45 minute runtime for the 200.

 

[bykfixer]

I had forgotten a little trick I added to a couple of ML25's back when they first came out.
The Streamlight Stinger anti-roll device.

It's a little octagon rubber sleeve you slide over the bezel ring.
The Stinger head is a couple of millimeters less in OD so it fits the Maglite even tighter. Once it's on the ML25 it'll be too big for the Stinger later so if you want to share one between them that's out.

They cost between $2 and $5 depending on where you get them. Back then I bought a few at e-cops but the Maglite parts store z battery carries them also. So if you are looking for other products there you can toss one in the cart and not have to pay more for shipping than the part itself.

I turned the silver ML25 shown above into an amber beam number by coloring the stock lens with a pumpkin orange Sharpie. I was going for warm but that did not work out. Adding a darker orange over it made the beam into a red (almost pink) output but I preferred the amber.

Kinda ugly but kinda not. Kinda green, kinda not.
It's back to stock lens now but I thought it was a neato mod for some purposes.

 

[bykfixer]

Alright, I now have in my possesion an XL50,100 and 200. At first I couldn't get the 100 to act like the 200. Click it twice quickly for strobe for example. So I put the 200 tailcap on the 100 and viola, the 100 acted like a 200. Hmmmm, but what about the 50? Place an XL200 tailcap on a 50 and you get an XL50 that does all the cool tricks the 200 can do. Want your 100 to be simple hi/lo/strobe, just use an XL 50 tailcap.
Cool.

But how to get that 100 to do the cool tricks the 200 does? Well you line up the "mode" shown on the tailcap vertical and press/hold the button. It prompts into whatever mode you want, be it strobe, sos or which ever. The 200 you just quick click X number of times to get to the mode you want. The XL50 does hi/lo/strobe via quick clicks.

The beam of the 100 I bought is stated to be a bit over 100 lumens (105) and has a whisper of yellow tint. It looks straight up cool white until held side by side with the much whiter 200 (or 50). The hot spot is narrow like old school Maglites. The 200 has a nice broad hot spot. The 50 is somewhere in between.

50 is 200 lumens, beam of 225 m, 12553 cd, 6hr-45min/25 hour runtime, 1m drop.
100 is 105 lumens, beam of 178 m, 7916 cd, 5hr 45min/209 hr runtime, 1m drop.
200 is 230 lumens, beam is 163 m, 6663 cd, 1hr 45min/156 hr runtime, 1m drop.

In real world use all three hardly change beam characteristic when the head is twisted.

All three look virtually the same from across the room. My XL50 and 100 have a hyphon between Mag and Lite. The 200 is one word one the replacement head they sent but has the hyphon on the head that came on the light. I screwed up the factory head trying to put in a glass lens.

The button on the 50 is black, on the 100 is red/orange and gray on the 200. The 80 something lumen 100 tail cap button had a raised area so you could know the orientation of the tailcap mode in darkness. Mine does not have that. So I put a clip on it at the "brightness" portion of the tailcap.

The shade of gray on the 100 is much darker than the 200 I received from Maglite. The XL50's I have are both black.

I may keep the XL50 tailcap on the 100 at work to keep it simple.

Oh, the XL50 does not have the lockout feature of the 100 and 200, at not that I can figure out if it does. Turn light on vertical, turn light down while holding button and when turned off it locks out. Press and hold button vertical again and turn down to unlock. I keep all three of mine twisted loose until power is cut.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

Do you know what LED is in the XL200? I have the older 172 lumen one. I always thought it was quite throwy, although looking up the specs it seems it throws less than any of the ones you posted.

 

[VeeBee]

I own one Solitaire, two Mini, three 3 D Cell (lost one), one 2 D Cell (lost). And just added a 3 C cell ML50LX in a nice Foliage Green.

One of the D cell has been modified with a Malkoff drop-in and "tailcapped".

So, eight Maglites over the years. I didn't realize how much I had. There are better lights out there. Perhaps I'm used to Maglite's value and dependability? Maybe my stubbornness in sticking with the old?

 

[bykfixer]

I've never been one to know what any particular LED looks like and thus far have not decided to learn. So I have no idea CD. The beam of the XL200 I have is a little better blended spot to spill than the XL100 but all three (50,100,200) light up an area as far as I can focus, which is about 300 feet these days.

The 200 beam kinda reminds me of the newer aa minimags, where to 100 is more like a ML100 or 125. The XL50 seems to have the most punch through darkness at a distance but I would surmize the 100 would be better in fog or really high humidity.

Beam shot of all three.
L to R: 50, 100, 200

The shed is about 300 feet.

50

100

200

 

[xxo]

I'm guessing the XL100 has a Luxeon Rebel, a XP-E for the 50 and a XP-G for the 200.

 

[lumen aeternum]

Alright, I now have in my possesion an XL50,100 and 200.

That's great information. But I guess the XL100 is missing the "manual flash" mode of the XL200 - that position must be for normal on/off 100%?

The "tailcap rotation" mode set would suit my wife, she won't memorize clicks. And I don't blame her. So if I can put that cap on the XL-200 to give more max lumens that would be great.

I tried putting an XL200 tailcap on the Mag-Tac. Different threads, and the internal diameter of the Mag-Tac is smaller - so you can't drop the nifty battery holder into it. Seems like same OD though.

Having trouble with the Flash mode on the XL-200. It seems to want you to do the same motion; if I change the way I "wiggle" it gets confused sometimes. Seems like it really needs to be used with a "rolling wrist" motion. Cannot rotate my arm at the elbow, but I CAN do that with the DIM mode.

Having a hard time verifying that after using DIM, I am back to 100%. Unless you are shinging at a uniformly blank surface like a wall.

I don't see any useful change of focus at all when turning the head.
However, I like the candle mode much better than the usual - since the LED is recessed, instead of sticking out, there is no glare coming "sideways & down" if I set it on a shelf above eye level.

 

[lumen aeternum]

Do the Spectrum (colored LED) XL-50s have the same controls as the regular XL-50? Strobe on a colored LED seems rather useless - flash might be useful for signalling. Wonder if the tailcap can be swapped?

 

[lumen aeternum]

My XL-200 is marked "1 quick click" for the Dimmable mode - but actually it is "press & hold while rotating & release to set."

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

Having trouble with the Flash mode on the XL-200. It seems to want you to do the same motion; if I change the way I "wiggle" it gets confused sometimes. Seems like it really needs to be used with a "rolling wrist" motion. Cannot rotate my arm at the elbow, but I CAN do that with the DIM mode.

Try holding it as though it is a throttle twist grip of a motorbike, with your thumb on the switch and the back of your hand facing straight up. You can then simply flex you hand up and down to rotate the light easily.

Having a hard time verifying that after using DIM, I am back to 100%. Unless you are shinging at a uniformly blank surface like a wall.

It'll dim once you go past the top, as though it's a dial without a stop. Same grip as above can aid in finer control.

 

[bykfixer]

I hold my right hand at 12 oclock and rotate counter clockwise. By 9 oclock you should be cycled high to low. If adjusting lefty turn clockwise and by 3 oclock should be same.

One thing I noticed is if I cut power and don't use it a couple of days it prompts back to factory settings. How long until I don't know but if adjusting then keep using the same day it remembers settings.

 

[bykfixer]

A pair of 37 lumen solitaires arrived today. I did a side by side wall pic from about 15 feet with a 37 and 47 lumen version then an individual of each one showcasing not only the size of the spot but to get a sense of how much spill one or the other puts out.

Again there is only 10 lumen difference, but shining it towards your yard or what have you oh what a difference the shape of the LED can make. I would say for tailstand room light the 47 is better or for more light spread at a fairly close distance. But when you come home from work after dark and one of your slippers is missing, the dog is all hunched over like "I swear it was the gold fish" and you have a doggy door……in other words what's left of your slipper is probably out in the yard, well the 37 lumen reaches out much better while providing nearly the same spill.

Either one appears a heckuva lot brighter than the numbers suggest.

The side by side
As you can see not a whole lot of difference. But when adjusting from spot to flood the 37 has quite a change in the beam where the 47 just appears to get dimmer as you spread light out.

The 37 has a wee bit smaller spot but decent spill.

The slightly larger spot of the 47 appears slightly dimmer but side spill is slightly brighter.

I think I prefer the ever so lightly neutral-ish beam of the 37 simply because it reaches out farther like the traditional Maglite beam from the incan days where a 2C could spot a light colored kitty cat at 75 yards. Not that the 37 lumen solitaire can mind you. It just looks more like a Maglite beam.
Mine had 05/12 on the package.

 

[xxo]

Yup, not a huge difference, but I like the slightly throwier 37 lumen Solitiare. The 47 might be better if you only use it up close/indoors, but I find the 37 is bright enough for that already so I might as well trade a few lumens for a few extra feet of throw. Hard to go wrong with either version really.