XeVision XV-LX70 and XV-LX70 SuperPower (both 50/70 watt HIDs) Review / Comparison

XeRay

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 3, 2006
Messages
1,333
Location
Ogden, Utah
It's time to announce what has only been alluded to, until NOW. BVH (a great guy and highly respected CPF member, I have known for more than 11 years) has been very gracious and agree to do a review etc. of the Super Power and comparison between the XV-LX70 (standard) and the XV-LX70 Superpower. Because both units have our (XeVision) ballast, bulb and igniter, we placed the XV prefix on the front of both model numbers. Both units have our "Light engines" inside ( "XeVision Inside" ). We need to also thank FroggyTaco for assisting BVH and with providing access to a long range testing site. The efforts of both these gentlemen is greatly appreciated. Both lights will be delivered to BVH by Monday March 6th. We also thank LED1982 for suggesting this test/review in the first place, without him, none of this would be possible. I am sure he is "chomping at the bit" to have the light in his hands, but he has patiently delayed his personal needs and gratification by putting the review ahead of his own desires. A very selfless act I would say, on his part.
 

ven

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 17, 2013
Messages
22,533
Location
Manchester UK
Fantastic news and thanks to all who are making this happen..................i am intrigued on mr taco's long range testing site:naughty: Sounds like a flashaholics dream!
 

tab665

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
1,212
Location
north carolina
this is a stellar example of the character found in some of the members here. this is going to be epic. ive noticed a recent revival of sorts here in the HID subforums. this shoot out should provide the fresh beamshots this subforum needs (as well as a new link to provide the "LED surpassing HID crowd"). huge thanks to all the members involved.
 

LED1982

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
176
For an appetizer see this thread and post from April of 14. Same range will be used.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...olarion-PH50&p=4414167&viewfull=1#post4414167

I'm a huge fan of how those Maxabeam shots helps you to put what you're seeing into perspective even better. That Maxabeam laser helps you better appreciate the spill that you get far down range outside of the hotspot in the XeVision. Awesome far distance comparison tool!

A little off topic but I've been catching a few early X-Files reruns lately, it's funny Mulder & Scully run around with Maxabeams a lot as if they are pocket sized EDCs lol.
 
Last edited:

BVH

Flashaholic
Joined
Sep 25, 2004
Messages
7,023
Location
CentCalCoast
Both lights arrived undamaged. We need to do this on Monday or Tuesday eve as I forgot that I have some knee work being done on Thursday that will keep me off my feet for a while. Working on scheduling with Froggy Taco.

My reviews don't contain any Lux, CP or other measurements of the lights. Just beamshots and some verbiage describing what was seen and some on the physical characteristics of the lights themselves. I take the same shot with 3 or 4 established camera settings and then use the one - when posted to CPF - that best resembles what I saw. What looks just right in Photoshop (I just use it as a viewer and for cropping if i do that) usually does not look correct in CPF due to the pic size reduction so I end up using one that looks a tiny bit too bright in PS.

Froggy's got a much better camera than I do so hopefully he'll take some also and give us more to choose from to best illustrate what we saw.
 
Last edited:

FroggyTaco

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,145
Location
Central Ca
Since BVH has been so quiet I figured I would let y'all know that the beam shots were successfully taken!

All the photos are in BVH's hand so I won't spoil the surprise other than he has a busy personal life ATM but his review will be forthcoming!

It is fun to see these lights in person & it's utterly ridiculous how much output is available in literally the palm of your hand/arm/body!
 

BVH

Flashaholic
Joined
Sep 25, 2004
Messages
7,023
Location
CentCalCoast
Thanks to members LED1982 and Xeray, I and member Froggy Taco had the opportunity to see, handle and shoot these two excellent lights at Froggy's friends rural property. All the beam pics are from Froggy's camera and knowledge base as they put mine to shame. The target trees are at 990 Yard and 1230 Yard distances. Each light was shot hitting the target trees at both the 50 Watt and 70 Watt settings. NOTE: I highly suggest viewing these when your room is darkened and there is no other screen light reaching your eyes - use your hands to block all but the light from the pic itself. It makes a very big difference - at least for me. Things that are plainly not visible when viewing normally during the day with high ambient light are plainly visible when using the method I suggested. Also, it will make it appear that these two lights are not performing as good as they do if not viewed as suggested. I did my very best in trying to end up with posted pics that represent what we saw. I would probably have used the next brightest version of the pic for normal ambient light viewing. Froggy used 1.6, 2.0 and 2.5 second exposures at f/7.1. I then picked the one most representative and used it. No Photoshopping here. The camera used is an Olympus OM-D E-M1 with an Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8 lens. The temp was about 47 with light winds so you might see some particulates in the beams.


Up first, some static pics of the two lights together to illustrate relative size. The head of the SuperLight is HUGE. Handles and batteries are the same size and in-fact, the batteries are interchangeable, they have the same part number on the back. You want to be sure to have a good grip on the SuperLight when handling it. It is heavy although I didn't find it too heavy when walking around with it for a short time. For actual longer use, I'd definitely want to use the shoulder strap. Both lights use the upgraded ballast developed by Xeray - this particular Superlight being upgraded by Xeray prior to shipment to me. Both of these lights would be excellent for Search and Rescue - with Superlight being able to "see" further down the road by an estimated 300-500 Yards.






















The first two daytime pics are of the range. However, the pic is from a shoot a couple years ago and this time, we were about 100' left of the position from which these pics were taken so relationships of objects is a bit different. Also only the middle red circle is relevant as it is the 990 Yard target tree. The 1230 Yard target tree is the more fuller, darker, taller vertical foliage tree just to the left of the left red circle. (I forgot to get a new daytime shot) The white objects in the foreground are stacks of shipping containers for scale.








Xevision XV-LX70 -50 Watts @ 990 Yards - The target tree is not the lower, more easily seen tree but is above it. See below pic and it will be clear. Again, use the recommended viewing procedure and the target tree will appear out of nowhere.



XeVision XV-LX70 SuperLight - 50 Watts @ 990 Yards



Xevision XV-LX70 -70 Watts @ 990 Yards




XeVision XV-LX70 SuperLight -70 Watts @ 990 Yards




Xevision XV-LX70 -50 Watts @ 1230 Yards. We really could not see the tree and the pic represents this.



XeVision XV-LX70 SuperLight -50 Watts @ 1230 Yards



Xevision XV-LX70 - 70 Watts @1230 Yards. Use the recommended viewing procedure to see the target tree.



XeVision XV-LX70 SuperLight -70 Watts @ 1230 Yards. The trees to the right of the target tree are 1254 Yards distant. The trees to the left of the target tree are 1278 Yards distant.
 

LED1982

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
176
Great job! I like these shots a lot and that comment is from viewing them from my cell phone and before I have a chance to try out your dark room recommendation, I'll try that later tonight on my big screen in the dark. Wow the Superpower is actually even more larger than the regular than I thought. I made the right choice!! Far from being turned off from the huge head I'm actually disappointed that it's taking Lemax so long to come out with the Superpower XL lol.
 

Magio

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 30, 2016
Messages
250
Wow! The Superpower outhrows the standard Lx70 by a huge margin. Would have been nice to have seen how the Maxabeam would stack up against these throwers since most people consider it the king of throwers, but I'm very thankful we got to see any pictures at all:thumbsup:
 

BVH

Flashaholic
Joined
Sep 25, 2004
Messages
7,023
Location
CentCalCoast

ven

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 17, 2013
Messages
22,533
Location
Manchester UK
Awesome pics guys, thanks for taking the time and sharing....................BEASTS!!!:D

What a play ground you have there...........WOW, would love a few nights of flashlight fun camping out, super cool.
 

hahoo

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
Messages
917
Location
north carolina
1600 IIRC or possibly 1250

cool deal, tx for that
actually have an exif viewer, i forgot about, and it seems you were at 1600 iso
were these handheld, or did you use tripod?
they do look a little bit under exposed on my puter, but everybodys screen is set different
im just getting into taking beamshots , so im trying to learn as i go
any reason you shoot at high iso over a lower iso number?
do you ever do a control shot to compare things to ?
btw, i had never heard of the camera and lens you have and googled it , nice setup !
 

FroggyTaco

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,145
Location
Central Ca
cool deal, tx for that
actually have an exif viewer, i forgot about, and it seems you were at 1600 iso
were these handheld, or did you use tripod?
they do look a little bit under exposed on my puter, but everybodys screen is set different
im just getting into taking beamshots , so im trying to learn as i go
any reason you shoot at high iso over a lower iso number?
do you ever do a control shot to compare things to ?
btw, i had never heard of the camera and lens you have and googled it , nice setup !

Thanks.

All tripod shot, using the 2 second timer so there should be no camera shake. IIRC the in-body 5 axis stabilization is also turned off because that can actually induce blurriness when the camera is perfectly still. Manfrotto tripod if your curious.

I came from a full Canon(40D) crop set-up & was looking for a much more compact & quieter(no mirror slap) set-up. Also at times do a lot of indoor low light kid pics & the double DOF(compared to FF) at a given F-Stop was a plus for me & my needs. Essentially allows me to shoot @f2.8 while getting f5.6 DOF so the kids whole face is in focus rather than the tip of those while maintaining enough shutter speed to minimize blurring.

I used the highest ISO I could w/o introducing noise because I wanted to keep the exposures as short as possible to mine any camera shake from wind gusts or me walking around the tripod, etc.

Most point & shoots can't go over ISO200 w/o adding a chunk of noise. This caliber of camera allows a lot of leeway in that regard but of course a FF digital would allow ISO6400 at the same noise level & a crop camera(i.e. APS-C) would allow for ISO3200.

p.s. The all sensors with cross type phase detection for very fast continuos auto focus & 10FPS is nice as well
 

FroggyTaco

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,145
Location
Central Ca
I failed to do a night control shot this time.

We had about 1/2-2/3 moon while shooting.

If the big lights were off & our eyes readjusted we didn't need our headlamps to see where we were walking but honestly once the lights were tuned on the light output just dwarfs that. It actually makes the ambient moonlight "go away" because the eyes are adjusted to seeing this bright beam.
 
Top