Warm or High CRI LED Conversions for Maglite?

Cosmodragoon

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So what is the bottom line on good conversion kits, drop-ins, or having mods done to convert old-fashioned incandescent or single-mode Maglites to a good, warm tint or high-CRI LED, preferably something like a Nichia 219B?

In a short time, this forum has helped me tremendously in upgrading to warmer LED flashlights that work very well for me. Now I have my old retired friends who have been with me for countless camping and caving trips... just sitting there looking sad in a drawer. They'd still like to help, maybe in an emergency where I somehow end up with only C or D cells. They just want to do it right. They want to make light like the new guys, warm and pretty, reasonably bright and reliable, and hopefully for a decent amount of time on their big ol' alkalines. What are their options?
 

bykfixer

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Not many options are available these days due to a variety of factors causing low demand for modernizing vintage Maglites.

Malkoff makes an awesome drop in that will add a lot of brightness. It is copy paper white in tint. Ones like TerraLux and NiteIze were good a few years ago and still are in terms of brightness and battery life extension. But again, not the current crop of neutral tint.

They all provide a decent CRI but nothing those charts and graphs would rate high.
 

xxo

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The Nite Ize 55 lumen drop-in is my current go to for a low cost and versatility. These are not warm but are not the old blue/purple of older drop-ins either. These work on 2 to 6 cell lights and are not expensive (currently around $8). Battery life is pretty good as well, over 8 hrs on 2 AA Eneloops.....2D cells would likely give 4X or more run time. If you need a few more lumens, Nite Ize also has a 74 lumen version, though it is not all that noticeably brighter and the run time is less.
 

bykfixer

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Some of my 2D classics have the nite ize module you speak of xxo. They definitely get the job done for lighting a shed or providing light when the all night generator suddenly quits.

Great for camping too.

My 3D Malkoff clad classic mimics the modern day Maglites in output. At $45 (iirc) it was an investment more than a thrill maker. But at the same time it is a thrill to use it.
 

xxo

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That's the kind of everyday, power outage or outdoor stuff a Nite Ized Mag (or other old PR based light) do best - not impressive in lumens but totally functional for all sorts of mundane tasks around the house or camp site, they get the job done without any fuss. For people who want more lumens there are higher output drop-ins, but if cost is a concern, ML25 LEDs can be had for $20.
 

Cosmodragoon

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Thanks for the replies. As you could have guessed, I don't care about big lumens. I care about quality over quantity. In fact, I want to see the most of what I can in front of me in the best color detail possible, without strain or harshness, for as long as possible on the given batteries.

It looks like what I want in this case might not be a thing. That's okay. My sad old retired Maglites can live in the drawer for now, reminiscing about all the beam artifacts they projected against cave walls back in the day. If it does exist and we've missed it so far, please let us know. If it becomes available, I hope you'll remember this thread!
 

ZMZ67

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Nothing really in the neutral/warm department for the Mag or in PR base form. The Nite-Ize drop-in is a good value and I like the Malkoff as if offers true heat sinking. Like Byk and xxo stated they don't really impress so much as provide solid reliable lighting.

One thing you can do to improve tint with LED drop-ins is try using photography lighting filters. I have used the LEE daylight to tungsten kit with some success on lights with drop-ins. Results do vary but you may be able get a more pleasing tint and Mags are an easy light to do this with since they have a removable lens ring. Not to mislead you,filters do not provide the same quality light as true neutral/warm and HCRI LEDs, that said I am happy with the filter results on some of my lights and wouldn't use them as much without the filters.
The other thing I like to do with D and C cell Mag lights is convert them to use AA so I can use Energizer lithiums. With single battery adapters it really lightens up the Mags and D cell lights can use 3AA to D parallel adapters to make a long running light with a drop-in like the Nite-ize. Lithium batteries hold up much better in long term storage making them a better choice for car/emergency lights.You can always go back to alkaline C and Ds any time but the potential for alkys to leak and ruin the light is too high for me.
 
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Cosmodragoon

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Indeed. I first got introduced to Maglite in the very early 1990s. I used them exclusively for camping, caving, etc. I swore by them long into the LED revolution due to the harsh cool white lights other people would bring hurting my eyes and washing out color. I took the low light and beam artifacts over that any day.

More than a quarter century later, I can attest to the longevity and sturdiness of Maglites. The only thing that ever killed them for me were alkaleaks. I accepted those as another necessary evil, and they finally got my original Maglite a few years ago. I know it was my fault for leaving batteries in them but being ready on the fly was an important feature in a flashlight. Now I use warmer LED flashlights with Eneloops. The retired Maglites are not stored with batteries inside them.
 

bykfixer

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Next time you are in Wlly World or other big box store and have about $20 burning a hole in your pocket, check out the modern Maglite stuff. Perhaps a Solitaire or 1xAAA mini mag. If they have any, the ML25 that is way way brighter in use than the numbers suggest. The ML50's are also pretty sweet.
The other night the Mrs and I kept up with our hobbies during a power out in our kitchen lit by an ML300 tailstanding on the counter... on super low.
The new Mags are cool white beam but not harsh and colors show very well.

The new Maglites are like good insurance. Not sexy, not delicious but there when you need 'em.

Oh, and being they are super long running now you can opt for aa or aaa eneloops and still get good fuel mileage without the leak issue.
 
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InvisibleFrodo

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I don't see anyone here mentioning the new warm white lights from mag light? I only have a solitaire for now, but it is possibly my LED tint champion or at least extremely high in the running among some pretty awesome competition. It is an excellent attempt at incandescent like light at a very reasonable price in my opinion. Only problem is they aren't in stores. Gotta get them on the bay or from maglight direct or some other dealer...
 

bykfixer

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Agreed. Those warm-ish Mags are nice.
I mainly tout stuff available in physical stores.

ZBattery dot com carries them. They are a reliable source for Maglite parts as well.
 

Tesla

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57 Lumens for the Warm White for $39.50....no thanks. Even the ZBattery price is way to high for the lumens. Too bad Maglite didn't see fit to put a higher lumen warm white AA mini-mag together.
 

xxo

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57 Lumens for the Warm White for $39.50....no thanks. Even the ZBattery price is way to high for the lumens. Too bad Maglite didn't see fit to put a higher lumen warm white AA mini-mag together.

I have been thinking of getting a warm white AAA mini mag -68 lumens; I kinda like the AAA Mini Mags better than the AA's anyway.....or maybe a 32 lumen warm white Solitaire or 140 lumen XL50.
 

nimdabew

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57 Lumens for the Warm White for $39.50....no thanks. Even the ZBattery price is way to high for the lumens. Too bad Maglite didn't see fit to put a higher lumen warm white AA mini-mag together.

Apples to oranges, but I bought a 65 lumen M61WLL from Malkoff a few weeks ago, and 65 is plenty for just about most tasks indoors and limited outdoor stuff. Those dropping, even after sales and other discount codes are north of that $40 maglite price.
 

Cosmodragoon

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I had stayed away from the LED Maglites because they were cool white. I remember being very disappointed when they first came out. While a better cool white is better, it is still cool white. I got a little excited seeing the posts about new warm LED Maglites. So I looked. They have a whole specialty light page now.

http://www.maglite.com/shop/flashlights/specialty.html

Lots of cool stuff there. Then I clicked on the warm white version of their old 2xAA standard...

http://www.maglite.com/shop/flashlights/specialty/mini-maglite-led-2-cell-aa-flashlight-990.html

It's only 57 lumens. That sounds low but it's probably okay for normal household use. My regular household flashlight is a nice yellow-tinted Lightstar 80. The Lightstar claims 85 lumens and around five hours of run time, but does so on 2xAAA. Since the new Maglite is already a multi-mode flashlight, I'm guessing I'm not alone in feeling like that would have been a good "medium" instead of high.

Speaking of modes, this thing has four including signal and SOS. I know there is legitimate value in that for some people but I'm not one of those people. For me, it would probably just be two extra things (or twice as much) to cycle through. It seems like there is a disconnect between the target audiences for those two blinky modes and "people working in tight spaces" or on color-specific tasks. I suppose this could work for cavers. In many caves, that would be an acceptable level of light and the warmth would be appreciated. The 9 and 33 hour run times would be very comforting. I suppose it's remotely possible that those two blinky modes would be helpful if a party got stranded in the woods on the way to a cave?

Then of course, as Tesla already noted, it's like forty bucks. I got a 2xAA Jaxman for a little over half that. It's supposedly 4300K and has a nice yellow-beige tint. The low mode is probably on par with the Maglite's high and the high is supposedly 300 lumens. It doesn't have a long-running lower mode but it does have something else going for it. It looks like a nice, normal, modern flashlight. All the new Maglites have goofy colored tail-caps. Yeah, it's nice to mark a colored light for quick reference but did warm white really need a silver cap?!?
 

InvisibleFrodo

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I kind of agree, the silver cap is kinda goofy. Anyone criticizing the lumens might not be noticing the runtimes are all either the same, or shorter than the standard cool white equivalent. This isn't by coincidence, and it's not because mag lite made an inferior product. It's because the quality of light from these lights is actually quite good. And that means a sacrifice in brightness versus cool white emitters.

The lumens race is silly. If you want more, the XL50 runs about $40 or less and puts out 140 lumens (more than a Surefire 9P incandescent) of beautiful light.
 

Cosmodragoon

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As I said, the 57 lumens will be enough for a lot of things. I also prefer quality over quantity and don't care about big lumens for normal use. As far as "working in tight spaces", too much light can actually be a bad thing. I really wouldn't have criticized it if this were a single-mode light, or even just had the high and low. The problem is that this is a 4-mode light. It seems silly and strange to have a maximum high of 57 lumens on a 4-mode cycle. I'm just one guy but I'd rather have one of those four modes be a 200ish lumen high/turbo with at least a 2hr run time.
 

LiftdT4R

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I hate to bring up such an old thread but I've had the exact same question for a long time. You can find warm PR drop ins for 3+ cells. They use a buck driver down to 3V so they can't be used on 2 cell lights. I've ordered about 12 of these total and they can be had cheaper elsewhere. The tint is a toss up. I've gotten some around 2700K and others closer to 4000K.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JHVY7PJ/?tag=cpf0b6-20

You can also build your own drop in modes or I can build them too. You can literally run any LED you want. Nichia, Cree, etc. The downside is this can only be done for D cells.

https://maglitehistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/ultimate-maglite-restomod.html
 

xxo

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Since I posted here, I got one of these for my old 4D Mag:



....not the warmest tint, but nice and bright. These are a great option for putting an old Mag back in service.
 
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