# Barnburner -VS- Maxabeam?????



## fire-stick (Jul 27, 2006)

How does the barn burner and the maxabeam compare?


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## lasercrazy (Jul 27, 2006)

They're completely different lights in almost every way. The BB will destroy the MB in Total output but it's highly unlikely it would come anywhere near the throwing capability of the MB.


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## Ra (Jul 30, 2006)

Indeed Maxabeam is more powerfull as it comes to throw: Xenon short arc (is not HID!) has much higher surface brightness, but is much less efficient!

The barn burner puts out a +8000 lumens at 75 watts I beleve. The short arc lamp used in MB is rated at 1000 lumens at 75 watts !

The following pic shows the diference in surface brightness: in the middle is Maxabeam, the faint one on the left my HID Thor-mod at 50 watt. A 35 watt Philips burner is overdriven at 50 watt so its surface brightness already is somewhat higher than normal. The surf.br. of Barnburner is about the same.
(Please ignore the reflector at the right...)







This shot was taken using a type 13 welding filter at a distance of about 25ft from the reflectors.


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## scaredofthedark (Jul 30, 2006)

Ra said:


> Indeed Maxabeam is more powerfull as it comes to throw: Xenon short arc (is not HID!)



it's not???

i remember reading on here many times that it is


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## Ra (Jul 31, 2006)

No!!! its not: Short arc and HID are two different worlds. 

HID is far more efficient compared to short-arc (more lumens per watt), but short-arc has much higher surface brightness (for better throw)
The problem is that short arc probably deserves the name HID more than 'HID' does... Only they forgot to name it that way ! The question is: what do they mean with the "Intensity" in HID: If they mean "high surface brightness", then short-arc should be called HID. But if they mean "high efficiency", than "HID" deserves to be called HID!

Its a little conflict: you cannot use the same name for two different things, that's what I call confusing..
Short arc is among us for many (30 or 40 ??) years now.
HID (I mean the automotive HID) is from the last 5 years or so: A totally different technique!

So if you insist calling short-arc HID then say: HID-short arc!


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## That_Guy (Aug 1, 2006)

Ra... Sorry, but you’re wrong. :nana: Well you're 100% right about the technical differences between what we call HID and xenon short-arc (XSA), but when it comes to the naming, XSA is indeed HID. The problem is that what we call HID isn't very specific. You probably know everything I’m about to say, this is more for everyone else.

HID is a class of lamps which encompasses mercury vapour, metal halide, sodium vapour (not sure about low pressure) and xenon short-arc. What we generally refer to as HID is really metal halide. XSA is much more specialized, so to make it simpler we generally refer to metal halide simply as HID, and only mention XSA specifically. Of course a number of members probably don't know the differences which confuses the issue, but it's no wonder people are confused since the current naming system is so inconsistent and imprecise. This issue is made even worse with automotive D2S HIDs (there we go again I'm still not being specific... more precise name is metal halide) being referred to as "Xenon HID" or "Xenon headlights" or simply “xenon” etc. by the various marketing people... guess the word "xenon" is far more trendy than "metal halide". And if that isn’t enough you then have xenon filled incandescent lamps being referred to simply as “xenon”, and then you have blue tinted “HID look” headlight bulbs being referred to as xenon or xenon look, even though in many cases they don’t even contain any xenon!

In the case of “xenon HID” automotive bulbs while it is technically not incorrect to call them that because they do contain xenon, it is very imprecise because the xenon is only there to provide light during the first few seconds during warm-up, after that it does nothing. It is in no way similar to xenon short-arc. The proper name is metal halide, or even better xenon-metal halide. Really I think the word “xenon” should be banned, or at least restricted to use with xenon short-arc. All it does is make lighting more confusing for everyone.

I’ve probably just made everyone more confused, so to be clear:

There are two main types of “HID” lamps used in flashlights:

1.	Xenon short-arc. Not very common, used in the Maxabeam, Megaray etc. Very inefficient but has a short arc and high surface brightness, giving it extreme throw. Instant on.

2.	Metal halide. Everything else. Very efficient, but can’t throw as far as XSA, and takes a while to warm up. Includes automotive “xenon” D2S lamps used in the X990, Costco HID, Kumkang etc., the 10W WA Solarc lamp used in the UK Lightcannon and mini-HID mag mods, and the 24W lamps used in the Brightstar/AE Powerlight. Despite being referred to “xenon” by many marketing people, they are in no way similar to xenon short-arc and are in fact metal halide.


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## Ra (Aug 1, 2006)

Very clear, That Guy, 

Lets form a front against all the confusing names and exaggerated CP claims in the torch- and spotlight-world !!!

Ra.


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## Orbit (Aug 1, 2006)

Geez i'm glad we got that out of the way AGAIN!

Ra did you get that PM i sent you?

I agree with the above comments though. Whilst they are both based on similar principles they must be considered different...like men and women both human but you wouldn't say that one IS the other.... well not without injury lol.

ORB.

P.s. we could call ourselves the lumen liberation malitia? LLM?


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## Ra (Aug 2, 2006)

Hi Orbit,

Please resend the PM. I'm getting alot of PM's lately..(don't know why...)
so it could well be that I deleted it unread.

Ra.


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## Flakey (Aug 13, 2006)

for naming sake why dont we stick to XSA (xenon short arc) and Mh (metal hallide) although there are other high intensity discharge lamps such as high pressure sodium used in street lamps, for us flashaholics XSA and MH are the typicially used ones. If you ever look into a maxabeam i think you will agree that it has a Highly Intense light Discharge .....


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## nemul (Aug 19, 2006)

Ra said:


> Hi Orbit,
> 
> Please resend the PM. I'm getting alot of PM's lately..(don't know why...)
> so it could well be that I deleted it unread.
> ...



cause your the HID shizznit


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## LuxLuthor (Aug 19, 2006)

Eventually, I'll upgrade my 50W "BarnBurner Junior" to the 75W kit, but I can also see a real advantage to the throw of the MaxaBeam. It's so hard to justify what looks to be $2,000-2,500 price though. If I got one it would only be the light with the Li Ion battery pack, but I don't see prices for that minimum package anywhere.


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## Whisper (Aug 28, 2006)

Hello,

does anyone knows a cheap short-arc light (lets say under 150 or 200 $) ?


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## Ra (Aug 29, 2006)

Sorry Whisper,

I think you can forget that: Short arc requires an even more expensive electronics unit (ballast) then the well known automotive-HID does..

If you are very, very lucky, you can find one second hand at Ebay; The last time I saw that happen was about a month ago: An older MBS-410 maxabeam-unit was won for about 800$ if I remember correctly.. The one I saw before that did 1300$...

So even if one is listed at Ebay, then only if the rest of the world is sleeping, you can get your hands on it at that prize !!

Regards,

Ra.


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