Stephen

Build #2 Progress, Nov 19, 2011

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Stephen
, 11-20-2011 at 01:37 AM (7354 Views)
Received new samples today for the XP-E side of the light. With the higher lumen count comes a slightly higher color temperature. Still just a bit warmer than the XP-G, but slightly cooler than the old XP-E. I plan on looking at it in a variety of settings to see how I like it, but tonight I did take a few beam shots to highlight the change. I also put together the double-triple XP-E. This would be an option for those wanting a super efficient helmet light with great throw.

5 images here using the standard MTBR beamshot settings.
The orange cones are +30, +60, +90, +120, and soccer ball at +150 ft
Fence in the far background at 300 ft.

The first three shots all use the telephoto lens in this order:
1) Original DS-1300 XP-E (single triple) minimum 5000K color temp
2) New XP-E (single triple) probably in the minimum 6000K color temp range
3) New XP-E (double triple), aka "throw monster"

The last two shots show the importance of having a second lens of the frosted variety by using the wide angle (camera) lens and showing everything back to a few feet in front of the wheel.

4) New XP-E (double triple). Notice the lack of spill light in the near field (it's why they work so good for throw).
5) Add in the XP-G (R5) with a narrow frosted lens coupled with the New XP-E and you get "almost" as good on throw, but far better wide angle coverage and a nice smooth beam all the way out. For my eyes it's almost the perfect beam pattern. This will be the configuration for the DS-1300 coming in Feb 2012.
Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version.  Name: DS_1300_Original_XPE_Spot_hi_res.jpg  Views: 2093  Size: 94.4 KB  ID: 8   Click image for larger version.  Name: DS_1300_New_XPE_Spot_hi_res.jpg  Views: 2190  Size: 94.9 KB  ID: 9   Click image for larger version.  Name: DS_1300_New_Dual_XPE_Spot_hi_res.jpg  Views: 2093  Size: 95.9 KB  ID: 10   Click image for larger version.  Name: DS_1300_New_Dual_XPE_Spot_wide_angle_hi_res.jpg  Views: 2180  Size: 95.4 KB  ID: 11   Click image for larger version.  Name: DS_1300_New_XPE_Spot_XPG_frosted_narrow_wide_angle_hi_res.jpg  Views: 2189  Size: 93.2 KB  ID: 12  

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    Stephen,

    Youch! The double triple seems serious step up in brightness! Is there really that much difference? It looks like it doesn't suffer too much in the spill department, either.
    It would seem to be the way to go. But then, it's often hard to tell from the beamshots, isn't it. How is it power consumption wise? The XP-E, is I believe a little less efficient than the XP-G.
    Yes, the double-triple XP-E is really something to behold. Probably a little extreme for road use, but fine for off road, particularly a helmet mount. Despite being the the narrowest the "SPOT" beam that you can achieve with the tiny triple optics, it does cover a fairly wide area due to its 16.4 degree beam angle. For bar mounting, I prefer to have one XP-G triple in tandem with the XP-E. When using the narrow frosted lens on the XP-G, you get the last beamshot, which fills in the near field very nicely and smooths out the edges of the XP-E beam.

    The power consumption differences between the XP-E and XP-G are fairly negligible in this case. They just work really well together as a pair. The slightly lower efficiency of the XP-E is more than offset by it's optimum interaction with the triple-optics. I've tried a double-triple XP-G, and it was just a little too floody for my taste.

    I plan on taking some more beam shots in other "more interesting" locations as time allows.