Some of y'all may have seen the threads about Black Bear's Mag 951. This is a heavily modified 3D Mag Lite that has a new bulb, lens, heavy duty reflector, and uses carriers filled with rechargeable AA batteries instead of D cells.
It is incredibly bright...I was wondering how tough it was.
First, brightness.
The following pictures show the beamshots fired onto a fence 45' away. (Lights
7' to the side of camera.)
1. 4D MagLite.
2. Industry standard SureFire's E2e. (2 cell 123 tac light) Exposure took 8 secs w/ SureFire.
3. Mag 951.
Exposure took 1/8 sec w/ 951.
Next, on to the test. Please remember that this constitutes abuse, and I thank Juan (Black Bear) for his willingness to let me subject his light to deliberate abuse for testing purposes.
For size comparisons, I am 66" tall. This is a 5 foot drop test onto concrete.
Here's the Mag 951 hitting the concrete. The light hit squarely; it would be hard to hit any harder. There was no bounce.
The reason I wanted to perform the drop test, was that, while extreme usage, dropping the light is certainly within the realm of possibility.
The replacement lens Juan uses allows more light transmission and won't melt under the additional heat produced by the lamp. Unfortunately, it didn't totally withstand the impact. There was a small crack on the side of the lens, and the bulb broke. I replaced the bulb, and the lens (I could have kept the cracked lens without any likely change in short-term function, but don't know if the crack would have long-term consquences), and was good to go. The MagLite body was barely scuffed.
There you have it. The Mag 951 is considerably brighter than virtually all competing lights in its size range, uses rechargeable batteries, and is more durable than I would expect any light in this price range, with this much light and throw, to be.
It is incredibly bright...I was wondering how tough it was.
First, brightness.
The following pictures show the beamshots fired onto a fence 45' away. (Lights
7' to the side of camera.)
1. 4D MagLite.
2. Industry standard SureFire's E2e. (2 cell 123 tac light) Exposure took 8 secs w/ SureFire.
3. Mag 951.
Exposure took 1/8 sec w/ 951.
Next, on to the test. Please remember that this constitutes abuse, and I thank Juan (Black Bear) for his willingness to let me subject his light to deliberate abuse for testing purposes.
For size comparisons, I am 66" tall. This is a 5 foot drop test onto concrete.
Here's the Mag 951 hitting the concrete. The light hit squarely; it would be hard to hit any harder. There was no bounce.
The reason I wanted to perform the drop test, was that, while extreme usage, dropping the light is certainly within the realm of possibility.
The replacement lens Juan uses allows more light transmission and won't melt under the additional heat produced by the lamp. Unfortunately, it didn't totally withstand the impact. There was a small crack on the side of the lens, and the bulb broke. I replaced the bulb, and the lens (I could have kept the cracked lens without any likely change in short-term function, but don't know if the crack would have long-term consquences), and was good to go. The MagLite body was barely scuffed.
There you have it. The Mag 951 is considerably brighter than virtually all competing lights in its size range, uses rechargeable batteries, and is more durable than I would expect any light in this price range, with this much light and throw, to be.
