Bike Forums - View Single Post - Are Magicshines bad for commuting? They seem to lack a cutoff and are very bright

01-22-12, 02:11 PM

#82

Burton

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The objective of this post was originally to address valid concerns about running high powered lights like MagicShines without a beam cutoff because of potential glare issues for oncoming traffic. My initial post contained photographs of lights manufactured by Vision X which have a rated output of about 700 lumens and a similar design to some MagicShine models so I thought they were very representative of the lights in question.

I really assumed EVERYONE on this forum was familiar enough with high school mathematics that it wouldn't be all that difficult to grasp that something like a 500 lumen light source restricted to a 10, 15, 25 or 35 degree cone would be more intense than even a 1,000 lumen source spread over an 80 degree cone. Oops! My mistake!

And apparently that photo I posted earlier of my bike beside a car wasn't conclusive enough for Mr Black so in the interests of providing a representative reference, here's a photo of ALL those combinations on one vehicle.

High beam, low beam, 15/45 degree Vision X LED flood and 10 degree Vision X LED spot. These are EXACTLY the same lights I referenced myself, however the photo was sourced from an independent site. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...9&postcount=51
If anyone had any problem grasping the comparison before - I hope this spells things out clearly enough. One difference between this photo and mine is that mine were color balanced to the output of the LED which made headlights look yellow. This one is color balanced to daylight and since the LED output is strong enough to overload the sensor array in that area - it shows as white anyway.

Gee - half the power power output of an automobile headlight but concentrated within an area one quarter the size. Should have been a no-brainer. And since MagicShine markets lights with power ratings even higher than these and with similar tight focusing beams, it shouldn't be all that difficult to make the connection. But if anyone still has any further issues grasping a relative comparison and potential issues - you're on your own. I'm done with this thread.

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