this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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Interesting. I was hoping this would be a better and brighter D18. But it seems like less output and more functionality.
Not brighter at startup, but being fully regulated makes up for it a bit. You have the D18 at ~14,000 lumens with SST-20 5000k/6500k and the M44 with 9520 lumens. That's a noticeable but not massive difference in perceived brightness, and once the batteries get down to ~3.8v (which happens faster on the D18) the M44 will still do 9520 lumens, or very close to it, while the D18 drops to ~9000 lumens and will continue to drop as the battery drains. The M44 would beat the D18 even more with the batteries at ~3.6v.
Additionally, the M44 will likely sustain higher brightness long term due to the more efficient driver that handles heat better. The D18 sustains ~1800 lumens, and the M44 will likely sustain over 2000, perhaps ~2400. But both lights are so small I wouldn't expect more than that due to thermal limitations. Also the M44 will have ~20% better battery life.
Still, I'm with you. It would be nice if he kept the D18 in production, so you have the more 'functional' M44 option and the more 'hot rod' D18 option.
Yeah I fully agree with everything you've said. It'd definitely a neat light. But I see Hanklights as the hotrod brand, so I'm all for the blistering heat and lousy runtime if it means I get 20,000 lumens for a few seconds. Having both available would've been nice.
It would be interesting to see if someone could mod a driver into an M44 that would make use of the cells and emitters but give it the more hotrod feel. Not sure if that's even possible.