Hirohsima

First Impressions, more to follow once I get a few rides in:

I was going to compare along side my preferred helmet light (Dinotte 400L) but I leant it out and could not get it here in time to shoot pics with it. But my experience is that the MS900 dwarfs the 400L in the hotspot and by my eyes is about 2x the light making the 400L more like 300 lumens (assuming the MS900 is around 600)

I used to MTB but kids and convenience trump my will to ride in the dark on the trail. So what you have here is what I would see most nights (city/suburb surface streets). Take my shots and my opinion with a grain of salt.

IMHO, road riding demands more, not less light than off-road. Competing car lights, any kind of wet surface, and streetlights severly impeed my ability to ID obsticles and find clean tarmac. Riding on the streets in the rain is especially sketchy as wet road reflect the light and I would guess my usable visible light on the road about 25% of what my lights look like in the dry.

Camera Settings:
F4, 100ISO, WB-Sunlight, TV-6sec, apx 38mm focal
All batteries freshly charged

Control:


Romisen
Romisen RC-KF 3~8V Versatile Cree Flashlight (1x18650/3xAAA/2xCR123) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme
About 120 lumens


MS900 on High (apx 600L)


Two MS900's on High (apx 1200L)


MS 872 on High (apx 1000L)



Same setup, but with a different focal length to show the backset beam patterns better
Apx 16mm focal

Romisen


MS900 on High


Two MS900's on High


MS-872 on High


MS872 + MS900 on High


Overall impressions:

Build quality on the new light is better by outward appearances. I did not tear it apart to check intermals for swarf. The front lens on the MS872 is plastic so you have to be a bit more careful with it than the MS900's since those are glass.

The flood is nice, and on the road, I think it near ideal. Yes it throws some light above the horrizon and it may be bright for cars.... but I like the quality of the light. Its very smooth, and lack the rings and dropouts that the MS900 has. Paired with my Dinotte 400L I think I will be quite happy with the M872 alone w/o a paired up MS900. I suppose if I want to be truely annoying I could run all 4 lights and have a theoretical 2500 lumens, but being that they all are cone beams, and have no cutoff for other drivers, I find no reason to run that much light on the road unless perhaps I am in a downpour.

The hotspot in the center on my MS900 tended to make me focus on just the stuff in that small area... effectively narrowing my vision when in fact I like to keep my perspective as wide as possible. The MS-872 allows me to scan far better which I like. I still want a spot on my head for directional light however....

Looking at the pics, I would argue that the MS-872 VS dual MS900's (not the XML version) has nearly the same amount of light, just with a different beam pattern/distribution.

Will report back more once I have a few more rides in.

I did include a torch since a lot of you guys still ride with them. I don't have a nice P7 tourch to throw into the mix but hope it draws some helpful comparisons for you guys.

I used to bike commute with the original NiteRider MiNewt (not the X2) that had around 75 lumens. I thought that was bright. Then I upgraded it to the X2 lighthead for around 150 lumens. Then I paired the X2 with a Dinotte 400L.... now this insanity. I have always liked lights (have aftermaket HID's in all my cars that did not come with them) and used to put in H4-120W hellas into my cars back in the 90's. I seriously cannot belive the amount of light they can get out of these tiny packages. On the road, with the MS-872 and dual MS900's (sans the 400L) I am easily brighter than any halogen lit car.

Note about the focal length. I think 38mm is closer to what I would see without scanning. Whereas 16mm is never really a realistic on-bike viewing perspective. It was thrown in there to just show beam pattern, as well as where a lot of light is going outside the visisble area on the 38mm shots.

Cheers to Geoman for their great customer service and wonderful communication. I don't think I will be purchasing a light from any other dealer other than them for the forseeable future.

-Jeff

Diamond

Thanks for the very informative report. Great work, you an review all the lights I'm thinking of buying.