Malkoff M61 P60 Dropin Review

Malkoff makes a P60 dropin called the M61, which fits Surefire G2-style flashlights. It’s a brass drop-in. Read on for more!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Malkoff M61 P60 drop-in product page.

Versions

In the sense of this drop-in, there’s only this one.  But more generally speaking, this drop-in body is available in many configurations.  There’s the M61, which isn’t low output, but single mode.  There’s the other one I have, the M61L, which is a single-mode low output.

But there are a bunch:

M61 Mod to fit Surefire and Malkoff
M61L (Low Output) to fit Surefire
M61LL (lowest output) to fit Surefire
M61N (neutral tint) to fit Surefire and Malkoff
M61NL (neutral tint, low output) to fit Surefire and Malkoff
M61NLL (neutral tint, lowest output) to fit Surefire and Malkoff
M61W (warm tint) to fit Surefire
M61WL (warm tint, low output) to fit Surefire
M61WLL (warm tint, lowest output) to fit Surefire
M361-LMH Low-Med-High to Fit SureFire
M361N-LMH Neutral Low-Med-High to Fit SureFire

And there are even others, not really for the G2, but still using basically the same brass parts.

Price

This specific drop-in is $43.99, on sale from $55.00.

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Short Review

This is a very nice upgrade to the metal body Surefire P60 (etc) incandescent drop-ins.  It’s extremely well built, and dead simple.

Long Review

The Big Table

Malkoff M61
Emitter:	Cree XP-G2
Cell:	CR123x2
LVP?	No
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	450
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	611 (135.8% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	107
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	275lux @ 4.533m = 5651cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	150.3 (140.5% of claim)^

The other setup:

Malkoff M61
Cell:	18350
Runtime
Claimed Lumens (lm)	450
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	393 (87.3% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	107
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	393lux @ 294m = 5785cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	152.1 (142.1% of claim)^
All my Malkoff reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer: Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What’s Included

• Malkoff M61 drop-in

Package and Manual

This drop-in ships in a plastic blister pack, which is easily opened without cutting.

There is no manual.  It’s plug-and-play.

Build Quality and Disassembly

This is a very nice drop-in.  It’s extremely solid.  The electronics are potted, so there’s nothing to move or manipulate or …. anything.  It’s just a solid chunk of drop-in.

Same spring as the M61L.  Same comment:

Though I don’t know what the reasons are, I expect this narrow-to-broad spring is used purposefully.  I would probably prefer a bit of a stiffer spring, especially if intended as a weapon light.

The specific drop-in name is scratched into the brass body.  This is effective, and reasonable since the guts are potted and thus essentially permanent.  A sticker with the drop-in name be nice.  Particularly if that sticker had drop-in specifics like voltage range.

Size and Comps

Here are the dimensions, as measured by me:

Largest diameter: 26.16mm
Narrowest diameter: 18.46mm
Length: 29.0mm
Length including uncompressed spring: 34.68mm

Exactly the same as the M61L.

Power and Runtime

I threw this drop-in in a random P60 host I had on hand, which happened to be a Solarforce L2M (seen above).  The drop-in voltage range is 3.4V to 9V.

Since I don’t test with primary cells, I tested with a 18350 Li-ion cell.  That voltage is 4.2V.  As a result, my max output will likely be a little lower than with a two-cell setup.

The pic below is the lithium-ion cell I tested the drop-in with.

As you can see, I measure around 393 lumens at 30s on a 4.2V Li-ion.  The spec is 450 lumens, but that’s on 6V 2-up cells.  Unlike the M61L, the output drops almost immediately, and seems to be direct drive for the entire runtime.  I had a glitch in the test where the light dropped down and turned off, but it restarted and continued.  I’m not sure exactly what happened in this case.

I’ll add that to get this drop-in to work in the Solarforce host, I needed to add two magnets, for a total of around 4mm thickness, on the negative terminal.  A longer spring on the drop-in would likely fix this.

There is no LVP.

Pulse Width Modulation

There is no PWM!

Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.

Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.

User Interface and Operation

No user interface table is necessary. The mechanism for this drop-in is either on or off. If a circuit is made between the spring, body, and a cell, the drop-in will be on.

In the case of the Solarforce L2M, the switch is a mechanical forward clicky.  But the drop-in doesn’t care what type mechanical switch is used.

Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
6V	450	1.25h	611	0.65
4.2V	450	–	393	0.76

LED and Beam

The emitter used in many of these drop-ins is a Cree XP-G2 Cool White (6200K).  Some of the others are specifically labeled as being other temperatures, though.  The reflector is lightly orange peel, and not terribly deep.

These beamshots always have the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.

6V (CR123x2):

4.2V (16650 Liion):

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Conclusion

What I like

• Robust build quality
• Low output considers nitrolon body of Surefire G2
• PLENTY of options in the line, to get whatever is wanted

What I don’t like

• Prefer a stiffer spring
• Would like LVP

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Notes

• This light was provided by Malkoff for review. I was not paid to write this review.
• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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