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Lumintop Antman Review (World’s Smallest LEP Flashlight)

Today I have for you what Lumintop claims as the smallest Laser or LEP flashlight on the market. It runs on a 14500 battery and is a familiar form factor. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to look at and share with you.

 

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Get a 22% discount on the Ant man by using coupon code “JANTM2” at Lumintoponline at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-ant-man-thor-mini-165lm-590m-14500-lep-mini-flashlight-184

 

Packaging & Accessories

Standard Lumintop cardboard packaging here, the light is well protected with some foam. Mine came with very minimal accessories, the light itself with the clip preinstalled, a Lumintop 920mAh battery with onboard USB-C, and a manual. 

 

Construction & Design

You probably recognize this light, it looks a lot like the Lumintop Tool series of lights from Lumintop. I don’t have a recent AA model to compare it to but it looks similar in most ways. Machining is good, with corners nicely broken and soft. Anodizing is flawless and markings are minimal. The head and tail are removable, threads are square cut, smooth and lubricated. The tail cap features a forward clicky button, it has LED’s underneath that glow ever so slightly as a locator feature. 

Internally there is only a stiff spring in the tail cap, with a solid post in the front. I would recommend changing the battery through the front of the light, due to the tail cap holding the clip into place, I find it’s easier that way. The body has standard diamond knurling thats minimally aggressive. 

The head features a six sided anti roll ring built into its heat fins. The front has a glass lens, with a GITD insert below the lens, blue in my case. The light will stand on it’s head but not the tail. 

 

Retention

The light ships with the standard Lumintop dual direction clip that’s held in place with the tail cap. It’s not my favorite due to not being deep carry but it works and keeps the light secure. It’s pre drilled for a lanyard if you wish but one isn’t included in the package. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 100mm, head diameter at 22mm, body tube at 19mm.I measured the weight with the Lumintop battery and clip at 85g or 3oz. The light is IPX8 water rated

 

Emitter & Beam

The Antman is using a LEP or Laser Excited Phosphor the result is a very throwy beam with no spill. I have explained this technology in some of my other videoss if your curious to learn more about it. The beam here is a little more fuzzy then other LEP’s I have and doesn’t have the same sharpness of the beam pattern. Tint here is very hard to measure due to the intensity, but it’s very cold, and I measured no flicker since this is a direct drive light.

Official stats have this at making 165 lumens and 87,025 candela. I don’t think mine is producing that with a full battery. I don’t have a calibrated setup that I trust to measure LEP’s right now to really give scientific evidence of this but my night shots shows what the eye sees decently.

 

Night Shots

You can see from my night shots (Video version) that the performance isn’t quite what I expected here. I compared it to the Thrunite Catapult Mini which on paper is pretty closer, while different technologies my Antman doesn’t seem to be close to the rated numbers. 

 

Runtime & Heat

I did my runtime tests with the optional Lumintop 920mAh button top battery. Flat tops and button tops work here but longer protected cells are not recommended. You don’t need a high drain battery either because the current draw is pretty minimal at just at 1A. 

Some other reviewers reported high parasitic drains with the Antman when off, I wanted to test this further but didn’t see the same effects on my light. I had the battery in the light and noticed no noticeable drop in voltage. 

 

The driver is direct drive and thats apparent in my runtime graph, it’s a very linear decline in relative output from the begging to the end. It is able to hold near 100% output for just about 10 minutes before declining. During this time the hottest temps I saw was 35C. Total output was 42 minutes on the supplied 920mAh battery. One thing to note is there is no low voltage protection built in here and the light will stop operating around 1.1V. Below you will see the direct charging via the battery too. 

 

UI

This is a single mode light so not much to say on the UI. It does have a forward clicky switch that you can half press for momentary mode or full press to lock it on. This is a little disappointing for the price range, I would expect another mode here.

 

Final Thoughts

The Antman is an interesting light. It’s quite small and is in a familiar form factor we know. However, in my experience it’s performance leaves something to be desired. While it does throw a reasonably far distance with a fairly focused beam, it’s not quite at the level I expected based on the other LEP lights that I own. I feel like my night shots do a good job of showing that in the video. I paired it up next to my Thrunite Catapult Mini which is a similar size but with a larger head. The performance of the two are very similar throw wise on paper, but not so much in the real world. For the Antman your putting size and form factor above performance.

I don’t normally talk about pricing in my reviews because it varies so much based on where you are in the world, where you buy it, what promotions are ongoing and when you buy. But on this review I have to mention price. LEP’s are not inexpensive, but typically their throw performance is unmatched. However on the Antman, the performance just isn’t quite there. There are lights that are LED based, that are a similar size, that offer the same or more performance but for half the cost. 

 

I do hope that Lumintop continues to develop this small form factor LEP based lights so that the performance comes up to what we have come to expect from LEP lights and the price decreases. I think this will happen with time. Right now I would have strong reservations on recommending the Antman, it’s remarkable in terms of its size and its technology but it’s performance lags my expectations in this case.

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Acebeam P15 Review (1700 Lumens, EDC, Tactical all in one)

Acebeam has a new dual purpose tactical weapon light that can also double as an EDC with the new P15. It’s designed to easily transition between the two uses and features a number of optimizations to work for both uses. It’s available in 4 colors with a variety of accessories too. Thanks to Acebeam for sending this to me to look at and review.

 

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Pickup the Acebeam P15 from Acebeam.com and save 10% by using the code ACE10

P15 EDC Tactical https://www.acebeam.com/p15-edc

P15 Tactical https://www.acebeam.com/p15-tactical-light

P15 Limited Edition https://www.acebeam.com/p15-limited-edition

Or Amazon at https://amzn.to/3nQLi03

 

Versions & Packaging & Accessories

The P15 comes in 4 colors, Black, Orange, Green, and Dark Green which is what I have here. The colors are really nice, Packaging is well done, with a full color magnetic closure box but not much info on the outside. Inside on my standard edition light I received an Acebeam Lanyard, 2 extra orings, allen key, 2 extra screws, the dual contact (proprietary) 18650 battery, and a proprietary charging cable. 

 

Construction & Design

Let’s talk about the design elements and construction on the Acebeam P15. Construction wise this feels and looks like a nicely built light in my opinion. Everything is nicely machined and finished. Edges are chamfered and the anodizing is flawless. This Dark Green color that I have here is my favorite, I wish more lights were finished this way. There is a good amount of laser engravings on the light, something is visible from almost every angle.

Let’s start at the tail, the light does tail stand, the switch is electronic, metal and flush. It’s hard to feel with gloves on but you can stab blindly and it generally works. There is a rotating locking ring in the rear as well to lock in your various accessories like the charging cable, tactical ring, or remote pressure switch on the side of the light. 

The body tube is smooth except for ribbing in the middle that adds a bit of grip and style. Threads are square cut and raw (but with grease). Internally there are springs on both sides. The head is pretty minimal in design with some basic milling for style mainly. The front bezel has some crenulations that allow light to escape when head down. Inside you have that double AR glass, and a smooth reflector.

 

Retention

Retention is one of the main differences on this light with it’s dual purpose design ethos of being weapon mountable and quickly converted to EDC. Starting first with EDC, there is the large pocket clip that dominates the light. It’s not a traditional pocket clip at all, it stands proud of the light quite a bit more then what we are used to seeing, that’s because it’s mounted on a “Scout” mount. As a result it’s not deep carry, but fairly secure. Given that I think it’s a better fit on a vest than in jeans pocket. The included lanyard can be attached at the rear of the clip or in the middle. The scout mount can be removed by taking the hex screws off the clip and then using your own smaller allen keys to remove it from the light if you wish. Acebeam sells a tactical ring that can be used in place of the clip if you wish too.

To convert to a weapon mount, you simply remove the two clip screws to reveal the standard scout mount you can then slide into any compatible mount. While easy to convert it’s not a tooless design.

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 129.7mm, maximum diameter at the at the tail near the clip 34.5mm, minimum diameter on the body at 21.7mm. With the battery and clip installed the light comes in at 5.26oz, or 149.2g. The light is IPX8 water rated. 

LED & Beam

The P15 is using the Luminus SFT40 HI LED in an advertised 6500k tint with an advertised maximum 1700 lumens resulting in 330 meters of throw. On my unscientific Opple meter I recorded 6000K in turbo with a Ra (CRI) of about 65 and no measurable flicker. The beam is what you would expect, from a flat top LED, very throwy with a focused hot spot in the center and minimal spill. The crenulated bezel’s edges are visible in the spill but just a little. 

 

Official Outputs

    • Turbo 1700 Lumens – 27,225 Candela
    • High 600 Lumens
    • Mid 200 Lumens
    • Low 45 Lumens
    • Ultra Low 2 Lumens

 

Heat & Runtime

Let’s talk about the runtimes of the P15. Tubo lasts for 2 minutes before stepping down to 40% of relative output. It then continues on like this for 2 more hours till it takes a sharp decline for a total runtime of 2:18:00. During this time peak temp was 50C which is pretty controlled. I also ran a medium mode output and it’s very stable for 2:50:00 and then declines and shuts off for a total output of 3:12:00. 

 

UI

UI is simple on my version here without any of the accessories. From off, long press to turn on in firefly, long press to go into low, and the light will keep cycling up to medium and high. Double click to go to Turbo while on, and triple press to go to strobe. You can’t mechanically lock the light out due to those anodized threads but it does have electronic lockout that works pretty well. The quick function switch and pressures sensitive switch add other UI elements, but since I don’t have those I won’t comment on them directly. 

 

Recharging

Let’s talk about the battery in the Acebeam P15. It’s a 3100mAh 18650 that’s dual polarity on the one end with the plastic separator ring. We have seen other manufactures use these same type of cells usually on larger lights. I think Acebeam is doing it here to facilitate charging and the remote pressure switch without a dual tube light design to keep things slim. The bad news is it’s semi proprietary. 

So charging is accomplished via the pogo pins style connectors in the rear of the light. It comes with a special cable that plugs in via USB. It slides in from the rear and is a tight fit. It definitely takes some effort to get it there since the connector is a softer rubber/plastic. Once in place you can lock it in by turning the mechanical switch on the rear switch. This is also used for the other accessories. 

Charging took 2:27:00 to charge from LVP at 2.945V to full at 4.215v, so right where Acebeam claims. Fastest charging rate I saw was about 1.4V. The light will not turn on while charging.

 

Final Thoughts

I like the P15 EDC Tactical and the concept that Acebeam was trying to achieve with it. I like that they brought out multiple colors of the light from the beginning instead of dribbling them out over time. That said the light does make concessions in it’s design to do both tasks. Mainly the clip for me isn’t deep carry enough to create a light that I want to EDC in my front pockets, for me it’s more of a jacket light or something to go on a bag, that’s ok. As a weapon light I think this would do pretty well, they seem to have thought of most things, and it’s probably a little better as a weapon light than an EDC in my opinion.

This is the first light I have tried with the Luminis SFT40 HI LED. It’s pretty great for being cool white, without any major tint shift at lower outputs and creates a nice tight beam to throw well for its size. Hopefully we see this in future lights and from other manufactures.

The numerous different accessories with this light are nice as well, something for everyone aimed at both the tactical side if you wish, the P15 Defender kit will be the model you want to pick up, or the P15 EDC Tactical for more EDC uses but still have the ability to mount if you wish. With the P15 the choice is up to you and I can recommend it with those reservations about EDC use. 

 

Pickup the Acebeam P15 from Acebeam.com and save 10% by using the code ACE10

P15 EDC Tactical https://www.acebeam.com/p15-edc

P15 Tactical https://www.acebeam.com/p15-tactical-light

P15 Limited Edition https://www.acebeam.com/p15-limited-edition

Or Amazon at https://amzn.to/3nQLi03

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Thrunite T1S Review ($35, 1212 Lumens, 18350)

Thrunite has updated their small EDC offering with the T1S, it features an 18350 battery, SST40 LED, and is said to produce up to 1200 lumens. They have updated the design a bit, added USB-C charging, and a new TIR Optic. Thanks to Thrunite for sending it to me to review. 

 

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Pickup the Thrunite T1S on Amazon on the links below. For the discount click the coupon on the page and use coupon code MZMO4272 for an extra 15% off.

Black: https://amzn.to/3rh5OI6

Grey: https://amzn.to/3qz2SY0

 

Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is standard Thrunite here, Not much to explain that the pictures won’t answer. You do get the note to remove the battery isolator before using the light, a key point for new users. Accessories you get with the T1S are a 1100mAh 18350 battery, lanyard, extra oring, snap on pocket clip, and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable. 

 

Construction & Design

The T1S is made from aluminum, and anodized in a semi shiny black. Fit and finish is good, above average for this price point I would say. Everything feels good, threads are anodized. The tail is flat, with a magnet inside. The clip attaches at the rear only, more on that later. The body is has 3 smooth sides, and 3 sides with small shallow slots milled into them for grip and style. The head is slightly larger, with minimal fins to dissipate heat. The electronic switch sits on a shallow platform which helps make it indexable, it has LED’s under to server as power indicators too. Opposite the button is the USB-C charging port, with standard silicone rubber cover. 

Internally there is a spring and magnet at the tail, and a brass post up front. Tolerances here are good, the battery is slip fit and the light can run standard flat top or button top cells from whomever you choose. Nothing is proprietary.

 

Retention

The T1S comes with the same pocket clip that the T1 had, this is a press fit on the rear only. It has a bit of a step in it and the top of the loop is small both of which are not my favorite, but works well here and carries super deep. It’s a dual direction clip so it can clip onto a hat well too. Don’t forget the tail is magnetic too.

 

Size, Weight, and Comparison

I measured the length of the T1S at 69.3mm, minimum diameter at 22.2mm, maximum diameter at 26mm at the button in the head. Weight with the battery and clip installed was 2.47oz, or 70.1g. Size wise it’s extremely similar to the original Thrunite T1. When I compare it to the Olight Baton 3, it’s longer and larger in diameter, and that’s expected given the different batteries the two run. The T1S is IPX8 water rated.

 

LED & Beam

The T1S is running a SST-40 in Cool White. When tested with my Opple meter, I received an unscientific 5375k tint in turbo, and 5230k in high. Ra value is somewhere in the 60s. What my eye saw was in the lower modes there is a significant amount of green tint shift that disappears in the higher modes. 

The optic here makes all the difference in my opinion, the T1 was a traditional reflector but super short, the result was all flood. The T1S has a TIR optic so you get a very useful balanced beam for EDC tasks, a reasonably large hotspot with most of the beam intensity and some spill. One thing to note is the TIR is concave, plastic, and doesn’t have a glass lens on top. Not a big deal at this price point, but expect it to get scratched some with use.

 

Official Outputs

 

Runtime & Heat

Turbo output on the light is rated at 1212 lumens for 5 minutes, but in my test I really only saw that for about 2:30 before that stepdown started. It was a slow stepdown that took about 10 minutes to reach around 30% relative output where it ran for an additional hour before running at its low/firefly modes for the remaining 3 hours or so for a total of 3:20:00. Max heat during that time was 50C. I then ran a runtime in medium mode where it was extremely stable and outdid the rated runtime out to 6:30:00.

 

UI

The Thrunite T1S has the pretty standard flashlight UI from Thrunite. From off, long hold to get to firefly mode, when off a single click turns on in the last standard mode used. Long press when on to cycle through the 3 main modes. Double click to go to turbo, triple click to go to strobe. This is simple and definitly an improvement over the slow ramping UI of the original T1. 

 

Recharging

The light recharges via the onboard USB-C that’s opposite the main switch. It is USB-C PD Compatible which is great to see. When recharging the button on the light turns red and turns blue when charged. Maximum charging speed I saw with the included 1100mAh battery was about 0.6A which is conservative. Total charging time from LVP at 3.033V to full at 4.144v was 2:20:00. One other note is that the light uses a standard 18350 battery, I was able to swap in a flat top Vapcell or Keeppower brand battery without problem here. 

 

Final Thoughts

If you were looking for a small EDC light, with USB-C charging, and a non proprietary battery, the Thrunite T1S is a great place to look. At an MSRP of $40, but with a $10 off currently the Thrunite T1S is a bargain at just under $30 and remember that includes the 1100mAh battery and USB-C charging cable. That’s a great bargain for what you’re getting, and fast shipping from the USA. If you’re looking for a new EDC light in this form factor that’s small and don’t mind the greener tint’s at lower outputs, I can recommend the T1S. Hopefully when the chip shortage eases we will see some neutral white emitters and other body colors soon. Thanks for watching or reading.

 

Pickup the Thrunite T1S on Amazon on the links below. For the discount click the coupon on the page and use coupon code MZMO4272 for an extra 15% off.

Black: https://amzn.to/3rh5OI6

Grey: https://amzn.to/3qz2SY0

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Lumintop Thor 3 Ragnarok Review (1.562 Million candela!)

Lumintop has a new addition to their Thor line of LEP flashlights with the Thor 3. The Thor 3 is the largest of the 3, and is powered by a 21700 battery, or optional 18650 with the included adapter. It’s a beast in terms of performance so I have to thank Lumintop for sending it to me to try and show you what it can do. 

 

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Get a 22% discount on the Thor 3 Ragnarok from Lumintop by using Coupon Code “JTHOR32” at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor3-ragnarok-400-lumens-2500-meters-21700-lep-flashlight-183

 

Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is like may other recent Lumintop lights, a cardboard box with a basic slip cover and an outline drawing of the light. Inside the light is nicely protected in foam. You don’t get much in terms of accessories here for the price but you do get the light itself, a lanyard ring, 18650 adapter tube, and in my case an unlabeled 21700 battery. I believe you will get a battery with a branded lanyard if you choose that option. 

 

Construction

The light is made from aluminum, and anodized in a mat black. Fit and finish here is great. The rear button is a reverse clicky, and stands proud with the Lumintop bunny showing some small red LED’s underneath to help you locate the light in the dark. The tail also has 6 glow tubes in it. These do glow in the dark but it’s not the best glow material I have seen. 

The body tube tapers slightly as you go towards the head. It has a deep large diamond pattern milled into it that’s elegant yet gripy but the edges are a little sharp. I am glad they decided to do something different than the traditional knurling that we saw on the prototype version of this light. Internally there are small springs at both ends.

The head has large fins with milling for style primarily since this light doesn’t get hot. Branding is very minimal, it actually doesn’t say Thor 3 anywhere on it, only a largeish Lumintop logo and serial number. No laser warning is atypical too. The front bezel unscrews if you want to see inside. There is a thick glass lens thats spaced a bit away from the front convex lens that helps shape the beam here. There is what looks like glow material between the two on the edges, similar to what the Thor 2 had, expect here it doesn’t glow. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 164mm, the largest diameter in the head at 59.9mm, and the smallest on the body at 25.46mm. Weight with the battery and ring was 344g. The light is IPX8 water rated. 

 

Retention Options

The only included retention option with this light is the removable silver lanyard ring. There is a little more tolerance here then I would hope for, as it rattles around and rotates a bit too easily for my liking. The light feels good in the hand.

 

Emitter & Beam

Instead of a LED the Thor 3 uses a Laser Excited Phosphor (LEP) module. The Thor 3 is using the second generation of module where the laser sits behind a phosphor layer which has a silicone piece on top that focuses the light into a narrower beam. Lenses are then used to direct the light out of the front of the light into the beam we see. The benefit is this style of module is smaller typically but the lens assembly can be larger. The beam here over a long distance is very even, in some of my other LEP lights mainly the Jetbeam and Astrolux you can see a narrowing point (Focal Plain), but the Thor 3 seems more even like you see out of a traditional LED light. At short distances (2Ft) the beam has a hole in it, that in this case is blue/black, with a bright donut of light on the light. At 4+ feet this normalizes and just becomes a very intense beam with a few rings of intensity. The longer the distance the less this happens. Tint wise this is on the cooler side 6000-7000k I would guess. I have equipment on the way to give you a better answer to this question in my future reviews. 

 

Table of Outputs

 

ANSI/NEMA FL1 LOW HIGH
OUTPUT 40 Lumen 400 Lumen
Runtime 7H 20MIN 5M+ 4H+
INTENSITY 1562500cd (Max)
DISTANCE 2500m (Max)

 

Runtime & Heat

I ran my runtime tests with the included unlabeled button top protected battery that Lumintop sent with the light. I put it in my Vapcell S4 Plus charger to run an analysis cycle on it and came in with a capacity of 4987mAh. The Thor 3 claims to run for 5 minutes on high before step down and that’s exactly what my tests showed. Stepdown is about 37% of relative output for 5 hours at which point the light blinks once and goes to an ultra low mode for another 40 minutes. During this time the highest temp it saw was 31.5C, so not even warm.

 

In low mode only the light runs for what looks more like an unregulated 9 hours, Output slowly declines  but is above 50% relative output for the entire time. Impressive runtimes when your use to LED’s that typically run hot and for not as long.

 

UI

The UI on the Thor 3 is super simple. It has 2 steady mode and a strobe. The light turns on officially in low at the start, and you can half press the rear button to turn to high. Double half press quickly to go to the fast strobe. The light does have memory for the two low and high modes. It’s as simple as that.

 

Final Thoughts

The Thor 3 is my best performing LEP thrower light, and it’s also one of the largest single cell LEP lights I have. In terms of performance it’s a beast. 1,562,500 CD is nothing to sneeze at.  It’s amazing to think that you can get this much throwing performance out of a single cell light you can hold in one hand, and get that for 5 minutes before step down. You just can’t do that with current LED technology. 

 

I like the look here physically with the body milling and tail being my favorite parts. You get grip without the same or similar knurling that nearly every other flashlight has. Performance is good here too, it can sustain the high output for the better part of 5 minutes before step down. That equates to throwing performance of 2500 meters, well over 1 mile of performance. Pretty impressive for handheld. 

 

I still maintain I don’t have a ton of practical uses for LEP’s in my daily life other then to amaze people and have an awesome handheld spotlight to quiet the neighbors dog 3 houses down. 🙂 If you have land or just want a fun but somewhat impractical spotlight, this is a great option to pick. 

 

Pick up the Thor 3 Ragnarok from Lumintop at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor3-ragnarok-400-lumens-2500-meters-21700-lep-flashlight-183

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Nitecore TM9K Review (9800 Lumen Tiny Monster)

Today I have Nitecore’s newest pocket rocket the TM9K TAC part of the Tiny Monster series of lights. It has 9X Cree XP-L2 LED’s that produce up to 9800 lumens in it’s turbo mode, USB-C charging and an internal 21700 battery. Thanks to Nitecore for sending this for me to check out and review. 

 

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Pickup the Nitecore TM9K TAC from the Nitecore Store and get free shipping with https://shrsl.com/3ar1f

 

Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is a nice black box, I would even call it kind of elegant with the light on the front and minimal information around it. The rear has a few stats and high points. The light does include a 5000mAh 21700 battery that non user replaceable (Sealed). Other accessories include a pocket clip, lanyard, lanyard threading tool, paperwork and nylon case for carrying on your belt. The case is the odd ball here as it doesn’t seem like it’s designed to fit this light but it does, it’s als0 feels lower quality then I was expecting when compared with everything else.

 

Construction & Design

The light is made from aluminum and hard anodized black. Machining here is good quality with no sharp edges, and all the finishes are even. All the fins, angles etc mean the light won’t slip out of you hand and doesn’t roll on a table easily. It will not tail stand, but will stand on it’s face. The tail switch has dual buttons, a mechanical on/off switch that is rubber coated and stands proud and then a flat paddle switch that is the mode button for the light. It’s got a nice texture to it but is a little hard to find, especially with any type of gloves. The tail cap has light knurled more for style then grip and is glued to the battery tube.

The battery tube is lightly knurled with flats. Given the size of the head I think it looks short but is long enough to fit a 212700 inside. One note here about the battery tube, it is sealed from the factory. My guess is they did this for financial and liability reasons, as well as to limit complaints if someone was to put in a protected or non high drain battery to prevent the light from reaching it’s claimed performance.

The head is a one piece design with the body tube, which is better for thermal transfer and this light will take anything it can get. There are heat fins, the usual markings etc. The front bezel I believe is stainless steel but finished in a smoked finish. It allows for light to escape out the side, and could be used for striking. The lens below is glass, AR coated. Below that appears to be a custom optic to fit the 9 LED’s. 

Warranty here is typical of other Nitecore higher end lights. 15 day DOA/Exchange policy, and a 5 year warranty for manufacture defects, I assume this does not cover normal wear of the battery.

 

Size & Weight

I measured the weight as it is out of the box at 219g, length at 127mm long, minimum diameter at 24.3mm, maximum diameter at 42.2mm. The light is IPX 68 rated. Here are a few photos with similar multi emitter lights that I own. 

 

Retention

The lights has two retention options that it ships with. First is a pocket clip. It attaches near the top of the battery tube but about 1” down. I think it’s a generic clip that just happens to fit this light, since it doesn’t make great contact with the body. Not super practical to actually use as a pocket clip in my opinion due to the head diameter, but you could clip it onto a vest or something. 

The second option is a generic lanyard that attaches via a hole in the tactical ring. Nitecore has included a piece of floss to make threading easier. The hole is incredibly small though and I had to use dental floss to get the lanyard installed.

 

LED & Beam

The TM9K TAC has 9X Cree XP-L2 emitters inside. No official tint data is given but it’s more neutral than I expected, other reviewers have reported in the neighborhood of about 5600k which is a nice change over the typical very cool white. It should be no surprise that this is a very flood light, it has no defined hotspot, and when bounced off a ceiling or wall in turbo it’s almost like it has a diffuser inside. 

 

Official Outputs

  • Turbo – 9800 Lumens – 280M
  • High – 2000 Lumens
  • Medium – 500 Lumens
  • Low – 130 Lumens
  • Ultra Low – 30 Lumens

 

Runtime & Heat

The big story here is how long turbo lasts. While the light is rated for 9800 lumens, it only produces this in Instant Turbo, and it does so for about 5 seconds before starting to stepping down. So not FL1 standards to get to that 9800 lumens. This is due to heat, as it gets warm very quickly. Just some informal measuring, the light got to 114F exterior temperature with a non contact thermometer in 2:30 while running through turbo and step down via momentary mode before shutting off, . 

I also ran a runtime in the highest mode the light will stay in for about 6 minutes before stepping down massively to about 25% relative output where it runs for 2:45:00, the remaining runtime is pretty linear out to 4 hours. From here the light runs in it’s lowest mode of just a few lumens a total of about 24 hours. This is below 1% relative output and not graphed. Max heat during the High runtime was at about 45C at the 7 minute mark. 

 

UI

The basic UI here is simple, The large round mechanical button servers as the on/off for the light. Once on your paddle is your mode selector. The light progresses from low to the higher modes linearly. It has memory to remember where you were previously. When on you can triple press it quickly to get to strobe, or long press to get to turbo. When off you can also long press to go to turbo. There is a lockout here that I won’t go into detail on but it would probably be a go idea to use when transporting the light. 

 

Recharging

As mentioned before the light ships with an internally sealed 21700 battery that’s not user replaceable. Recharging is accomplished via a USB-C port on the side under well fitting silicone cover. It will charge via USB-C to C or PD chargers. Nitecore says it charges in under 5 hours via USB-C PD, and in my experience that came in at 4:16:00 to charge. You can charge even faster if using a QC compatible charger, in right at 3 hours. When recharging you get a blue LED on the tail cap that flashes, and it goes solid when charged. It’s not possible to turn on the light when recharging.

 

Final Thoughts

The Nitecore TM9K TAC has a ton of output for it’s small size but it’s drawbacks make this one hard for me to recommend without serious reservations. The main two being the very short duration of turbo output, and built in non replaceable battery.

Other then those, it’s a pretty good, pocket rocket of a light, when not in turbo the runtimes and temps are reasonable, and build quality/machining are what I would expect in this price range. Reasonably neutral tinted LED’s are a nice change here too but a low CRI. UI is easy enough to use too. I like that it works well with USB-C but would have liked them to go with USB-C PD for faster charging rather then the QC standard. Ultimately this one is geared to a more mainstream non flashaholic audience, and for that segment of the market I would think most people would be happy with it and amazed at how much light it puts out in Tubo, however short that may be.

Pickup the Nitecore TM9K TAC from the Nitecore Store and get free shipping with https://shrsl.com/3ar1f

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Olight i1R2 Pro & Obulb MC Christmas Edition

It’s a new month so you know what that means, a new Olight Flash Sale that’s already started and runs till Dec 16th at Midnight EST! For this one Olight sent me the new i1R2 Pro keychain light, which is on sale for under $5, and the Olight Obulb MC Christmas Pack. The new light they are promoting is the Odin GL M, a Odin with a built in laser which looks cool. There are lots of other lights on sale too so be sure to check the link in the description, if you do decide to buy anything it does help support my channel when doing so. 

 

December 2021 Flash Sale Link https://bit.ly/OlightLR2

 

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i1R2 Pro

Let’s take a look at the iR2 Pro, it’s an upgraded version of the i1R2 Keychain light that’s slightly larger, brighter, and with a new spiral body knurling. This one comes in a special deep red anodizing that I think is beautiful. Let’s hope they bring other lights out with this finish. 

Physically it’s 0.63” in diameter & 2” long when turned off, with a weight of 0.78” including the battery and split ring. This is 0.05” in diameter, and 0.25” longer then the i1R2. The head is captured so it’s not possible to fall off accidentally like it was on the original i1R or get lost when charging. 

 

Performance

Thte i1R2 Pro is using a CSP Cool white LED producing 180 lumens on high, for a claimed 23 minutes of runtime, or 5 lumens on low for 12 hours. This is up by 30 lumens and an increase in runtime by 8 minutes over the i1R2. It’s a bigger jump up on the i1R, an increase of 50 lumens on high. All 3 are using a TIR Optics which work out here well for these types of tasks while keeping the light small.

The light has a built in 130mAh 10220 battery, the largest capacity of the 3, that’s rechargeable via onboard USB-C. It charges via USB-C to C, and even comes with a short USB-A to C cable. The USB-C port is hidden, just unscrew the light and that exposes the port and side charging indicator LED, red for charging, green for charged.

For the asking price of $4.95 during the flash sale this is a no brainer to add to your order or add as a stocking stuffer for gifts. The only downside is quantities are limited, and it’s only 1 per person. 

 

Obulb Christmas pack. 

It should come as no surprise I am an Obulb fan, I think I have 7 or 8 of them now so I was excited to get my hands on the Obulb MC Christmas Pack. It contains to Obulb MC’s one in Green, the other in Red, as well as a Obuddy Red, and a Santa cover in a nice high quality gift box. It comes with 2 of the magnetic charges and two of the shield shaped metal coin/emblems. 

So a quick recap on the Obulb MC. This is the multi color version of the Obulb, a mini lantern/pokeball light. They are impact resistant, waterproof and float. Great for the kids, out when camping, as an emergency use light in the car or in case of emergency and when traveling.

They have 8 modes

  • Low warm white
  • High warm white
  • Red mode
  • Green mode
  • Blue mode
  • Slow Fade of Red to orange to green to blue to purple, pink, yellow, orange
  • Slow Flash of Red to orange to green to blue to purple, pink, yellow, orange
  • Fast red blink

 

In our house we have them on our night stands for just enough light to read or watch a video or read in a tablet without total darkness, good for nighttime bathroom runs, on high they work well in the shower or bath when you don’t want a ton of light. 

 

The Red Obuddy and Santa Topper are nice additions here to the pack to make it a little extra. The Santa topper is just cute, kids and adults will love it, it can make a nice desk decoration etc. I could see putting this on your fireplace mantel etc. The Red Obuddy keeps the charging interface on the backpack so it’s functional in addition to looking cool too. 

The flash sale has already started by the time this video is out, and runs till Dec 16th at midnight EST. Olight has said they will do their best to get your orders shipped and to you to the holidays but with shipping backed up in many areas there are no guarantees. Either way both these would make great stocking stuffers for a variety of people, especially kids or non flashlight people in your life. 

 

December 2021 Flash Sale Link https://bit.ly/OlightLR2

 


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Sofirn SP36 Pro Review & Comparison (SST40, 8000 Lumens)

I reviewed the Sofirn SP36 back in 2019, and this is the updated version of the SP36 Pro. So instead of this being a full review like I typically do I am going to go over the differences that the Pro has over the standard version, mainly being the different LED’s, increased output, and different UI. Thanks to Sofirn for being understanding on this review, it took longer than expected with life getting in the way. They have provided a coupon on where you can find the SP36 and SP36 Pro for a discount in the description below.

 

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Sales

20% OFF the SP36 Pro CODE: 20OO95IC  https://amzn.to/3339wwA

 

10% OFF the SP36 Pro CODE: CC6824GA

https://sofirnlight.myshoplaza.com/products/sofirn-sp36-pro-8000-lumen-flashlight-4-sst40-led-usb-rechargeable-lamp-anduril-ui-6500k-cool-white-light?scm=spz.search&ssp=spz&spm=..search.search_1.5

 

Accessories

The light ships with options of including batteries or not, mine came with batteries. Everything else here was the same as before.

 

LED

The light is using 4x SST40 LED’s. It’s available in a 5000k or 6500k tint. The non pro was using Cree XP-L2. The difference in the beam shot is the SST40’s are a bit brighter at 8000 lumens, so an additional 2000 lumens and a little more throwy, more on par with the original Q8. It’s still a pretty floody beam with some artifacts around the edges, pretty normal for this type of reflector. The beam has a pretty defined hotspot and no noticeable tinges at lower powers. 

Runtime

Since the light is running Anduril I highly recommend you calibrate it. I did that on this when I first got it, it resulted in longer runtimes. Below is a graph comparing the two runtimes with the lights different emitters. This graph compares 100%w output with each light, so this isn’t a comparison of brightness, it’s really a graph of runtimes plotted against each other with the relative outputs being equalized. While the batteries are not the exact same (Sofirn batteries in the Sp36 Pro, vs 30Q in the SP36) they are similar.

For me the big takeaway is that running Andruil on the calibrated SP36 Pro the outputs are more active and can step back up as the light cools off, resulting in a more efficient output (along with the different LED’s). The result is more usable light for longer and the tail end of the graph shows that si there is 15-20% more light.

 

UI

The Pro here is running running Andruil firmware vs the standard light’s Narsil M firmware. I won’t take a ton of time to explain Andruil 1.0 because I think a lot of people are familiar with it. It’s complex and flexible for your needs, ramping or stepped. My advice would be get the diagram and take some time to learn it. 

 

Charging

No changes on the charging to report here. Still requires a USB-A to C cable to charge. Max changing speed is 1.86A. 

 

Conclusion

The Sofirn SP36 Pro is an enthusiast light, and a nice little upgrade over the standard SP36 with the additional output and switching over to Andruil 1.0 Firmware. It’s like a scaled down BLF Q8 with still a ton of power and Andruil firmware. The SP36 and Q8 are still my favorite can style lights, the SP36 Pro is a nice edition that I can recommend if you want a little more output and tint options too, and don’t mind the complexity of the Andruil firmware. Overall a good light at a good value price.