Category: Flashlight Reviews

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Nitecore HC35 Review (2700 Lumens, Quad LED, 21700 Battery, Headlamp)

Nitecore has a new large format headlamp on the market, with 4 LED, and a diffused lens. It runs a 21700 battery, and has onboard microUSB for recharging. While designed as a headlamp I am going to come at this one from the angle of a worklight too. Thanks to Nitecore Store for sending this to me to look at and review. I will have a link to them in the description below. 

 

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Packaging and Accessories

Packaging is a large yellow retail hanging box, with photos of the lights and lots of stats throughout. Inside the light and accessories site in a plastic shell.

Accessories include the HC35 with the Nitecore button top 21700 4000mAH battery (NL2140HP), pocket clip, Nitecore branded headband, spare o-rings, micro USB cable, manual, warranty, 18650 adapter. Somewhat strangely no extra USB port cover was included and I actually broke mine during testing. (My fault, not Nitecore’s)

 

Construction

The light is made from anodized aluminum, and machining here is pretty good. Starting at the tail cap, it’s flat, magnetic and labeled accordingly. The tailcap has shallow diamond knurling on it that doesn’t add a ton of texture but enough. 

The body tube features the same knurling and is not reversible. The clip only attaches at the head of the light. 

The light is attached to the headband on one side via a spring steel clip, similar to how a clip on clip works. It’s easy to take on and off and allows for the light to be attached without taking off the pocket clip (Nice) which makes charging easier but it doesn’t take a ton to make the heavy light come loose from an accidental smack or bump. For hiking or house work it’s ok, but I want to see something more secure ideally especially if you were caving/climbing with the light. That said when using this more as a work light rather then a headlamp it’s a handy feature to be able to remove it easily. I used it to change some brakes on a car recently and it was nice to pull off and use as an area flood light. For heavier duty situations a zip tie or even rubber band on the other end of the light would make it more secure.

The head features a fairly large lens, with the 4 LED’s under it. It has a optic sitting on top of the LED with a textured diffuser on top to really even out that beam pattern. Everything is surrounded by a silver aluminum bezel. On top there is a textured rubber button, with a pround silver bezel to help locate it. This does allow the light head stand. This button is a little hard to push if you have on larger gloves. On the back there are 3 deeply milled groves for heat dissipation. Lastly the microUSB port is on the light covered with a gray silicone rubber cover. The head has minimal labeling of just the serial number, model number and various regulatory symbols.

Size and Weight

I measured the length at 128mm, minimum diameter on the body was 26mm, maximum diameter at the head was 30mm. Weight with the battery, came in at 172.3g. The headstrap alone weighs in at 41g. This is fairly heavy. It’s a big headlamp, especially when you put it next it’s 18650 counterparts kind of like the Olight Perun I recently reviewed. 

Comfort when used as a headlamp is ok for a couple of hours. Past that the weight kind of starts to get to you in the forehead. Nitecore could add a bit more padding on the back of the bracket to help with this. I do like that the headbands webbing has ventilation holes. 

Retention

For me this isn’t a light I want to EDC in my front pockets, it’s just too big for that. The pocket clip can mount on either end of the light. When mounted nearest the head about 25mm of the light sticks up, when mounted at the tail, the clip extends past the tail and renders the magnet less useful. The balance point of the light is nearer the head so to keep from having to move the clip each time you mount the light to the strap, it really should go at the tail. 

LED | Beam Shots | Heat

The light is using 4x Cree XP-G3 S3 LED. Tint is pretty cool white. The S3 varient has less green tint, but at lower powers it’s still noticeable. The optics and diffuser here do a very good job of making the 4 leds one uniform floody beam. Perfect for this type of application. I didn’t detect any PWM via eye or my scope. 

Official modes and spacing are listed at 

  • 1 Lumen – Ultra Low
  • 40 Lumens – Low
  • 270 Lumens – Mid
  • 800 Lumens – High
  • 2700 Lumens Turbo, Strobe, Beacon, SOS

 

Runtime

This is really a light designed for longer outputs. Turbo starts decreasing at the 30 second mark and it declines pretty rapidly down to high at 800 lumens. This is disappointing that it’s so short, I would have hoped to get a couple minutes out of turbo output here given the size of the light and relative conservative heat values. From here it mostly maintains this while sagging a little for about 140 minutes, then over the next 20 minutes or so you see 2 large stepdowns and the light runs in low and ultra low for the remainder of time about 475 minutes, till it LVP kicks in at 2.947v. Heat was fairly well controlled, at 1 minute I saw 95F, at 5 minutes 97.8F, and at 10 minutes 101F. 

 

UI

UI here is different different, with fewer shortcuts. It’s a quick press to turn on, and then quick single presses to go up in brightness, and all solid modes are available, ultra low through turbo. Long press to turn off. You have short cuts to low when the light is off, a short press gives you 1 lumen. To directly access turbo from off press the button for more then 1 second. When the light is on there is no way to access turbo directly. 

 

To access the blinking modes double press the button when the light is off, then short presses changes the mode. Long press to exit blinking modes. 

 

Recharging

Charge time from LVP at 2.947V to Full at 4.12V on the included Nitecore 4000mAh 21700 battery was 2 hours and 41 minutes at a maximum of 2.1A via MicroUSB. Charge curve here looked normal, and I have no complaints. It’s nice here that with the included cell adapter the light will also charge an 18650 battery. During charging the blue LED on top will flash, and when charged it goes solid. This LED is also used as a voltage indicator when the light is in use. 

I do wish the light came with an extra port cover (my first time needing one due to my mistake). Also being a new design and a large capacity battery the light would see a benefit from USB-C.

 

Pro’s

  • Blinking modes are not part of the normal operating modes.
  • Very even diffused light but quite cool tint.
  • Direct access to low from off
  • Nice it can run off of 21700, 18650 and 2x CR123 with the included adapters. 
  • No proprietary cables or batteries needed, but it’s still MicroUSB 🙁

 

Con’s

  • Cree XP-G3 emitters isn’t what I would expect to find on something in this price range and I am not a fan of the tint.
  • Turbos 2700 lumen output has a very short duration, only 30 seconds.
  • Long press to turn off keeps tricking my brain. 
  • Wish it had an additional clip to secure the light in the headband for added security
  • Anodizing doesn’t seem to be the most durable, especially around the clip.

 

Conclusion

The Nitecore HC35 is a big bright light. I tend to think of it more as a worklight then a headlamp but it does both jobs fairly well. It’s a bit heavier than I want to use as a headlamp longer term, but what you pay for in weight you get in runtime. With the strong magnet and very floody beam it works good as a work light to stick onto a metal object or tail stand on it’s flat base. 

 

UI here is easy but different from a lot of other lights so I can see people fumbling a little around on this one initially. It’s different having turbo as part of your main mode. I do wish turbo could sustain itself for longer, 30 seconds just isn’t very long. Overall this is an interesting combination of headlamp and worklight. Let me know what you think of the HC35 in the comments. 

 

Full Image Gallery https://imgur.com/a/HWZh9yX

To purchase the Nitecore HC35 Headlamp, visit Nitecore Store at http://bit.ly/2HGp8rP

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ReyLight Copper Pineapple Mini Review (10440/AAA, Nichia 219B 4500K R9080, 97 CRI)

Reylight has a new Pineapple Mini available in Raw copper with a Nichia 219B R9080 LED. This light has the same milling profile as found on the brass Pineapple that Reylight may be best known for, but is an entirely new design from the Previous Copper Pineapple Mini made several years ago. That light was a twist design, where as the new Copper Pineapple Mini is a tail click design. Full disclosure, Rey at Reylight is a friend and sent me this light to evaluate and review. I will do my best to remain impartial and give an honest review.

 

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Packaging and Accessories

The arrives in a clear plastic bifold box. The light itself is vacuum sealed in plastic to prevent a patina to form on the raw copper during shipping. ReyLight offers the light for sale with a 320mAh 10440 battery preinstalled if your country allows such a thing. The only other accessory that comes with the light is the pocket clip which is preinstalled. No manual is shipped with the light, but some directions are available on the ReyLight website.

Construction

The light is made from Copper and is delivered raw, with no coatings to inhibit or slow the natural patina from forming. The surface texture of the copper is what I will call a machined finish. It’s not perfectly smooth or a mirror polish and there is a slight feel of tool paths on the light if you drag your fingernail across the surface. I think I will probably end up hand polishing mine up after this review and then letting it patina naturally. 

Starting at the tail cap you have an extended button with a place milled in the middle for a 1.5 x 6mm tritium tube. Tolerances on this button are quite a bit better then other Reylight Lan/Pineapple lights. There is no rattle and much less side to side movement when pressed. The tail is removable and inside you will find a rubber boot for waterproofing the switch action. Inside the switch/spring assembly itself is fixed in place in the body. 

The body itself is milled to look like a smaller version of the Reylight Pineapple. If the light is standing up the horizontal edges have been chamfered a bit much like on the Pineapple, but the vertical milled reliefs are more 90 degrees. These give the light more purchase in your hands and but not so much that it will cut you or damage clothing. It’s a nice way to give the light more grip without being too aggressive. 

The head here is fairly basic, with some horizontal groves milled in similar to but a smaller and shallower version of what’s on the body. The front bezel is smooth, and the lens is recessed with a GITD oring. The reflector is relatively deep for it’s size and has a very light orange peel on it. 

Retention

The Pineapple Mini 2019 is using a generic pocket clip not specifically engineered for this light and as a result I think that retention is a little compromised here. The pocket clip is not reversible and only attaches at back end of the body tube. It’s a clip on style and seems very tight. It doesn’t easily rotate and is stiff to pull off. For me the clip on the new Copper Pineapple Mini isn’t perfect. I wish it had more space at the top for thicker pocket material, and a little deeper carry. I think both of these combined with possibly a little more stiff button or forward clicky switch would help with it not coming on in my pocket accidentally. That said it’s only happened twice in the week plus of carry. That said a few people have been trying various other clips on the Reylight Facebook group and the best I have seen is the clip from FreeLux on the Synergy 1 flashlight. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured overall length at 89mm, maximum diameter at the head 15mm, Minimum diameter at the body at 12mm. Weight with a 10440 battery and clip came in at 60.7g. 

 

Peer Comparisons

When I initially saw the light on the Reylight Facebook page I thought it was a bit long for a AAA light given the size of the old Reylight Mini Pineapple but the action of operations were different on the two lights. That said after getting it in hand it’s nearly identical to my copper Olight i3T which is also a tail switch light. Clip location relative to the top of the tail is super similar too. The olight is about 10 grams heavier. The older Reylight Copper Mini Pineapple is similar in diameter due to it’s different mode of operation. 

 

 

LED | BeamShots | Heat 

The LED here in use is the Nichia 219B R9080 at 4500k and it’s a tint snob’s and high CRI fan boys dream LED. Output isn’t up to modern standards but what it lacks in output it makes up for in quality! These are fairly difficult LED’s to get a hold of in a decent quantity as I believe they are no longer produced. The tint here is a good mix between neutral white and warm, but it’s a little rosy pink in color. CRI measures roughly at 97. I think I am going to see if I can get my hands on a few more of these to swap into some other lights as it’s just a fantastic LED in my opinion. Reylights the maximum output with a 10440 battery at 300 lumens.

The beam is well suited to EDC use, it has a traditional beam profile, with a slight hotspot of higher intensity and then some spill. Cut off is fairly hard here. Good for general use of a light of this size and output. 

 

Runtimes

The light can run with a AAA or 10440. From my runtime here you can see that performance is much better from a 10440 since with a AAA you get a very brief amount of bright light before a large step down for a long time. I used the 320mAh that Reylight makes available as an optional purchase with the light for my tests. I was running in mode 2 (Factory Default) at 100% output and the highest output was good for 1 minute before the light stepped down to about 30% relative output. From here it was a pretty linear decline decline making me think it most likely has an unregulated driver. Total runtime was just over 80 minutes on the 320mAh battery. Heat is a non issue with this light due to it’s rapid step down. 

With the 750mAh AmazonBasics NiHM battery maximum output was only good for 1 minute and then it stepped down to about 18% relative output. It ran for longer then I expected and I ended up stopping the test at the 220 minute mark before I went to bed. Outputt here was a good deal less. My recommendation would be to run the light with a 10440 as your primary power source and use a AAA or NiHM as a backup power source only. 

I measured LVP on the 10440 coming in at 3.116V and on the NiHM at 1.04V.

 

There is a little bit of PWM in the light but’s quite minimal and only something that’s showing up in my scope.

UI

The Reylight Copper Pineapple Mini is using a reverse clicky switch for it’s operation with 4 available operating modes and then a variety of options. The driver also features high temp protection, LVP, memory, mode progression options (LMH, HML), Moonlight On or Off, Memory on or off, and the ability to set it back to default. 

 

The light doesn’t come with a manual, but Reylight Facebook group member Kevin Manley created this programming guide and said I could republish it here as well. A big thanks goes out to him.

For me I turned on memory mode and moonlight mode. I will throw a link to a PDF I created to make this a little more better visually formatted as it looks complicated but with the light in hand and a little practice it’s not too bad. 

 

Pro’s

  • The LED tint is just really nice here.
  • Raw Copper!
  • Small narrow profile and good purchase in the hand.
  • Better tolerances in the tail switch assembly.
  • Several output options, and pretty programmable especially for a small light.

 

Con’s

  • I have had some minor issues with the proud tail button coming on in low mode in my pocket.
  • I wish the pocket clip allowed for deeper carry and a bit of a thicker pocket material.
  • Driver seems to be very conservative on temps and is really more optimized for use with 10440 batteries as opposed to NiHM or Alkaline.
  • Driver is glued in place.

 

Conclusion

If you are a raw copper fan or tint CRI/Tint snob you can buy this light and enjoy it just for these reasons alone. The LED here in use is relatively rare outside the custom or modified flashlight world, they are hard to come by in large quantities but are absolutely lovely in terms of tint (a slightly rosy 4500k) and super high CRI at 97. It really makes plants and other colors pop. 

The original Mini was a fun light with it’s small size and raw copper but it’s driver had some issues. The new one here fixes those issues and adds a tail button instead of twist operation. For me the clip on the new Copper Pineapple Mini isn’t perfect. I do hope Reylight offers a custom clip for this light in the future. 

 

It’s nice to see a light with so many mode options on a small light. For me the default Mode 2 option works pretty well and I think this is where I will leave it. Overall this is a fun little light and one I am enjoying quite a bit. If your interested in checking it out I will have a link to where you can get it from the Reylight website down in the description below. 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/bMkQal3

Purchase the Reylight Copper Pineapple Mini from Reylight Direct: http://bit.ly/2UDFFok

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Olight Perun Review (Is it really an upgrade?)

Olight has introduced a new right angle light with the Perun. The name comes from the Slavic God of Thunder. The Perun makes some kind of odd design choices from the fairly popular Olight H2R it logically replaces, that I will go through during this review. Thanks to SkyBen on Amazon for sending this to me to take a look at and review. This will probably be a longer review so grab your favorite cold or hot beverages and enjoy. 

 

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Packaging and Accessories

I think it’s fair to say Olight might just have the nicest packaging in the production flashlight world and one wonders what it adds to the cost of a light. The box is a heavy white cardboard with pictures of the light on the front, it’s a magnetic box that folds out from the side. On the back you have a nice summary of the light, along with features specs, and package contents. Inside your greeted with a quick start card that tells you to remove the protective battery spacer, and charge the light, new on the Perun are warnings to make sure to keep the lens free from mist and scratches or the lights sensor may prevent higher operating modes. 

 

Standard accessories include 3500mAh proprietary Olight battery 10A capable (ORB-186C35), pocket clip, Lanyard and lanyard threading tool, and 3rd generation faster MCC charging cable. No headstrap comes standard with the Perun, like it does for nearly every other right angle light on the market. Instead Olight choose to make the strap an optional extra or part of a bundle deal. The strap itself is very similar to what was on the H2R with only some screen printing on the side being different. It’s a magnetic mount and it’s easy to get the light on and off, and it will even work with the pocket clip attached although I don’t recommend it.

 

Construction

The Olight Perun is made from black anodized aluminum as expected. The body and tail cap are all one piece like we saw on the Baton Pro. While similar in design these two tubes are not interchangeable as they as slightly different lengths. Patterns are different as well, the Peruns texture is larger pyramids with the points not milled off. I think it’s attractive and aggressive looking but interferes with the operation some as I will explain in a minute. 

The head is a collar design, with the pocket clip only attaching here, While it is a dual direction clip, it’s quite far from deep carry. I measured 20mm of the light’s head sticking up out of my pocket, which for me is way too much for EDC in a front pocket. I could see someone clipping this on a vest, or backpack strap possibly. The backside of the head has some groves milled in for style and heat dissipation. The top of the light is where you find the large silicone button thats slightly domed and angled away from the lens. This is easy to operate with gloves and produces a good click for an electronic switch. It’s surrounded by a blue signature ring. The lens of this light itself is again surrounded by a blue ring. The lens itself is plastic, it contains a clear center so you can easily see the LED underneath. It doesn’t really have a reflector to speak of. On top of the lens is a blacked out section, when looking up at it you can see a sensor is mounted inside, and this is the IR sensor used to dim/turn off the light if something comes close to it. More on that here in a minute.

The strap is a high quality one with an over the head piece. The mount is magnetic to hold the light but it’s not strong enough to hold the light with any movement. There is a rubber/silicone strap that stretches over the light to secure it. It even allows for use with the pocket clip attached but it’s a stretch. Combine this design with the increased texture on the body and it makes rotating the light a little difficult, it’s best done so from the tail side, as if you do so from the head side it’s more likely you will unscrew the head from the light rather then rotate it. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length of the Perun at 112mm, maximum diameter at the head at 25mm, and minimum diameter on the body/tail at 23mm. Weight with the included battery and clip came in at 115.7g. 

The natural competitor here is the previous model, the Olight H2R. I measured the length of the H2R at 110mm, maximum diameter at the head at 25.3mm and minimum diameter on the body at 20mm. Weight of the H2R with it’s included battery and clip came in at 109g. 

Next to my Nitecore HC35 the Olight Perun looks tiny, that said the Nitecore is running 4 LED, and a larger 21700 battery. Be sure to make sure your subscribed so you can watch the review of the Nitecore HC35 coming in the next week or two. 

See pictures of the Nitecore in the video.

 

LED | Beamshot | Mode Spacing

Unfortunately Olight has not said officially what LED the Perun is using. I can tell you it looks like a quad package and is a fairly large domed emitter. My guess is it’s a Cree XHP 50.2 LED. It’s tint is pretty cool white, easily 6500k or greater. The beam pattern here is all flood with no real hotspot at distance thanks to the TIR optic. When I compare it to my NW H2R the first thing I notice is the huge difference in tint, and the second thing I notice beam angle. While both lights are all flood, the Perun is a little wider and slightly less throwy. Olight rates them at 12 meters of difference in throw, to the eye though it’s hard to perceive the difference. The IR sensor doesn’t seem to change the beam pattern here which is a good thing. 

Olight has recently started adding runtime progressions in the manual which is nice to see a manufacturer being honest about what their lights will actually do. For my own runtime testing I tested with the included battery. Turbo mode was good for just at 2.5 minutes and then it started stepping down from there to about 55% relative output for roughly 10 minutes. From there I saw one more step down to about 35% relative output for 90 minutes, We then saw 3 more major step downs over the next 60 minutes or so before the light ran in moonlight mode till LVP kicked in. Total runtime was just at 165 minutes. Heat was pretty well controlled, the hottest I saw during my runtime test was 104F at the 5 minute mark..

Here is the official output figures and mode spacing. 

  • Moon – 5 Lumens
  • Low – 30 Lumens
  • Medium – 120 Lumens
  • High – 500 Lumens
  • Turbo – 2000 Lumens

My comment on mode spacing here is that it’s a huge difference between the 500 lumens of high and 2000 lumens in turbo. While I would prefer something in between the benefit is that high mode can sustain itself without stepping down for 3 hours. 

 

PWM

I will insert some shots of my PWM tests here. There wasn’t any thing to see or find on my scope here. 

 

UI

The Olight Perun has the standard Olight UI many of us have come to know, and I like with the slower fades from off/on and between modes. From off, long press to activate moonlight mode at 5 lumens. To turn on in normal modes single click the switch, to change brightness level hold the button and the light will cycle through the 5 available modes lowest to highest. Double click to access turbo. Triple click to access strobe. The light also features memory mode for normal modes. 

 

Lockout can be accomplished when the light is off by pressing and holding the switch for 2 seconds until moonlight mode comes on and immediately shuts off. To exit lockout press the button for about 1 second until moonlight mode stays on. Personally I will just give the body of the light a ¼ turn to mechanically lock it out. The light features a short 3 minute timer, and a longer 9 minute timer. If these are setup (See the included manual) the light will automatically shut off when the end of the timer is reached. 

 

The other thing the Perun has is an IR sensor that when the light detects it’s too close to an object it steps down in brightness to 30 lumens and if held there past the 60 second mark it will shut off the light entirely. Olight warns in the manual and the card right inside the package that dust or scratches on the (plastic) lens may affect the lights ability to run in high mode. There is no way to disable this sensor in the UI of the light. 

 

In practice I found this interesting to use and experiment with and a little gimicky. Lighter colored object seem to make the light reduce output further away about 3-4 inches, where darker objects made that distance much shorter 1 inch or less. Angle of attack seemed to matter too, the distances were greater if the light was straight on to the object vs at an angle to it. For instance I could put the Perun right up to a wall at an angle and still get the full 2000 lumens, vs if I angle it straight on it turned off a few inches out. 

 

I see the thought process behind including something like this, as you see people on forums burning holes in their jackets and pants sometimes with high power flashlights that turn on accidently. But I think it’s a design flaw in the UI to not be able to turn it off. A scratch in the lens, or a dusty/super heavy rainy environment reduces the lights output substantially and potentially even shuts it off after 60 seconds.  Overall, I am not a fan of the IR sensor here when you can easily electronically or mechanically lock out the light instead.

 

Battery & Recharging

Olight choose to go with a proprietary 3500mAh 10A capable discharge battery for the Perun. However the somewhat exciting and unexpected news here is that you can use a standard button top generic battery as well in the light for everything except using the the magnetic charging system. I tested with a 3400mAh high discharge battery from Thrunite and the light ran well, even in turbo mode without a problem. The manual even points this out, it was all unexpected and quite nice to see.

Charging the included 3500mAh battery was accomplished with the new MCC 1.5A charger. I saw charge time take just at 4 hours from LVP at 2.88V and terminated at 4.17V. No voltage was detected at the tail cap and no charging speed issues. 

 

Pro’s

  • Slightly less output here in turbo means you no longer need a high discharge battery, but a proprietary Olight battery is still needed for charging.
  • A standard button top 18650 will work in the light, but won’t charge.
  • Attractive overall design, good head band if you purchase it
  • High mode sustains itself for 3 hours, but it’s only 500 lumens.
  • A little more runtime then the older H2R, and it can sustain high for longer.

 

Con’s

  • Making the headstrap an optional extra
  • Clip doesn’t make for a practical EDC due to how much of the light sticks up from your pocket
  • Lack of a Neutral White Emitter and true moonlight mode
  • No glass lens over the plastic TIR, meaning it’s more susceptible to scratches which can impact the performance of the IR sensor and potentially making the light only work in low.
  • No setting to turn off the IR/Proximity sensor.

 

Conclusion

The Perun is just an odd mix of what seems like a step backwards combined with small upgrades that don’t matter much for actual use. The result is a light that in my opinion isn’t really better then the model it logically was set to replace with the Olight H2R which I was a fan of. 

 

It’s nice to see Olight reducing the requirement of a high discharge battery being required here, allowing a higher capacity battery to be used. It’s also nice to still see and be mentioned in the manual that a normal button top 18650 battery will work, but not charge in the light. 

 

The IR sensor seems kind of like a gimmick, this isn’t a very practical light to EDC in front pocket like the H2R was, or other right angle headlamps like the Armytek Wizard or Elf is. So dimming when something is near isn’t super needed here. I could see it being useful to throw it in a bag and it won’t come on and melt something but we have electronic or mechanical lockout for that too which is an easier and more reliable option in my opinion and doesn’t potentially compromise the light if the lens were dirty, or scratched. 

 

The aggressive texture on the body looks good but again makes the light as a headlamp a little harder to use in the mount. 

 

Admittedly these are mostly things enthusiasts care about, if you hand the Olight Perun to a non enthusiast they are going to think it’s a great product. It’s bright, comfortable, attractively designed, easy to use, and bright, but for many enthusiasts there are probably better choices. Mine is going to probably go to a family member who is in need of a headlight and doesn’t care about the things I mentioned, for them it will be a nice fit. So with that said let me know in the comments if this is the right headlamp for you?

 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/JlhEwYs

Purchase the Olight Perun on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2RLFKnT

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Wowtac A6 Review (1460 Lumens, Super Small & affordable 18650 EDC Flashlight)

Wowtac has a new ultracompact 18560 EDC light on the market with the A6. The light is running an SST-40 emitter in either cool or neutral white (Maybe?), it comes with an 18650 battery and is microUSB rechargeable all for a very affordable price. Thanks to WowTac for sending this to me to review.

 

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Packaging & Accessories

Packaging here is a basic Wowtac brown cardboard box, that’s shared with the A6 and A7 models. It notates what model and emitter are inside. Accessories included with the light are a WowTac branded button top 2600mAh 18650 battery, a microUSB cable, 2 extra orings, pocket clip, and a spare port cover. The manual is in English, German, Japanese and Chinese and in case you don’t know WowTac is supported by Thrunite and covered by a 2 year warranty.

 

Construction

As expected the light is made from aluminum and anodized black. Machining here is good. The tail cap is recessed slightly and allows for good tail standing and has an attachment point. Inside is a single spring and no magnet. 

The body tube and tail cap both feature some pretty aggressive knurling. While I like this in my hand, it will most definitely wear a spot in your pocket. The body tube is not reversible meaning the pocket clip is only mountable on the rear of the light. I would prefer a little deeper carry clip but this one is good and does an adequate job.

The head of the light features a semi translucent button with blue and red LED’s underneath. The blue LED comes on for the first few seconds when the light is in use and then when recharging the light will go red to indicate charging, blue to indicate charged. On the sides there is a little bit of milling for heat dissipation and style. On the rear there is a small silicone cover for the MicroUSB recharging port.

 

Size & Weight

I measured the overall length of the Wowtac A6 at 97mm, diameter at the head at 24mm, and diameter at the tail at 23mm. Weight with the included battery and clip was 96.1g. The water rating is IPX-8 rated which is good for this type of onboard charging port. 

This is a small light for an 18650 side eswitch. It’s the shortest side switch 18650 light I have that has onboard USB charging. The Emmisar D4 and BLF FW3A are both shorter but by very small amounts. The Olight S2R Baton II is just a little longer and slightly slimmer. It’s roughly the same lenght as a Reylight Lan or Pineapple but thicker due to the 18650 vs 14500 battery.

LED & Beam Pattern

This light is using a SST-40 LED and in my example is cool white. A neutral white version is listed on WowTac’s website and in the literature but the neutral white doesn’t seem to have ever been available in the past few months. Maybe it’s delayed significantly. The reflector here is unusually large and short, with a nice orange peel. The result is a beam profile with a decently large hot spot and a good amount of spill. I do notice some tint shift across the beam from the hot spot to spill unfortunately. Overall a very useful beam for EDC and general tasks in my opinion. Sorry for the beamshot tint here, it’s more blue and green then it should be, not sure what went on photography wise, ill have it sorted for my next review.

 

Heat & RunTime

For my runtime tests, I used the included Wowtac branded 2600mAh battery. This is an adequate battery for the price, but you can replace it with any quality 3500mAh if you want more runtime. Turbo on the Wowtac A6 will run for 1:30 before stepping down significantly. It went from 100% relative output to roughly 28%. 1460 lumens to 400 according to the manufacture. The light then ran slowly declining to about 20% relative output for 170 minutes. The last 100 minutes or so were a slow fade and then it ran in low then firefly for a total runtime of 260 minutes. 

Heat was well controlled during my runtime tests, and the hottest I saw the light get was 93F within the first minute. 

 

Listed output modes are:

  • Firefly – 0.5 lumens
  • Low – 12 lumens
  • Medium – 80 lumens
  • High – 400 lumens
  • Turbo – 1460 lumens
  • Strobe – 350 lumens

Mode spacing is ok, other then turbo sticks out here quite a bit. I would be prefer high be a bit brighter and medium and be stepped up a little to compensate. 

 

UI

The UI utilizes a single e-switch up on the head of the light. The button is small and would be hard to use with gloves. UI here is simple and shares from other Wowtac & Thrunite lights. From off, long press to go to firefly mode. A short click from off will get you in to normal mode with memory. The light starts in low and if you hold while on it will progress from low to medium and then to high. Double click to go to turbo. Double click from turbo to go to strobe. 

 

PWM

My scope does detect some PWM on this light in Low, Medium, and High, but my eyes don’t see it with my eye. 

 

Recharging

The A6 has onboard recharging via microUSB. It’s disappointing that it’s not using USB-C as other lights in this price class like the Wurkkos FC11 uses USB-C. Anyways I charged the A6 from LVP at 2.757V to Full at 4.13V in 3 hours 14 minutes at a max of 1A. Constant speed out to just about the 2 hour mark before decreasing as the battery fills up. I tested the included battery capacity in my Xtar VC4s at 2389mAh out of the rated 2600mAh. 

Pro’s

  • Great Value & a complete kit
  • Choice of emitters maybe
  • Small size

 

Con’s

  • Missed opportunity to add a magnet to the tail cap.
  • Neutral white is listed as an option but has never actually been available for purchase yet.
  • LVP kicked in and shut off the light at a fairly low 2.757V.
  • Huge drop in output between Turbo and High 1460 lumens vs 400 lumens

 

Conclusion

My conclusion is that the Wowtac A6 is a good, low price, high value 18650 based EDC style light. Due to it’s small size and pretty decent pocket clip it rides well in the pocket. The interface is intuitive and makes sense. The beam pattern makes sense here for EDC, it’s flody with a hotspot, I just wish it had less tint shift and that high was a little brighter, but this can hold its own. 

I can recommend this light but wish the Neutral white would come available soon. Hopefully we will see it sometime soon after Lunar New Year. 

 

Purchase the Wowtac A6 EDC Flashlight on Amazon at https://amzn.to/38Rzz7J

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/TOqdQqr

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Wurkkos FC11 Review (Samsung LH351D 5000k 90 CRI, USB-C, 18650, $30) Discount Available

Wurkkos (Pronounced Workos) is a new brand on the market. They are being produced along with the assistance of Sofirn and sharing a factory. The Wurkkos FC11 caught my eye because it was using desirable Samsung LH351D high CRI emitter at 5000k, had USB-C and is pretty affordable. Thanks to Wurkkos for sending this to me to take a look at and review. Be sure to check the description of the video for a discount available to my viewers for this light.

 

YouTube Version of this Review: 

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Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is a yellow and white cardboard box with just the company name on the outside. Inside the light came wrapped in a bubble, and accessories include 2 extra orings, generic lanyard, and a USB-A to USB-C cable. The light comes with a non deep carry pocket clip on it and a Wurkkos branded 3000mAh 18650 battery inside. I tested the battery capacity at 2854mAh on my Xtar VC4S charger. I can read the battery code as 01VCEAJ?1224?18CF0000180. 

 

 

Construction

The Wurkkos FC11 is made from aluminum and hard anodized a semi gloss black. Very similar to Thrunite or Sofirn’s lights. The tail is flat, and magnetic, strong enough to hold the light horizontally. The knurling on the tail cap is straight but with some inpercise milled flats around it, It’s not noticeable unless your really looking. Threads are shallow square cut and anodized. 

 

The body tube is ribbed which I like the look of, it’s different, not a grippy design though. The clip only attaches on one end of the tube but the tube is reversible so you could mount it at the front if desired. I do hope Wurkkos releases a deep carry pocket clip for this light as it would improve it’s EDC ability in my opinion. There is a little battery body rattle when the light is shaken violently but it’s minimal, and dual springs in the tail would improve the noise you get if you strike the light, but it didn’t ever lose contact with the battery for me. 

The head is pretty standard looking, the semi transparent button has texture on top and sits fairly flat, it has a blue bezel that kind of reminds me of Olight but looks good. The sides around the pill area have a bit of a fin shape milled in and could use a little more deburring. The USB_C charging port is opposite the button and covered with a large silicone door that fits pretty well. The lens is plain mineral glass, the reflector has a basic orange peel and the Samsung LED is nicely centered. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the FC11 at 116mm in length. 24mm at the tail, and 25mm at the thickets part of the head. Weight with the included battery and pocket clip was 112.1g. The light is IPX 7 rated (Water upto 1 meter).

Size wise there are a lot of similar lights to the FC11. Length and diameter wise the Convoy S2+ is basically identical but my S2+ is the UV model so not a great comparison for beam shots. My Thrunite TC15 is about 7mm longer and about 1.5mm larger in diameter. 

 

 

LED | Beam Shots  | Heat

The Wurkkos FC11 is using the Samsung LH351D LED, in 5000k and is also considered high CRI at 90. This is a great LED to use, and one of the light communities favorites right now because of it’s high CRI and neutral tint. It’s also my first time getting a hold of this LED and I am a fan. Mine seems to be pretty neutral with just the slightest tint of green but I have heard of others getting a more green tinted LED. That’s how the bin lottery works unfortunately. The light uses an orange peel reflector behind a non AR glass. The beam profile here is does have a bit of a hot center, but fades nicely into spill. No undesirable rings or artifacts in the beam itself. Good for general use.

Runtime & Outputs

For my runtime graphs here I used the included Wurkkos 3000mAh battery and made sure it was fully charged each time. The driver is non regulated FET, and features a timed step down, after that output is linear to the cells voltage. I didn’t notice any slow PWM in the lower modes for this light and have equipment coming here soon so I can measure this on future lights. When it arrives I plan to update my blog post so make sure to check that out.

Turbo is listed at 1300 lumens and started to step down at about 75 seconds and was fully decreased to right about 25% relative output by 90 seconds. From here the light was a very linear decrease out to 425 minutes of runtime where LVP kicked in at 2.825V. I ran this test both from turbo and just high and got very similar outputs. You don’t see that many modern lights that have output graphs that look like this. It’s a cost cutting measure. Personally I would pay a few more dollars to have a regulated driver.

Heat was well controlled during my runtime tests. At 1 minute I measured 85F, at 5 minutes I measured 87F, and at 10 Min I masured 90F. This is actually pretty cool for a modern light.

 

Official outputs are listed as following.

  • Turbo 1300 Lumens
  • High 700 Lumens
  • Mid 300 Lumens
  • Low 50 Lumens
  • Eco 2 Lumens.

UI

The Wurkkos FC11 has 2 UI options for people to choose, a stepped (Default) or a ramping. To change UI while off, hold the button for 3 seconds and the light will flash twice to let you know it’s switched.

 

The light ships by default in stepped mode, and it’s fairly straight forward. From off, tap to turn on, and tap again to advance in mode. You have eco, low, mid and high as part of the normal modes of operation. To turn off Long press when on. Double click to go to turbo, Triple click to go to Strobe, and 4 clicks to enter and exit lockout. The light also has memory mode for the single click modes. This is all pretty standard but at first I found myself clicking and holding to advance modes as many other lights do but this light doesn’t.

 

Ramping mode Is fairly straightforward, the light starts low and ramps up quickly to it’s highest output in about 1.2 seconds, and flashes to let you know it’s at the top. If you release and then press and hold the light will decrease in output in the same amount of time flashing to let you know it’s at the bottom. You can stop at any output and then click again to reverse the direction you were going mid mode. The same shortcuts of double clicking to go to turbo, triple click to go to strobe, and 4 clicks to enter and exit lockout work here too. There is no hold from off to get to low mode like you see on some lights when in ramping. Not a deal killer for me. 

 

Recharging

Recharging here is accomplished via USB-C on the light itself. Unfortunately this requires a USB-A to C cable and USB-C to C is unsupported.  Charging of the 3000mAh battery was very linear during the 4 hour and 37 minutes it took to go from LVP at 2.825V to full at 4.13V. It almost immediately went to charge at 1A and then declined slowly and linearly creating a very linear but not the most ideal curve for a lithium battery. The lights electronic switch flashes fairly bright red while charging and then goes solid green when charged. The light will operate in low mode during charging. 

 

Pro’s

  • USB-C charging but not USB-C to C.
  • Samsung LH351D Neutral white high CRI Emitter
  • Very affordable price for a complete package
  • Magnetic Tail 
  • 2 UI options to choose from, stepped or Ramping

 

Con’s

  • I would prefer a deeper carry pocket clip option, if so this would make a decent EDC option. 
  • Some people have reported a bit of tint lottery with the LED. 
  • Non regulated drive, After initial step down the output is lower and linear based on voltage.
  • Dual springs would reduce the small amount of battery movement noise. 

 

Conclusion

I will be honest, when I first saw that Wurkkos was offering me this light, I didn’t know who they were and didn’t think much of it initially, but I am glad that I looked closer and ultimately said yes to get my hands on it. For $30 at time of filming, a neutral tint, high CRI (90 CRI) emitter, onboard USB-C charging and an included 3000mAh battery, I am impressed. This would make a great gift light to give to someone as a first real flashlight or a good way to experience the Samsung LH351D LED if you haven’t already. While the ribbing on the body isn’t revolutionary it’s nice they decided to do something different to make them stand out a little bit from the other knurled lights on the market.

 

This is going to be my budget 18650 recommendation for people new to the hobby or want a beater light until I run across something better. This is a high value combination, good emitter, 2 solid UI choices and a complete package deal. It’s not perfect but the positives outweigh the negatives. Maybe we will see a slight revised model next year like we have seen from the likes of the WowTac A1 to A1S and they will fix a few of these minor things and stick in a regulated driver. Overall I recommend the Wurkkos FC11 and look forward to see what they do next.

 

Wurkkos has provided a discount till the end of the month to my viewers that I have in the description below this video, so if I have piqued your interest in this nice value flashlight be sure to check that out and save a few dollars while your at it. 

 

Purchase the Wurkkos FC11 on Amazon at https://amzn.to/382Eqm7 

Use the code U3E8R39N at checkout for a 17% discount

 

Full Image Gallery https://imgur.com/a/cx7CfgE

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Klarus G15 Review (4000 Lumen EDC Flood, 21700, Cree XHP 70.2)

Welcome to 2020 and for my first review of the year I have the new Klarus G15 a small form factor 21700 EDC style light capable of upto 4000 lumens on Turbo from it’s Cree XHP 70.2 LED. Thanks to Klarus for sending me this early sample for review and evaluation. 

 

Youtube Version of this Review: 

 

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Packaging and Accessories

Packaging here is a nice high quality cardboard box with a picture of the light in front being part of the model number G15. The sides list the battery, capacity, and charging speed, and a highlight of the specs, including the 5 year warranty. On the back you have a more detailed spec chart and list of features. The light is IPX 8 water rated.

Included accessories are the Light itself, Klarus Branded 5000mAh button top protected 21700 battery. It’s listed as a 15A capable battery. The battery itself is long coming in at 74.7mm. Also included is a spare oring, Klarus branded lanyard, Felt pouch, manual and MicroUSB charging cable. 

 

Construction

The light is made from aluminum and anodized a smooth fairly glossy black. The tail is flat allowing for the light to tail stand, but it’s non magnetic. The tail has been cut on the side to allow for the lanyard to attach. The body and tail are all one piece, with the long clip only attaching on the rear section. It allows for deep carry and it’s fairly stiff. The milling on the body tube to provide texture looks like the profile for an involute gear and then has 6 flats milled into the light. I like the pattern here, it’s a little different, provides good grip without being too aggressive. The flashlight only disconnects between the head and the body. The threads are raw aluminum, and beefy square cut with grease.

 

 

The head features the same button we saw on ST15R and XT21X in 2019. It’s a silicone button with an illuminated sliver of light around it that indicates battery status and goes Green/Red/Yellow. There is minimal milling on the sides for heat dissipation. Opposite the button is the flush fitting silicone port to protect the MicroUSB charging port. It’s at a standard depth and there is plenty of clearance for larger cables to fit. The head has minimal branding and labels on it, and light bronze color. The front bezel is smooth, and it looks like it will unscrew with the right tool. The lens is anti reflective coated glass, surrounded by a deep orange peel reflector with the large XHP70.2 LED at the center.

 

Size & Weight

I measured overall length of the Klarus G15 at 122mm, maximum diameter in the head at 27.5mm between the button and the charging port, and minimum diameter on the body at 23.24 between flats. Weight with the included battery and clip is 142.1g. 

Looking through my light collection I don’t have a ton of 21700 sized lights that are super comparable here. Lights that I have that are similar are most often using an 18650 or end up being larger. I settled on comparing it to the Olight M2R Pro since they use the same battery and are physically similar. The Olight is a bit longer here, and heavier and is more tactical in nature. It’s also more of a thrower where the G15 is more about flood. 

 

LED | Beamshot | Runtime

The Klarus G15 is using the Cree XHP 70.2 LED in a cool white 6500k tint. Being a 70.2 LED there is tint shift across the beam but it’s not as dramatic as I have seen from a few other lights. There is a slight increase in intensity in the center but this is more of a flood style light then a thrower. The spill is very wide and fades into nothing without a cutoff. 

Mode Spacing here as you can see in the table below is ok but could be improved. There is quite a bit of difference to the eye between medium at 500 lumens and high at 2000 lumens. An additional mode in between would be nice. That said to the eye here is a difference between high at 2000 lumens and Turbo at 4000 but it’s not nearly as much as you might think. 

 

Brightness Outputs from Klarus

Specs Turbo High Med Low Moonlight Strobe Beacon SOS
Brightness 4000

lumens

 2000

lumens

 500

lumens

 100

lumens

 1

lumens

 4000

lumens

 500

lumens

 500

lumens
Runtime 1.2

hours

 1.5

hours

 6

hours

 28

hours

 200

hours

 2

hours

 120

hours

 18

hours

My runtime’s didn’t match Klarus’s all that well. For my first runtime test I started the light on Turbo uncooled and the light steps down pretty aggressively quite quickly about 4 minutes before starting a seasaw motion as the light heated up, and them stepped down to cool off but then what was nice is that it went brighter again as thermals and battery power allowed. The average output for the first hour was somewhere around 60% relative output. The next hour was very stable at about 45% output, before the light started to step down slowly and small bumps at first before LVP kicked in at about 185 minutes of total runtime. Other major manufactures, namely Olight have started to be very honest about what their high lumen lights can do before stepdown and I believe Klarus should do this as well, it would be more honest then to suggest their lights can do 1.2 hours on turbo or 1.5 hours on high. Reality is no light can do this but it’s not obvious to non flashaholics. 

Overall heat was well managed with the active thermal controls here. At 1 minute I measured 92F, at 2 minutes at 98F, and at 10 minutes I measured 96F. LVP kicked in at 2.688v which is lower then I would like to see. 

 

UI

UI here is simple and straightforward and it has 8 total output modes. 5 of those modes are constant on, and 3 are forms of blinking. From off, long press on the button to get to moonlight mode at 1 lumen. Press again and hold to get to low, keep pressing to cycle through low, medium and high. Double click to go to turbo. Tripple click to go to the blinking modes. 

 

The light also features memory mode for modes other then turbo, moonlight, or the strobes. It also had lockout mode, but I personally just break contact with the battery as it’s easier and faster. 

 

Recharging

The light recharges with a standard MicroUSB cable, this is a little frustrating given the price of the light and that it’s a new release for 2020 where USB-C should be the standard. I recharged the included 5000mAh battery from LVP at 2.825V to Full at 4.13v in 3 hours and 35 minutes with a maximum charging speed of 1.99A. As the battery capacity filled up charging slowed down as expected. I saw no problems with the built in recharging on this light. 

 

 

Pro’s

  • Compact size for a 21700, nice fit and finish
  • I enjoy the new gear tooth milling in the body
  • Easy interface
  • Active thermal controls.

 

Con’s

  • MicroUSB instead of USB-C, at least the charging speed here is fast at 2A
  • Pretty cool LED tint with some of the characteristic XPH 70.2 tint shift across the beam

 

Conclusion

If you are looking for a compact 21700 style EDC flood light with an electronic switch up front, the G15 could be a good choice for you. It was a surprise to see active thermal management here that allowed the light to get brighter again after step down after it cooled off. Not enough lights do this in my opinion. I like the new texture here on the body of the light, hopefully it’s something that stays, I think it’s just about perfect for EDC, not too much to rip up your hand or pocket but definitely better than standard diamond knurling. 4000 Lumen turbo mode here isn’t quite as impressive as the numbers suggest, it’s not significantly different from the high of 2000 lumens. That said it’s really a light that’s best run on the lower output modes anyways for a more useful runtime. Hopefully in 2020 we see Klarus switching to USB-C (That support USB-C to C) in their higher priced lights and we can be hopeful that we will see something other then cool white too for us enthusiasts like myself that prefer warmer and neutral tints. With all that said I can recommend the Klarus G15 with reservations.

 

Thanks for watching to the end of this video and continuing to support me. Without your views, comments, and likes it wouldn’t be possible for me to continue to bring videos like this to you guys. I look forward to 2020 being a fun year and I have a few ideas for giveaways and other fun events for those of you who are viewers and followers on social media of the channel.  

Full Image Gallery on this review https://imgur.com/a/9b3UVcV

 

Pickup the Klarus G15 at Battery Junction http://bit.ly/2udnN8F 

Read more about the Klarus G15 at https://www.klaruslight.com/Products/GSeries/724.html

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Thrunite TH01 Headlamp Review (1500 lumens, Cree XHP50 NW, 18350, MicroUSB Recharging)

Thrunite has a new headlamp it’s introduced with the TH01. It’s using an 18350 battery and Cree XHP50 LED (in Cool or Neutral white) and is capable of short bursts of upto 1500 lumens. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this to me to take a look at and review. I will have a link to where you can pick this up in the description below.

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Packaging & Accessories

The TH01 ships in a rather plain almost cubic cardboard box like other Thrunites. It’s not a retail package so it really has limited info externally. Inside there is a large piece of foam where the light is sitting and underneath is the head strap and other accessories. Included accessories is the headlamp itself, 1100mAh 18350 battery, Headstrap, microUSB charging cable with an extra long microUSB connector, an extra USB port cover and oring, and the associated paperwork.

Construction

The TH01 is made from aluminum and is anodized black. Build quality here is good but nothing over the top. Instead of being a right angle light, the lens and LED assembly is in the middle of the battery tube, making the light in this configuration short and stocky. The XPH50 is a fairly large emitter, and its surrounded by a wide and shallow orange peal reflector and topped with AR glass lens. A little closer to the body there are some bars milled in for grip to help you rotate the light in the headpiece assembly

 

Each end features knurled end caps, when on your head the left side is where you will find the single control button, which has a large raised silicone button, with LED’s underneath to give you a charge indicator during charging (Red/Green), and then the MicroUSB port for charging. One note on this USB port is that it’s recessed slightly deep. While I can use a standard cable (I tried with a Monoprice and Anker cable) the connection that resulted is poor and it’s easy to bump loose. If I used the cable Thrunite provided in the package the connection is solid. The difference is the Thrunite cable’s MicroUSB end is just a little longer. This is really an unfortunate design choice.

The right side is the side that opens to remove or replace the battery. There is a single large diameter spring in the tail cap that maintains electrical contact and keeps it from rattling around. Threads are a fine ACME cut, short and dry. Thrunite made an interesting design choice here and that the diameter of the tube is a good deal larger then needed for the 18350 battery. It has a small shelf that runs the length of the tube, and you can see they ran wires here as well as put a copper coin in here to dissipate heat. If the tube was longer here and the inside changed slightly I could see this morphing into a 21700 version of this light in the future.

 

Size & Weight & Comparison

I measured the following dimensions of the TH01. Overall Length was 67mm, diameter of the body tube only 27.5mm. Diameter of the lens 27mm and diameter of the body + lens assembly 34mm. Weight with the included battery is 78.9g. 

A headlamp that I have that’s somewhat comparable is the Olight H1R Nova. It’s a smaller right angle light running a RCR123 battery with considerably less output and battery capacity but is somewhat similar in length. Diameter of the Olight is about ½ that of the Thrunite TH01. The Olight’s weight with battery is 46.2g so almost ½ lighter.

To me these lights kind of serve different segments of the market, with the Olight being a more limited use light, less capacity and output. I personally use mine in my car in case I have a flat tire with a CR123 so that it better handles the extreme temp changes. The TH01 i see used more for camping or around the house where you want more runtime but still fairly light weight.

 

LED | Beamshot | Night Shots | Heat

The LED being used on the Thrunite TH01 is the Cree XHP50, no generation number is given. It’s a fairly large LED in physical size. Lucky Thrunite continues to offer this light in Cool or Neutral white. I have the Neutral white version and the tint here is on the warm side which I personally prefer. 

The beam profile is good for this type of task headlamp. It has a very wide overall beam profile (I would guess about 170 degrees), but it has a fairly large hot center with good spill. The beam tint in my neutral white example does shift in the very center to a more white tint. Overall the tint is slightly warm and a little green. The tint in the very center does shift more to a true white which can happen with the XHP50 LED. 

Run-time

As expected a light producing upto 1500 lumens, can consume quite a bit of power. That said in the lower modes the runtimes are more reasonable. In turbo the light lasts for just over 5 minutes before stepping down to 450 lumens this then lasts for about 55 more minutes before the lights starts stepping down more aggressively ending up with an overall runtime of just over 60 minutes. This is short but the light gets much better battery life if you go with one of the lower modes. High mode outputs 450 lumens and it can sustain this for 3 hours. When the battery is low the light starts to flash to let you know to recharge the battery. Low voltage protection kicked in at 3.05V. 

Heat is well controlled on this light. I started the light out on Turbo and at 1 minute it measured 83F, at 5 minutes 108F, at 10 minutes 95F. 

 

UI

UI here is very simple and straightforward. One button to turn the light on, long press to cycle through the modes, double click to go to turbo. Long press from off turns the light on in firefly mode. Triple click to go to SOS. The light does have memory mode and will remember the mode you were last in with the exception of Turbo or firefly. 

 

Recharging

This light charges via a micro USB connector on the body of the light. Unfortunately it’s recessed slightly deeper then standard, meaning the standard cables I tried to use from Anker and Monoprice resulted in a loose connection. The ThruNite cable that was included’s male end is just slightly longer and this makes all the difference to lock in that connection. Recharging on this light is pretty conservative at 500mA, meaning it took 2 hours and 41 minutes to charge the included 1100mAh battery. I would have liked to see a bit more speed here, 750mA would be perfectly save and save 25% off the charging time. Charging stopped at 4.163V. The light will come on in Firefly mode (0.6 Lumens) while recharging.

 

Pro’s

  • Neutral and Cool White are both available! It’s great to see Thrunite still offer this while other manufacturers seem to be stopping.
  • Pretty affordable smaller headlamp with a battery

 

Con’s

  • Deeply recessed MicroUSB port means a standard cable makes a poor connection. I would prefer USB-C anyways.
  • While it doesn’t rattle, the body tube’s diameter is a good deal larger than needed.
  • Charge rate is quite conservative, and some would argue slow, since its max charge rate is 500mA, and charging takes about 3 hours. This is like 0.5C so exceedingly safe.

 

Conclusion

An 18350 headlamp I think is a little bit of a strange size here, It’s significantly more battery capacity and max sustained current then an RCR123, but at least on the TH01 it resulted in a light that is kind of fat and longer then I feel like it needs to be. It seems like this design would scale up to an 18650 battery and almost be a better size to weight ratio as a result. The diameter of the tube seems more appropriate for a 20700 then a 18xxx battery. 

 

Either way this puts out a significant amount of light on turbo and can sustain it for a reasonably long amount of time. However doing so really does consume quite a bit of power, so you would be better suited to only using the brightest mode you need in order to get the most runtime needed here. With the 3 strap design I could see this being useful for a runner or someone doing camping etc, provided they used high instead of turbo so they could see the 3 hours of runtime instead of 1 hour. Lastly, this ends up being fairly affordable for this level of output and Thrunites good customer service and 2 year warranty. I can recommend it with reservations.

 

You can purchase the Thrunite TH01 on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2S0kUlj or at http://www.thrunite.com/thrunite-th01-1500-lumen-cree-xhp50-18350-rechargeable-led-headlamp/

Thrunite is running a promotion for people who purchase this light and write a review to revive a free Ti3. Contact Customer service to take advantage of this promotion. 

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Jetbeam PL-190R Review (Full Color Photography & Video Light, USB-C)

Today I have the JetBeam PL-190R on my review table. It’s a photography and video fill light that’s capable of full spectrum colored light as well as white light. The fill light also features a 5000mAh battery that can be as a power bank as well. Thanks to Jetbeam for sending this to me to take a look at and review.

YouTube Version of this Review:

Packaging

Packaging here is pretty minimal, it’s a clear folded plastic box, the light sits inside a try, and the only accessories that are included are the manual, and a USB OTG cable for allowing you to plug in another cable to use the fill light as a battery power bank as well. 

 

Construction

The PL-190R reminds me in shape and build quality to a modern smartphone but thicker. On the front you have a diffused plastic panel with some orange peel to help diffuse each LED. Around the edges you have a metal frame, it has ¼ 20 threads that enable you to mount the light in the portrait or landscape profiles. When mounted in a landscape format your jog wheels are on the left, and your mode and power button end up on the top right. In the lower right hand corner on the bezel you have the USB-A and USB-C connections. The back is made of glass and has a fairly small OLED screen in the top left corner.

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 129mm, width at 72mm, and thickness at 15.5mm. Weight was 216.4g. It’s roughly the same footprint as the previous model but thicker. 

LED | Runtime

The PL-190R has a lot of LED’s onboard, 220 to be exact. 120 of those are for the white light, with 60 being a warm white, and 60 being a cool white LED. When combined together you get a tint of between 2500k and 8500k. The remaining 100 LED’s are larger RGB LED’s used for the color.

 

The screen has a built in runtime estimator on it but I found it to not be very accurate. I did a test where I set the light to 4000k and 100% brightness. The estimate showed about 2 minutes 50 second, but the light goes on for significantly longer. My only guess is that estimate is before any change in brightness. Total runtime in this mode was right at 200 minutes. The first 50 minutes or so are at 90% relative output, and 170 minutes are above 80%. After the 50 minute the mark output becomes a little unstable with it stepping up and down slightly. This isn’t noticeable to the eye but could be in photo and video settings probably.

 

UI & Modes

Instead of buttons to change modes, and brightnesses the PL-190R is using dials which I prefer. It’s easier and quicker to use the dials then a button, once you understand the UI it’s pretty induative. The brightness wheel rotates continuously where as the mode dial allows you to rock the wheel up and down and click. I only had problems here with the brightness wheel at very low power, it’s sensitive enough to make the light almost flicker when down at 1-2% if shaken or vibrated too hard. 

This light has 3 modes of operation.

 

In white light mode, the light uses it’s 60 warm and 60 cold LED’s to make a mix of light to reach the desired tint. IT ranges from 2500k to 8500k in 100k increments. Brightness is controllable in 1% increments and the light is rated for up to 650 lumens at 8500k, and 570 lumens at 2500k. 

RGB mode is similar, but using the 50 RGB LED’s. It’s measuring tint in degrees of color gamut, and isn’t quite as fluid as as the white LED’s since everything is being done on each die vs a combination of 2 or more LEDs. It’s also adjustable for 0-100% intensity. The other rocker allows you to adjust the color, and then saturation level as well. Think of color as the course adjustment and saturation as the fine adjustment. I don’t have the equipment needed to give a lumen level for colored light, but generally RGB’s don’t put out as much light as the equivalently sized white LED. Personally I see this as being more of a photography or video fill light to light a tabletop scene and you will see in my night shots it puts out a decent amount of light.

The light also features a couple of modes that are programmed in. Practically for a filming/photography reason I don’t see these being super useful but it didn’t take any more space to do and it’s a seperate mode so I guess no harm is done including it. There are a total of 9 scene mode available including Lightning I, Lightning II, SOS mode, Club simulation, Color chase, Candlelight, Police car, Red and green flashing, and Blue and green flashing. These are fixed modes and its’ not capable of speeding up or slowing down the change, but you can control the brightness.

 

Recharging & Powerbank Functions

The PL-190R has a 5000mAh battery built inside. This is used to power the light but can also be used as a power bank. Impressively the light is capable of delivering upto 18W in powerbank mode, up to 12V or 3A appropriately. Unfortunately it doesn’t charge via a USB-C to C cable, so a A to C cable is required for modern devices. 

Charge time via the USB-C input was just under 3 hours and it charged at 2A no problem. 

 

Conclusion

The Jetbeam PL-190R is an interesting take on a photography fill light with the addition of color it becomes more capable as a video fill light as well. While not the only name in the game, it’s probably one of the better known flashlight companies doing this. There are other similar products from some other Chinese companies but none quite as bright or as many features.

For me I will probably use this as a photography fill light, for some supplemental lighting. If you don’t follow my instagram make sure you follow because this is where you will probably see this in use first. I will keep my original Jetbeam fill light as my video light since it’s smaller and I don’t need the color features for video work like this review. 

 

If you are interested I will have a link below to where you can find it on Jetbeam’s website and for a few US retailers I can find. 

 

Full Image Gallery https://imgur.com/a/wySE6Md

 

Purchase the Jetbeam PL-190R at BatteryJunction at https://www.batteryjunction.com/jetbeam-pl-190r-photography-light.html 

See more information on Jetbeams website at http://www.jetbeamlight.com/products_show308.html