Nice review Don, thanks for doing a custom runtime test for me on low! It's going frontpage...
Just from looking at the graphs, it appears that the medium mode is too close to the high mode. How hot does it get on medium? Maybe medium should be viewed as a more reasonable high mode. It seems counterintuitive that a SS flashlight would be so much hotter than an aluminum one of the same size. My Uniquefire AA-S1 (aluminum) is the hottest light I have, and within about 5 minutes it is very warm, but not enough to burn you or make you want to drop it.
I have one of these lights currently in the "packaging" stage on the other side of the world in a DX shipping room. I payed $13.95, as Don mentioned. I'll let you know in a month how the quality of the new version compares to this one.
Ah ya. Well I doubt mine will be a Q5 either, they seem to have changed the emitter from what most of the reviews say. Again, I don't care much as long as it's efficient. And reliable. I really don't have much use for flickery lights.
If i remember correctly mine did when i first got it.....i sprayed the threads with wd 40 to clean all that gunk off, relubed and made sure that the switch retaining ring was screwed down all the way. Topped off an Eneloop and was impressed. Hope you like yours man. Made a good cigar grip light, since it was easier to hold that way.
It gets warm, not hot on 14500 on medium. Left it tailstanding on medium for ten minutes then picked it up. On high that would have been followed by bad words and lots of them, on medium it gets warm.
The heat gets concentrated round the LED/driver as stainless steel doesn't conduct heat nearly as well as aluminium. Yes, there is more mass for the heat to go into, but it moves more slowly. After looking up the specific heat capacities, a cubic centimetre of aluminium needs 2.422 joules of energy to raise its temperature by one degree Kelvin (same as centigrade degree in size), human flesh takes 3.7J, stainless steel takes 3.537 (Actually the value for iron as stainless steel is basically iron with impurities). So the stainless steel can absorb more heat for a given temperature rise, but the important part is what it does with it. In aluminium, it gets moved rapidly all over the body of the light (and into your hand) whereas in stainless steel it takes a very long time to reach an isothermal (same temperature all over) state. So the heat builds up which it doesn't in aluminium at these energy levels.
The AA-S1 gets hot all over as the aluminium is distributing the heat all over the body, and importantly, away from the LED and driver. Then your hand will take away a fair amount of that heat into your blood. Never noticed my AA-S1 getting hot. Will toss a 14500 into it and check. I can log temperatures if you want.
Ah, I see. It all has to do with the heat capacity of the stainless steel vs. aluminum.
My AA-S1 probably reaches about 42 degrees (I'm not a good judge of temperatures), so no it's not unmanageably hot. I'm just not used to running a light on high power for so long.
Nope - didn't fancy burnt hands. Wrapped a damp cloth round it and put a fan onto it. As you can see, this was of limited efficacy.
Best to treat high as a Turbo burst mode and medium as the true high. This is one where a medium-low-high sequence would be a good thing. And I can't believe I just said that - I hate the Fenix style MLH sequence.
Sadly the quality does vary a lot. I've just got a new aluminium C3 and it is enormously better made than the older ones which did come as a surprise - often they get worse and worse. I like C3s though I'm not sure why.
You beat me to it! I'd have dared if I'd seen it first. Instead I'll wait for the review.. This may be myself shooting myself in the foot. Or more likely it won't be. It's not as if I NEED any more lights - I already own more of them than any 100 random people combined.
;) I'm sure there's more where this one comes from, Don! I have high hopes for this version. Additionally, I really want to try Lightake's 93mm possibly "original" version of this light too. But as I've said before, even the new cheaper 98mm version of the C3 SS is no slouch either.
I will read reviews where they exist - when it is something new to the market, I'm often glad I wasn't the first. When I have been the first I often wish I'd read the reviews......
But sometimes I'm glad I was the first. Which is what keeps the market going.