Fenix FD30 - the zoomie for zoomie-haters?

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
26

I will post a little review soon, probably tomorrow evening/night (european time ). Fenix germany send me one last week. I made the final outdoorshots tonight, all pictures are done. Finally a light with honest lumen claims according to my little sphere. It was even over 900 lumens. I got the Rofis KR20 as well for a review and that light reached 850 lumens from 1100. Fenix has always honest lumen claims like surefire, Mag Lite and some others. But others than that the Rofis is pretty good for the money i have to say.

Yes the FD30 has a reflector kind of cut in two halves. The upper part can be raised and that results in a deep reflector. So the beamshot is similar to a normal reflector light but definately more like a thrower with a tight spot (fully raised).

27

Ok. I think I’ll continue with the strap wrench method. I have only started tinkering with mods and just bought a strap wrench to open up an Olight R50 to shave the dome and add resistors. I think I used a vice with a towel, strap wrench and blowtorch because room temperature wasn’t cutting it.

This was only after I tried using a pair of vice grips and a crescent wrench and ended up scratching up the anodizing pretty bad. Lesson learned, on to the next.

28

I don’t actually have a blowtorch. Think it’s time to head down to OSH and buy one.

29

Great, I’ll definitely look forward to seeing what you have to say about the FD30. I didn’t even know it existed until I saw this thread. Now I’m intrigued.

Yeah, Fenix, Oligh, Thrunite to name a few are pretty good with lumen claims. I think Nitecore imo is fairly disappointing when they don’t measure up to the claims as they are by no means a budget brand consumer light. I expect this a little with the cheap brands and am ok with it.

30

My understanding is the lights typically can withstand a lot of heat, but obviously don’t burn into anything you shouldn’t. I had to get the R50 much hotter than I originally intended/wanted to and it was just fine. Glued very tight though. lol

31

My biggest concern with heat is probably something like the membrane (or whatever) inside the switch under the metal cover to make it waterproof. Who knows how much heat that can take?

Other than that, I recall Vinh had some trouble with some 1xAAA Fenix lights. The blowtorch was hot enough that it was sometimes causing the plastic TIR optic to melt.

32

When using a blowtorch to heat a head, what do you use to get a grip to unscrew it?

I assume a strap wrench probably isn’t a good idea as the rubber strap could melt. Just use metal pliers and hope its loose enough not to scratch much?

33

I agree, there’s some risk of unknown if you are having to do a light for the first time and don’t know for sure about it’s structure/materials inside. It’s the proceed with caution zone. The little membranes might shrivel and harden. :cry:

34

Just keep the strap wrench as far away from the heat as possible.

35

Uhm, you don’t HAVE to zoom all the way in right? Granted the twisty-zooms are much easier to control this aspect, vs a push-pull.

The thing I dont like about this one is that it does not appear to have much zoom capability. There is still a LOT of spill in the zoomed pic.

36

Of course there’s a lot of spill, it’s not a zoom light. It uses 2 reflectors to change the beam pattern between focused and non focused.

37

Here is a little review about it

38

I said I was going to post some pics of FD40 beam and it’s been a while but here they are. Also have another zoomie which is the Sunwayman T25C. I need to catch up with the news on FD30 as I was curious to see the reaction, so will go do some reading now. Sorry the messy place and bad photography, really need to learn the settings on my camera better.

Control

FD40 flood

FD40 zoom

T25C Flood

T25C zoom

39

Anyone had the chance to look closer at the FD41 at INTERMEDIATE settings (i.e. BETWEEN spot and flood extremes)?

Also, wondering if anyone had the chance to compare the FD30 and FD41 at intermediate beam settings?

I thought I saw some posts somewhere (not on this forum maybe) that created the impression (in my head, not sure about in reality) that the FD30 is “cleaner” at these settings than the FD41 . . .

From what I’ve seen, the FD41 seems to have a discernible “donut” at the midrange. That said, I am not a “white wall hunter” so if the ’41’s donut is not significant in actual use, it would cease to be a source of concern!

For me, the FD30 would probably be the most generally useful, but the FD41 - based on Fenix’s numbers - yields roughly the peak beam intensity of the standard TK35 (XM-L based). I really like the TK35, but size reduces practical routine “carryability” (40 mm vs 48 mm head diameters).

Either way, these lights are - for my uses - the first really exciting practical innovation I’ve seen in a while (note that is speaking for me/my uses, there are certainly many exciting and fascinating things that have come out, I’m just thinking practical daily applications).

Best wishes,

Tim

40

Got an FD30 yesterday.

My initial impressions:

  • In flood mode, you get a wide (almost 90 degree) beam with a very wide hotspot in the center. This beam pattern is actually quite usable and looks good.
  • In spot mode, that center hotspot becomes much tighter. The spillbeam gets slightly narrower and a tiny hotspot appears in the center of the beam. At just 10k lux, the throw from this hotspot is unfortunately quite minimal. This won’t outthrow a purpose-built thrower or modded zoomie, but it’s still better than not having a zoom.
  • The beam pattern is very reminiscent of that found in the newer Coast Zoomies. Spot mode consists of a small, but dim, hotspot surrounded by narrow spill, while flood is just a wide circle of light. Overall, I’d rate the FD30’s flood as being a bit superior to a comparable-sized Coast. The small reflector does a lot for boosting the brightness of flood mode. On the other hand, Coast’s TIR optic is far lighter weight and mechanically much simpler. The FD30 feels quite heavy and from the cutaway picture the zooming mechanism looks quite complex.
  • The dial to cycle the zoom is interesting. It has no stops. Continue turning it and the beam cycle will reverse. Personally, I’d have preferred having stops at each end so I could tell instantly when I was at max throw or flood. There is an o-ring under the sliding bezel which unfortunately deposits lubricant onto the part of the head revealed when the light is cycled to spot mode. This is not a good thing since if you put your fingers there you’ll get lubricant on them. Fortunately, this area is relatively small and can be fairly easily avoided.
  • At 144mm long, the light is pretty huge for a 1x18650 tube light. I find it too big for pocket EDC. I haven’t yet tried to mod it. In my experience Fenix lights are heavily glued and really tough to mod. The FD30 appears to be fully glued and I’m not sure how to take apart the head without damaging the mechanism. I suspect a blowtorch will be needed to break the threadlocker.

If I decide to mod this light and if I can get it apart, mods I might attempt:

  • Replace battery tube with shorter one from Sunwayman C20C. Fenix PD32 threads match the Sunwayman and hopefully the FD30’s threads also match. Replacing the battery tube and tailcap switch with the Sunwayman tube without switch would substantially reduce the overall length of the light.
  • Replace driver with Mountain Electronics FET e-switch driver.
  • Replace cool-white XPL HI with neutral white XPL HI 5A2.
41

How is it better??
There are flashlights its size with a standard reflector that get nearly 2x its throw…

42

It’s not always about maximum throw.

Sometimes a very wide uniform beam pattern with little or not hotspot is better. Lights with bright narrow hotspots tend to feel awkward up close. The hotspot may wash out the spill and the contrast in brightness feels awkward. The FD30’s very wide “wall of light” flood beam is quite nice for up-close work.

The zoom gives the FD30 a very tight, but relatively dim hotspot. This gives more throw for when you need it, and the tight hotspot can also be used as a pointer.

However, I still find the spot mode on the FD30 somewhat disappointing. Even in the same size light with the same diameter head, a modded aspheric light pretty much blows the FD30 out of the water in throw.

43

Because those lights aren’t good for up close/interior jobs. Throw is not the be-all-end-all of flashlight preformance. Sure, a C8 can light up the tree line 200m away, but it sucks for working on / inspecting a vehicle (in the engine bay, in the wheel well, under the dash, under the chassis… it’s what I do daily for work if you can’t tell). A single light that can do both an even flood beam and a respectable amount of throw based on the user’s need at that moment certainly has its place.

As we know from both lights and the design of pretty much everything else in the world - we don’t expect a all-in-one, jack of all trades items to do anything better than a specialized item. A zoomable light can’t out-throw a thrower, or out-flood a nice flood light. But it is flexible and can often - for the right user - do both well enough that it is useful, and the right choice in certain situations. That’s why I’m thinking of making a zoomable light my next work-EDC.

44

In English, the way that sentence is phrased means that even though it doesn’t outthrow a zoomie or thrower it still outthrows a regular flashlight without zoom.
Which I said is not true.

Maybe you misinterpreted?

EDIT- well you can always admit to being wrong, no need to mark things rude to make yourself feel better sac

45

So should I interpret your last comment as a dig at non-native English speakers, because I’m pretty sure the membership of this website is strongly international…

You said:

… so what’s the second half of that statement?

“There are flashlights that size with a standard reflector that get nearly 2x its throw, but they don’t have the same smooth flood light capability.”

That is how I’d finish it.


It appears that instead your argument is:

“There are flashlights that size with a standard reflector that get nearly 2x its throw, and can also provide a similar smooth 76 degree flood beam.”

If I’m interpreting that correctly, I’d like to know what light you have in mind that can do both even and smooth flood lighting, AND 20kcd. In a 1x18650 25mm tube light format, don’t forget.

The FD30 at its flood setting advertises 1100cd and specifies a 76 degree flood beam, which is fairly wide. If you run the numbers for for 1100cd and 76degrees, it translates to 1465lm, which is not a lot more than the 900lm that Fenix specs as the flashlight’s overall output. (Alternately, you could calculate 900lm, 76deg = 676cd) That tells me that the 76degree flood is pretty evenly lit, with likely a large/mild hotspot. In contrast, let’s run the numbers on 76degrees and 20kcd: 26,639lm. So again, please tell us which light you have in mind that can do both smooth 76deg flood, and 20kcd.

I marked your comment rude because this is the second time (that I know of) that you have come into a thread about focusing/zoomable lights begun arguing (or implying - sorry ::eyeroll ) that a standard reflector light can do the same or better on both ends, which is simply not true.

edit: I’m done, I removed the rude report. Carry on, I’ll be elsewhere.