Mapache's (and Mrs Mapache's) newb review - Thorfire TG06S –

I should have added these thoughts to the main review but they will go here instead.

Lack of beam shots- It turns out reviews take a lot more work and time than I first thought, especially without proper equipment and less than perfect health. Attempting to get a reasonable outdoor beamshot with an old iPhone4 is nearly impossible. The first occasion was raining and the second occasion a few weeks later it started snowing! For my next review I will have to see if I can borrow a camera, or at least fix my old compact camera - even that should be better than a phone. For anyone interested in the missing low quality beamshots - this is a clothes line at a distance of 12m, with snow in the first pic. At least I think, maybe it counts as sleet to people who live in countries that have an actual winter.

“Camera” settings are as above f/2.8, 1/15s and an ISO of 1000 (equiv)

High.

Medium

How am I using this light 6 months on? - This light does find it’s way into Mrs Mapache’s purse on occasion as suspected, but it now spends most of it’s time as my couch light, living next to the TV remote. With nimh cells this light on high is the perfect brightness (for me) for the living room, and being on high there is no PWM to worry about.

good review! I have the TG06 and I love the neutral tint. It is my favorite travel light when I want to avoid traveling with Lithium cells & charger (but lithiums wouldn’t be a problem on my flights).

Thanks. I was quite disappointed with how the beamshots turned out, hence the reason they ended up in part 2. Hopefully I will figure out how to get good beamshots for my next review.

You need a tripod (or two), manual exposure, and slower shutter speed… much slower than 1/15s. I’m not sure if your iPhone is up to the task.

I like your PWM shots though.

Nice review thanks!! They need to fix the PWM and next mode memory on these lights. I have the regular TG06 and never use it because of these two aspects. It a real bummer for an otherwise excellent light.

Thanks for the tips. The phone can do 1/1s shots but without a tripod 1/15s was the lowest I could go. I will get a cheap tripod and try with my old digital camera.

The S version that I have has no mode memory, so it always starts on high. I will bold that in the review as it is a great improvement over the original, it’s just a shame they didn’t change it to have last mode memory instead. I agree with you on the PWM.

Oh ok… Cool I can handle always starting on HI (or low). Its the next mode memory thats bad about the regular TG06.

I wonder if the “pencil trick” works with the old version. You draw a line with a pencil across the appropriate capacitor and the light in theory becomes memory free.

There is a new model of the TG06s, with a newly designed driver. I did a little video (on my cheap phone), to show the difference.
1st is a TG06s purchased in May, which has PWM.
2nd is a TG06s purchased in November.

It appears the older one is a bit brighter and defined on an AA, but I just threw a couple I had laying around to test. I didn’t check voltage. The new model doesn’t have PWM.

EDIT: The difference was the batteries. With 2 fresh AA batteries, the new TG06s appears a bit brighter.

Nice! With this updated update of the TG06S, if everything else is the same I would highly recommend this light to people.

Thanks for the video, I will add a link to this in the OP.

Cool… a PWM-less TG06S is a light I would be happy with.

nice review .good to hear the pwm issue is gone…thankyou

Nice review mapache thanks!!

What is the diameter of driver? You wrote it is 12.8mm but other reviewer reported 16.9 or 16.8mm…

Just double checked and it’s ~12mm.

Just triple checked and it’s ~17mm

Thanks!

Mrs Mapache and Mapache this is great review :+1:

Thanks. I managed to get Mrs mapache to help in another review I’m about to post but it needs better pics, however she wasn’t that interested in my third review.

I recently upgraded the driver for my TG06S and it is 17mm. (Purchased last week from Amazon- Thorfire vendor)

I think there might be a couple different versions of this light with different size drivers.

If you plan on doing a driver/emitter swap for this light, get the light in hand prior to ordering any emitters or drivers for it.
That way you can get measurements and be sure you are ordering the correct size.

I have the Sofirn’s clone/version of the TG06S, the SF12, and the driver is 17mm with 16mm MCPCB for the emitter