Do you have both the A3S and the A3? (only the A3 shown in your photo)
I’m a bit confused but I think you typed A3S by mistake?
“I like my wowtac a3s”
“Both are modded with the Olson black led. Wowtac a3 have 759 lumen and 100k cd”
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Many posts here about the A3 and not about the A3S. That’s fine, all posts are relevant since the lights are somewhat the same, but I wanted to point it out to avoid confusion, since this thread was about the A3S not the A3.
One of the most informative posts here is by Firelight2 (post #20 above) because he has both lights and reports a comparison in his first few comments.
This comment steers me away from the less expensive A3 even as a host: “Super-smooth zoom action. Much better than my A3…………………………” (Note: I didn’t copy his entire comment)
Thanks for posting. I’m sure you’re aware of this: those are the A3 with XPG2 600lm, not the A3S with XPL-HI 1000lm.
No biggie, just wanted to point it out to others that there is an upgraded version now, (what this thread was about).
I don’t know if it will help or answer any questions , but here are the links to both my reviews on the A3 and the A3S.
Both reviews have Lumens , Amperage and Runtime Test charts in them as well as the video with all the still photos , beamshots and outdoor live footage.
A3 here……Review Wowtac A3 / Side Switch--Zoomable
A3S here……… Review WowTac A3S (Zoomable 18650)
You can still get the A3S from the Wowtac site for $29.99 if it is not listed on Amazon also.
Thanks robo yes this helps a lot, even though I commented there almost forgot you also reviewed the 3S since only the A3 is showing in your sig.
Also thanks for your reminder it can be purchased direct, although I always prefer amazon if prices are equal.
Just to let you know the amazon link you provided in your A3S review links to the A3 instead, so you might want to strike it out or something for now. I’m thinking it originally linked to the A3S (which is no longer showing on amazon) I guess Wowtac for whatever reason changed the listings, so it remains to be seen whats going on with the A3S on amazon.
Not sure whats going on with that site, how do you purchase anything from there?
None of the products have an “Buy” button or “add to cart” button…… There’s only “Add to Wishlist”
There is a shopping cart, but no way to add anything to it.
It was listed on amazon a short while ago, I’m trying to find out why it’s not listed now, I had it save in my amazon shopping cart and now it’s showing “currently unavailable” and if you click on the product link it goes to the old A3!
It may be that they ran out of them at amazon and it didn’t get re-stocked yet, (it’s an FBA item so amazon keeps stock in their own warehouse)
I believe it used to able to be ordered directly from wowtac’s website, but currently none of the products on that site have an “Buy” or “Add to Cart” button. It’s unusual because on the Thrunite site when something is out of stock the product page still has the “Add to Cart” button but it will show “Expected Ship Date”
I wish I would have ordered one when it was still listed instead of waiting, now I’m wondering if the Wowtac line is being phased out?
I’ll contact wowtac tonight to try and find out what’s going on, I’ll post here when I get an answer. Or maybe someone else who knows something will chime in here.
I emailed wowtac for answers, but now I’m wondering if it has something to do with the holiday in China. Although Thrunite.com has “Add to Cart” buttons on all products listed.
Got a reply from Wowtac about a week ago, they indicated wowtac.com is _“not open for purchase_”
They did say they would fix the amazon listing, however nothing has changed, so I emailed them about it again tonight.
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“Thank you for contacting us. www.wowtac.com is not open for purchase, so there is no Add to cart button. The listing of A3s is inactive now, it is not visible on amazon. We will fix this issue within 24 hours. then you can buy it. Thank you for attention and support”
No problem, Actually I didn’t realize it because I forgot to check that email for a while but they replied to me in 1 day. I messaged through their website on the 11th and they replied on the 12th. so pretty quick!
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I just got an auto reply to tonight’s email:
“Thank you for your email! Out of office till Feb 23,2018 for having Chinese New Year holiday. We will get back to you ASAP when we come back. Sorry for the inconvenience”
I’ll check it on Friday/Saturday and reply here. Since I first contacted them I ended up ordering a different zoomie, which I just received today, I had real high hopes for it but I’m not too happy… You can read the posts I made tonight on the review thread (starting at post #4):
Got mine in yesterday. The first thing that struck me was it’s size, it’s is way smaller than it looked in the photos.
I don’t have a light meter but this thing is really bright on a 30Q. I had to use a magnet on the tail for the 30Q because of the battery length issue (it uses a USB charging type cell that is longer than usual, and the battery compartment was made longer to accommodate it, making it too long for usual cells)
…………….Battery size difference…………………………Magnet on battery negative end………………………Battery with magnet……………. . .
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……………………A few comparison pics……………………………………………and with Convoy 18350 tube………………………
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I compared it with my low tech eyeball ceiling bounce test and it’s just as bright as my BLF A6 (no spring bypass, so probably around 1300lm) Also as bright as my new 1380lm Litesam PS16. I’d say it’s putting out at least 1300lm on the 30Q.
I love this light! The zooming action is sooooo smooth and “just right tight” the beam pattern is perfect, no rings, artifacts or dark spots throughout the entire zooming travel. The flood beam is great… just a big smooth even perfect circle of light. The tint is on the cool end of neutral and it’s pure white. No yellow or blue at all. The UI is excellent. The switch is excellent, it has great knurling and feels nice and solid in the hand.
The only things I would have liked would be a flat stainless “Foy” bezel. (I’m not too fond of the crenelated bezels) Love the stainless bezels. Also the head could have been made a bit thinner, it’s way thick at the front surrounding the lens. At this size they could’ve put a bigger diameter optic in it. It also needs knurling on the head for better grip when zooming one handed.
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I’m real happy with this light, it’s hands down my best zoomie right now, and really awesome with the Convoy EDIT: (Jaxman)18350 tube.
It’s the Jaxman 18350 tube in the photos.
The Convoy tube also fits but it’s slightly shorter so with the Aspire 1100 and Convoy tube the spring is fully compressed tight against the driver.
Not saying you might not have gotten a better driver than what came in the sample I reviewed but , the driver should be a constant current that is in the A3S and when I did my testing with the included cell , the LG HE4 , LG HG2 and Efest Purple High Drain , the numbers really did not deviate much with any of the cells.
I pretty much stayed in the 960 to 1000 lumens range with all the cells I tested and I had to use the magnet on the tail for the high drains as you are doing.
Other than that one point I agree that it is one of the best zoomies I have overall as far as the build quality and also agree they had room enough for a slightly larger optic.
One thing that will help (if you are up to the challenge) is to get the bezel off the light , as it is heavily glued on.
If you can get the bezel loose though you can place a thin O-ring over the threads to hold the lens out just slightly more than it sits and the focus will come in much better to get the well defined edges , if you are after that.
If you decide to try it I can give more explanation later as to how.
Thanks Robo. I’ve only tried the high drain cell, didn’t try the included (or any other) cell yet so I can’t really offer a comparison in regards to different cells yet. So I was only stating what cell I used, not that it’s brighter on that cell over a regular one.
Also I don’t have a light meter but I’m pretty sure my BLF A6 is over 1000lm, but it’s a 3D tint so the cooler A3S may appear as bright even if it’s not? I’ll do the test again against an Olight later. But I agree it’s easily 1000lm at minimum.
“The light is substantially brighter when run on a low-resistance IMR cell. I haven’t looked at the driver, but perhaps it is using a FET. The upshot is you can “hot-rod” this light simply by replacing the battery with a better cell.”
He also stated in his Amazon review: “Bright. On the stock battery it probably is around 1000 lumens in flood mode. The driver also scales well with high drain batteries. I estimate output increased to perhaps 1500 lumens when I replaced the stock battery with a Sony VTC5A 18650 lithium ion cell”
I don’t think I’m getting 1500lm on mine. Maybe we are getting a better driver than what came in your sample? But as I said I cannot confirm I’m getting results as Firelight2 on mine because I haven’t tried yet with a standard cell. I’ll report back here after I test it that way. I’ve really got to get a meter.
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Yes the bezel isn’t unscrewing, I do plan on working on that, and yes I am interested in the O-ring mod you suggested so when you get a chance please post the info or direct me to where if you’ve posted elsewhere. Thanks.
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