Our requirements are probably different and i am missing context but i think youre being a bit overly critical—so apologies because my opinion is to follow. I really want to give this light a fair shake but all this negative energy is getting in the way of my objective analysis. Which is to say will it light things up in front of my face as brightly as i want it for as long as i want it to. Havent gotten that far yet.
Fwiw i own maybe 40 to 50 headlamps, that i have gathered thru the years. So i guess you could say i have seen them evolve thru the years—all so very slowly. Which is to suggest that my expectation level is pretty reasonable. 80 lumens used to be jaw dropping lumens.
According to your own specs —1800 fast /jaw/ dropping lumens. (I added jaw), Is still higher than zebralights top current L-shaped model or maybe matching, dont actually know but bought one 2-3 months ago and it was either 1600 or 1800 lumen.
And you know what? The Pl47 nichia is 50$ cheaper. With universally accepted better tint. The sst20 4000k is probably several hundred lumens brighter and is 50$ cheaper than the zl i bought 2-3 months ago. The xpl nw is $50 cheaper than the zl and probably rivals the acebeam h30 and is $70 cheaper. Cost benefit analysis ff does seem to hold an edge.
Almost went with the acebeam h30. 120$ stock, but didnt like the goofy aux lites. Then was gonna get skylumen-mods to get the aux lites in samsung high cri. $160. Instead i lucked upon fireflies. I got 3 pl47’s for the price of one modded h30. And to cover several different scenarios.
My buttons seem fine, btw.
Maukkas review of the rot66 demonstrated a bit of oveeestimation of the nichias by ff. 5000 vs his 4250/38×× something, i forget. And his graphs showed it peaked for like a second then dropped to 700 lumens and held for 4 hours. Ff seems to have taken the best turn on peak level and called that the lumen level. They all do it, why hold them to a higher standard? What was your serious expectation here? Isnt that the nature of the entire industry, excepting like what—surefire? Beyond that the output is a result of the emitter choice, isnt it? Arent the nichia 219b like ancient old school leds? That people adore because they make things look pink? Not bright. Isnt it true that all high cri leds are piss poor performers in the output category? If output was your goal you probably should have opted for xpl.
The pl47 has an lg battery on sales page, but does not explicitly say it will fit, i assume it will. Zebralight does this with their pogo pin lites while stating only sanyo ncr18650ga is guaranteed to fit, with a box to check if you want one. Mtn electronics does this, stating only xxxx battery is guaranteed to fit. Which is better imho of a proprietary pack nonsense like olight or nitecore. Ff obvious error but not a novel one, should have said only lg fits. Check.
I got samsung 50e’s and they fit fine.
I dont know if it is a great light—yet, but it outputs in pink what my latest zebra does for 50$ less. The only real question i have is whether i will have to change out batteries every 2 hours. and i dont know that yet. My only hope was to pull about 6-700 high cri lumens for 4+ hours, before battery changes. And wont really know that till i have cycled my batteries a few times anyway.
I wont know if the pl47 is a piece of crap for at least a few weeks.
So far i like it, er them.
Sorry yours didnt work out.
Edit: dude and how cool is the ui. Seriously.