Zebralight SC700d – A Short Technical Review (lumens/runtime graphs/temperature/PWM/current draw)

I would also be interested in the floody version. I emailed Zebralight sales, and asked if they could do a custom order for a floody SC700d with the frosted lens. Their response . . .

"We will release SC700Fd in mid or late Feb, 2019."

I wish they’d come out with a HI version.

Excellent Review. Thanks!

I’m also waiting for the 700Fd version of this one, I think this is possibly a good platform for them to make more of a thrower with a smaller LED as well.

I’m liking the SC700d, but I think Zebra light can do just a bit better with an Fd version, and more of a thrower version. It’s a great flashlight, but it just falls a little short on the beam characteristics compared many of their past lights.

The thermal design of the light seems to be their best yet, very impressive.

I hope they adjust the battery tube diameter just a bit to remove the battery rattle, but maybe they are trying to allow for a few more batteries, as people often complain their favorite battery does not fit their ZebraLight on the 18650 lights, but I’ve had no issues.

Has it quit raining enough there for some outdoor beamshots yet?

AKAIK, there is no HI version of the XHP70.2 emitter.

Honestly, I've never done outdoor beamshots. Would a white poster board suffice (indoors) - showing the tint and beam pattern?

Would be great.
Mike

No there isn’t, but there is an XHP35 HI. I would also be more interested in this light if it had the XHP35 HI. Here’s hoping…

OK, late this evening.

I think it would make good sense for Zebralight to release a XHP35 HI version of this light… as well as a SC700C for those who prefer warmer tints. In fact, I wish they would just release a 4500K 90 CRI but they seem to have stopped doing that. Too bad.

Looking forward to the beamshots Terry!

You can post a wall shot if you want. Just wanted to see what it looks like in a practical sense. Owning a few ZL’s, already had a pretty good idea what the efficiency would be. The 70.2 is well known for a tint shift, but was thinking maybe ZL did fairly good job of blending that with the OP reflector.

Any camera even at auto settings works well enough for an outdoor beamshot photo, no need for anything fancy just a quick shot to show the beam distribution and if there’s any artifacts :smiley:

There are some indoor and outdoor beamshots in the Zebralight SC700d thread on CPF Forum.

The beamshots are in Derek Jean’s post #355 and post #374 .

Looks great. From the beamshots, the SC700d is noticeably brighter and has more throw than the SC600 Mark IV Plus. And the tint seems fine.

I added a photo and video (beamshots) at the end of the review. I think the YouTube video is pretty accurate to what I see with my eyes.

FYI, there have been several other updates since my original post.

Thanks for posting Terry. Tint shift doesn’t appear nearly as bad as most 70.2 lights I’ve seen. Some are just flat out ugly with green rings in the beam. From the looks of it, may not be noticeable out in the woods.

Awesome review. I have placed an order for one of these bad boys and a pair of 40T cells. I wonder if I’ll end up using this more often over my SC600w Plus.

Just wanted to chime in and let you know that thanks to this review I pulled the trigger on a SC700D. I haven’t purchased any other flashlight for almost a year but this zebralight was a hard pass.

It’s been with me for a couple weeks now and I will never look at any other flashlight the same way after the SC700D. The performance is simply insane and having the temperature setting on the highest it seems to handle the H2 level without ever dropping the output. Zebralight has perfected the PID in such way that holding the flashlight for a couple seconds the output immediately raises back up. The thing is so efficient I feel it easily gives me more than twice the runtime of a regular high capacity 18650.

Fit and finish is perfect and was undamaged after a drop on hard concrete floor, the texture on the anodizing reminds me of the older days of surefire and first gens Fenix TK lights, not the usual easy chipping stuff now every manufacturers calls “HA III”.

Not sure if they wanted to future proof this light but the battery tube ID can easily fit a 21700 50E with double extra wrapping, I see why some folks complains about a rattling cell. The only and single complain I have is the pocket clip, I would much rather have a screw on clip. The tint has the usual XHP70.2 green, not something ZL could’ve done anything about.

That’s awesome news! Glad you like it. I like the SC700D so much that I ordered two of them. One to keep new in a box, the other for EDC use and won’t feel so bad if I ding it up. This light is worth every penny. I use it more than my SC600W MK IV Plus now. It also seems to have curbed my flashoholic cravings. Looks like I’ll need to really work on the flashlight rotation on night walks. This thing is at the top of the list.

I thought I was the only one that does this with flashlights I really like :person_facepalming:

Not at all! My motto is, Good things always come in pairs!