Some thoughts after receiving my C8G this Friday.. Well, mostly nags and some rantings actually.. :|
- Driver seems to be the same layout as the C8F - main PCB with a perpendicular secondary / daughter PCB - just a bit shorter than the one on the C8F tho and a bit more off-center as well to accommodate the small inductor for the boost circuit that sits on the main PCB - a C8F driver would almost fit if not just barely in this host, as the compartment hosting the driver, under the emitter's shelf it's a bit shallower due to the deeper single emitter reflector in the C8G. The C8G overall it's around 2mm longer than the C8F just because of this deeper reflector.
- There's no Stand-By function on the side switch as on the C8F, which I knew it would to be a letdown, but not as much as it actually was when I got the flashlight and practically tried to use it.. Very dissappointing :( Likely that is because of the boost diver circuit doesn't have a stand-by function itself.. ?
- The Ramping itself seems to be linear current, thus the start of the ramp seems to ramp up the perceived brightness very fast from moon to a relatively high brightness, then, for the longest remaining part of the ramping after the initial part, the brightness only seems to slower and slower gain in intensity for a long period.. :| which is another bigger letdown in practice then in expectation (also didn't even expected or knew this beforehand to begin with.. ) This linear current ramp really beats the purpose of having a practical ramping UI in the first place.. because, well.. it's not that practical in real usage scenarios.. :|
- The Moon mode - 10LM - Waaaay too much (even if it's a thrower.. ) - 1LM, even if at least from the cumbersome accessible Moon mode straight from Off (holding the side switch & power On from the tail clicky) that, btw, leads me to the next point/nag..
- The Moon mode access it's cumbersome and non practical at best: One method is a buton combo and only from the from Off state, the other mode has you first accessing the Turbo mode and from there going down to Moon mode - which beats the purpose of the Moon mode in the first place.
Ok, so there is at least one plus side of this driver compared to the C8F a reference though with this flashlight, so it's not all bad :)
- Just noticed on this light, compared to the C8F, that from Turbo or Strobe modes, a long press it's not considered a alternate way of standing-by the light (hence, this light doesn't feature such a function to begin with anyways.. ) but actually, more convenient, more intuitive, long press from Turbo mode would start ramping down (just like with Narsil) and from the Strobe mode, it would cycle through the disco/flashy modes (Strobe [of variable frequency] > Beacon [~2s interval] > SOS [a fast one just as I like it] > cycle back to Strobe > etc. > .. ) On the C8F, oddly and quite disappointingly for me personally, long press from Turbo/Strobe modes would put the light in Stand-By.. :| I guess it's an "alternate" way, a "shortcut" to straight away put the light in stand-by without clicking twice from those special modes. Makes sense, but I'd rather have the C8G's like behavior, seems like the most convenient, intuitive for me. Even the Narsil way still has a "flaw" as far as my preference goes, as accessing the Turbo would always first stand-by the light, so single click from Turbo will be stand-by.. :| then clicking again would power on the light back on in the previews level of brightness.
Btw, some pics of the 2 relevant IC's on the C8G's driver:
1st pic - the MC
2nd pic - the Boost IC (and the inductor as well)