TK's Emisar D4V2 review

Not even Hank knows exactly what bins of SST-20 he has gotten but I’ve had fairly good luck with almost all of them I’ve used, and fixing it is as simple as picking up some minus green filter sheet.

The “purple” of the 6500K version isn’t a actually a “bad” thing per se, that just means they’re getting fairly rosy at that output and in a very cool tint like 6500K that will appear closer to purple than it would on a lower temp light where it looks rosy. (Blue + pink = purple, “white” + pink = pink basically)

My $0.02, I’d rather have a light that’s slightly green over everything at some outputs which lets my eyes/brain adjust, than one that only makes certain things (wood, skin, dry grass/brush, etc.) look strangely greenish or dead like lower CRI emitters. Lower color temps close the gap there though.

Tint is never a non issue.
The 4000k sst20 is pretty decent, with a bit of green, but you accept this for the hi cri, that really pays off outdoors. If you use your light indoors and for white wall hunting go for the 5D. If you want best of both worlds and some extra cosiness go for sst20 3000k.

I’ve tried minus-green filter in my SST-20 D4. It greatly improves the tint.

But at the same time, it’s not a great solution. Minus green filter reduces lumen output anywhere from 14 to 30% depending on which Lee filter you choose. Result is better tint, but MUCH lower output.

Good point. I remember seeing a post with beamshots of an SST-20 compared to a 219 (B or C, can't remember) both before and after minus green filter being applied. It made a pretty noticable difference. As for an emitter swap, I've never done that but if I really hate it it might become an opportinity to learn new skills. Selling or gifting a flashlight? I don't even know what those words mean...guess I'll roll the dice and see what happens

I got a D4 sst-20 4000k ordered it with uncoated lens and honestly there’s zero green tint

Even on low?

That’s a bit of good news, going into the weekend!

Chris

Fingers crossed then, thanks!

Yeah it’s totally cosy tinted even on low on my white wall indoors

Glad to have reassured you for the weekend;)

At 4000K the transition will be more yellow-tinted to pink-tinted than green to purple. Also, some users are more sensitive to it than others.

This chromaticity diagram (source), overlaid with data from a 4000K SST-20 test, may help you better understand the trend:
https://i.imgur.com/Z3zBVo2.png

I would say not to worry too much about it, but if you would like to change, at least ask the question. Emisar is usually quite responsive.

Be aware that Hank has historically received a variety of bins of 219C emitters, too. My D4v1 has very neutral 219C’s in it. Other v1 owners have complained about green tinted 219C’s. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a really good way to know how good what you will get is until you receive it, for any of the emitter options.

15% reduction isn’t very noticeable at all to human eyes. Considering the alternative is 219Bs with their much lower output and less throw I’d say that’s a serious net gain if the tint of the SST-20s bothers anyone.

I went for the 300K. It will be interesting to compare the tint to the 3000K XPL in the Wurkkos WK20 I got last month.

Honestly, I don’t know that I’ll EDC this Emisar all that often. I like my tiny AAA twisties too well. But we shall see.

That's good information, thank you!

Yeah, I think I'll just see what I get and hope for a good result. Sometimes I can overthink things, especially when I have no personal experience.

The filters that only reduce output 15% also shift the color temperature noticeably warmer. The filters that don’t shift color temp reduce output considerably more than 15%.

Does it take an even higher hit in luminous intensity or is it about the same drop as total output?

Thanks TK, for the review, for answering the additional questions in this thread, for continuously improving your amazingly versatile (and still expanding), yet highly useable flashlight firmwares, and for you being you.

My view on the D4V2:

  • Differently colored aux-leds with rainbow mode: FUN!
  • Driver-facing pins for (relatively) easy end-user reflashing of the firmware: GREAT!
  • Next batch: offer a recessed switch as an option in order to prevent unwanted pocket activation?
  • Although my default preference for stupid-simple stuff is quite the antithesis of this flashlight, it sure is calling my name…

Could you convince Hank to produce a D4V2 in a special color (think pink) with a TK-logo somewhere (e.g. on the tail), similar to the special edition FW3A? Or even better: a version in titanium rainbow, so the inside would match properly with the outside. :wink:

And someone (Hank?) should start selling a BLF-edition “USB reflashing kit pogo-pin adapter”. The momentum is here. A lot of flashlight UI/FW modding potential is currently untapped because of the high (perceived) barrier to entry.

Like you already stated: the most important aspect of this flashlight resides on the collective level of the flashlight ecosystem as a whole. Great to see luminary vision enlightening the path forward in the field of flashlights. Seriously. :innocent:

On the software side, your flashlight firmware continuously raises the bar for all flashlight manufacturers for their next models. Personally, I think only flashlights with a hardware rotary interface (HDS rotary, Jetbeam RRT01) can achieve the same high level of intuitive useability, while simultaneously offering complete, direct and precise control over light output. On top of that Anduril adds lots of features, a high degree of end-user programmability, including deliberately limiting the options with a muggle-mode, and all that with sane defaults, based on input from actual users based on their every-day flashlight use. Now that I have recently experienced the FW3A with Anduril, for me the only other flashlight UIs I still enjoy using are the {1|2|3}-mode tail-end or twisty, or the infinite rotary interface.

On the hardware side, Hank is willing to iteratively improve, upgrade, and update his hardware designs. I once heard someone tell me Hank even tests his own prototypes by EDC-ing them himself for a few weeks in order to identify and fix obvious bugs or design errors. Emisar products during their complete lifecycle reamin competitive with a high price-quality and lumens-dollar ratio. And finally, Hank is offering buyers choices in popular LEDs, different battery tubes, and other add-ons such as tailcaps with or without magnets, clips, SS bezels, or other optics. Other manufacturers would instead use the strategy of market segmentation, detrimental to potential buyers.

So hopefully, flashlights such as the D4V2 nudge major flashlight producers in directions favouring choice, modularity, flexibility, end-user UI programmability, end-user FW reflashability, and high price/quality ratio to stay competitive and relevant. Interesting to see how the centre for flashlight innovation has shifted from the US (Maglite, SureFire) towards entrepreneurs from Chinese companies such as Emisar, Sofirn, and Lumintop, actively cooperating with highly knowledgeable domain experts from innovation communities such as BLF. Currently, the US is only excelling in the niche markets of flashlights as male jewelry or as simple-yet-highly-reliable professional tools backed-up with solid no-questions-asked guarantee procedures.

Fenix and Olight should be worried about their future. If Olight would produce this light, a high-CRI 4000K version would only be available as a special limited edition version in titanium for 199 USD. Or if Fenix would produce this light, the exact LED would nowadays be a mystery for the buyers, and the UI would be borked in at least multiple ways. Someone should tell these companies to actively engage with flashlight lead users. Pro-tip: you can find these creatures right here, on BLF. And they are more than willing to give free advice on what they want to buy, what not, and why.
Or just hire TK as a product development consultant :wink:

I mean, if we’re hoping other lights will start following this exact layout, now would be a great time to try to drive that forward.

How to swap between those two levels ?

And hi everybody !

Hold the button for #1

Tap the button and then hold the button for #2

Assuming your light has the right firmware of course.