Thanks to neBstress who has given his Lidl zoomie to me I am able to write a few words about it.
Here’s this light with my other small zoomies for size reference:
From left to right:
- On The Road i3 (16340)
- cheap AA zoomie (AA)
- Skywolfeye B18 (AA)
- Coast HP2 (AAA)
- Led Lenser P3 AFS P (AAA)
- Lidl zoomie (AAA)
- Skywolfeye B16 (AAA)
- Skywolfeye E522 (AAA)
- Nebo Poplite (3xLR44)
Now with my other AAA-sized lights
From left to right:
- Coast HP2
- Led Lenser P3 AFS P
- Lidl zoomie
- Skywolfeye B16
- Skywolfeye E522
- Peak Eiger Ultra
- Astrolux A01
- Sofirn C01S
- Thrunite Ti3
- Trustfire Mini3
I’d like to compare it with Skywolfeye B16 which up to now was the best AAA zoomie in my collection.
As you can see, the lidl zoomie is quite a bit larger. It is also significantly brigher as stock, the LED clearly has a larger die.
The spot size is about the same, I can’t tell which is larger but the Lidl one is brighter, I measure 2.16 kcd, compared to 1.46 kcd of Skywolfeye.
Lidl zoomie has a huge yellow halo in the throw beam. It’s there in flood as well, but then it’s only a minimal part of the beam.
Each beam has some rings in the beam, I would say they are not very bad in either case but Skywolfeye is better here as well, overall quite good.
The zooming action is very stiff on the Lidl zoomie, much stiffer than with my other AAA zoomies. The stiffer movement is probably caused by tighter o-ring and may result in better waterproofing, but I haven’t tested that. I like fast zooming lights and this one just doesn’t meet this requirement. I guess I’ll remove the o-ring so it will be fine. Skywolfeye is a bit stiffer than I like but I would say it’s good enough.
UI is hopeless in both cases:
- high-mid-low-sos-strobe without memory for the Lidl zoomie
- high-low-strobe with next mode memory for Skywolfeye
Each of the light is easily moddable, they have alu pills and no glue. Skywolfeye pill is hollow, I don’t know about the Lidl one.
Anodization…neither light has anodized threads. Overall anodization of Skywolfeye is good, a bit matte, seems to hold up quite well. It clearly punches above its price in this regard. Anodization of Lidl zoomie looks poor, typical for a low end light. It’s missing from some edges straight off the box.
Summing up, for unmodded light Skywolfeye wins for me. The smaller size matches lower performance, but higher build quality is a win for me.
For a modding host, it depends. I Lidl’s larger lens will probably give more throw. If it has a good pill, it may be thermally better. But Skywolfeye’s higher build quality will remain and it should offer better performance-to-size.
So this challenger failed to win over my favourite. I still consider Skywolfeye B16 to be the best AAA zoomie out there. I still can’t stop wondering how a brand like Skywolfeye managed to produce something so mediocre (as opposed to the rubbish that they tend to make). And I still can’t stop wondering how came that seemingly nobody decided to produce something better.
Thanks neBstress!