[Review] Convoy Z1 ( SST-40 , 1 x 21700) - Finally a good zoomie in the Market! | Beamshots are in!


The flashlight was sent to me by Convoy for review.
Here's the product's link: Convoy Z1


Keeping up with the tradition, the Z1 arrived in a regular cardboard box and was seated inside some foam.



Other than the flashlight, the manufacturer also included an adjustable wrist lanyard.



The flashlight comes with a matte-black anodization along its body.



The body and tail are texturized, while the head contains some thick heatsinking grooves.



Since the Z1 is a zoomable flashlight, the head also incorporates a few cutouts in its upper part for allowing the user better grip while twisting the head.



A big aspheric lens is seated inside the flashlight's head.



The SST-40 LED sits in the base of the lens.



The head can be easily disassembled from the body.
As you can see, everything is very well lubricated due to the Z1 being a zoomie.



The SST-40 emitter is perfectly centered.
Everything around it is blacked-out via a black gasket in order to prevent any artifacts/reflections in the beam.



After further disassembling the flashlight, we can see that the piece between the head and the emitter is also removable.
Everything is kept water-resistant via two large o-rings.



The flashlight is operated by a mechanical rear metal switch.
The switch has a very nice and tactile feedback, while there's a small green GITD ring included in it.



After unscreing the tail, one finds a few nicely machined, square-cut threads - which are also anodized.



The rear switch comes bypassed from the factory and is held in place via a brass ring.



Here's how everything looks with the rear assembly taken apart.



And another shot of the spring-board and the back part of the metal rear switch.



User Interface

There are two different firmwares that the Z1 can be ordered with:
1. Simple 4-mode : 0.1%-3%-30%-100%
2. Biscotti (12 mode-groups)

I'm a fan of the 12 mode-group firmware, so that's what I went with.
Here's a little flow chart taken directly from the manufacturer's website that explains how to operate Biscotti.


Performance

Here's the output measurements of the Z1 along with the respective current draw.



Provided that the Z1 is an aspheric lens flashlight, the 1600+ lumens I recorded is a very nice result.
The LED might be producing close to 2000lumen at this current draw, but a zoomie flashlight is expected to have output loss due to the aspheric lens' nature.


Power regulation

Here's a graph that demonstrates the power regulation of the Z1's driver.



What we can see in the graph:

  • Turbo is regulated down to 3.8V, while after that point the Amperage is proportional to the input voltage.
  • High is fully regulated down to 3.4V
  • Medium and Low are fully regulated for the whole Voltage spectrum.

Thermal Regulation

And here's a graph showing the thermal regulation of the Z1.



What we can see in the graph:

  • Turbo slowly decreases its output for around ~3 minutes due to thermal regulation.
  • After the 3 minute mark, the output stabilises to the output-level of High.
  • Both High and Medium are fully sustainable modes.


Outdoor Beamshots

Here's some outdoor beamshots for your own pleasure.
All of them are shot using the Z1 at full zoom.


Thank you bilakos10 for the review. This is good info.

Did you happen to test the lumen output both zoomed in and out? Curious what the difference would be.

How does the throw compare to other lights (C8 and such)?

Great review. Looks like a fantastic zoom light, at a fraction of the cost of ledlensers (who have upped their game on their new range).

That’s a good question!
My measurements are taken with the head in the full zoom-out position.
I will also get some measurements while fully focused and will report back.

Tonight I will be posting some beamshots of the Z1. By the end of this week I will also try to capture some comparison shots with the C8 and a few other lights!

I've updated the OP with the some outdoor beamshots :)


Those beam shots look great!



Indeed :D
Of course, having a square hotspot needs some getting used to, but from a utilitarians point of view it is absolutely fine!

I love zoomy flashlight but I don’t like twist zoom. I like push and pull.

I love these z1 hosts! I made several interesting lights out of it while they were available on the market.
Now it seems they’re nowhere to be found… well, unless if you’re willing to ruin a perfectly fine flashlight…
Like I am :laughing:)



Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason for your preference?
I'd expect a twist zoom to be more desirable as the zoom-in/zoom-out mechanism would feel more robust, the twist motion would prevent any accidental changes in the zoom, etc.

I took the flashlight apart once again and captured some photos of the copper pill.


Push/Pull is fine for a small-head light, but for a big-head light, such a weighty head would require it to be so stiff that you’d probably need to 2-hand it to adjust it. And tolerances would have to be so perfect to keep one from being floppy while the next would feel glued.

I just find that twist-heads are easier to fine-tune (eg, Bat Signal backed off a quarter-turn or so).

There is a copper pill, are you sure its not brass? That is impressive. I’m curious about the throw versus a C8. I still don’t see the benefits of a zoomie, you lost lost of lumen the more the light is focus.

Zoomies are good for everyday short distance use, while still useful for longer distance.

If you have no idea what type of flashlight you need they aren’t a bad choice.

If you need occasional long distance use a convoy s2+ won’t be enough, while a C8 means less useful spill. Of course you could carry both, but at one point it starts looking silly.

How dare you call us name!? Lol

My main issue with zoomies like the Z1 is that if they replaced fixed lense/TIR/reflector flashlights then I’d end up with a collection half the size :cry:

I carry a thrower with a add-on frosted glass, just need to easily remove it for the throw mode.

usually pull zoom is much faster than twisty
and there aren’t accidental changes if there are double Orings
Anyway thermal transfert is better on twisty.
I would see a zoom 14500/AA from Convoy,much easy to carry and usable

Used zoomy for nightly walks. Quick access with single hand.

From what I’ve read on these reviews, the lumen output zoomed in is about half of that zoomed out. So that means about 700-800 lm, dropping to around 350 after 2-3 minutes. I think I’d rather get a dedicated thrower and use some kind of diffuser for close-up.