Just arrived this morning. Patient didn't show this afternoon so took the opportunity to take some pictures. Review etc., once I've played with used it a bit. It is light even by the standards of single AAA lights. Fairly bright, gets hot when left tailstanding with an alkaline. Suspect that 10440s are a bad idea in this light. Not that this will stop me from trying it.
With an Akoray K-106 for scale
On its own - the colour in this picture is the closest to how I see it in daylight (Not that we have much of that just now - thick fog and I have to drive around in it tonight and work. Joy!) It is more magenta than red.
Disassembled. From the very short length of the threads on the head end, I don't think it is really intended to be taken apart there. Nice fat O ring in there so the head is stiff to remove. Threads look clean and feel lubed. No grittiness at all.
Other end of the head and tailcap. Oddly, no spring on the tailcap which made it feel like cells ought to go in negative first. Makes contact fine with the cheapo AAA I had to hand.
Thanks Don, I've been looking very hard at this light lately and have been thinking of grabing a couple. I'm looking for cheap single cell lights that have clickys and this one appears to be one of the best.
Just put a 10440 in it to see. Didn't work. Stuck a magnet to the base of the 10440 so it'd make contact. PRetty bright but I'd be concerned about shorting the cell with the magnet that's in there. I may choose to solder a small spring to the switch end - it looks like there ought to be one anyway.
By eye, with a 10440 it appears to be roughly the same brightness as the Akoray K-103. My meters are in the car just now and I have a bunch of measurements to do. I'll get around to the measurements soon though.
I'll put the Tank007 and Akoray K-103 beamshots here but put up a new thread with the others - these are just for fun as they can't use the same technique as I usually do. The lights are normally beside the camera, but when I did that, all I got was a close up of milk. The lights are being held 6 feet above the camera so you can see the beams. The camera saw a whole lot more than I did. On low with any of these lights I couldn't see the tree - but the camera cut through the for far better than my eyes did. Still waiting for the pictures to upload. The Tank is quite a bit warmer coloured than the Akoray which may have something to do with it - especially when it is a Q3 being run by an alkaline whereas the Akoray is a Q4 being driven by a 14400. The camera may never lie, but it sure can be confusing...
Tank007 TK-703 with an AA alkaline in it. It really didn't seem that bright to my eyes!
I now have a delete button at the bottom of my posts. Think this must be a new thing as I'm pretty sure I couldn't in the past. Photobucket's editing tools aren't pretty so excuse the mess.
In a lot of your pictures, you take a control shot and then shots with flashlights, and at first it always looked to me like the people in the house back there had turned on their lights, wondering what was going on with the flashlights. Then I realized it was just a reflection from your flashlight.
Everyone else gets fairies at the bottom of my garden. Until last year I got my bank manager instead. My bank statements used to be hand delivered by him on the way home.
Camera sensors will do things their own way. There is never a change in ambient lighting between shots in any series. The camera often reports stuff I can't see. If you look at the sky in the set of pics above there was no change at all between them - the camera decided there was. Depends on how much power the light is pumping out. The new camera allows me to lock more stuff down - at least it will do once I've read the centimetre thick manual.
By the standards that made me a living in '82 I'd have been embarrassed to let anyone find either of those shots in the bin. Both are severely blurred. But then the tripods I used weighed more than I did. The tripod the camera was attached to for these pics weighs way less than the camera aattached to it. And the camera weighs way less than one double dark slide (film holder) for a Sinar.
The device of choice back then was a Sinar P (Hand made in Switzerland so you can imagine what they cost). The camera weighed about 30kg (70lb) and the film holders (16" x12") weighed a few pounds each. I usually carried a dozen or so.
In the early 80's my usual camera case weighed about 3x what I did.
The reading will get done. Just not any time soon.
Im not sure if this will help anyone decide, but I have had this light on my keychain for almost a year now, its been through beatings along with being tossed and rubbed and scrubbed by my keys in my pocket. the finish on the knurling shows some wear of course, however the light has never failed, its very bright, tiny and has been so reliable. I absolutely love it and its one of the best lights I have purchased by far. Couldn't have asked for more in such a small and inexpensive package! so if you're thinking about it, do it!
