Zebralight H52w / H52Fw / H52 / H52F review

I don’t know about the original H51w, but I can compare my final rev H51w to the new H52w.

The H51w has a smaller emitter and a more focused hotspot, so I would expect it to throw better at similar lumen ratings. The H52w has a much more efficient driver though, and can get both more lumens and longer runtimes even if the hotspot doesn’t look as bright due to being more floody.

Here’s a shot of the H51w at 0.18lm (left) vs the H52w at 0.34lm (right). To my eye, the H51 has a smaller, slightly brighter spot, and the H52 has a larger spot. I can’t easily compare the spill brightness right now because it’s daytime and I need a bigger room. Either one works nicely as a night light, bounced off the ceiling in my bedroom — bright enough to see the whole room clearly but not enough to keep me awake.

Both have a brighter spot than the L3 L10-219, which is spec’d at 0.09lm. The L10 is actually a more appropriate level for my 4am trips to the restroom though; 0.34lm on the H52w is bright enough to be a little uncomfortable… and the 0.06lm setting on the H52w seems just a touch too dim (but is still quite usable).

Results are similar at the next setting up (H51w at 2.2lm vs H52w at 2.7lm). The H51 seems to have a smaller, slightly brighter spot which is brightest at the center, and the H52 has a larger, slightly dimmer spot which appears subtly donut-shaped. Also, I couldn’t get my camera to show it, but… in person the H51w looks sickly yellow to me while the H52w looks much closer to white:

In any case, pretty much every level shows a similar result — H51w has less overall output but a smaller/brighter yellow spot, while the H52w has a larger, whiter spot. The H52w has a much higher maximum output though, so its brightest setting should still throw farther than the H51w.

I’ve found that the H51’s narrow spot is nice for looking at things far away while biking, but the H52’s wider spot works better for almost everything else. I tend to bring my XinTD C8 while biking though, so I don’t exactly need much throw in a headlamp.

Thanks for that… unfortunately we have different H51w versions then. However, here’s a group moonlight mode shot, my H51w (not included) measures ~ 0.2-0.25 lms and is about the same as the D25A

Here’s another of the SC52 between the 0.09 T10 and the L10-219 which may be a better reference point - from the sounds of it, your 0.34 mode is brighter than the L10 but the 0.06 mode is dimmer. It shows all three ML modes, the last is tail standing and you can see the emitter… does that seem about right to you?

I’m looking for a place to do beam shots more similar to yours; I think it gives a much better view of how things look. I don’t have a lot of white walls though, and it seems my camera’s color receptors are on different wavelengths than my eyes are.

Okay, I got some vaguely passable moon mode shots:

The overall setup: XinTD C8 V4 at 5mA, ZL H51w at 0.18lm, ZL H52w at 0.34lm, ZL SC52 at 0.34lm, L3 L10-219 at “0.09lm”. In person, the H52w and SC52 look a lot more similar in brightness; I think the H52w emitter must have a color spike at a frequency my camera doesn’t pick up.

Here is the same thing, but with no overhead lighting:

And the same again, but the H52w and SC52 are on their 0.06lm settings:

… and a couple shots of the four smaller lights at their “low” settings, 2lm to 3lm:
(H51w at 2.2lm, H52w at 2.7lm, SC52 at 2.7lm, L3 L10-219 at “3lm”)

Thank you Toykeeper for taking the time to post those comparison pix. Using L10-219 as a control, it does seem that my SC52 sample is quite consistent with your SC52 and H52. As an FYI, I think the L10-219 specs are simply carried over from their XPG2 version and so are significantly overstated (I measure the 0.09/3/30/120 specs to be 0.02/2.5/20/80 on the 219 version). I also think the L10 uses a very similar driver to the T10 since both spec the same 0.09/147hr moonlight mode, but I found the T10 XPG1 to be quite accurate on lumen specs (0.09/9/125 spec vs 0.1/10/125 my measurement). Your SC52w does seem to also take a pretty big hit in output from the cool white (a camera is going to be more accurate than our perception).

Glad you also posted the L1 low modes since that is the other mode that seems way off, although not nearly as bad as ML mode. Here is a shot of the Quark AAX, L10-219, SC52 all on their ~3 lms specs, but which I measure at 3/2.5/1.5 lumens, respectively. As you may know from photography, any light that is shown as pure white in a photo is overexposed and therefore cannot reflect true brightness, although the spill will be fairly comparable.

Thank you again for posting the comparison pix - as a night vision/low lumen/runtime enthusiast, the true 0.3/3 lumens on the Quark AAX are by far my most often used modes. I was baffled at how ZL could get 3x/2x (respectively) the runtime/efficiency specs for what are supposed to be the same level outputs. The output difference on my example clearly explains it, and I was just trying to see if my example was an anomaly, but I think you have confirmed otherwise.

The specs for both XP-G2 and n219 are carried over from the original XP-G version, so both are inaccurate.

I have both L10-XPG2 and L10-219, and I’ve found that the n219 is brighter on moon/low, they’re about the same on medium, and the XP-G2 is brighter on high. This fits with the power/output curves I’ve seen from Match and other sources; the n219 is more efficient than XP-G2 at low levels but less efficient at high levels.

As for as hard lumen numbers, we might be running into the two different scales used by different manufacturers. I don’t know which (if either) is correct, but I’ve been going by the scale used by Zebralight and selfbuilt. On that scale, I suspect my L10-219 gets somewhere around 0.12lm / 3.2lm / 30lm / 115lm… but this is only a guess and I don’t have a way to measure directly. Got any suggestions for a lux meter?

Anyway, I enjoy lights with good moon/low modes. I use ~0.1 to ~10 lumens most of the time, and only rarely want more than that. I end up using my L3 L10-219 the most, but I expect a H52Fw will get used quite a bit too (as soon as it arrives). The SC52 is great too, but I find I mostly use it as a night light ever since the L3-219 showed up.

Fantastic comparison and review!

I agree… I use a significantly more conservative lumen scale employed by Eagletac, Foursevens and Thrunite (I’m a moonlight mode collector)… which tends to be ~25% lower than the “ZebraBuilt” scale. I found this scale matches ti-force’s reviews, who claims his lumen estimates to be “very accurate” using sphere’s calibrated by lights that have been tested in professional laboratories. Selfbuilt doesn’t claim (see his methodology page) lumen estimate accuracy - he just stresses relative accuracy, with which I agree.

As an example SB finds 280 ZL lumens (SC52) to be 290, 277 ET lumens (D25C) to be 450, 280 47s lumens (QAA2X) to be 420, and 145 TN lumens (N1A) to be 240. It’s a bit more complicate than that, there’s some conservatism built in from the manufacturers too, but that should provide a decent picture. I agree with SB’s relative numbers, guess it just depends on the scale you prefer to use.

As far as objective measurements… if you are using a DSLR for your pictures, then you can simply use that to measure lumens - be happy to explain how if you’re interested.

Thank you for the review, ToyKeeper! I really want one now. :bigsmile:

Haha, no. I don’t have a DSLR. I’m using a relatively inexpensive snapshot camera, an ELPH 110 HS. It’s good for what it is, but it has nowhere near the manual controls I would like. Eventually, I’ll get myself a lux meter and build a simple lightbox… but I can’t justify buying a DSLR that I wouldn’t use very much (my cheap camera does almost everything I need, and is small enough to keep with me).

I suspect you would be happier with a floody ‘F’ model, or perhaps an all-flood H502.

I’m eagerly awaiting a H52Fw… should be very useful for my purposes. And, depending on how things go, I might decide to sell the other models after adding them to the review.

What I’d really like is a H52Fd, but I don’t know if they’ll ever make one. Slightly cooler tint, much higher CRI, and a frosted lens. I suspect (or hope) that the next few years will see a big focus on higher CRI and/or wider-spectrum lighting, so we can get actual white instead of weird tints.

Gotchya, anyways thanks for helping me confirm my SC52 is “normal” much appreciated.

Thanx for the review… Love both the h52w and the h502w! :wink:

Thanks for a very nice review ToyKeeper. By chance have you tried to buff the clip groove clean? Based on my experience it is actually the metal/finish of the clip not the light that is wearing off.

I haven’t tried to buff the clip groove clean, but based on how my H51w and SC52 are holding up, I assume that the discoloration in the clip groove is not damaged anodizing. It’s probably the clip’s color rubbing off onto the light.

However, on my H51w, the silver corners of the clip groove (where I took close-ups) are definitely damaged aluminum. The clip tends to come off at an angle so it rubs up against that groove edge pretty hard, and after a year of this it has some visible damage.

The SC52 has the hardest, most durable finish I’ve ever seen on an aluminum object. It got EDC’d on the outside of my purse for a while and got banged and scraped and dropped and abused and it still appears to be in nearly mint condition. Other lights I carried that way have battle scars, but the SC52 is still pristine. The H52w I received looks like it might have an even thicker anodized layer than my SC52, so I expect it will last a long long time.

Also, I got a friend of mine to look at my light tints. She paints and has very good color perception. She agrees that the Nichia 219 is easily the purest white, but she also confirms that what my camera shows isn’t far from the truth. The SC52 has a blue-ish tint and a green corona, the H52w has a pink tint and light tan corona, and the H51w is an even shade of yellow/tan all the way through.

I hope Zebralight will make a H52Fd or H52Fn (floody 5000K daylight Luxeon w/ 85+ CRI, or floody 4500K Nichia 219 w/ 92+ CRI). The Cree tints are a bit weird, and I’d prioritize good color over more lumens.

If only Zebralight could start using high-CRI LEDs with high run times… Maybe they are already working on it!

You mean… like the ZL H502d? It’s 85CRI 5000K and has run times almost as long as the the new H52 line. Also, it’s a true flood “mule” headlamp, which I seem to recall you liking.

Or there’s the H51Fc (which is discontinued and on clearance), if you wanted something warmer with a pseudo-flood beam instead of full flood.

I’ve been pretty tempted to grab a H502d, but I don’t usually want a mule… A pseudo-flood beam (frosted lens) seems better for my purposes.

It’s only 85 CRI. ;_; But it’s nice to see something other than the ubiquitous Cree. :smiley:

I just got the H52 and H52Fw I ordered back in October, and plan to update the review with more details soon.

So far, I can say that the H52Fw has a gorgeous floody beam, and the H52 may be the first “cool white” Zebralight without a green tint. But I’ll show more about what that means with pictures.