It's more convenient this way, since most reviewers will take wall beamshots and make a comparison. Secondly come the field beamshots. I think Balder realized that. Maybe with SMO their beampattern wasn't looking perfect. Now it doesn't matter anymore. It's a different acceptance now, they will release SMO reflectors, and no matter how the beampatterns will be, it was done by public request. Though I don't think they'll look bad.
I was hoping for a slightly lower price. I'm searching for a replacement for my xeno. The mode separation is ok on alkaline. But horrible on 14500. Thought this might be perfect till I saw the price. You can never have everything. Too bad about the pwm also.
Unfortunately the graphs dont tell the story as I didnt actually do full run times , I was only checking the regulation @ certain battery voltage levels ...
So the minutes would be some what misleading [ only partial runs ]
With the AA I started at 1.25v [ Nimh usually are 1.36v to 1.39v = well mine ] and the 14500 missed out on the 4.2v to 4v range , I think I started at 3.99v as I wanted to see where the output dropped off ...