The S1A is substantially brighter than the SC01 in both AA and 14500. Almost 160% in AA and about 60% in 14500.
The S1A is a much more floody beam; however, it’s increased output manages to just barely out throw the SC01. 3800cd vs 3500cd. Both using 14500 cells.
Edit:
Data tables will hopefully be up later tonight. are up. Just several runtimes and beamshots left for the bulk.
I ran mine with Sanyo UR14500 and they worked great. Also tested the Xtar 800mah 14500s and they worked also.
I think I had some efest that also didn’t make good contact, but cant remember.
My Efest Purple flat tops didn’t make contact. When I looked down the battery tube, it looked like there’s a plastic washer on the back of the driver. The positive contact is in the middle of the hole in that washer, but it doesn’t come all the way through. I speculated that it might be some attempt at reverse polarity protection. I ended up soldering a tiny piece of copper wire to the positive plate of my Efest cell to make a button top. It works fine now, but I wasn’t really comfortable with having to solder to a high output IMR cell!
This looks like a winner on NiMH, finally a good upgrade to s15 from Olight. Only problem with s15 was nimh output on high in 1xAA (was great with 2xAA though).
For whatever help it might be, my purple Efest IMR cells drop right in and work fine, as do my protected AW LI (black; which are sized very much like an unprotected cell) and my AW IMR (red) cells.
BTW, Unknown, this review was really well done. Bravo.
Interesting. My guess would be the very slight differences in the Efest cell and/or flashlight determine whether or not it will make contact. Mine probably doesn’t make contact by a fraction of a mm. I thought about adding a tiny solder blob to my Efest cell, as I’ve done with many 18650 cells, but as small as the 14500 is I was worried about the heat.
I should elaborate on the keeppower protected cells too. These cells were from a year or two back when KP was wrapping over the cell’s original wrap making them very wide (I don’t know if they still do that). Other protected cells should be fine, my eneloop XX cells are very wide and work fine, the KP’s are just a little too wide.
I can’t accurately measure very low current at present. My multimeter died on me a few months back. The best I can do is say that I measured .000 Amps with my clamp meter.
Well, let’s be honest. The complement was very well deserved.
Lots of us post written and/or video reviews from time to time and most of us, myself include, do a very amateurish job of it. And that is all well and good. I always appreciate the effort someone makes, even if they are only just giving me their opinion about something. However, in a veritable sea of Olight S1A reviews, which will eventually include one of my own, your review really stands out. Easily right up their with what this community would expect to see from HJK or SelfBuilt, etc. I would say it is the written equivalent of an Mhanlen video.
As for Efest being unable to consistently manufacture a standard, well, I personally think they are, perhaps, the least able of the “quality manufactures” to provide reliable quality control, as illustrated by these cells which were purchased from a large, US based vendor.
I love this little light and it instantly became my favorite EDC. But I noticed that it wasn’t remembering the mode I last used even though it’s advertised as having memory mode. I assumed it was defective and wrote to Olight in the US. I received a quick response that stated:
“The S1A will remember the mode just for 9min and then it will automatically change to medium.”
So it has 9 minute memory mode only. Not terribly useful. A minor inconvenience.