Introduction
I was looking at the Klarus light for quite some time, studying what they have to offer and decided to get myself one of theirs little "pocket" light like RS1A or even better RS16 (I also thought to get one as a present for my brother). So I started looking for the best place with lowest price :D to buy it, this leaded me to banggood.com but, as usual when digging through bunch of flashlights I found something else with excellent price and the rest is history :D about one month later postman delivered my Klarus ST30.
Manufacturer's specification |
|
LED type: |
XM-L2 (with up to 1080 ANSI lumens) |
Supported bat.: |
2 x 18650 or 4 x CR123A |
Voltage range: |
6.0V up to 15V |
Switch: |
Forward (momentary) clicky + side-micro switch |
Modes: |
High/Medium/Low/Moonlight/Strobe/SOS 1080/215/15/1/1080/1080 ANSI lumens |
Reflector: |
SMO - Smooth peel reflector |
Body: |
Aluminum/ Color: gun metal gray |
Lense: |
Toughened ultra-clear glass with AR coating |
Accessories: |
Spare O-rings and lanyard |
Overall dimensions: |
Diameter: 44.3mm (head), 25.4mm (tailcap), |
Supplier: |
|
Price: |
US$65 :D |
Flashlight arrived in standard yellow padded envelope with not much of protection, fortunately, beside that product package took some beating nothing else was damaged, no dents or scratches, all included accessories were present, product in perfect conditions.
Pros:
- Flawles finish (nothing less expected from Klarus)
- Easy mode operation with side (micro) switch, forward clicky = momentary ON
- Stainless steel bezel and ss ring at the tailcap side
- Can use CR123 batteries
- Just enough room to use long NCR18650B batteries
- Square cut threads on the battery tube
- Anodisation is very nice and I like gun metal gray color
- Can tailstand but not sure if you want to do that!
- AR coated lense (and you can see coating)
Cons:
- A bit dissapointin reflector (more about this later)
- Packaging could be alot better (msg. for supplier...)
- No holster (msg. for Klarus ;) )
- Anti roll design = non existing
- All essential parts (head, driver) are glued and they didn't spare on glue
- No lockout function (but not sure if it is needed at all!)
Desigh and build quality: 4/5
As mentioned, machining and anodisation on this product are on the level that you would expect from Klarus, everything fits nicely, no misalignment, no threads squeaking, plenty of grease applied...
As you can see, flashlight fits nicely in hand, it's not too long to be awkward to hold and I don't have big hands, additionally, it features a side electronic switch that makes user expirience much better and simplifies use of the product.
Comparing to Convoy L4, lengthwise ST30 is only about 8.5cm longer.
Couple more images of the front end:
On the opposite side of the side switch there is a threaded hole that allows you to mount this flashlight on the tripod (UNC1/4'-20) but, as you can see there is not much of a place to use standard tripod heads (it will work if you are in a pinch but it doesn't look pretty and it doesn't inspire confidence, the screw only turns about one and a half times!) and if you want to use this function securely, I would recommend to get one of those small, no more than 20mm diameter mounting options.
Stainless steel bezel can be easily removed if you want to use color filters or diffuser just screw them instead of the bezel and you are good to go. Besides playing with the bezel and filters there is not much else you can do on the front side, glass or the reflector cannot be removed this way, in fact, they cannot be removed at all because whole assembly with the driver, side switch, emitter, reflector and glass is glued together and there is a high risk that you could make a damage if you try to force it, even the driver is glued and by the looks of it they used some epoxy which, once it hardens can be removed only with the hammer. Not liking this at all... Maybe they are hiding some secrets inside :P
Battery tube is in one piece so there is no easily removable tailcap and to remove switch you would need to use needle nose pliers or similar tool (will add picture of the assembly ...). Threads are square cut with generous amount of lubrication, actually I removed some so you could see threads better :) but not anodised so there is no lock-out function, although, I am not sure if it is needed at all. Switch (rubber boot) is fully recessed so the chance of accidental turn-on is really minimal.
Recessed switch also allows tailstanding but I would not recommend this, because center of gravity is pretty high, in the head, even slightest movement of surface where the flashlight is will make it slip and fall. Also, it is not advisable to just put the flashlight sideways on flat surface because if it is even slightly angled flashlight will roll of easley.
A little bit funny with "Rotatable lanyard design" :) I don't use lanyards much but it's nice feature which btw, doesn't work if you over tighten the switch retaining ring :) Sorry for all shaking-nes, it's hard to do stop-motion animation without remote control for camera...
There is only one slightly disappointing thing -> reflector imperfections, something that I did not expected from Klarus, and there is quite a few of them, fortunately they do not affect the beam pattern because the edge that holds glass is actually overlapping the edge of reflector...
User interface
Complicated but easy :) I would say forget about reading user manual but I know that no one here reads them anyway :D
Slight pressure on a tail forward switch will give you momentary ON and since this light has a memory function last mode that you used more than 3 seconds will be activated. Fully depress the tail switch for constant ON and then we go to side switch for mode switching/selecting:
- short click (less than 1 second) will turn the light OFF (standby mode) but if you do short click again you will only get momentary ON, if you want constant light you have to do long click (naturally, more than 1 second), this is also the way you change modes, if ON, long press will lead you to next mode, order is: high -> medium -> low -> moonlight and then back to high.
- If you want strobe (and we all love strobe, right :D) from ON or OFF just do the double click and there you are, btw, it's variable strobe so, not so boring as ordinary 1-frequency strobe :P
- To access the SOS mode you first need to get to strobe and then apply long click.
That's it, easy peasy, right :P
Little bit about battery consumption |
||||
Mode |
High |
Medium |
Low |
Moonlight |
DMM |
1.860A |
0.407A |
0.027A |
0.003A |
Calculated total to driver |
3.720A |
0.814A |
0.054A |
0.006A |
Not sure if I got this right (number displayed by DMM x 2 if 2-cell 1-emitter light) but I was holding the light on a blue cloth when I tested current draw and after abot 10 second on high cloth started to smoke. I was using freshly charged (4.20) Sanyo laptop batteries that have ability to provide good current. If we take into account the loss in driver efficiency, reflector and glass transmittance loos this numbers sound about right :)
Couple more pics
Overall impressions
It's a very nice flashlight, what can I say, there are a couple of things that I don't like, I will definitely have to get couple more of Klarus light to get a better overview of their offering :D
And now THE twist you've all been waiting for :P
Thanks to generosity of Banggood.com you will have oportunety to buy this flashlight at discounted price of USD $65.
I think that's a excelent price for this product.
So, if you are interested, want to buy Klarus ST30 you can use this link (not aff link), coupon code for special price is: blf101 but please, be aware that quantity is limited to 10 pcs total and each buyer can use this code only once so, if you are not certain that you want it that can be opportunity for someone else who is certain, but for this price I think it's a no-brainer, if you decide you don't like it you can alway sale it for what you paid and if you like it you got it for the best price there is, win-win situation :)
Thanks for reading
