How is it better??
There are flashlights its size with a standard reflector that get nearly 2x its throw…
It’s not always about maximum throw.
Sometimes a very wide uniform beam pattern with little or not hotspot is better. Lights with bright narrow hotspots tend to feel awkward up close. The hotspot may wash out the spill and the contrast in brightness feels awkward. The FD30’s very wide “wall of light” flood beam is quite nice for up-close work.
The zoom gives the FD30 a very tight, but relatively dim hotspot. This gives more throw for when you need it, and the tight hotspot can also be used as a pointer.
However, I still find the spot mode on the FD30 somewhat disappointing. Even in the same size light with the same diameter head, a modded aspheric light pretty much blows the FD30 out of the water in throw.
Because those lights aren’t good for up close/interior jobs. Throw is not the be-all-end-all of flashlight preformance. Sure, a C8 can light up the tree line 200m away, but it sucks for working on / inspecting a vehicle (in the engine bay, in the wheel well, under the dash, under the chassis… it’s what I do daily for work if you can’t tell). A single light that can do both an even flood beam and a respectable amount of throw based on the user’s need at that moment certainly has its place.
As we know from both lights and the design of pretty much everything else in the world - we don’t expect a all-in-one, jack of all trades items to do anything better than a specialized item. A zoomable light can’t out-throw a thrower, or out-flood a nice flood light. But it is flexible and can often - for the right user - do both well enough that it is useful, and the right choice in certain situations. That’s why I’m thinking of making a zoomable light my next work-EDC.
In English, the way that sentence is phrased means that even though it doesn’t outthrow a zoomie or thrower it still outthrows a regular flashlight without zoom.
Which I said is not true.
Maybe you misinterpreted?
EDIT- well you can always admit to being wrong, no need to mark things rude to make yourself feel better sac
So should I interpret your last comment as a dig at non-native English speakers, because I’m pretty sure the membership of this website is strongly international…
You said:
… so what’s the second half of that statement?
“There are flashlights that size with a standard reflector that get nearly 2x its throw, but they don’t have the same smooth flood light capability.”
That is how I’d finish it.
It appears that instead your argument is:
“There are flashlights that size with a standard reflector that get nearly 2x its throw, and can also provide a similar smooth 76 degree flood beam.”
If I’m interpreting that correctly, I’d like to know what light you have in mind that can do both even and smooth flood lighting, AND 20kcd. In a 1x18650 25mm tube light format, don’t forget.
The FD30 at its flood setting advertises 1100cd and specifies a 76 degree flood beam, which is fairly wide. If you run the numbers for for 1100cd and 76degrees, it translates to 1465lm, which is not a lot more than the 900lm that Fenix specs as the flashlight’s overall output. (Alternately, you could calculate 900lm, 76deg = 676cd) That tells me that the 76degree flood is pretty evenly lit, with likely a large/mild hotspot. In contrast, let’s run the numbers on 76degrees and 20kcd: 26,639lm. So again, please tell us which light you have in mind that can do both smooth 76deg flood, and 20kcd.
I marked your comment rude because this is the second time (that I know of) that you have come into a thread about focusing/zoomable lights begun arguing (or implying - sorry ::eyeroll ) that a standard reflector light can do the same or better on both ends, which is simply not true.
edit: I’m done, I removed the rude report. Carry on, I’ll be elsewhere.
I said “in English” because clearly not everyone speaks English natively and may have misunderstood the meaning of the sentence “This won’t outthrow a purpose-built thrower or modded zoomie, but it’s still better than not having a zoom.”
I never said that a regular reflector flashlight has a 76 degree flood beam with 20kcd or whatever you’re talking about, you’re just making stuff up now.
All I said that a similar regular reflector light (same battery, led, size, etc) will have more throw.
PS for the record, you’re the one who replied to me first, and you were wrong twice, so I still think you’re not understanding the fact that the sentence “it’s still better than not having a zoom” is implicitly referring to throw.
I am a native English speaker and knew exactly what I was saying. Thanks.
Think of the FD30 as a close-range floodlight that has the ability to shift into a mode that gives a minimal amount of throw. As a thrower… it sucks. As a floodlight, I’m actually quite impressed with it.
If all you’re focusing on is throw, you’re missing the point of this light.
My point is this:
- It’s not always about throw.
- a light with a very wide spill or flood is better for close-up or indoor use than a light with a narrower spillbeam.
- a light with a very uniform floodbeam is better for close-up or indoor use than a light with a tight hotspot.
Does the FD30 outhrow a similar-size conventional reflector light? NO…. but its floodbeam is BETTER for close range use than a similar-size conventional reflector light for the above mentioned reasons. The almost 90 degree wide floodbeam is wider than that of most conventional reflector lights and aspheric zoomies. The flood is also brighter than the flood from a typical zoomie owing to the small center reflector which is lacking in typical zoomies.
The downside is this kind of wide uniform “wall of light” beam pattern is useless for seeing anything in the distance. The FD30’s spot mode helps that … a little bit. 10k lux isn’t really a thrower, but it’s still enough to see something at least at medium range. The tight hotspot also has the advantage it can be used as a pointer.
I have both a Fenix PD35 and a Fenix FD30. These lights look almost identical on the outside and have the same diameter heads, 1000 lumen output and 10k lux max throw.
- The PD35 is a non-zoomie with an XML2. It produces a decent floodbeam with a distinct but moderately wide hotspot.
- The FD30 in flood mode produces a much wider, more uniform beam that is brighter than the spillbeam of the PD35, but dimmer than the PD35’s hotspot. In my opinion, the FD30’s uniform beam is superior to the PD35 for up-close work.
- The FD30 in spot mode isn’t impressive. The hotspot is narrower than the PD35 even though the intensity of the center of the hotspot is the same. Also, unlike an aspheric, most of the emitter’s output still seems to be going into the spillbeam. That isn’t good since the spillbeam can sometimes illuminate stuff in the foreground and wash out your view of the distant light reflected in the hotspot. However, even an unimpressive spot mode is better than no spot mode. Versatility is good.
As others have mentioned all zoomies are compromises. You don’t get the best throw or the best flood. What you do get is some of both in the same light. After all, why carry two lights if one will do the job? The FD30 is a great floodlight combined with a mediocre spotlight.
Cool concept I like it… and I am usually not a fan of aspheric zoom lights (although I have one incoming). I would like to see this with a bigger reflector dish, or combine a bigger smooth dish with a smaller orange peel dish. Its almost like getting two different lights in one. Fenix should patent this idea. AFIAK this is the only one like it. Doesn’t look like it has the same wasted lumen thing that hinders traditional aspheric throwers.
I don't understand the hostility towards these lights. It seems it's almost universal among enthusiasts that aspherical zoomies aren't worth the time. trouble, or money and I tend to agree. Fenix is pushing the technology in a different direction to address the problems with those lights by using a clever reflector system instead of lenses.
Is it perfect? Not by a long shot
Is it better than the current offerings? I certainly think so.
If nobody ever bought zoomies then there wouldn't be a market for them. Everything in life is a trade off and having a flood light and a thrower in the same light is no different. It will never be as good as a dedicated light for each application, but it seems to me that Fenix has closed that gap by addressing some of the biggest gripes about the format. I don't own a zoomie for the same reasons as most people, but the FD30 is the first one I'd actually consider buying. I only hope there is enough interest in it for them to continue to develop the format. I can't think of a good reason why someone wouldn't want a very good utility light that could do both flood and throw very well.
Because it seems like people like you are misunderstanding what this light is…
It is NOT a good thrower at all, because regular reflector flashlights outthrow it by a lot.
What it is is an adjustable reflector flashlight so you can make it close to a regular reflector light with the center spot and spill, or you can retract half the reflector to make it just spill.
It is NOT like an aspheric or TIR where you can focus the beam for no-spill throw that is much further than regular reflector flashlights. You can only adjust between flood and regular, not between flood and spot like a zoomie.
And if you actually tried a good TIR zoomie like a led lenser you wouldn’t think that they suck, because in fact they are better in pretty much every way than a regular reflector flashlight.
I can’t say I have super strong feelings either way with this light, it seems to achieve it’s goal although is unimpressive in stats, but I guess many good and popular lights have unimpressive stats.
What I don’t quite get is the hatred of a zoomies in general. I get that most stock zoomies have pretty poor performance but the format when applied well is in my eyes very impressive. I think the perfectly even flood of a zoomed out zoomie is quite nice to work with close up. When totally zoomed in at long range I think the lack of spill is nice, it reduces distracting scatter from the line of sight caused by spill. The square hotspot seems like a pretty acceptable tradeoff considering the throw capability.
And I don’t get the “lost lumen” argument, in flood mode a zoomie provides plenty of light for any normal close up work and by distributing is evenly it provides more surface area with usable illumination than a reflector light, with a reflector you will get some spill but most of those lumens is wasted on the hotspot which may be too bright to really use close up when the light is on a high enough mode to really use the spill well. Unless the light is all flood in which case it’s not really competing for an multipurpose light like an adjustable focus light. While zoomed I just think throw is more important, do you want double the surface area illuminated or double the distance? Most of the time I would much rather have double the throw, I can aim the light at whatever I’m trying to look at, and unless the object is quite large illuminate it just fine. The lumens you lost from the zoomie architecture would have never reached your target in a reflector light because of lack of throw.
Maybe that all came out a little down on reflector lights, which I didn’t intend, I love reflector lights too I just don’t see why people dislike zoomies.
Recent model Coast flashlights have a beam pattern somewhat similar to the FD30. Coast lights use a 2-element TIR like LED Lensers. However, unlike Lensers, Coast deliberately chose to have the inner aspheric lens portion of the TIR have a different focal point from the outer reflector portion. Result is spot mode looks like a conventional reflector light with a hotspot surrounded by some spill, while flood mode looks just like the flood from a zoomie (very wide even circle with no hotspot).
The FD30 is similar in that you go from a wide even circle in flood mode, to a spot-spill beam in spot mode. Main difference between the two: The FD30’s flood is noticeably brighter owing to the shallow center reflector.
The FD30’s flood is brighter because the lumen count is higher.
Obviously 1000lm in flood will be brighter than 300lm in flood from a coast or led lenser.
TIR flashlights typically output much less lumens.
IMO 300lm flood is perfectly usable and the benefit you get is over 3x longer runtime.
Or you can use the FD30 at 300 lumens and get the same runtime, while having the option of going to 1000 lumens if needed.
In which case you get no where near the 200m of throw.
The benefit of a real zoomie is that you get ALL the light in flood, or ALL the light in the spot, and have the same runtime for both on max power, usually many hours.
In other words, you can get a perfectly uniform 300lm flood for X hours, which the FD30 can do on medium power, but you ALSO get 300lm of spotlight at 250m or whatever for X hours, which the FD30 cannot do since it’s throw is mediocre, and even then it needs to be at max power and only lasts ~ an hour.
So it is indeed a multi-purpose/function light. Sweet!
Exactly, it is a regular reflector flashlight with a uniform flood mode.
It’s not a “focusing” flashlight, it is an “unfocusing” flashlight 
I agree with scianiac (post 51) in almost everything. I’m also a fan of the flexibility of zoomables. I disagree with scianiac only in this point:
If the flooder has a comparable/bigger throw than it’s better than the zoomable. So I agree with Enderman (if I understood him): this particular flashlight, the FD30, doesn’t have enough throw to be worth it. I prefer to use a flooder with much higher output that ends up throwing as much or more. Also the FD30 is somewhat big. I considered it but opted to get a R50 Pro, which is smaller, throws farther and illuminates a lot more. Now I just have to be patient for each to arrive…
I’ve searched a lot and unfortunately didn’t find a good zoomable, in the sense that it’s not better than a brighter flooder. The only interesting one I found is the Palight M900; the specs at http://www.ebay.com/itm/Palight-M900-CREE-L2-LED-6-Mode-950LM-18650-26650-Zoomable-Focus-Flashlight-/391660230352?hash=item5b30c4d6d0:g:pUoAAOSwZVlXouQ5 look pretty nice and it’d be a really worth option. HOWEVER, it arrived yesterday and it’s not what’s advertised. What I received is more correctly described by http://www.banggood.com/PALIGHT-M900-S-XML-L2-600LM-26650-Zoomable-EDC-Led-Flashlight-p-1054019.html?rmmds=search, which considering the price is almost a piece of junk 
Just started the refund battle…
To be fair, most zoomies don’t get the same lumen output in throw mode as in spot mode. With aspheric zoomies, typically 50% or more of the lumens are lost cycling to spot mode. They’re absorbed into the sides of the bezel and don’t hit the lens. You might have a 300 lumen flood mode, but probably only 150 lumen or less spot.
Lights that maintain similar lumen output in both flood and throw mode typically have LED Lenser style optics. With this type of optic the LED is mounted on a post that extends into a pocket in the optic. This pocket surrounds the optic in both flood and throw modes. Since all of the LED output passes throw the optic, little light is wasted.
- LED Lensers are expensive, but have good optics that concentrate all of the flood into the spot. They give a good amount of throw and have a pleasing beam pattern in both modes.
- Coast Lights use the same type of optic but with two different focal lengths. Throw is substantially less than the LED Lensers. I prefer the LED Lenser optic.
- Aspheric Lights can give excellent throw that is as good as an LED Lenser optic, but the hotspot tends not to be as big and many lumens are lost in spot mode. Mechanically, they are the simplest of the zoomies. The vast majority of budget zoom lights use aspheric lenses. Most are cheap in quality (Sipik 68), but some have excellent build quality (On the Road i3)
- FD30’s moveable reflector gives the same lumen output in both flood and spot modes, but it has relatively little throw. The head is also mechanically complex and the light as a whole is fairly large and heavy. Fenix lights are also notorious for being very heavily glued, and modding it could be quite hard.
- OSH house-brand lights are cheapies that cost about 1/5 the price of an LED Lenser yet contain optics that are just like those in an LED Lenser. They are an excellent source for optics for modding.
I disagree. For some purposes a zoomie may still be better even if it has less throw than a flooder.
Consider the following:
- A small pocket zoomie in spot mode might have 200 lumen output 17k lux and no spill. All of the output is in a very narrow and defined beam.
- A comparable sized triple emitter flooder might have 2000 lumen output and 20k lux… but it’s all flood.
If you’re trying to see something off in the distance which is the better light? Quite possibly the 17k lux zoomie is superior even though it technically has less throw. The problem with the flooder is most of the light will illuminate the foreground at your feet. Your eyes will adjust to this brightness and wash out your vision. As a result , you may miss the comparatively tiny amount of light reflected from an object in the distance.
With an aspheric zoomie with no spill, nothing is illuminated in the foreground. Your vision won’t be washed out by light reflected off close objects. Your eyes will stay dark adjusted and you may be able to see more details of what is in the distance.