Got mine in yesterday. The first thing that struck me was it’s size, it’s is way smaller than it looked in the photos.
I don’t have a light meter but this thing is really bright on a 30Q. I had to use a magnet on the tail for the 30Q because of the battery length issue (it uses a USB charging type cell that is longer than usual, and the battery compartment was made longer to accommodate it, making it too long for usual cells)
…………….Battery size difference…………………………Magnet on battery negative end………………………Battery with magnet……………. . .
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……………………A few comparison pics……………………………………………and with Convoy 18350 tube………………………
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I compared it with my low tech eyeball ceiling bounce test and it’s just as bright as my BLF A6 (no spring bypass, so probably around 1300lm) Also as bright as my new 1380lm Litesam PS16. I’d say it’s putting out at least 1300lm on the 30Q.
I love this light! The zooming action is sooooo smooth and “just right tight” the beam pattern is perfect, no rings, artifacts or dark spots throughout the entire zooming travel. The flood beam is great… just a big smooth even perfect circle of light. The tint is on the cool end of neutral and it’s pure white. No yellow or blue at all. The UI is excellent. The switch is excellent, it has great knurling and feels nice and solid in the hand.
The only things I would have liked would be a flat stainless “Foy” bezel. (I’m not too fond of the crenelated bezels) Love the stainless bezels. Also the head could have been made a bit thinner, it’s way thick at the front surrounding the lens. At this size they could’ve put a bigger diameter optic in it. It also needs knurling on the head for better grip when zooming one handed.
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I’m real happy with this light, it’s hands down my best zoomie right now, and really awesome with the Convoy EDIT: (Jaxman)18350 tube.
It’s the Jaxman 18350 tube in the photos.
The Convoy tube also fits but it’s slightly shorter so with the Aspire 1100 and Convoy tube the spring is fully compressed tight against the driver.
Not saying you might not have gotten a better driver than what came in the sample I reviewed but , the driver should be a constant current that is in the A3S and when I did my testing with the included cell , the LG HE4 , LG HG2 and Efest Purple High Drain , the numbers really did not deviate much with any of the cells.
I pretty much stayed in the 960 to 1000 lumens range with all the cells I tested and I had to use the magnet on the tail for the high drains as you are doing.
Other than that one point I agree that it is one of the best zoomies I have overall as far as the build quality and also agree they had room enough for a slightly larger optic.
One thing that will help (if you are up to the challenge) is to get the bezel off the light , as it is heavily glued on.
If you can get the bezel loose though you can place a thin O-ring over the threads to hold the lens out just slightly more than it sits and the focus will come in much better to get the well defined edges , if you are after that.
If you decide to try it I can give more explanation later as to how.
Thanks Robo. I’ve only tried the high drain cell, didn’t try the included (or any other) cell yet so I can’t really offer a comparison in regards to different cells yet. So I was only stating what cell I used, not that it’s brighter on that cell over a regular one.
Also I don’t have a light meter but I’m pretty sure my BLF A6 is over 1000lm, but it’s a 3D tint so the cooler A3S may appear as bright even if it’s not? I’ll do the test again against an Olight later. But I agree it’s easily 1000lm at minimum.
“The light is substantially brighter when run on a low-resistance IMR cell. I haven’t looked at the driver, but perhaps it is using a FET. The upshot is you can “hot-rod” this light simply by replacing the battery with a better cell.”
He also stated in his Amazon review: “Bright. On the stock battery it probably is around 1000 lumens in flood mode. The driver also scales well with high drain batteries. I estimate output increased to perhaps 1500 lumens when I replaced the stock battery with a Sony VTC5A 18650 lithium ion cell”
I don’t think I’m getting 1500lm on mine. Maybe we are getting a better driver than what came in your sample? But as I said I cannot confirm I’m getting results as Firelight2 on mine because I haven’t tried yet with a standard cell. I’ll report back here after I test it that way. I’ve really got to get a meter.
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Yes the bezel isn’t unscrewing, I do plan on working on that, and yes I am interested in the O-ring mod you suggested so when you get a chance please post the info or direct me to where if you’ve posted elsewhere. Thanks.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately it looks like the coupon is expired now, it’s not showing on amazon anymore and I just tried the code and it doesn’t work: “The promotional code you entered is not valid”
I made sure I ordered before the 5th because of Robo819’s post (#40 above) ” 20% off through March 5th ”
I’ll try to do some testing with the other cells soon, hopefully this weekend. It’s a little harder without a meter but I’ll use an Olight S30 as a standard.
Got my A3S today and the plastic focus disk is loose in the head. It is now crooked over the LEd which sucks as I like this flashlight, I have the original A3 as well and this A3S zooms smoothly without the dreaded vacuum problem and is a lot brighter.
Because of the glue I am unable to get the bezel off and do not want any damage as this is a warranty issue at this point.
tried rubber gloves, rubber strap, etc. Done trying without damage.
Thing was just thrown into Amazon A3 box with no air cushions, nothing, just rattling around in there, no wonder something busted loose.
Tint looks way warmer than the A3 as well.
Oh well we’ll get it worked out with Amazon/Wowtac.
Here’s the pics, hard to get a good shot of it.
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