Review : Manker E14 II , pocket rocket flashlight (+teardown w/ interesting driver !)

Ah that sounds much more reasonable. Slightly lower peak turbo coupled with a much more reasonable stepdown.

I have one on order set to arrive end of next week! :sunglasses:

Lucky you. I got the s42 instead because of price. I think the manker version is so much better looking.
Did you get the XPG3 Or Nichia?

Ordered the XPG3. Also have an s42 XPG3 on order.

A batch of these Manker E14 II’s have made their way the the U.S. this week, Wednesday. But with the Blade Show going on in Atlanta, Friday through Sunday. No one has had time to unpack them yet. :weary:

Long time flashoholic here and first post on BLF.
I ordered a Astrolux S41 and 2 days later I saw the Manker E14ii was coming out so I ordered one from Manker before they even had it on their site. The light arrived today in a production box(smashed) not a plain brown box. I got the Nichia version and my step down happens at 1 minute and it steps down to high mode not the 100 lumens. I was worried about the 40sec step down to 100 lumens and had ordered the light before they listed the specs. I also wasn’t sure if the Nichia version would be 4000k HCRI or the 5000k 80 CRI. I received the 4000k. Just thought I’d share for anyone interested in the light as I was worried what tint and the step down.

Thanks! I’ve been really curious what they did with the driver, and now I know. :slight_smile:

If the Astrolux version uses the same driver, it could be a decent mod-friendly e-switch host. Manker’s version seems a bit funky though.

I already made a hex file of a ferrero rocher ramping firmware without led indicators , and i should test it soon on the light .

That’s what I put on my mother’s SRK. I would rather have used Narsil, but I only had a tiny13 available so I went with the closest thing I had.

BTW, Ferrero Rocher still needs a bug fixed… the ramp direction doesn’t always go up when long-pressed from off. And it also otherwise doesn’t reset the direction when off. IIRC, I tried to fix it 3 years ago but it made the ROM exceed 1024 bytes with indicators enabled, so I didn’t keep the fix. So… that’s a thing which could really stand to be changed as soon as I have my office reassembled.

Oh, um, and Ferrero Rocher never did get FET+1 support. It’s so old that those didn’t exist yet. That’s probably a lot more relevant than a minor ramping quirk, and modernizing the code will involve some slightly deeper changes.

Thanks for sharing this info mate

Thank you for information. I hope you are satisfied with your purchase.

I want to buy this too but I have a question.

This is 219c 5000k:

This is 219b 4500k:

Since you have received 219c 4000k. I want to know that which is more similar to that.

It’s closer to the 4500k of course , and difference will be small .

I more likely want to find out how its tint is closer to the characteristic 219b tint (some call it rosy tint).

I’d say it’s between the two of those closer to your 4500k. Your 4500k looks warmer to me and closer to 4000k. It doesn’t look quite as warm as your 4500k example. The S41 with 219b looks like sunlight to me and the 219c warmer. I have an Eagletac MX30L4 with 12x 219b and I believe I figured that out to be 4700k using my camera and an 18% gray card. The E14ii with 219c is warmer than my Eagletac and S41 with 219b is much cooler probably closer to 5500k if I was guess. I’m a photographer and often shoot at night and use flashlights to aid in focusing. I try and match the color temperature of the flash or diffusion material I’m using in case the flashlight ends up effecting the photo. I guess to post photos on here I need to use an image host? I haven’t used an image host in awhile and would probably have to make a new account. Any suggestions on what host to use? I could take some beam shots. Would white wall or outdoors be preferred? I could use a gray card and get accurate color temp readings. I believe that would give me accurate readings someone could correct me if I’m wrong.

I did the gray card test with my Sony A7rii and found:

E14ii 219c=4300k +1 magenta
S41 219b =5400k
Eagletac MX30L4 219b=4300k +1 magenta
Nitecore HC30 CREE NW=4800k +3 magenta
Eagletac DX30 CREE XML HI=6300k + 2 magenta

To my eyes the E14ii looks a little warmer than my Eagletac MX30L4 but they show the same readings.

Thank you for response. We would love to see photos. You can use “http://pi.gy”. This host does not need account and it does not compress images or alters colors.
Given your specifications, you have a chance to become a very valuable person for this community :slight_smile: Just use that site to upload and do not hesitate opening new threads.

I have 4000K 219Cs in other lights. They definitely don’t have the rosy tint of 219Bs. I’d describe them as “bright tan”, if that makes any sense, or as similar to sunlight at the start of the golden hour

If you want really detailed information about tint, look for reviews by maukka. He has a pretty nice tint measurement setup, showing exactly where each light falls in the ANSI color spectrum and what CRI to expect.

4000k 219c is more yellow than it is rosy

Ok took some shots to compare tints. All pics with Sony A7rii, daylight white balance, aperture priority, F2, ISO-100, and center weighted metering. I noted shutter speeds to give an idea of output, however due to the different beam patterns and the center weighted metering its more comparison of lux than lumens. Matrix metering would have given a better comparison of lumens but might effect tint.


Control shot external flash (1/200, F22, ISO-100. Flash at 1/128)


4Sevens QT2L-X, CREE XML, Cool White, 1/250


Nitecore HC30, CREE XML, Neutral White, 1/320


Astrolux S41, Nichia 219b, 1/250


Manker E41 II, Nichia 219c, 1/500


Eagletac MX30L4, Nichia 219b, 1/800

I thought I’d do something a little more colorful to show the color reproduction. This is a painting by Inga Rausch and done as fan art of my cat (I have a famous internet cat). She was nice enough to send it to me from Germany all the way to Pennsylvania.

Control shot external flash (1/200, F22, ISO-50. Flash at 1/128)


4Sevens QT2L-X, CREE XML, Cool White, 1/125


Nitecore HC30, CREE XML, Neutral White, 1/125


Astrolux S41, Nichia 219b, 1/200


Manker E41 II, Nichia 219c, 1/200 (looks like my camera over exposed this by a stop. 1/400 would be a better comparison in output)


Eagletac MX30L4, Nichia 219b, 1/640

To me the Astrolux S41 is just a beautiful tint and color reproduction, its like sunlight in your pocket. But I like the higher output and UI of the Manker E14 II better. I haven’t spent enough time with either light to chose what one will be my EDC or my walk around the woods light. For photography the S41 wins for sure, I was watching a turtle lay eggs today and had the E14 II with me. I used the it to shine under its body to get a better shot of the eggs but the mismatch in tint between the 219c and sunlight just ruined the photo. Any ideas on what would happen if I swapped emitters between S41 and E14 II?

Thanks we’ll see I’ve been into flashlights, lasers, and other things light related since the days when it was cool to have a Surefire hotwire light. I often ended up building my own stuff. I can remember I was part of the group buy to get the first batch of Nichia HCRI emitters when they where released. Nowadays I get an itch about once a year to get back into it and caught up on the new technology and buy a light or three… or build one.