Today I picked the BW-ET1 and tried to check on the lowest and highest levels, with 1*14500 Li-Ion battery and 2*AA alkaline batteries. Here are the results at ± 1.5m from the wall!
I have no means to measure the lumens, but I remember the “supposed” levels:
a) lowest mode on 14500 battery - 2.5 lumens
b) lowest mode on 1 or 2*AA batteries - 0.2 lumens
Also, the BW-ET1 2*AA version vs the Olight S1R Baton on moonlight modes (supposedly: 0.2 Lumens vs 0.5 lumens, respectively left and right).
It seems to me that the lowest level on the BlitzWolf is a lot higher than advertised, both on 1 or 2 AA batteries. It is similar to a 14500 battery, as it can be seen on the 1st and 2nd photos.
Also, comparing to the 0.5 lumens of the Olight, the BW-ET1 clearly has a higher lowest mode!!
I didn’t make this comparison earlier, but it had to be done as a way to compare specs and actual performance !!
I honestly disapointed with this light even though i got it with discount.
The brightness with AA battery is dim comparing to other AA lights now day and the ramping is awfully slow. I rather have normal modes than slow turtle ramping .
Thanks for your words! :+1:
Well, in some way I feel like you, specially the ramping speed. I like that we can control the level where we are at, but then…it is sloooow!
Lights that have “automatic” stepless dimming (Jaxmnve M3, even the Wuben TO10R) annoy me more because we can’t control the level in an accurate way!
About the luminous level…yup, I guess that with a single or even 2*AA it could be higher. Despite I got this light for “free” I must say that.
It is a nice light to have around to use with 2 batteries on the candle mode, as it will last for a while
Hum, I have one doubt (or one need of clarification) though: the “303” corresponds to the max output (lumens) after 30 seconds with a Li-Ion battery?!!!
That is impressively low comparing to what is presented in specs!
I ask this because the Sofirn SF14 specs point to a max output of 600 lumens (on a 14500 Li-Ion), just like the BlitzWolf BW-ET1, and on the night I took the photos, I tried both, side to side and they seemed very similar.
At naked eye and no measurements, the BW-ET1 - on Turbo with a Sofirn 14500 battery - is pretty similar to the Sofirn SF14, on max output with Efest IMR14500 650mAh (purple) - both on beam “intensity” and throwiness. (Despite the XPG2 of the SF14 produces a slightly more intense hotspot)
As I mentioned, I have no means to compare both objectively and to provide numbers, but if these 303 lumens are real after 30 seconds…I wonder if it ever gets close to the 600 advertised lumens… :person_facepalming:
About the size…I dare to say that this is a hardly “hideable” flashlight I do like the robustness it has, though
Once again, thanks so much djozz!! Feel free to post any information you find useful to enrich the data about this light :+1:
Ai, it appears that I messed up rather than Blitzwolf :person_facepalming: , I assumed that the highest setting was the top of the ramp but it is not, a double-click gets you a higher setting (this is not clear from the manual btw). I hope the lowest level is still the bottom of the ramp, or is there also a trick also to get further down to the spec’ed 0.2 lumen?
Oh, well, and I also missed that in the review! :person_facepalming:
I will check toninght when I have the flashlight with me, as I can recall correctly about this situation!
The bottom of the ramp, as far as I perceived, is the lowest one. If you ramp down, when reaching the bottom the light will blink 1 time.
About the top, it blinks 3 times, but I don’t remember if there was a visible difference between that top level and the turbo (through double click).
In any way, 495 lumen is better than the earlier numbers you gave, of course!
But now I ask again (because I have no idea :person_facepalming: ) : droping about 100 lumens from 0 to 30 seconds, with a fully charged Li-Ion battery, in a light like this, is it normal?! This is, assuming that the initial really were 600 lumens…
I checked once more the purple Efest, extra topped up on the charger now (first measurement was with a few days rested battery), and it helps a bit: 540 lumen at 3 seconds, 520 lumen at 30 seconds.
And I could not resist this pic, I will add that including li-ion batteries the Blitzwolff is 89 gram, the D4 112 gram. I will spare the Blitzwolf any further comparisons
Ehehe, I compared it with a Convoy S2+ and the BW is larger
Thanks for the final numbers. It may not be 600 but it is closer !
My feeling is that it could be different in many aspects and if BlitzWolf wants to make nice things, they can keep the robustness of body, but the size, and even UI and / or driver must be different!
I’ll second that. Reading this part of WalkIntoTheLight’s review was an eye-opener:
It basically ended my interest in the light, because the stepdown from maximum is hardwired to kick in even with the AA cell(s). Completely unnecessary.
I’m not sure about the ramping interface, either, but I might have given that a go if it hadn’t been for the AA stepdown.
By comparison, the Sofirn SF13 I ordered during the AliExpress anniversary sale - I haven’t had the light in my hands yet - is supposed to do 420lm on 2×AA and step down to 196lm after 3 minutes. Even the stepdown is better than the Blitzwolf’s 2×AA maximum.
Yup, I guess the Sofirn SF13, Jaxman M2, Zanflare F2, Manker E12 and other similar 2*AA lights are probably “better” than this one, in output and eventually in other aspects.
If we don’t compare it with the others, this light has a nice lowest mode, theoretical UI (except for the slow ramping) and nice “body”, but having many others, it gets hard to say this is “awesome”
One advantage I can see is that this one can be “elongated” or “shortened” if we want! (not sure if this acts as a Pro, but it still is a nice feature).
Still, other aspects… :disappointed:
Ahah, thank you I will change the title to avoid confusions
Hum putting this light working with 2*14500 batteries….that would be nice :smiling_imp: Muahahaha!!!
Or just making it work better with a single cell…
I guess that I will try to dismantle mine, just to check its “entrails” ! I’ll post photos later (maybe tomorrow, if I manage to…)
Yesterday I picked the BW-ET1 and “tried” to dismantle the head to accesse the driver…
But…this is what I found :person_facepalming:
Sorry, but not even in the name of flashlight science I will pass this stage, I would probably ruin the driver and the light!
maybe later, if I have the guts to do so, I will rip it off in any way :nerd_face: