Disappointed with Romisen RC-29

After waiting for two months I finally received my Romisen RC-29 3-mode from DX and I must say that I am very disappointed. The flashlight itself looks great and feels good to carry around. Even the threads were smooth and came with sufficient grease. However when I turned it on, it looked terrible to me. The beamshot looked just ugly with all kinds of artifacts in the corona. The few Sipik SK68 and clones I have had beamshots with coronas that looked a lot better. Can someone tell me if this is normal and I am just being picky?

your photo shows a bright corona around the reflection of the emitter and the image of the LED is not clear but very blurry. gearjunkie, if this photo is a true representation of a white wall shot how you see it with your eyes, then it is not normal. when i focus ("zoom 8x") i get a very clear image of the LED and there is definitely no corona or "spilled light/brightness" around the reflection of the emitter.

the outer ring is normal and negligible.

i once owned 3 copies from DX, and their optical system was always perfect: clear, well-defined reflection of the LED, and no corona or light around it.

Sorry to hear about the 2.0+ months wait and the disappointing sample they shipped. You may want to open (disassemble) the torch and examine the aspheric lens and clean it.

Clearly, your photo does not show what i see on a white wall. Please also check DX and youtube for Romisen RC-29 videos (there are quite a couple of them!!) for comparison purposes.

Yes this photo is pretty much how it looks like. The image of the LED is blurry and not clear like the few Sipiks I have. I really don't mind the outer ring... that is expected for zoomers.

I am going to take your advice and disassemble it up all the way. I cleaned the lens already but did not try disassembling the pill yet. Maybe that is that screwed in all the way.

Hopefully screwing the pill in all the way took care of it.
That’s what it looks like to me. It looks like the emitter to optic distance isn’t correct.
Some lenses are better than others as well. I had a glass aspheric that I ground to fit a light and it looked like that.
I was able to change the emitter to lens distance to eliminate much of it but not all of it. I eventually used another lens and the problem went away.

I managed to get some time tonight to take a look at the pill and it was screwed in properly. I could not get it in any tighter then the way it came. I tried varying the distance of the lens (with the bezel off) but still could not get a clear image of the emitter. Then I got an idea of using the lens of one of my Sipik SK-68... and lo and behold the emitter was just as clear as it could be on the wall. It was definitely the lens that came with the Romisen.

Now, does anybody know where I can get a good replacement lens for the Romisen?

do you have digital caliper? i have measured my original lens (perfect quality!) and the 2-pack of DX replacement lenses, see my post. I dont recommend the DX replacement lenses if you need a perfect beam. I dont think that other boardies ever cared to order the other offerings (see the links in my post).

really sorry to hear. you seem to be the first to report a bad lens in a Romisen! ( i would certainly try to ask DX for some help or for some suggestion. they might ask you to upload a demo video of your light's performance and then simply decide to ship a FREE replacement copy of the full torch or just "a lens" )

my 3 DX samples had all perfect lenses -- that's why i still recommend to get the 3-mode version from them.

From a Sipik :slight_smile:
Seriously, a Sipik is probably the easier and cheapest way. Just try to get a new light or rebate for DX in the meantime.

I reviewed a Yezl zoomie for Lang a while back that had a similar beam profile . . .

It had a pretty good flood when zoomed out but, man was that a lousy torch.

Foy

Alright, I have asked for a replacement lens from DX. Let's see what happens.

After reading Bryan's post, I was reminded that I have an old Sipik CK91 around which I de-domed by mistake when I tried to clean it a little too much. I took the lens out from the Sipik and to my surprise, the lens fit on the Romisen. Turned the Romisen on and the emitter was just focused perfectly on the wall!! Thanks to Kreisler and Bryan for your suggestions.

Foy, your night pictures looks just great! How do you get those pictures to have so much color in the dark?

You know, now that I think about it, the tint on that light made it look like that. My camera was on manual; 1/4 second @f2.8. That is something I should have noticed/mentioned. It had a really awesome flood.

I'll have to ask Lang if he remembers.

Foy

Really??

How great! Congrats that you were able to fix the issue and that you're back a happy camper again

life is all happiness!! ;)

Here is a picture on how it looks now. I am not very good in taking pictures of beamshots but it does look even better in reality.

!!!

excellent focus!

and now put a 14500 in ;) ( or is this shot with a 14500?? )

yezl t8. amazing flood. I like mine as a flooder

Kreisler, it already had a 14500 in it. I just don't have much practice in taking pictures of beamshots.

BTW, DX did give me some credit for the messed up lens. They first asked me how much it would cost me to fix it in the shop here. I answered by saying that there is no shop here that would have the lens. So I just asked for credit for a similar lens you mentioned before on your review. Windy was the one who handled the case and it was not a hassle at all to get the credit.