[Review] Folomov EDC C1 Flashlight

Got mine yesterday and I agree with all this - especially the last sentence!

Great review - thank you.

I actually prefer the higher voltage cells, so the AAA option is no big deal to me. If it is, there are many AAA lights in my collection - some with Nichia 219 and tail switches, that will use AAA. (Seems like every time I turn around Massdrop has some variant of the Lumintop for sale.) What sealed me on this one was the different LED. It looks very close to the R9080 Nichia 219B SW35 that a few of my lights have….and I love that tint.

The appeal of these small lights for me is those days when dress pants are required. The normal EDCs seem a little heavy - these little lights are great for those days. This little light has that appeal plus the appeal of the tint. Plus it’s a solid “budget” light. YMMV.

I also really enjoy a warm options:

we just had a small “group buy” of triple sw35:

pic is a link

there is still time to get in on that order if you like, PM me

Are the runtimes on this light so bad because of an inefficient LED?

The runtimes, especially for the lower outputs, seem very short. Shorter than many 1AAA lights.

The driver is very inefficient in this. The whole system gets about 46 lumens per watt on average over the whole runtime, even worse on moonlight. The E21A is much better than that.

Folomov is smaller, lighter, warmer, and does not suddenly go dark

otoh
the battery is UNprotected. Therefore, I cannot recommend the Folomov.
I found the light would not turn on after living in my pocket, and the battery was at 2.6v.

The Folomov wont turn on with AAA, so I recommend the Lumintop Tool over the Folomov.

I’d have to see a lot of outstanding successes from Folomov before considering one of their lights. The emitters being damaged by turbo on this and whatever that 319A light they released a while back is unacceptable.

I see that the Folomov websites shows a new model, confusingly named EDC-C1 though it’s actually somewhat different and clearly not meant as a replacement but rather a slightly different light.
Old, I’ll call it C1.1
New, I’ll call it C1.2

Differences

C1.1 C1.2
Material brass alu
length 66.8mm 70.9mm
diameter 13.5mm 14mm
LED 3000K CRI98 (call me suspicious) 5000K CRI80
reflector SMO? OP
lm 335 400
cd 951 1280
mode sequence L-M-H-M L-M-H

I have a feeling they view C1.1 as a connoisseur item while C1.2 is more general purpose.
I also don’t quite understand the performance increase. By changing CRI/tint they got 19% higher output and 34% better intensity while changing reflector from SMO to OP. From the look of the head it seems that the new reflector has slightly larger effective diameter which may be a partial explanation. Maybe the previous reflector was not focused properly or something. The numbers seem weird.

Thanks for the heads up. I didn’t buy the first version because of the LMHML mode sequence and short runtimes.

I wish they’d used another high CRI LED in the revised version. The low CRI may stop met from buying the new version.

I’ll definitely give the new version a close look.

I like the look of the new aluminum version.

At only 24g, it should make a great hat brim light. I’m currently using a Folomov EDC2 for that purpose.

The runtimes and 80 CRI don’t impress me much, but the rest of the features are to my liking.

I’m sooo tempted to buy one of the new versions for a neck lanyard light. I like it better than heavy brass. Two things stop me though. The lack of a lanyard hole in the tail, and the low cri 5000k emitter.

Neck lanyard lights are my “creeper” light for when I’m moving around camp and the house, trying not to disturb others and also preserve my night vision. I prefer incandescent type color for these types of lights.

Illumn has the v3 brass version, and according to them they test at an actual 2 lumens on moonlight which is unacceptable.

What a shame, they could have had a hit with this light. I love the size and electronic tail clicky.

Maybe I’ll buy an aluminum version, press fit a lanyard sleeve on the tail, and change the emitter. The sleeve can be made thin so it doesn’t add too much to the diameter, can be higher than the switch so it can tail stand and to avoid accidental activation and have a hole in it for a lanyard or key ring. Maybe I’ll make it have a clip on it too, for lens down carry.

Cad drawing of said lanyard sleeve forthcoming.

Zeroair as reviewed it here:

Actually, he calls it Version 3 ! :+1:

That’s just the most recent update of the Brass/3000K version, the other new one is aluminum w/5000K 80CRI emitter.

Sorry, you’re right! :beer:
As both are the “new” batch, I didn’t make the difference bewteen the body material and focused on the revisions made to the light as a whole!

The original at the hotspot

98/95. I’m amazed to see E21 this good. But that’s just one point. Is it CRI98 elsewhere too?

I haven’t tested it integrated, but usually the CRI doesn’t vary that much across the beam.

So…good. Very very good. Thank you for the input maukka. :slight_smile:

Anecdotal but the L1 (penlight version of this) I have is listed as 3000K as well but matches the 2700K bulbs in my house almost exactly except for being a bit rosier. So some variation in the emitters they’re using… or a copy and paste job on the stats like they did for the runtimes.

I’m enjoying my Pen L1, with the exception of the LMHML mode sequence. Hopefully there will be a V2 of it with the LMHLMH mode sequence.

Looking at the Folomov website, they appear to have kept the runtimes the same and increased the output on the 5000k CCT version vs the 3000k CCT version (on their spec sheets, anyway - real life testing will show what they really are).

So far, their published runtime and output specs haven’t been reliable for any of their small lights.

They’re still showing the LMHML (wave) mode sequence for the 3000k brass version on their website.