My much-anticipated Falcon F15 arrived just before Christmas.
I’m comparing it with Severe Cold zoomie that I got some time ago.
I didn’t expect I would be making this comparison but it is close in so many ways….
These seem to use almost the same TIR lens. As far as I can tell the only difference is that YLP has the central part frosted while Severe Cold doesn’t.
With SC there is a dark hole in the half-zoomed position. Not really problematic in real use though. YLPs partially frosted lens is better, as expected. On the white wall I can still see some beam artifacts but very very minor and surely meaningless in practice.
Both lights take 18650 which is surprising when looking at them side by side - Falcon has the battery tube thicker by full 3 mm and looks like it could take 21700. Quick check - no, you can’t bore it out at all, the threads are quite narrow and only the knurled part is so thick.
Seeing how massive it is I expected a big difference in weight. YLP is heavier but the difference is smaller than the looks suggest.
YLP comes with a clicky switch of a kind I haven’t seen before. It has half-latched positions both when on and off.
You half-click while off for momentary mode and half-click while on to switch modes. Interesting. Actually it can even tell half-clicks and shutdown from each other - it uses that to implement mode-group changes.
The switch is protruding. To prevent accidental activation the manual recommends physical lockout at the tailcap.
UI is simple 3-mode with several mode orders.
The zooming action is very stiff. Furthermore the bezel is smooth, providing little grip.
This is a bitter disappointment. With zoomies I like how a small hand movement focuses the light where I look. To work well, the hand movements should be as fast as head movements. Here it’s plain impossible. I have to use significant force to even move the bezel and trying to make the light follow the eyes is a fight against friction. And it’s a lost one, YLP just doesn’t work like that.
I suppose that it uses tight o-rings to make it as waterproof as possible without fancy tricks. For me - it’s clearly not worth it.
I checked if I could improve that with some grease. No I couldn’t. I’ve seen maukka’s light disassembled but I was unable to open mine even with a pair of strap wrenches.
Considering that I meant this light to be merely a host rather than a finished light and that the zoom just doesn’t work as well as it should…this is the first and likely the last light I regret buying this year.
An interesting one. And not bad in general. But clearly not good for me.