“REVIEW”: On The Road i3 (2018/2019) - 16340 - Zoomable - 620 Lumens [Pic Heavy] - [***MODDED XPL-HI***]

LED Flashlights – General Info CR123A Flashlights
55

Agro,

Is this your first small zoomie with glass aspherical lens?

There is nothing wrong with your light. In fact beam looks much cleaner than on Dereelight, Uniquefire, Tiablo, Crelant etc…

Guys remember this. This is from mine experience and I am long time into this story.

No matter how cheap, light, scratched, plastic/acrylic lenses looks like they have better lights transmittance, cleaner beam, better flood mode, and they are more constant in quality than any factory available glass lenses (for example with glass lens performance may vary up to 30% while with plastic there is no variation in quality at all…)

Same size acrylic vs same size glass lens :

- Glass lens will have slightly larger die projection while plastic will have smaller die projection.

- Glass have different tint projection of the same emitter than plastic one. For example dedomed XPG2S42B is cooler in glass lens(uf 1503) and greener in plastic lens(B158).

- Plastic has greater flood mode than glass lens.

- Plastic has cleaner beam projection than glass one and less artifacts in a beam

  • Plastic is more durable than sensitive glass… Glass will easy break(especially on edges) if you drop flashlight on hard surface while with plastic nothing except scratch will happen
56

Nice review :+1:
Yeah, zoomies are one place where a plastic lens is better than glass.

57

Yes, this is my fist zoomie with a glass lens.
It is clearly worse than that of MascaratumB, far less sharp. And it is different in that his beam looks round while mine is squarish even in flood.

I find it hard to believe a beam this bad is something to be expected.
Intermediate beam is better than my worst TIR zoomies - but not much better. And is much worse than my best TIR zoomie, let alone aspheric ones.
As I said, pics don’t do it justice, it is actually worse than it looks on the shots.

58

It could be worse than it looks I agree…

I had a lot of problems with glass lenses quality in a past(Dereelight, Tiablo, and Uniquefire) - it is very hard to convince factory that they have faulty lens…
Some factories really do have bad QC for lenses and it is terrible how glass lens quality can vary.

For example once I got whole batch of 1503 flashlights(100 pcs) and only 5 out of 100 were good… I almost loose my mind… Told my wife that I will have nerves breakdown… Does not matter… I survived :slight_smile:

They had ultra low performance with a lot of artifacts in a beam plus almost each had some kind of pale double die projection (yes you heard that right)…

I am very happy that Uniquefire accepted my complaint for lens after I convinced them with video, pics, lux test etc…, and yes they investigated and told they had bad batch of lens. They have send me replacement lenses with strict factory quality control(mine shipping and customs costs for them of course - so they were not actually free for me). That lens were good but when compared to plastic B158 well Bee simply kills them in lux performance. The best UF 1503 lens(1 of 200) I found had very good throw about 10% less than B158 acrylic lens… So yes probably glass can be as good as plastic or better but not in a regular China manufacturing process… Premium glass lens costs money and I really doubt that China manufacturers will pay for such quality so it is better for them to stick to acrylic. But just can’t believe how some manufacturers are dumb and how they don’t see? All you got to have is cheap luxmeter and your eyes.

But! They do not want to listen when I am trying to convince them that acrylic is far better than glass. They also consider glass as premium and better to acrylic but it is not! Ok… I understand they should change their production process and everything. But they could release such model.

Imho zoomie no matter how small(edc) or big they are should have acrylic lenses, aluminum pill with retaining centering ring for mcpcb and driver, quality anodized threads and reverse clicky switch.

Glass lens with brass pill vs Acrylic lens with aluminum pill:

- heavy vs light setup

- higher production vs lower production costs

- production performance consistency variations vs no performance variations at all or

- lower lux performance vs higher lux performance (in flood and throw mode)

  • fragile vs almost indestructible format

I am not engineer but I see that so it is really enigma for me why true engineers which do that work for living don’t see that issue…

:+1:

59

I have a slightly too small plastic aspheric but I can’t find a way to open the bezel without scratching it.
Any suggestions?

60

Sorry for not having replied yet above, I wasn’t on the computer and will answer later on :slight_smile:

About the bezel, press the flashlight againt your hand (with or without a glove) and twist the flashlight anti-clockwise direction, while holding it from the “head”! Thats what I did in mine and it opened easily! :wink:

I’ll reply later to the rest :+1:

61

Tried that already, doesn’t move. Tried pressing it against rubber, it didn’t work either.

I opened my Utorch S1 mini which has a similar bezel by pressing it against a sharpening stone but this obviously caused some scratches. :wink:

62

Hum, that’s weird, I opened it without issues. I hope they didn’t glue the threads :person_facepalming:
Do you have any nose point pliers? You can put some heat-shrink tube on the tips and use the bezel grooves to make some twistying force !

Never tried that type of LED on this light, so I cannot see how it behaves. Maybe some things in the beam are related to that? Mine is not “stock” anymore, so I can’t make fair comparisons currently to say how it should behave. :zipper_mouth_face:

It is supposed to be a new model, so I am not sure what happened with yours :zipper_mouth_face: A deffective batch may happen. and as the lens is glass, it may, of course happen it is not completely perfect. Shapping it is surely different from a acrylic lens, so it may have some imperfections.

Mine broke on the edge some time ago. It doesn’t affect the beam however :partying_face: . I asked the store to send me one when I bought the OTR 311 . It is till on the way… :weary:

Some of the things you mentioned on your post and showed in the photos, also happen with mine, but not so seriously. Specially what is shown on 3, 4, 5, and 6. During the travel, it creates some additional ring, but nothing like that. That thing only happens to me in one of the 2xAA Zoomie lights I have from Lidl, that has a white spot in when zoomed out.

I will see if the new lens I will get does something like that and will inform here on the thread :wink:

63

Thanks mate :wink:
Hum, I have a mix opinion about that. All my zoomies have different “ifs” either they are plastic or glass. I will see what I will get with the new OTR Z821 and with the new lens for this i3!

Thanks for this input! I actually thought that glass would be better, but I perceive now it is not :zipper_mouth_face:
I will have to check if I can put an acrylic lens on the i3 to compare with the glass one.
I guess I will have to compare all of them to check what you say, because I really find it interesting and never noticed that in fact :zipper_mouth_face:
The major con I noticed on mine so far, is that it broke :frowning:

I am a fan of FC switches, so I think I would go along with that :stuck_out_tongue:
I am using the i3 with forward clicky switch + Crescendo firmware. It operates diferently from a reverse switch but I don’t mind and I like momentary on and no “noise” clicking it :wink:

Thanks for your input! And I am also thinking that the alu pill with retaining ring (screw in) may be a better option. I’ve been reading what is said here and on the other thread, and maybe you guys are right, and brass is not the better option :+1:

64

The Z1 glass lens is good
The marinebeam glass lens is good

Maybe luminarium’s comments are coming from the perspective of trying to find cheaper hosts to mod.

65

Agro,

Don’t even bother with fitting plastic lens to them… It will not fit (well it will at certain distance from emitter but then you loose flood mode or even worse you’ll have zoom in to over zoom mode(overzoom is :confounded: ) :disguised_face:

66

? I am saying the real truth from my experience with different glass aspheric host.

So yes Z1 glass lens may be “good” but acrylic plastic lens of same size(jaxman Z1 vs B158) will be better…

Glass lens is good for some setup I personally need (VCSEL IR Laser) but it sucks performance vise if you need max lux performance with classic Osram WF led.

67

Thans for the suggestions MascaratumB. Heatshrink pliers didn’t work but it inspired me to press against a shoe lace. It unscrewed easily, there’s no glue.

19.8 mm plastic lens didn’t fit, by far.
One needs more than 21.05 mm lens OD not to fall on the LED.
I tried widening it with an o-ring on the outer edge which fixed the diameter issue but the lens still didn’t fit properly.
It may need even larger diameter….but it also needs a thicker edge. My lens has 1.3 mm while the stock has 2.5 mm.

68

This is a quality host crippled by a junk lens.
If I got a good lens it could have a lot of use but as it is now - it’s worthless to me.

69

I’m a bit surprised at this.

My i3 has a very good glass lens. No artifacts are visible in any zoom position and it focuses to a very sharp image of the LED die surface. I modded mine to XPL HI when I got it a few years ago. Works great.

70

I think that you must contact OTR. Tell them for the problem and tell them that you wanna buy new replacement lens. We will see how they will react.

Please try this…

71

I did it yesterday. :slight_smile:
No answer yet.

72

Agro

I just received the replacement lens for my i3.
This lens is different from the original one and it originates some artifacts as the ones you showe above, namely an intense “dot” while almost focused in, a kind of “hole” in the zooming travel (very subtle, though), and the final zoomed beam is not as good as in the original one.

Just to document, here are the measurements of the lenses. I must also say that with the new lens I cannot use an o-ring below it due to the height of the lens (otherwise it originates a gap in the bezel).

Original (left) VS New (right)

Those mm in height make the difference in how the beam looks like! Not sure if it has a solution unless with getting a lens with optimal height :zipper_mouth_face:

73

Hmm…

What you did to that black lenses? :laughing: Or it just some kind of filter underneath?

New lenses looks better but what may happen here is that because of 2mm difference in lens height light goes slightly into overfocus.

Temporary solution like you already did would be to remove oring beneath lens (if it has o ring beaneath). Ugly but working solution thin circle layer of transparent silicone on the place of an old oring…

But all that should not be happening since light is not on a budget side… You can get new Conwoy Z1 for less money…

I really don’t understand their QC standards… Simple white wall test would do the trick. They do have eyes :person_facepalming:
That kind of seller behavior drive me mad. But don’t be disappointed cause they are all like that… Even 100$ Dereelights had such issues (Tiablo, Crelant, Uniquefire and others…) Glass lens are lottery! no matter what some guys think. If you don’t buy glass lens from reputable source(and that will cost 3-20x price of the flashlight) you’ll be better with plastic ones.

So production process and QC of glass lenses for China flashlight manufacturers is el terrible! However they do have I would dare to say 99% consistency if they will go with acrylic ones. Acrylic should be winning lens for China zoomie industry. Cheaper, better light transmittance and no performance variations. Easily scratched? You can scratch them with nail and it will still have better performance than same size glass one…

I am still waiting for mine i3 btw… Freaking Corona…

74

It’s 0.2 mm and it’s not as simple ans shifting a focus.

Assuming that they simply made the base 0.2 mm thicker without altering the curved side, this still changes beam pattern because light that hits the the air-to-glass boundary refracts and continues inside the lens. Now it’s shifted so literally any part of the beam other than dead center hits the curve lower than it would otherwise - and that part of the curve is being hit at other angle than it would be otherwise.
This seriously changes beam pattern.

I seriously doubt they would change thickness without altering shape. It would be too amateurish, if their supplier is able to produce asperic lenses they surely understands this.
OTR probably simply switched the lens model or maker.
Or maybe tooling to make a different shape would cost too much and OTR thought that some packaging or strength improvements were worth the artifacts.