ZL H502pr arrived today after almost a 2 month wait due to a lack of flights between Shanghai and Australia.
Sofirn C01R arrived within a few weeks.
Here are some amateur side-by-side photos:
H502pr set to 0.003 lumen and Sofirn C01R on it’s lowest mode:
H502pr at 1 lumen and Sofirn C01R on it’s lowest mode:
It’s that bloody cat again!
Sofirn C01R highest mode:
H502pr highest mode 100 lumens:
C01R is a nice little thrower while the H502pr is very floody without much throw beyond a few metres. I was pretty sure that the H502pr UI would be much better than the twisty C01R, but I had overlooked that the ZL has the older UI. There’s a risk that I could accidentally click to High while trying to long press for sub-lumen.
After not noticing that Sofirn sell diffusers the first time around, Unheard mentioning a honeycomb lens, wandering down the d-c-fix film rabbit hole, and then oweban mentioning Orange C01S…. I decided to order another C01R, a diffuser and an Orange C01S. Sofirn have already shipped!
Received the C01R. It is a neat little light with a special colour! A minor critique: the beam is ok but not perfect, more major: the middle mode is way too close to the high mode, it is not low-med-high but low-high-bithigher. If Sofirn decides to expand this 3-mode UI to the other C01S types they should have another look at finetuning it.
Thank you guys! :+1: I will let Barry know about these issues. A word about the beam quality: I assume Sofirn did not or even does not have any alternative optics available so far. So, they had no chance but to use the same optic they used for SST-20 4.000K 95CRI. That leads us to following point…
Thank you Unheard for posting some great information about the microlensed TIR optic BK-LED-097WB25. :THUMBS-UP: I'm confident Sofirn will find this or an alternative optic that may diffuse the beam more evenly and eradicate the downsides of the clear-narrow beam spot lens they used so far. At least such a microlensed or frosted optic will be mandatory for C01S E21A to avoid tintshift. I hope they can order a significant amount to sell as a spare part or accessory for those who want to change the beam characteristics.
About the middle/high mode again: with a fully charged Eneloop the high is significantly brighter than middle (although the middle should still be lower), but with the battery halfway there is no difference anymore. Makes sense of course but still the behaviour on a not fully charged battery is something you should consider when you design the UI.
Thanks Djozz. I agree, the mode spacing should ideally go in line with the discharging of the battery, i.e. there should be a distinct visible difference between high and medium with a partially discharged battery. Do you have an AAA alkaline (1.5V) available to test this scenario again? I just want to make sure it's not only happing with 1.2V NiMH batteries. I don't know if a constant mode spacing will require hardware or firmware changes but I will do my best to transmit this information via Barry to Sofirn's engineering.
Thanks for the suggestion trying alkalines. The mode spacing is much better on alkalines, and the light runs hotter too.
Makes me wonder if the Eneloop that I used is still good (it was fully charged). It does have a lower voltage than an alkaline but should be much more current-capable.
Another possibility is that the driver is particularly sensitive to the voltage difference between alkaline and NiMh.
I use a white Eneloop that is 3 years old but was never used before and see a significant difference between mid and high mode for at least half of the battery capacity. Maybe in the last third the high mode isn’t that bright anymore but still notable brighter than mid. With a high capacity 1000mAh Panasonic Ni-MH it feels similar (having no measurement equipment). All in all the low mode is perfect for keeping night vision or going to the toilet half-asleep, the slightly larger step to mid mode is for actually seeing something and high mode was used for the lightpainting and is otherwise only used for assuring myself how bright this little beast can go. :sunglasses:
Initially I thought I should wait for another deep red light with a longer runtime but came to the conclusion that losing it would be a pity and orderd two more - one as backup and one for the next jealous person I will show it to (it’s such a beautiful color). There may be use for a floodier type of this but I really like the throw characteristic that illuminates only the spot of interest. So after >10 days of daily usage I’m still impressed by this phantastic little light.
How low is the low practically? Can it be shone into dark adjusted eyes from 5m without causing pain / ghosting? The 15mA measurement someone posted seems a little high for a true dark-adjusted-eyes low mode.
You’re right - shone directly in the eye is still critical bright, mainly because of the strong focussing. But in order to illuminate something I found it okay - as I said, I like the controlled throw. But I live in a very light polluted area, so in pitch dark a diffusor may be a good idea.
Thanks. I may just try frosting the optic. Or changing a sense resistor. I imagine this could be a popular light for people who operate in pitch darkness if it had an extreme low. Astronomy / astrophotography / etc. That red is a standard in these situations and not ultra-low white is a whole other topic.
I think this difference may be exaggerated by the camera and different wavelengths of light. When I compare C01R low with SP10S eco (0.5lm) they look comparable, at least by my eye.
Good to know, thanks. Understanding perceived brightness of non white light from looking at numbers or pictures will always be difficult. There’s also a huge perception difference just from focus of the beam, and this one seems to have a relatively focused beam. Nothing that I need this for couldn’t be done with a dim 5mm red LED, but it would be nice to have the build quality and flexibility of optional high modes.
