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.
I’m still thinking it’s probably too bright for dark sky work as-is. I’ll re-assess when I receive it. Frosting will pull it down a few percent. It’s really easy to cut narrow bandwidth light with film. And realistically, we’ve become somewhat coddled by ultra-low long-runtime lights, which weren’t even available 20 years ago, so I have no reason to whine if it takes a little effort to make it usable.
C01R is quite bright, especially for a deep red flashlight. Low mode could be lower, it is likely more than 1 lm. The beam is quite throwy.
You could add a filter or a diffuser to reduce light intensity, or you could move the flashlight further away from what you are looking at, if you need less light.
That said, I like C01R a lot, and it turned out a lot better than I expected. Except for the low mode being too bright, and perhaps medium mode being too close to high mode, everything else is great. It could be improved if low mode became the new medium mode, and there was a new sub-lumen low mode.
The low mode on my Emisar D4V2 and Emisar D18 with deep red SST-20-DR-B120-V660 emitters is a lot lower than the low mode on my C01R, and the high mode is a lot higher. I had these custom built by Hank, because I wanted a powerful deep red flashlight.
Looking at the weegee’s last pictures posted, this is almost certainly prohibitively bright when used close up or in groups. If that’s a 10 degree optic, then a 45 degree should help a lot. Inverse tan^2 math puts center intensity of a 45 degree optic around 3% of the 10 degree optic, if that math is right. Dim AND focused lights are nice though for not shining in other peoples’ dark-adjusted eyes.
