Review IMALENT MS08 - 3*21700 - 34,000lm.




IMALENT MS08 was sent to me directly by IMALENT for review.
I would like to clarify that in addition to the flashlight to review I have not received any compensation and that my review will be objective according to my evaluation criteria.

For technical details and to purchase the flashlight: https://www.imalentstore.com/products/imalent-ms08-brightest-edc-flashlight





Main features:

■ Uses 8 pieces of American CREE XHP70 2nd LED. The lifespan of up to 50,000 hours with a maximum output of 34,000 lumens.
■ Powered by three 4000mAh 21700 rechargeable Li-ion batteries
■ The instant turbo output by pressing the side power switch button twice while pressing the side power switch button three times, you can get the lowest output
■ Product size: 74 (head diameter) * 51 (body diameter) * 125.5 (length) mm
■ Net Weight: 656g (excluding battery)
■ High efficiency circuit, can be kept constantly at 10,000 lumens
■ Built-in thermal control module and equipped with a heat shield powered by a fan, will automatically adjust the brightness output according to the working state and outdoor temperature, while continuing to use comfortably
■ Combination of ultra clear hardened mineral glass and anti-reflective coating
■ OP aluminum reflector
■ Aerospace grade aluminum alloy body, wear resistant Type III hard anodized surface treatment
■ IPX-8 standard waterproof (2 meters submersible)
■ 1m impact resistant








These days IMALENT has released a very powerful compact flashlight of the “MS” series. After the MS06, the new Imalent MS08 has now arrived, which promises, from home, a light output of 34,000 lumens; protected and cooled by an innovative dual fan heat shield system through a removable shell.
IMALENT MS08 is a rechargeable LED flashlight with small external dimensions with a wide illumination angle and reaches, with its radius, a maximum distance of 738 meters.

Imalent MS08 has small dimensions and is powered by 3 batteries (included) in 4000mAh 21700 format, has 6 levels of light output over the Strobo, with a maximum autonomy of 30 hours and has a fast charge (2A) via its cable USB that we find in the sales package.
Imalent MS08 has a single switch for level management and two LEDs indicating the residual charge level in addition to the memory function and the main switch blocking function to avoid accidental switching on.
It has IPX-8 certification (2m submersible) with an impact resistance of 1 meter.
The Imalent MS08 comes with a practical holster and is an ideal companion for night outings such as hunting, caving, patrolling, etc.






IMALENT MS08 comes in a “premium” rigid cardboard box with magnetic closure, protected by a shaped foam. In addition to the flashlight with the insulating shell, with 3 batteries in 21700 format inside, we find 2 USB magnetic charging cables, a holster, 2 spare O-rings, a spare screw and a user manual (multilingual).
Note: The glass of the Imalent MS08 also comes with a protective film to remove before use.








As soon as the box is opened, we find some warnings on what to do before starting to use the MS08.




Among the accessories supplied there is always the well-made foldable holster with hook and loop closure, essential to carry the MS08 safely on the belt. The dimensions of the holster are indicated to insert Imalent MS08 complete with thermal insulating shell.





IMALENT MS08 is built with good materials, has good finishes and thicknesses. Always compact, it holds well in the hand despite its heavier weight than the MS06. MS08 is 125.5mm long and weighs, according to my scale, 661g with the batteries while if we add the thermal insulating shell the weight rises to 784g. The writings are clearly legible and placed in the right places.
Imalent MS08 is constructed of aerospace aluminum alloy with a hard anodized Type III wear-resistant surface treatment with an anodized, black, hard military-grade finish.
It is made up of two parts: head and body with tail and, in addition, a removable thermal insulation shell. MS08 can be placed vertically as a candle (tailstanding).









The thermal insulation shell of the Imalent MS08 acts as a heat shield; it is powered by two integrated fans that blow air allowing the MS08 to maintain an acceptable body temperature even with high levels of light output, protecting hands from possible burns. The structure of the heat shield is well designed as it is light and perforated to facilitate the flow of air and limit its weight. The shell is inserted in the right direction and is fixed to the MS08 by means of a screw.







The rechargeable battery of the fans is housed in the lower part. The battery life is about 1 hour and 53 minutes while it takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes to fully recharge it.
To operate the fans it is necessary to do it manually (it is not thermoregulated) using the switch located under the insulating shell. The noise of the fans is barely audible outdoors.
Even with the shell inserted the Imalent MS08 can be placed vertically (candle).











On the head of the IMALENT MS08 we find an OP reflector with eight parabolas and 8 CREE XHP70 2nd (6500K) LEDs. In my specimen the LEDs are well centered while the lens, made of tempered glass, is ultra-transparent and anti-reflective and the bezel is slightly crenulated.
IMALENT MS08 is IPX-8 certified (2 meters submersible) and has 1 meter resistance to shocks or falls.







On the head we also find the metal switch on the side. The side button allows complete management of the flashlight, while the 2 status LEDs, located to the right and left of the button, indicate by color, the status of the batteries and when we are close to exhaustion by flashing red.
The electronic switch of the MS08 has an audible click and is very sensitive to touch. For this reason the IMALENT MS08 has an electronic lock (4 quick clicks) to avoid inadvertent ignitions that are very dangerous with the light power available to the flashlight. The button can be found, in the dark, with a little effort; I personally felt better with the insulating shell inserted.






Imalent MS08 has no cooling fins; under the 2 status LEDs we find grooves, a kind of channeling that facilitates the cooling of the head by remaining adjacent to the fans supplied with the heat shield.





On the opposite side of the switch there is the magnetic charging port, with which we will charge the three batteries that power the flashlight. The magnetic connector with the two plated contacts has a perfect fit, even when moving the USB cable, thanks to the considerable magnetic force, making charging "on the fly" simple and safe. MS08 has an intelligent safety circuit, according to the battery status choose the most appropriate constant current / constant voltage charging mode, to avoid battery overcharging. This door naturally guarantees waterproofness as it is dust-proof and sand-proof. During charging, the status LEDs light up red and when charging is complete, they light up green.

Charging can also take place with the thermo protective shell inserted. Right on the shell, adjacent to the contacts, is indicated the recommended charging voltage and amperage.





In my tests, the full recharge took place in about 6 hours and 15 minutes. (using a 5V / 2A power supply). The recharge, according to my instrumentation, is done at 2A max. At the end of the charge I measured with my digital multimeter on all three batteries 4.20V.

IMALENT MS08 is sold with 3x 4000 mAh 21700 lithium batteries (MRB-217P40S) present in the sales package.
The MRB-217P40S is a 21700 size rechargeable lithium-ion battery with the button top released by IMALENT especially designed to power high-drain flashlights with high capacity and performance. Provides maximum power output up to 14.4 Wh, compact size, suitable for various types of high-power flashlights.




At the two poles, as contacts with the battery, we find thick and plated springs to the negative and a contact ring plate to the positive. The cells are in parallel within the MS08. This means that the flashlight can work with any combination of cells: one, two or three cells. However, Imalent recommends not doing this.
The threads of the torch body arrive well lubricated and on them there is the water and dust seal O-ring.













Imalent MS08 between the Acebeam X80 and the Imalent MS06.









USER INTERFACE (UI)







IMALENT MS08 has a single switch to manage the 6 levels available beyond the special Strobe level.
The management of the UI is very simple.


Output and runtime:

- Turbo: 34000-10000 lumens; duration: 45s + 53min
- High: 10000 lumens; duration: 60min
- Middle II: 5000 lumens; duration: 1h30min
- Middle I: 2000 lumens; duration: 4h50min
- Middle low: 700 lumens; duration: 19h
- Low: 300 lumens; duration: 30h




Power On / Off - The first time you use the flashlight, quickly press the side power switch four times to unlock the flashlight, then gently press the power switch button once to turn the flashlight on and off.

Normal Lighting Mode - When the flashlight is on, press and hold the power switch button, it will switch from 300lm- 700lm- 2000lm- 5000lm-10000lm, release the power switch button to save the required output level.

Turbo and Strobe - Double press the power switch button in any mode, it will activate the turbo output, which is up to 34,000 lumens, double press the power switch button again to activate the strobe, press lightly the power switch button to exit.

Low Mode (300lm.) - Click three times to activate Low Mode.

Low Power Warning - With the light on, when the remaining battery voltage is less than 3.0V, the light will flash at 2Hz to remind users to replace or charge the battery. When the battery voltage is less than 2.9V, the flashlight cannot be turned on and the red light will flash twice as a reminder.

Intelligent Thermal Control - While using the high output mode, the flashlight will generate a lot of heat. When the body temperature of the flashlight reaches 50 degrees Cesium, the brightness will decrease to 10,000 lumens to ensure safe and comfortable use and prevent overheating discomfort. When the body temperature of the flashlight reaches 65 degrees Cesium, the flashlight will not activate the turbo.

Switch Lights - With the flashlight off, press and hold the power switch button for 3 seconds to turn the switch light on and off.

Memory function - The MS08 flashlight will remember the brightness at which it was previously set. When you turn the flashlight back on, remember how bright it was before it was turned off. (Special modes without memory).

Lock and Unlock Function - With the flashlight off, quickly press the power button four times to lock and unlock the flashlight. The indicator light will flash three times to indicate that the light is locked or unlocked. When it's locked, it will only show the indicator light when you press the power button.







BEAM and RUNTIME


The beam of the IMALENT MS08 has a good uniformity, considering that it is a multi LED, with a pleasant tint tending to green only at low power levels. The color temperature of the LEDs, measured with the OPPLE Light Master G3, is, on average, about 6000 °K; varies slightly by increasing the light intensity. Again with the OPPLE instrument I measured the color rendering (CRI / Ra) which shows a value of about 71.5 and the flicker index which does not give a risk value.
The beam is alluvial in nature with a remarkable light power to illuminate at short and medium-high distances.

In the various tests made by me in the various powers available, I found values in candela (cd) lower than those stated by Imalent, in particular in the highest value (Turbo) that arrives, according to my measurements made at 5 meters (in the environment closed), to a value of approximately 90.725cd. Despite this, the brightness achieved is truly remarkable and well regulated.

The protective shell with the two fans, supplied with the Imalent MS08, is really effective. In addition to cooling the head of the flashlight, it allows you to hold the MS08 in your hand even with high light outputs without getting burned. I think it's a really appreciable novelty.
To the eye I don't see any significant PWM in the available modes. The start of the spill from the walk is adjacent to the feet.











The runtime were done in a closed environment with an ambient temperature of about 20 °C using the protective shell with the two fans on and the 3 IMALENT 21700 4000 mAh batteries, found in the sales package, fully charged.

I would like to clarify that the values expressed by the graphs must be taken, above all, as a reference because they are made with means and environmental conditions different from those used in the laboratory. Furthermore, the sample made available by Imalent for the review could be of "pre-series" and therefore different from the one offered for sale.



The first test was done by putting the Imalent MS08 in TURBO mode. After a few seconds of slight descent there is a sudden drop in brightness which settles, towards the minute, to less than a third of the initial one. After one minute the brightness has a decreasing trend until the MS08 turns off shortly after 55 minutes.

Other tests were done in HIGH and MIDDLE II mode.




Below the graph of the first 5 minutes in TURBO and HIGH.



In the graph below we see, in HIGH mode, the curves side by side using the cooling fans and without. You can see from the graph the good work done by the protective shell with the two fans on.




VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fseQl0aEmVM






CONCLUSIONS

The new compact Imalent MS08 has brought marked improvements over the previous MS06 and R60C, which I tested, in terms of electronics and cooling.
The protective heat shield with the two fans is highly effective and innovative. Imalent MS08 is held in the hand even when using the highest levels without getting burned. Furthermore, with constant cooling (max. 2 continuous hours), electronic or LED problems linked to the high temperatures reached by these little “monsters” of light are prevented.
The equipment of the Imalent MS08 is complete with user-replaceable batteries and a convenient holster for transport. Good, in my opinion, well spaced levels.
Thank you for reading the review.

Hi :slight_smile:

Ordinarily I really like our rewiew but for this time the conclusion with three graph for runtime, made me scratch my head :stuck_out_tongue:
Mixing fan and no fan, high and turbo is disturbing :frowning:

Finaly if i’ve good read to this graph if you want see effect of fan is that:

Fan have no effect above 10.000 lumen
Don’t change output in first 10 minute
Gap of around 2500 lumens between 10 and 30 minute.

Mixed record.

I prefer to have gloves and 2500 lumens less with no fan (and no price and sound of fan)
For two wind turbine near the light it’s a little deception.
But manual fan is a good thing, you heat down our light between two burst and maximized the time at high between 10.000-5000 lumens.

-

Thanks Imalent for send you this light.
Thanks to you, it was a rewiew I was waiting for and it is very complete for me :slight_smile:

Nice info :+1: I think the plastic shroud would trap the heat more than dissipate the heat, but if it was made of Alu it would have heat sink’ed much better. Just because you can’t feel the heat in your hand doesn’t mean it’s not getting hot - that’s $ad….

Did you not look at the graph immediately above your post? The fanned outer shell absolutely pulls heat aways from the flashlight body allowing higher sustained lumen output.

The fans do not work miracles, also because they throw air with the ambient temperature, but they certainly do.

I obviously tripped over my words, I didn’t mean the fans do nothing - think I was trying to say an aluminium shroud wouldn’t trap the heat the same as plastic and would actually heat sink as well IMO.
1lumen has some good info on this light too.

I know of course 1lumen, it does some good technical reviews. Regarding the Imalent MS08, I think the protective shell with the two fans is innovative. I prefer this to a handle and in any case the cooling, even with its limits, lowers the temperature of the head, benefiting the electronics.

May i know what material is the shell made of?

La tua recensione è stupenda! Non solo è completa tecnicamente ma hai anche fatto delle foto esaustive che da sole dicono già tutto.Sono assolutamente d'accordo con te che le maniglie ormai fanno parte della preistoria e che Imalent abbia avuto un'idea geniale e spero di vedere presto altre torcia con questo involucro. Volevo anche fare un passo indietro circa quello che avevo scritto riguardo alle prestazioni dell'MS08 paconfrontata con l'Astrolux EC06 qui su BLF sul topic riguardante l'EC06. Con le batterie con cui viene venduta effettivamente all'avvio MS08 è più debole di EC06 ma ho sostituito le batterie Imalent con 3 Vapcell T42 che sono le batterie che usavo con EC06 e il risultato si è ribaltato questa volta Imalent è risultata all'avvio più luminosa di EC06 quindi è tutta una questione relativa a che tipo di batterie adottiamo.

Your review is great! Not only is it technically complete but you have also taken some exhaustive photos that by themselves already say it all.I absolutely agree with you that the handles are now part of prehistory and that Imalent had a brilliant idea and I hope to see more flashlights soon with this wrapper. I also wanted to take a step back from what I had written about the performance of the MS08 compared to the Astrolux EC06 here on BLF on the EC06 topic. With the batteries it is actually sold with at startup MS08 is weaker than EC06 but I replaced the Imalent batteries with 3 Vapcell T42 which are the batteries I used with EC06 and the result flipped this time Imalent resulted on startup more luminous of EC06 so it's all a question of what type of batteries we use.

Nice review.
I have to wonder about the water rating. Will the fans really survive a complete underwater dunk?
They look an awful lot like a set of small computer cooling fans.
But still, 10K-ish Lumens for a bit then perhaps 7K-4K for an hour on high. Awfully tempting except for the price….
All the Best,
Jeff

You mention comfortable to hold though heavy - is this so with the protective shell on? 4-cell soda can lights generally “clumbersome” for smaller hands and this is 3 cell I know but with protective shell I would think it would be wider than, say, Q8.

It is not ferrous material, it should be a hard plastic type but I’m not sure.

I have medium-sized hands and can hold it quite well.

Just got mine today and it is absolutely Incredible. Even when walking around with it on turbo it only felt slightly warm.

The only thing is that I can’t figure out how to lock the fan from turning on, which it does quite frequently. In fact, i could hear the fan running before I even opened the box when it came today

edit I don’t have a meter but it is far, dar brighter than my ~10,000 to 13,000 lumen Nightwatch NSX3 and 4’s. I haven’t seen anything like it except the MS18

It seems that the supply chains are badly hurt.I have ordered from Banggood one MS08 and one portable radio,and while I had not read in their site that the items are not in stock,they are indeed.
Now I wait,without knowing if and when they ship those. :frowning:
Edit:
I took a notice from BG today,that the radio has shippd.Now,I wait the light, to be shipped as well.

That sucks Theo… Mine came like 5 days after i ordered it.

Can’t wait to fire this thing up tonight. I’ve been trying to find a good way of blocking the fan button from getting activated. I have a lens cap from my binoculars that fits on there perfectly but i’d have to use a rubber band to hold it on. I even though that perhaps I could use a small metal disc since there’s a magnet in the tailcap for the fan charger but it’s not strong enough to hold anything.

Great review. Also see Imalent MS08 review | 34,000 lumen handheld flashlight | 1Lumen.com

You guys are going to love this light… so much power

Just wish I could keep that damned fan from turning on by accident

I add to the review a test, on the temperature, made using a thermal camera. The test was done with and without fans of the protective shell after 10 minutes with the MS08 in Turbo.
The Imalent MS08 can always be held in the hand thanks to the ventilated shell.

Imalent MS08 without ventilation.




Imalent MS08 with fans On.

Sweet pictures! My light is still perfect but one of the magnetic charging wires stopped working. Need to reach out to Imalent to see if they sell them separately. Wish they just used dual usb-c