Convoy S21D w/ legendary Nichia 219b :) - Review & comparison w/ Nichia 519a, E21a & other lights with Nichia LEDs incl. Emisar D4V2, Convoy S21F. (Summary & measurements on P. 1)

I’ve seen reviews saying the bezel on the H2 creates a weird beam, I don’t see it in your pic however.

Did you noticed anything?

This review Convoy H2 Headlamp Review, USB C, 175m, 1000 Lumens, Tactical Feature - YouTube? Yes there is a faint outer ring at the periphery, possibly from the bezel but I’m not sure. On white wall you see it as a faint outline, in real life use it’s not as easily noticeable (I’ll take a picture later to show this). My camera was set with exposure for the brighter hotspot, that’s why you don’t see it.

Hot spot and spill, the central field of vision, are pure as expected in my Nichia H2, unlike the H2 in that review, which has Cree LED and what seems to be in world of green hell.

Which 10 degree optic did you get? Clear or frosted?

I just got a package of
10 degree bead (I now realize this means frosted right?)
10 degree flat
30 degree bead lens from Simon.

My current S21D light has stock 60 degree so I could take some beamshot picture comparison when I have time. I accumulate too many things to do for these Nichia lights. Love hurts. :person_facepalming: :confounded:

Guys just think which other vendor would be dedicated enough to the hobby to put Nichia 219b in a headlamp? It’s nuts, unprecedented, and unlikely to be repeated.

The warm beam color just flat out KILLS my other top headlamps: Sofirn D25L, $$$ Fenix HM65R-T, Coast XPH30R. BTW like nearly all Convoy lamps they run hot and hence remain top-class with respect to prolonged brightness. And at 20 bucks with the present coupon, how could we lose? :innocent:

Recently I used Yajiamei 10 degree (in different host) and it looks like this:

Details are in this post

Looking forward to your tests with the other TIR optics, cannga. I just ordered the light and the optics pack and will be sorely disappointed if the optics don't perform well.

You won’t be disappointed. My S21D with 60° likely has the brightest and most useful beam on the market for a quad 219b light, at least vs D4V2 (which I still love for other reasons). The other optics are just flavors for us hobbyists to tune the light to personal preference and above all, have fun.

I’m sure you already know but 219b lights are not born to be world-class bright thrower. Even the “best” of these quad-LED lights, which IMHO the S21D is, is still only a borderline walk light, and most definitely not a “safety” light wrt brightness and throw. They are simply lights of unique and beautiful color/tint that is simply unmatched, even after all these years, most useful for use around the house etc.

I have D4v2s with XPL HIs under 10622, and 219bs and E21As under 10623, so I definitely have higher than average expectations, or should I say hope, for beam quality with TIRs. I ordered my S21D with 4500K 519As. I'm just hoping there won't be bright or dark rings and/or many artifacts in the beams with these Convoy TIRs, and that the differences in beam angles and flat vs beaded are obvious.

I find it very obvious (I dont overlap the beams):

(but I dont have your light, those are Lumintop AAA Tools w 219b LEDs)

imo, here is an example of how NOT to compare beams:
.

and how I think that beamshot looks better:
.

Thanks, Jon.

BTW Jon is showing orange peel reflector vs TIR, what we will be comparing are TIR optics, frosted vs clear.

For the D4V2 TIR optic that we have (10623 frosted vs 10622 clear), I’ve found frosted optic makes beam more homogenous/beautiful (see pic below), but it cuts brightness at the hotspot by more than half as measured with my Opple.

Below are comparison shots when frosted optic (10623) in E21a is replaced by clear (10622). You could very clearly see how that yellow ring is disguised by the frosted optic. E21a with frosted is nearly identical to 219b like magic. The fun we have with these lights are endless :-).

yes, same as the photo g_damian posted, a reflector beam compared to a Tir beam

I agree also with your observation that frosted optics are less bright than clear optics

also true for wide angle optics, they are less bright on target, than narrow angle optics

Can you PM me the page with the discount code? Thanks!

S21D one of the best lights IMO

I know they’re different lights but would you go with the S21D or the H2 :smiley:

Could I also get the discount code for it down to $20? I only see a discount for orders over $26.78, you get $1.34 off. You could get a US $7.14 discount for Orders over US $142.85 :frowning:

[quote=jon_slider]

IOW there is a price to pay, a give and take whichever direction you take. Like nearly all of my hobbies, or life :confounded: ?

Also adding the following based on my (limited) experience - what do you think?
TIR optic tends to “beautify” the beam, picture perfect clean hotspot and spill. If you don’t like beam artifacts stay with TIR, and for perfection goes one step further, FROSTED TIR , but brightness may suffer.
Reflector doesn’t hide artifacts such as extra rings besides the classic hotspot and spill. My Reylight Pineapple Copper, presently the only vendor brave enough to use smooth reflector with 219b 4500K, has so many rings on white wall hunting I stopped counting. Not the fault of the light, just the way it is with reflector.

Sorry guys *!@#^ Aliexpress tricked me again with the “tricky” discount code advertisement ; it’s for $140 purchase. So no discount, but doesn’t Simon post discount code on his BLF thread? (I’ve not used one.)
S21D vs H2: S21D quad LED with TIR will have much brighter beam and less artifact than H2, which has single LED with Reflector albeit Orange Peel. OTOH if you need a headlamp…. of course it’s the one and only H2 :+1: .

Yup, everything has limits, want a more diffused beam, willing to use less Lux? etc

I personally tend to avoid fuzzy beams, diffusion, frosting, etc… If there are artifacts, I live with them or move on… but I generally dont add filters, films, or diffusion. Otoh, I really like Pebbled Tir… (consistently inconsistent, I am… lol)

as far as reylight, the one I worked on had a perfect beam. I actually use it as an example of what good looks like:
look at the first two images in this album: Beam profiles - Album on Imgur
(those are all single LED, I dont use quads, and seldom use triples)

For owners of Emisar D4V2 wondering about the difference between D4V2 and S21D, I have a more concrete answer with arrival of the Oppel Lightmaster.

First, wrt quality of beam, from picture below I see beautiful beams from D4V2 with quad 219b LED and 10622 clear TIR. When you are near perfection like D4V2, there is nothing the S21D could improve upon IMHO.

Where the S21D is better, is prolonged brightness. In real life use, I have noticed that the D4V2 starts bright but then becomes too dim to use for me as a walk light. Photographs also show a dimmer, smaller beam versus S21D. With the Lightmaster Pro, I now could roughly quantify the stepdowns of D4V2 vs S21D 219b 4500K using ceiling bounce method. The number is percentage of lumens of max Turbo start. The 2 lights start at roughly same brightness level, but watch the difference in subsequent stepdowns.
D4V2: 100% start, 40% at 2 minutes, 28% at 5 minutes, 22% at 10 minutes
S21D : 100% start, 85% at 2 minutes, 68% at 5 minutes, 39 % at 10 minutes
Roughly, 90 seconds after Turbo start, Convoy’s lumen values are twice those of D4V2’s.

BTW, prolonged brightness seems to be the hallmark of all Convoy flashlights I have, big or small. They do all run hotter than other lights (60° C at the head is par for the course), and they do seem to stay bright. Conversely, very rapid/significant stepdowns seems to be the behavior of my small Nichia lights with Anduril, Wurkkos TS21(even worse) and D4V2. PS Still love all my Emisar’s, for many reasons :+1: :slight_smile: .

Btw the D4V2 has max stepdown temp set to 55 C.

When I have time maybe I will rerun the test with max temp set to 60 to equalize the equation.

Also maybe rerun at one level below Turbo (lower starting brightness) to see if that helps the light to not stepdown to such a low level.

Those results are no surprise. Convoy’s rather basic heat management usually results in relatively high and stable sustained brightness.