Review: Roche F22 NW (Cree XM-L T6 | 1-2 x 26650 or 18650)

Roche F22 NW (Cree XM-L T6 | 1-2 x 26650 or 18650)

Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★

Summary:

Battery: 1-2 x 26650 or 18650 (or 3 x SubC)
Switch: Side switch, electornic clicky
Modes: Ramping: High->Low (with memory), Hidden Strobe / SOS
LED Type: XM-L T6 3C (NW)
Lens: Glass
Tailstands: Yes
Price Payed: $55 (+ $5 for extension tube)
From: FancyFlashlights
Date Ordered: August 2012

Pros:

  • Side switch
  • Very nice UI
  • Hidden Strobe / SOS
  • Available as NW
  • Very good runtime with 2 x 26650
  • Stepless ramping
  • Low enough low
  • No / negligible parasitic drain
  • No PWM, even on lowest low
  • Tailstands
  • Very good build quality
  • Seemingly waterproof
  • HAIII anodized
  • Comes in a good box
  • Lanyard, 18650 adapter, and two extra O-rings included
  • Optional extension tube allows the use of 2 x 26650 OR 3 x SubC NiMH cells

Cons:

  • Ramping might be too fast or slow for someone, just perfect for me.
  • Double click time is very short, requires practice to access 2nd or 3rd hidden mode.
  • Came without a second 18650 adapter for extension tube (Need to ask Ric about this)
  • Bezel is too ... (I don't dare to say the t-word here) -> I might need to Foyzel it later..

Features / Value: ★★★★

The light comes in a plain package. Nothing fancy, but keeps the flashlight safe during postage.

The sticker says something in Chinese + F22 + something. :)

Package contains the light itself, optional extension tube, a nice lanyard, and two extra O-rings

Features are good: Adjustable brightness (about 20 to 800lumens OTF), side switch (electronic clicky) and hidden blinky modes.

UI is very nice: One main mode with memory, ramping to set the main mode brightness, and three hidden blinky modes.

Ramping is activated with a long press of the switch: Light starts to brighten and blinks once in full brightness. If you keep the switch pressed, the light ramps down and blinks once in lowest setting. Just release the switch when desired brightness is reached and the light memorizes it (memory works even when replacing the batteries).

The hidden blinky modes are accessible with quick double click when the light is on. First double click activates the continuous strobe (full brightness), second double click activates an intermittent strobe (1s strobe, 1s off), and third double click brings us a pretty fast SOS with 4s pause.

Double click time is so fast that you can even use Morse code with the switch without changing modes!

If anyone is worried about the light turning on accidentally, I can comfort you by saying that the light can be locked out simply by unscrewing the head or tail about 1/8 - 1/4 turns.

Value for money: Good.

Design / Build Quality: ★★★

Design is very nice. Side clicky suits this light very well.

The anodization is very good overall, glass lens looks nice, and the electronic switch feels reliable.

Let's see some details..

Stainless steel bezel and nice cooling fins:

Well positioned & very functional side clicky:

Well centered NW emitter with nice tint in a SMO reflector.

The threads were anodized, very smooth, and well lubed. Just like I want them! Throw in a beefy O-ring and the light is ready for success..

And the same in the other end:

Here are the three main parts disassembled:

Note also the low resistance features in both springs. First time for me to see this kind of things in a budget light! Looks pretty thin, but nice gesture anyways..

Tailcap spring:

Head spring. Note also the plastic washer and upside down design of the spring!

The stainless steel bezel was very tight and I was a bit hesitating to unscrew it, but hey: I'll do whatever to keep BLF members happy!

So here's some pics of disassembled head. Bezel, glass lens, O-ring and reflector removed. Looks very clean here. Plastic cup keeps the emitter contacts safe.

Nothing else to remove on that side, let's continue on the other side.

The driver is secured with a brass retaining ring:

Another photo of the driver itself:

Other side of the driver. Note the brass ring around the driver.

Note also the interesting thing: There is no pill, but the emitter & star is glued on the head itself. Aluminum layer below the star is quite thick and provides near perfect thermal path to the cooling fins. I can't wait to see how good this performs in runtime & temperature tests!

Here you can see the bottom of the side switch:

And here's the side switch from the other side:

The electronic switch is kept on place with a retaining ring which, together with the switch cap, seems to be very waterproof:

Very clean machining also here:

Here is the whole light disassembled. Note also the beefy O-ring underneath the lens.

Some measurements:

Length: 163mm (230mm with extension tube)

Head diameter: 48.9mm

Body diameter: 33mm

Tail diameter: 34mm

Weight: 368g with cell and lanyard (= ready to use), 274g without (324g with extension tube)

And same with pictures:

And the bottom line in the quality: Absolutely nothing to complain. Very good from head to tail!

Battery Life: ★★★★

Good! Up to 2 x 26650 will allow long runtimes.

I measured the tailcap current with one cell and got results of 2.97A on high and 0.05A on low. Two cell results are half of those.

This would give almost 1.5h runtime on high (3h with 2x26650 config) and over 80h on low (160h = over 6 days with 2x26650)!

Electronic switches are known to have some parasitic drain, but in this case it was unmeasurably small => not an issue.

Light Output: ★★★★

This light is just bit less bright than my XinTD C8 NW, but I would still classify this as "bright" (as a single emitter light).

Runtime & thermal tests to follow. Stay tuned.

I estimate (ceiling bounce + "known" references) the light output to:

- about 800 lumens on high

- about 20 on low

White wall beamshots (WB: Daylight)

Low

High

Beam angle, low

High

Outdoor beamshots

50mm, 2.0s, f/4.0, ISO200, WB:5000K. Distance to the tree in the middle: 50m

Low: (This was visible in the real life, but really low)

High:

Compared to XinTD C8 NW (Mouse over for XinTD)

Summary: ★★★★

Very good flashlight with nice features, very good runtimes (especially with the optional extension tube) and superb build quality.

Verdict: Highly recommended!

The End (pun intended):

Thanks for reading & watching. Hope you enjoyed the review!

Fantastic photographs and review the, thanks.

Great job on this review!

Great pics. Looks like another one to add to the list of lights I want badly.

Very well done light.

oh what a gorgeous light! Sideswitch, ramping, extension tube, anodized square treads…. :heart_eyes:
Makes me want to pick up my first “big one”…
And I agree with you that the bezel is to tacti for my taste, but that would be really the one and only thing i would change.

You said Sub-C, so I guess that normal C -Cells would not fit? because wikipedia says there 27mm….instead of 26mm of the 26650’s. And three of them would be 150mm long instead of the 130 from the 26650…hmmm can you confirm that?

Very nice the review :wink:

2.97A on high.

  1. Could you measure currents for 1 cell @ 4V , 3.7V , 3.5V
  2. Does it has memory mode when you take out battery?
    Thanks

Great photos and very helpful review!

Thanks for your efforts!!

I don't have any NiMH C cells, but Duracell alkaline C measures at 25.5mm and can be dropped in the tube (inner diameter is 26.5mm).

However, three standard C cells are too long for one extension tube. If my calculations are correct, four C cells would fit near perfectly with two extension tubes.

1. I'll try that as soon as I have some extra time.

2. Yes it has.

Thanks for the review! Just pulled the trigger.

Damm I like this light, I just promised Mrs gords I won’t buy any more lights for a while. :frowning:

Good! Up to 2 x 26650 will allow long runtimes.

I measured the current at the switch and got results of 2.97A on high and 0.05A on low.

What’s the amps on 1 battery?

Sorry for being unclear. I'll try to update that to make it more readable.

Those were measured with one cell. Two cell results were about half of those (= 1.50A & 0.025A)

Thank you the for your review! 1) The beam profile of the F22 looks a little ringy, can you confirm? 2) The F22’s driver says “LD 33” on it. Visually comparing it to the LD 33 driver HERE they look almost identical except for the second black wire the F22’s driver has attached to it (goes to the switch). The specs for the driver on the website are completely different. :frowning: the can you verify at all the differences between the driver in the F22 and that shown in the link? I’m wondering if the driver linked can perform like the driver in the F22 with a little mod. :smiley:

Really cool light! Thanks for the review!

They are two different drivers, one with 3-9V input for 1 led and one with 9-17V input for 3 leds, that is clear on the Chinese forums.

Great review the !

Hikelite, do you have a link for the 3-9V version? Can it be bought separately? Is it a regulated driver?

Thnx

Any comments, can this light house 2 x of these King Kong Raised Tops?
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/kingkong-inr26650e-raisedtop-4000mah-liion-battery-p-370.html

Better recommendations? ICR or INR better for this use?

If you want to use 2x26650s in series , recommended protected cells.