XTAR D01 diving flashlight
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★★
Summary:
Battery: | 18650/18700 |
Switch: | special magnetic |
Modes: | variable by 16 steps |
LED Type: | CREE R5 |
Lens: | toughened 5mm |
Tailstands: | yes, perfectly |
Price Payed: | borrowed |
From: | friend, www.xtarlight.de for EU |
Date Ordered: | N/A |
Pros:
- Built like a tank (not the manufacturer)
- Flawless machining and coating
- Very thick lens
- Double quality oring prefectly lubed
- Excellent magnetic switch and the limited by steps variable output
- Very appealing design
- Very usefull and sturdy lanyard
- Waterproof up to 100m (unverified)
- Nice SMO deep reflector
- Excellent very low, low "mode"
Cons:
- Could be driven harder at max brightness
- Cannot be easily disassembled if possible at all without damaging it
- The magnetic switch draws 10mA if the body isn't unscrewed by a 1/4 of turn to disable the circuit
- Battery cannot be swapped underwater. :P
Features / Value: ★★★★★
Being a flashlight designed for diving it has to be built for that purpose. Magnetic switch stands out. Very well made! The switch provide around 16 different outputs. It's a slide switch and works like "ramping" but is got limited steps. Nothing to complain about. Since the magnetic switch draws power even when the flashlight is "off" it is advised to unscrew the body by a 1/4 of a turn to disable the circuit. Features a 5mm lens and a totally sealed fashlight head without a bezel. Tailstands. Has a nice and sturdy lanyard suitable best for divers. When the body is fully screwed it blinks once at full brightness for a fraction of a second showing it is ready for use. Very neat.
Design / Build Quality: ★★★★★
It's compact for the fetures it bolsters. Excellent threads and orings. Feels like a very professional product. Machining and coating is flawless too. Apart the battery holder the flashlight cannot be fully disassembled. At least without possibly ruining it. It's not really a con because that way the required waterproofing can be easily achieved. Sports a relatively big and deep SMO reflector which is more of a thrower than a flood light. This is one of the finest flashlights i was pleasure to play with. Not exactly budget but not expensive either considering it was not built for camping purposes. It does get warm after a while but i see no issues using it without being underwater at all.
Battery Life: ★★★★☆
At full brightmess the flashlight draws exactly 1000mA from a fresh XTAR 18700. These cells are nice and actually same size as your usual oversized protected 18650. At minimum brightness draws 40mA. The missing star from 5 star rating was deducted since the switch in "off" position does drain some current. 10mA is quite alot! In a few days it can drain your fully charged battery of choice flat. Protected batteries are strongly advised. Even by using them the 1/4 of turn to disable the circuit is strongly suggested.
Since it has variable output runtime may vary. At full brightness i guess it should run 2h at least. Can't try for low mode since i must return it fairly quickly. Current draw for about half brightness is around 600mA.
Light Output: ★★★★☆
The light output is quite standard. This R5 is driven near 1A to the led. Would have preferred the flashlight at max could provide 1400mA to the emitter. Don't know if divers need that extra output but for general use due to massive heatsink capabilities of this flashlight would be nice. It is more of a thrower but with useable side spill. The beam is good looking with a well defined hotspot and very few artifacts. I could say none, but if you are being very picky you can spot some by dedicated watching at 1m from wall. Since R5 work fine with SMO reflectors this was probably the right choice. At 1 metre i was able to record a good 13300 lux.
Beamshots:
This is 120cm from wall at max. Don't know why the camera wanted to add a green glow which was definitely not present.
This is 120cm from wall at the lowest low. Still a bit of green present. It's a indoor daylight shot (like the one above), the walls were ambientally lit like it is shown on the photo.
For purists! This is about 250cm worth of ceiling shot in bathroom (100% dark) The color rendering this time is accurate (at least on my monitor). At max.
Summary: ★★★★★
This is my frist flashlight that deserves a full 5 star rating since the minor drawbacks are easily offset by features it provides. It's a no brainer for divers. Others may like the switch and design with an average R5 based somehow thrower flashlight.
I'm not a diver so i must quote a few that own the flashlight and they all agree it is a very good flashlight. The most deeper they used one was about 35m in saltwater. These are underwater welders and such and usually don't go very deep. One said that this one rivals easily 200€ worth diving flashlights from underwater equipment manufacturers. This is good news for divers on a budget since this one can be bought for around 60€ or less. Not exactly cheap but features a 2 year warranty. Emitter excluded...