Saw this pop up on DX’s ‘New Arrivals’ about 2 weeks ago. (Bear with me, this is my first review so if I miss anything obvious or not so, do flame away.)
Impulse buy: The worse kind. Maybe every kind of buy here. Anyway, I just got it and I must say I’m duly impressed. I expected poopyness and I got whoopyness instead. The finish, performance, size/handling characteristics, and price. What a steal.
Finish: Nice & tough satiny finish that doesn’t look or feel cheap. I dropped it already on concrete and it didn’t look the worse for wear. Everything feels and looks solidly executed. Threads were clean with no chips floating around.
Performance: Really nice balance between throw and flood out of the Q5 IMO. More on the throwy side. This thing blazes for what it is. An $8.60 light. Especially blazy on 16340’s. Run time on LiPo4’s @ 3.2v is plenty good and IMO is a nice compromise if you don’t need V8 performance all the time which I don’t because I have my Led Lenser David-19 for lower-lumenousity occasions. Don’t we all carry multiple EDC’s for almost every occasion? 8)
It doesn’t get hot on 3.2v’s. That much I know. Maybe on 16340’s it will but I’m not into long-run time in 6th gear when I’m not likely to run it that way anyway when I’m just going around the block for a stroll in the VW. It’s not like it’s a hot babe-a-roonie ya know….“Me love you long time” and all that stuff. So if I run it long it’ll be on the LiPo 3.2v’s. That’s just me I suppose. Kinda practical sometimes except when my wife asks me to do things on her never-ending list. Which I hate. Anyway, I digressed.
Size: Perfect size for an I don’t care what happens to it kind of EDC, IMO. Not too small and fumbly. Has the right flat areas where you can grip it well without it being sharp-edged annoying. The little gold separator band IMO at the head gives it just enough pizazz so that it appears a lot more expensive than it is. Subtly classy-looking IOW. Ok, maybe a little pimpy but hey this ain’t a Blitzin’ on the Ritz kinda site.
Price: What can I say. $8.60. I mean come on. Buy one. Geeze. I know quality when I see it. I’m good at that sorta stuff. Ask my wife. Why I married her. For her quality money. If you don’t like it give it away (but you’re probably insane.)
Misc:
O-rings are these nice thick red jobbies. Look more robust than Rosie O’Donnell in a fightin’ mood.
Tail stands with just a slight hint of wobble but not nearly enough to be of any operational consequence.
Has a real honest to goodness glass Lens which came clear and unsmudged.
No glass particles and such floating about on the deep SMO plastic reflector. Plastic? What do you expect for $8.60? Gold plastic?
Details: It even has these little ‘dimples’ around the battery cap that make unscrewing it a breeze. Nice touch.
Tail switch works nice and crisp with no glitches so far. I play with it every day. Constantly. I know. It sounds obscene.
Diamond knurling in just the right places and amount. I’m an amateur machinist so I’m kinda qualified. I guess. Maybe.
One guy bought this aluminum OP reflector as did I on his recommendation. It definitely gave the light a floodier throw. Since I’ve now bought 7 of these I’ve decided to keep some in stock SMO format for occasions where you want throw with a couple of these on hand in OP-aluminum where you need more flood. This thing is so easy to disassemble and it’s so solid that swapping reflector’s out and such is like passing wet wind. Easy to do at my age. No glue or overtorqued insanity on the head IOW. Everything fits flush, square, and mechanically manageable. I like that.
Bottomline this is easily diassembled without undue hassle. The pill-head mating surfaces are obviously tightly-toleranced so any heat dissipation premature LED life-ending issues aren’t likely to materialize. One reviewer mentioned that particular aspect.
Here’s the OP Aluminum reflector that fits it like a glove: (Fixed the link……)
Just remember to use a non-conducting spacer between the aluminum reflector and the emitter else likely there will be a POOF! I don’t know who sells these kind of spacers but those white thin plastic donut-looking things we use to reinforce paper holes for 3-ring binders come to mind as a possible idea. I took one off another light but I sure would like to find a real source. You know what? I’m just gonna lathe-off some natural delrin into thin wafers in the mean time.
Lastly, as a reviewer mentioned, this little runt screams “Mod me!”. I can see why. For the money I don’t see how in heck-fire this thing can be beat. IMO, this is one of the best bargain deals on DX period. How do they do this for $8.60? I can see maybe $9.25. I haven’t found it being sold anywhere else either. If this light can be beat for the dough let me know so I can buy more runt lights and I can have adequate illumination hidden around the nut house where the nurses can’t find them. I know one place that really stinks. They’ll never look there.
Lumatic (pronounced as in ‘Lunatic’)
