Looks like a piece of crap. Especially the 3xAA one. I’m pretty sure 3xAA will power an XM-L to about 400 lumens, not 1800, lol. The small lens wont throw very well either, and did you see the awful rings on the 3D one?
It is interesting though that it even uses AAs, since so many cheapies use Li Ion.
Looks pretty cool. First “Auto Zoomie” I’ve seen. I would have to imagine the auto zoom motor? would be pretty hard on the AA batteries for battery life though. Very interesting, thanks for posting it.
Weird thing, nice for collectors or one-handed people. ;)
Some thoughts:
- No memory, starts on high
- Must loop all three modes (including strobe) to turn off
- Zoom works only when light is on
- One-handed zoom feels like a good idea
- TC draw 1.5A on high, 0.45A on low
- Nice even flood
- Bit ringy throw
There are some small nicks in anodizing, otherwise good. For an AA light this is long & heavy (quite thick walls), and it feels good in hand.
Output is ok, about 400lm OTF on high, 125lm on low. Low mode has PWM, but it's not very slow.
Tint is pretty usual CW.
The most annoying thing of this light is the auto-retract of the lens. Consider a situation when you have found a good zoom level, but want to change from low to high (via strobe & off!) => off retracts the lens. Even a really quick click back on doesn't prevent the zoom level from changing..