I won this light in the GearBest's World Cup Giveaway. I offered to do a review as I haven't seen any on this light yet. GB asked me to do an honest review. I will do my best, but I have to say I may be biased because I really like the light. There are "glamor" shots at the end of this OP.
Pro's:
- Great chunky build and proportions (My favorite feature)
- Sturdy construction with great feel in hand
- Tight, smooth, no slop zooming mechanism
- Glass Aspheric Lens
- High Quality Reflector
- Excellent Anodized Finish
- Excellent Machine Work
- Fully anodized, "square" threads throughout the light
- Large, heavy, very finely machined brass pill
- Brass contact ring on battery tube
- Brass contact plate for switch
- Driver is in nice heavy brass pill with brass retaining ring
- Double o-ring seals on both ends of the battery tube
- Has a tripod mount
- Good mode spacing
- Good mode memory
- Includes a replacement switch (Maybe not part of normal package?)
- Includes a diffuser and holster (Maybe not part of normal package?)
Neutral (Pro's for some, Cons for others):
- Big useful hotspot when focused (24kcd - 2600 lux at 10ft)
- 5 mode (L,M,H,Strobe,SOS) AMC7135-based driver
Con's:
- Thermal path to Heat Sinking is weak (fine for stock configuration)
- Slightly Under driven
- Tailcap current measured:
- L (.12amps)
- M (.70amps)
- H (2.27amps)
- There are some artifacts outside the hot spot when zoomed out
The 2.3 amps is not enough to get it very warm. But, iIf one wants to mod to high current levels, attention will need to be given to the weak thermal path from the emitter to the heat sinking portions of the light as follows:
- 16mm aluminum emitter base
- Easy to fix with Sinkpad or Noctigon base.
- Will probably need to adjust lens position slightly with a thicker o-ring to still get full focus.
- Thin .08" wall around and slightly below the pill. The thin wall extends about .2" below the pill before it begins to thicken.
- A fix would be to fabricate a copper bridge from the bottom of the pill to the thicker part of the head.
- Or, tightly pack aluminum foil under the pill up to the driver retaining ring.
- The heat sink fins are on the sliding portion of the head only contact the fixed part of the head by a rubber o-ring.
- The body and fixed portion of the head alone does have decent mass and surface area. So maybe fixing this may not be necessary.
- A possible fix would be to replace the rubber o-ring with copper wire and or a thin copper ring.
Don't know at what current (will depend on the emitter) that the thermal path bottlenecks become problematic. One would need to up current until thermal sag starts. Mod a weak point, retest, up current until thermal sag starts again, and then repeat. I don't have the time to do that right now. I now have a mod thread on this light here.
The beam artifacts don't bother me. I didn't notice them outside. I see them in the pictures, but not in real life usage. BLF member unknown00101 has a good suggestion in Post 10 that may fix the biggest artifact.
Some other stats (Some pulled from BG site. Some obtained by me):
Weight: 0.25 kg
Size (L x W x H): 4.6 x 4.6 x 13.2 cm / 1.8 x 1.8 x 5.2 inches
Emitter: XM-L2
Reflector: Aluminum Smooth
Lens: Glass Convex (42mm OD x 14 mm Thick @ widest point, Convex Diameter 36mm)
Body Material: Aluminum Alloy
Available Colors: Black
Here are some photos to compare size of the light. First next to other common zoomies. Mouseover is with lights zoomed out.
Next to some common single emitter lights.
Next to some multi-emitter lights (plus a single emitter 18650 tube light). Mouse over is with the B-650 zoomed out.
Breakdown photos and beamshots:
The light arrived in typical bubble envelope, but had some extra protection from the camo nylon holster.
Includes extra switch and diffuser. The extra switch is a nice touch as switches are the most common failure item (Get the most physical mechanical activity). Check out that awesome brass contact plate/retaining ring for the tailcap switch.
Light has fully anodized, "square" threads with double o-ring seals on both end of the battery tube. I'm not sure they are true square threads, but I can tell you they are work great with no slop. They seem like they will last a long, long time. Cleaned off some the thread lube in the non-mouse over shot below.
20mm Driver is AMC 7135 based with 6 chips. Love that retaining ring. Should help to maintain a tight electrical connection and to pull heat from the driver.
Brass contact ring on head side of battery tube. Sweet :)
Nice interior finish too.
The reflector has a very high quality finish. Not sure what it does. I think it captures some of the normally wasted side light and focuses it towards the center of the aspheric lens. Will be interesting to measure output with and without it.
Emitter base is on some type of paste. Looks to be designed to prevent a galvanic reaction between the aluminum base and the brass pill. Don't know it's thermal properties. You can see the bottom of the reflector to the right of the head. Tapers down to the center to hold down the emitter.
17mm driver and pill
Driver retaining ring, bezel, lens o-rings, lens, reflector. The reflector had a small touch of thread lock.
Pill had a small amount of low temp thread lock. Didn't take much heat at all to melt thread lock. Just zoomed out the head and heated around the think part of the head. Mouse over shows the type of thread lock that was on the reflector and pill.
That o-ring is the only contact point to the fixed part of the head.
Hard to see. The head wall tapers down to .08" thickness a little below the threads. Wall is thinner in the thread valleys.
Here is where the pill bottoms out. Heat has to travel down a couple thread windings and thin .08" wall before reaching the portion of the head that thickens.
Tailcap, button cover, washer, switch, spring cap and insulating ring, switch retaining ring, brass contact plate:
BLF member _the_ has some breakdown pics here.
The light is a bit of a explorer. Better keep an eye on it if you attach legs to it.
It is also a bit of a bully. It didn't play well with my other aspheric lights. Here it is chasing them around. Cute until night when it opened a a big ole can of whoop ass on them.
Here are a couple beam shots. I will take some better shots after I mod the light.
Tree is about 250 feet away and 70 feet tall (High mode).
About 225 feet and 20 to 30 feet high.
Here are a few "glamor" pics. I noticed after taking the pictures that I didn't wipe down the light first. The out of place o-ring is my fault. I was in a big hurry putting the light back together to take some pics this morning. If I get a chance to retake, I will post them instead.
Can't wait to dedome the emitter and up the current in this baby. Wouldn't mind putting _the_'s, TheStar FW in it with his permission.
