UPDATED - [VIDEO REVIEW] Emisar D4V2 (SST20 4000K Fet+1 & E21A 2700K 5A Linear)

The focal point of this post is the video review above, below are all the numbers, some graphs and beamshots.

This review covers two lights: the D4V2Ti (titanium body with copper head) with the 5A constant-current linear driver and Nichia E21A LEDs in 2700K, and the aluminum D4V2 with the standard FET+1 driver and 4000K 95CRI SST20 LEDs. The SST20 light is equipped with the standard (10622) carclo optic and the Nichia light is using the frosted (10623) optic.

The original goal of this review was to cover the "basic" versions of the lights that can be readily ordered from Hank's site intl-outdoor.com WITHOUT any customizations via email. In the video, the lights were running the outdated Anduril 1 firmware that was loaded from the factory. I have updated the lights to Anduril 2, so a few issues have been addressed and improved. In particular, the ultralow issues on the linear driver have been mostly fixed, as I addressed in this video.


On Turbo (@startup), the SST20s put out 3,340 lumens, which will immediately begin to drop with the battery voltage, as direct drive is used on turbo. This is running off the Samsung 30Q cell - in theory, a cell with higher current draw will produce more, but the Molicel P26A did not net me any extra output, oddly enough.

The E21A puts out an even 1,000 lumens on turbo, which is held for about 10 seconds before beginning to drop.

Updated Runtime Graphs - done with the 3Ah Samsung 30Q cell, thermally calibrated, default thermal target.

Turbo Total Runtime:

The drop is very fast and dramatic. This next graph has an adjusted y-axis so the levels throughout the rest of the run are easier to read.

Turbo Total Runtime - Y-axis zoomed to 750 lumens:

Turbo - First 3 Minutes:

Output drops very rapidly on turbo, with the FET+1 model showing a lot of movement before settling around 15 minutes into the run. The FET+1/SST20 light is stable at about 200-250 lumens.

The E21 light with the 5A linear driver is less bright, less hot, and better regulated, settling at 100 lumens or so after 20 minutes of smoothly dropping down from 250 lumens.


With the default Carclo 10622 quad TIR optic, the SST20 light produces a beam with an intensity of 23,068 candela. This beam has some noticeable starbursting or cartwheeling on the edge of the spot, which is ugly but not disturbing during usage. Otherwise I think it's a great floody beam.

Using the floodier 10623 optic drops this light to 12,541 candela on turbo. This optic produces a very pleasant floody beam with even color.

With the frosted 10623 optic, the E21A light produces 3,347 candela, which is very floody given the high output of 1,000 lumens. The beam is evenly colored and extremely pleasant, perfect for indoor usage.

Using the Clear 10622 optic bumps this up to 7,310 candela, which is a nice increase. However, these LEDs don't produce the most pleasant beam in this configuration, with noticeable tint-shift towards the edge.

Comparing the beams between the two optics:

SST20

E21A

Finally, removing the optics results in an extremely floody beam with essentially no throw, and a near 180 degree beam angle; should you order the lights in a mule configuration, this is what you can expect (just with a bit more output):

SST20

E21A


The auxiliary LEDS of the lights are one of my favorite features, not only do they look amazing but they provide quite a bit of extra functionality. However, my biggest complaint is that high is too high, and low is too low - I wish there were some sort of middle ground here. Alas, the output is determined by the hardware configuration, so this can't be changed with a firmware update.

AUX drain:

Linear driver + illuminated side switch:

Standby (no lights): .03 mA

LOW:

  • Red - .09mA
  • Yellow - .11mA
  • Green - .07mA
  • Cyan - .09mA
  • Blue - .07 mA
  • Magenta - .10 mA
  • White - .12 mA

HIGH:

  • Red - 4.09 mA
  • Yellow - 4.58 mA
  • Green - 1.33 mA
  • Cyan - 1.72 mA
  • Blue - 1.23 mA
  • Magenta - 4.47 mA
  • White - 4.96 mA

FET+1 Driver:

Standby (no lights): .01 mA

LOW:

  • Red - .05mA
  • Yellow - .11mA
  • Green - .05mA
  • Cyan - .09mA
  • Blue - .05 mA
  • Magenta - .11 mA
  • White - .17 mA

HIGH

  • Red - 5.9 mA
  • Yellow - 7.02 mA
  • Green - 1.21 mA
  • Cyan - 2.46 mA
  • Blue - 1.31 mA
  • Magenta - 7.11 mA
  • White - 8.15 mA

Level 1/150 drain:

FET+1: 1.98 mA

LInear 5A: 1.76 mA

That's everything I think. I really enjoy both of these lights, the design is fun and the output on the FET model is pretty incredible. While it's much less of a hotrod, I do prefer the Ti light with the E21A LEDs, the warm high-CRI beam is absolutely beautiful and the heavy TiCU body feels great to hold, making it my preferred EDC lately.

I would highly recommend the D4V2 to someone looking for a very compact, hotrod style-light with tons of customizability. This is honestly a must-have for hardcore enthusisats in my opinion, it is the quintessential overkill enthusiast budget light.


(Original post)

I posted this already on reddit but I haven't posted (at all I think) to BLF before, so I figured I would share this here because you guys might appreciate it.

This is a very detailed video I put together in which I covered everything I could think to review about the Emisar D4V2. For this review, I wanted to stick with the normal options that can be ordered from Hank's site. This video covers the Aluminum model in Cyan with 4000K 95CRI SST20s and the FET+1 driver, and the D4V2Ti with E21A in 2700K and the 5A Linear driver. The SST20 was tested with Samsung 30Q. All measurements shown are my own, though I am not promising that they are super accurate.

I wanted to cover this light in as much detail as possible, and I wanted to make this a fun video to watch. Some quick notes:

  • I did NOT measure total runtimes, I don't yet have the ability to do so (and I wasn't about to manually log output levels for ~3 hours)

  • I did not see Toykeeper's Anduril 2 update until I was literally uploading this video, unfortunately

  • There's a ton of info, and sometimes the screen gets a bit cluttered. Desktop viewing is recommended

  • While there is discussion of custom options, I wanted to mainly focus on the light as sold stock from Hank's site

This video was a ton of work, I started putting it together about 3 months ago. Here's some stats to make it seem more impressive:

  • The script was over 14 pages, and the version in the video was trimmed down from 52 minutes long

  • I did 20 seperate tests

  • I recorded over 200GB of footage for this video

    • Over 230 shots were used, with 686 clips in the timeline

  • 7 animations were rendered in total, 1 in After Effects and 6 in Blender (not including composited footage)

  • This video includes 2 songs written by Toykeeper that I shamelessly ripped off of her YouTube channel

  • The other 5 songs are my own original compositions (not written explicity for this review though)

I really hope you enjoy this video. I am not an expert, I just really like flashlights, and I wanted to make a cool video about the D4V2 since I appreciate Hank's work. I also wanted to make a comprehensive review that would be as helpful to as many people as possible.

If you have any feedback feel free to share! I appreciate it

OMG this sounds amazing. I almost always skip video reviews since the useful info in them can usually be written in a half dozen bullet points, but I’ll be sure to watch this one. Can’t right now though.

LuxWad has nice videos.

Just in case you missed it the first time, LuxWad has nice videos.

I really enjoyed the video, thank you :beer:

Wow, best light review ever. Nice work is an understatement. Looking forward to your next light review.

Very nice detailed video man!!!
Thank you so much for share with us

Hey guys I just wanted to thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you enjoyed the review!

If you didn’t see it, Toykeeper did leave some corrections and extra info in the comments section. I did as much research as I could, but there were still a couple minor things that weren’t accurate. The new firmware updates also make some big changes.

I plan on making an Anduril tutorial video in the future, but I’ll probably be covering Anduril 2. As a result of that, I might do another video on Hank’s drivers since things are changing with some of the newest updates, but I don’t know when that will be able to happen.

I do have some more cool videos planned, however I’m not going to be making any more huge complicated projects like this for a while. Still, I’m pretty excited about some of the stuff I’m working on, I hope you guys enjoy it!

ToyKeeper is everywhere…look forever behind you
I’m joking :smiley:

What a nice review, thanks for taking your time to do this!

Very nicely done review. Looking forward to your next one.

LuxWad, I guess I’m gunna have to be that guy to say this! Your vid is basically flashlight porn.

Production quality video’s, for sure!

Thanks Hank, I’m really happy to hear that you liked it! :smiley:

Haha thanks, I guess that’s a good thing. Just try not to enjoy it too much :wink:

It was 40 minutes long but it felt like 20 minutes. :+1:

Boo.




Great review video on some awesome flashlights! :+1:

:smiley: :beer:

Check inbox

:smiley: Glad you like it!

These are excellent videos you do, LW! Watched this and a couple others this morning. Really well done, thank you for sharing them here.

Great review. Even though I have owned several of these for awhile , I really enjoyed watching! :+1: :beer: