These are with the lights tailstanding on top of a door, about 60cm from the ceiling. Like I said, the J4 is on the left in each of these.

All four lights are using a 14500 on maximum.

J4 and Trustfire R5-A3. As the Trustfire is on the cool side, it makes the J4 look warmer than it is. The beam colour of my J4 is nice, better even than the Trustfire F22 which was my favourite till today.

J4 and Uniquefire AA-S1

J4 and Trustfire F25

All 14500 powered on high. Trustfire F22, Trustfire R5-A3, Trustfire F25, Uniquefire AA-S1, Mrlite J4

(Over) Exposed for the beams. The R5-A3 has the widest beam, the F22 and J4 the tightest, despite the J4's huge hotspot.

SashiX wrote:

Great job, Don. Can you make less exposed last shot? 1/100 or less. Thanks 

I think the exposure was1/200. But I'll need to mess with manual exposure and a tripod to get better results. There isn't room for a tripod where I took those pictures so it'll take a while.

newbie74 wrote:

One question: Is the J4 your favorite light so far?

Too soon to say. I do like it a lot, but there are flaws - the battery tube needs tobe about half a millimetre shorter, or better, the spring post needs to be 4mm longer. Matt covered this in his review.

If I could only keep one light it would almost certainly be the Zebralight H50.

Edit: That said, the perfect light does not exist. It might be nice if the really low low were a lower current draw - which it might be on some because this is presumably down to the variations in forward voltage ( V_f) of the LEDs. Given the brightness of mine, it would seem possible that I have a low V_f LED in my one. It may be that it exceeds Cree's maximum allowable current. After all, it exceeds MrLite's claimed output by 40%. This seems improbable to me. I'd guess my lumen estimates are still on the high side AND I have a low V_f emitter. 

If it exceeds Cree's specifications by too much, LED life may be shortened. However, how much use is it going to get given the number of lights I own? And by the time it does expire I'll likely have newer ones.

I'll go into more detail once I get a review written.

newbie74 wrote:

Don,

no need to mess with manual settings. If your EXIF is correct, you're using a Nikon D5000. Just behind the shutter release button there is a +/- (exposure compensation) button. Press that and rotate the thumb dial. If you set the compensation to -2 you should be able to easily get an underexposed shot.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Edited: Remember to press it again and set to ZERO to undo the setting...

Thanks for the tip. I've been taking pictures for around 40 years but reading the manual for the D500 makes me  give up the will to live. I never need the manual for anything that used film - I used to sell them, but that was more than 25 years ago.

I'll do better close-up beamshots tonight.

newbie74 wrote:

Another question about the J4:

Has anyone found a good clip (with international shipping) for it?

It is a fraction smaller in diameter than an 18650 light, so it is possible that one for an 18650 light will work.

I'm not a clip person so I'm really not too sure what's out there.

Some more close-up beamshots. These are the length of an alkaline AA from the front glass of each light to the wall. These guys are pretty bright.

Trustfire F22, Trustfire R5-A3, Trustfire F25, Hugsby P31 with the gold P32 driver, Uniquefire AA-S1, Mrlite J4. All of them are on maximum running 14500s.

With the exposure stepped down rather a lot - like 5 stops.

Stepped down just about as far as it'll go.

Nautic wrote:

Maybe this will fit: http://www.itc-shop.net/product_detail.php?t=FA&s=17&id=56

That might just work though it is likely to be a slightly loose fit.

Here's a picture of the J4 sitting on the end of a Solarforce L2. Sadly the camera refused to focus where I wanted it to - though there is a nice and sharp O ring there. The J4 is under a millimetre smaller in diameter.

I already use some fat magnets in there. 

Crudely put.

If you don't own something you can use as a conductive spacer, don't buy this light!

I plan to take a grinder to this light. The tube is just too long. Hopefully they'll bring out other battery tubes.

I want 16340, 14500, 17500 ad 18650 tubes.

If I have to choose one, I want 16340 tubes.

newbie74 wrote:

The underexposed beamshots showed me how bright the trustfire R5 is. Wish list just got a bit bigger

The Trustfire R5 is the brightest AA light I own. It is producing nearly as much light as the ROP low in a 6D Mag.

Everything I've got that is brighter is a whole lot bigger. It isn't perfect but it is good. Review here. 

Review: TrustFire R5-A3 XP-G R5 1xAA 3-mode

Doing the runtime tests seems to show up a feature/bug. It seems to shut off after a while. Will need to look at the runtime graphs to see how long.

It doesn't seem to be an issue in the real world though - shutoff is several hours.

This is the non-BLF version. I'm still waiting for the BLF one.