Finally got mine a couple of days ago, ordered on 05/08. Just in time to gift one to a friend who is a physician, won’t see him again for quite possibly a long while.
Went through the whole order and found one with the highest CRI to my eyes. There was one! that was clearly different from the others, looked more SW45 whilst the rest all looked more SW50 and seemed to wash out reds more. I would have definitely kept it had it not been needed in that capacity.
Pros: The machining between joints match very well, fit and finish are good. Clip holds well enough. I like the single mode, and output is decent even on alkaleaks. Tint is nice.
Cons: Tail switch plunger is sorta sloppy but works well. A couple of the emitters are off center. But at this price point its hard to complain.
Overall I’m very satisfied and will be placing another order soon.
It´s a great light, does somebody know the exact kelvin value of the nichia LED used? It´s such a nice neutral light, should be around 5000K, I like this tint much more than the tint of the Astrolux A01 I just got, this has 4000K and is just too yellowish for my taste.
I actually prefer the warm A01 tint at 4000K, but the BLF348 is okay too (because it’s high CRI). The CCT of mine measure between 5200K - 5300K. I consider that to be on the cool side of neutral, but it’s still a nice tint due to the great colour rendition.
2 modes would be enough for me on this light. I find multi-mode with a mechanical clicky can get rather tedious if there are too many modes to click through. Multi-mode works much easier with an electronic switch.
But, for the purposes I use this light, the single mode and output level of it are just about right as it is.
If they do make a multi-mode at some point in the future, then a mode at 10 lumens and 100 lumens (on a AAA cell) would be great. Better yet, make it a 1xAA light with those 2 modes.
If they went with 3 modes, add a moonlight mode, but also implement mode memory so we don’t have to click through to medium or high all the time.
I know it wouldn’t be that popular, but it would be interesting to see a version made in copper for better heat dispersion. I would really like to use a 10440 cell, but the heat issue makes it not practical in its current form.
Question: Is a reverse clicky easier to make or something. I prefer a forward clicky for its momentary ability without having to actually turn the light on. I was just wondering why the decision was made to make it a reverse clicky. I know that the original Singfire 348 is a reverse clicky, and that is why it was carried over to the BLF version.
I bought some of these nichia BLF-348 AAA lights just for travel. But what a hassle! They set off all the airport and other security alerts in USA, EUROPE and Australia. The xray scanners see them as either bullets or detonators. What a pain.
I do like them though.
I’m not sure a copper body would help much. From the heating, it seems like most of the heat stays in the head, while the body remains quite cool. I think that implies that it’s not very well heatsinked. Of course, they could also make a better heatsink if they made a copper version.
Maybe I’m wrong about the heatsinking not being very good; I haven’t taken apart the light to check. But all my other aluminum lights (and steel, though that is limited) seem much better at heating the entire light, not just the head. It could just be that the 348 body is so long in proportion to the diameter, so hard to get the heat to propagate down the tube. Copper would help that. But I’m not convinced that’s the only problem.
I think most people prefer reverse clickies (I do). And, on a multi-mode light (not the case here), forward clickies don’t make much sense because they mess up the mode switching. I like reverse clickies, because they usually are recessed to allow tail-standing (again, not the case with this light).
