Following up my review of its big brother E70 model, this 1x18650 version of this Acebeam light features 3x Nicha 519A Hi CRI emitters (under a distinctive TIR optic). It has quite an interesting beam pattern (even spotbeam with milder spill), and excellent circuit performance. Still has the same quirky interface and high standby drain, like its larger sibling.
Here is a runtime graph from the review, showing the initial step-down from Turbo:
I’m looking forward to seeing your emitter measurements when available. I’ve realized tint is very important to me. For an EDC type light, I will no longer consider those that have a positive duv, so knowing that ahead of time is critical to me (although I enjoy modding so if an emitter swap is feasible I’ll consider it).
Tint on the E70 mini is excellent. Especially when you unscrew the bezel, remove the Carclo optic, and pop off the domes with the back of a flat toothpick.
519a dedomed is currently my favorite emitter. High CRI with high R9, and negative duv.
Oh for sure. I think 519a is hard to beat and it’s my favorite general purpose LED right now.
That reminds me I need to order some more bare LEDs…
I was just speaking in general for all reviews. I know I’ll like anything with 519a. I’ve sworn off SST20s and LH351Ds and if I want a light that has those I know I’ll need to do a swap. But the duv measurements really come in handy for LEDs I’m not familiar with, like that one in the Armytec Wizard C2 in Selfbuilt’s comparison pic. It sure does look like I’d hate it but pics can be misleading, thus the benefit of duv measurements.
It would also be nice if reviewers gave some indication of mod-ability. For example, you said the bezel unscrews. That’s good to know for someone who might buy it with modding in mind. If the bezel were instead heavily glued or press-fit it would be good to know that too.
I’m waiting on a new Opple Light Master 4 before posting full testing results in the reviews. But I do have an old Opple Mk II, so took some CCT and CIE x,y measures (converted to Duv for you).:
Turbo mode has a CCT of ~4580K, and a Duv of -0.0075. From High through Ultralow modes, CCT is a very consistent ~4460K through ~4400K, and Duv is a consistent -0.0055 through -0.0065. It doesn’t deviate outside that rather tight range.
I consider this a great result, as I personally find ~4500-5000K with a slight negative Duv is my sweet spot for tint.
I will updating the review with more specific measures and charts in a few weeks.
Given the unusually high standby drain I detected, I decided to retest this light. With my current DMM, I continued to get inconsistent readings up the value reported in my review initially (note that my standard practice is to go with highest value when this happens).
But when I swapped in a new set of DMM leads and carefully masked off the inner contact surfaces (so no risk of contact with the inner body well contacts), I got a much more reasonable oscillation around ~58-60uA. So I’ve updated the review with a ~59uA estimate, which translates into 6 years to drain the cell.
I’m not going change the star rating, as I find the lack of Moonlight mode really hampers the use of this model as a EDC. But I will bump up my E70 review given its very nice moonlight mode (I had found a similar standby problem there - also resolved).
