Have you tried to run it on high for several minutes (on a 10440)? If so, what is the output and heat like?
In a lame attempt to do my part and pay it forward, TheShadowGuy, if you are in the states and PM me your address, I’ll be happy to send you 6 or 8 inches of Teflon tape. Everyone else on here seems to have a deep toolbox with cool extra LED’s and hosts, my toolbox has plumbers tape. 
Your favorite hardware store carries rolls of this stuff for cheap in the plumbing department, but if all you need is a little for this one light…
On high for 3 minutes, it was definitely warmer than on medium, butt not to hot to grab around the head. The copper spreads the heat to the body quite well.
But that is not how I use it. Medium provides all I want indoors and I have bigger guns for outside.
The tint is quite warm, I’d characterize it as creamy.
I would say medium on 10440 is just a bit brighter than high on an Enerloop Pro
Hello everybody. Is there any way to convince Astrolux to make AA version of this wonderful flashlight?
Unfortunately, probably not Astrolux. Someone earlier mentioned that Banggood (the owner of the Astrolux brand) and Manker (who makes the A01 light) have severed all ties. So, Manker is not likely to produce another light under the brand Astrolux.
However, Manker could make a AA version of their own light. I think the Manker E01 is the equivalent light to the Astrolux A01. So, perhaps Manker would make a AA version called the F01 or something. That would be great!
Lets hope it will happen sooner rather than later. People need affordable 219 Nichia AA Flashlight.
Is Banggood not manufacturing under Astrolux brand anymore?
Or Manker had acquired the Astrolux brand?
L3 Illuminations makes the L10 and L11 lights using the Nichia 219. They’re reasonably priced.
When I look at the inside of my Astrolux A01, they all say “Manker” on the pill inside the head. So, I don’t think Banggood ever did the manufacturing.
So far 35$ for the 219 version of L10.
If you go to their own site, it’s $25 for the twisty version. There’s probably a coupon or discount code somewhere, or from a retailer that sells them. I bought mine from Illum, but they don’t appear to sell them anymore. (My only complaint about Illum is that they don’t seem to stock many of the brands or models I used to buy from them, so I haven’t ordered from there in quite awhile.)
Is the tint different for the colored a01 (red specifically) vs the copper a01?
I broke the PCB wiring for a copper one and bought a red a01 for the purpose of using the new pill setup as a replacement. However the red a01 comes with neutral white and the copper a01 are yellow tint.
To put things into perspective,
yellow tint A01 is like XPL HI U3-7A
neutral white tint A01 is like the BLF-348
All my aluminum A01’s (various colors) are about 3900K CCT. About a 5D tint, maybe 6A at most. Certainly not 7A. However, they’re much warmer than my 348’s, which are from 5200K-5300K.
I’m not sure why you got a A01 with such a cool tint. Perhaps they’ve started a new batch of emitters, and the new ones are a cooler tint.
I’ve done further comparison. The scale of neutral white to yellow is as follows:
(neutral white) BLF348 -> New Nichia A01 (redA01) -> Old Nichia A01 (copperA01) -> XPL HI U3-7A (totally yellow)
Then again, the only explanation why the new Nichia would look so different from the older one is the use of a different batch altogether despite the Banggood specs stating same LED. Thought I would put this out there for anyone who wonders why their light output differs.
I have 3 of these little lights and all have different tints. Warmest one is probably under 4000k and coolest one about 5000k. I hate the warmest one and of course it was the silver light I wanted for myself.
I got mine in the initial group buy. Perhaps those were all warm tints? Anyway, I really like that they are warm. I much prefer these warm tints to the cool tints of the BLF-348.
I really find it useful when people talk about specific CCT. I agree the A01 that maukka tested came in at about 4000. I also agree the BLF 348 tests above 5000, but I do not agree 5000k is “neutral”.
terms like warm, neutral and cool are very confusing, and yellow is not a Color Temperature at all.
though it is accurate to say 4000 is warmER than 5000, I do not consider it accurate to call 4000k CCT “warm”. At least I call 4000 neutral.
And btw, Yellow is Not a CCT it is a tint that can affect all different CCT. For example 4000k can be yellow or rose Tint, 5000k can also have yellow, green or rose Tint. Tint is not CCT. Warm is not a CCT that people use consistently. For example I call 3000k Warm, and to me 5000k is in the Cool range.
point being warm is an often confusing term since people have different ideas of what CCT Warm IS. I suggest that people post side by side beamshots of the lights in question. By including one of the BLF 348 it will give a 5000k CCT reference to the other beams. Then we can SEE the difference between early and late A01 LEDs.
I can take some pics tonight of the Astrolux vs BLF. Going off memory the BLF is just a pure white light while the lowest kelvin astrolux is orangey/yellow. For me, neutral is pure white light like the BLF. That may be cool to someone else though, you make good points.
Here’s two pictures, showing BLF-348 (left) vs Astrolux A01 (right).
The first picture is taken with the camera’s white balance set to 4000K, making the A01 appear white. The second picture is taken with the white balance set to 5000K, making the 348 appear white.
Hmmm, looking at these, I probably should have set the white balance a little cooler than 5000K, as the 348 still appears a little blue under this white balance. Oh well, you get the idea.
excellent!
our brain also changes its white balance depending on ambient light
so during the day, 4000k seems more orange than sunlight at noon.
At night, after I have been sitting under 3000k incandescent, the 4000k looks blueish compared to ambient light
that is why when someone says they consider 5000k “pure white”, that just tells me they are looking at the beam during a time when their brain is white balanced to ambient light that is in the 5000k range. That same 5000k beam will look blueish when the brain, or the camera, is white balanced to 4000k, or less.
These changes in white balance make single beam shots not very useful. otoh, showing 3 beams at once will give relative color reference among them. This is why Im interested in seeing the old A01 in the same photo as the BLF 348 plus the new A01. Since my iPhone has automatic white balance, it really helps to have 3 beams in a photo.
for example:
that photo has set auto white balance to the XP-G2, so it makes the 6000k look “white”
fwiw, here is an example of using a folded piece of printer paper for beamshot comparisons. I recommend that approach, as it eliminates any confusion caused by different colors of wall paint.
this photo, above, is comparing two Nichia LEDs, the one in the ReyLight is about 4500k, the one in the L11c is about 5000k
you can see again that the auto white balance on my iPhone has set the L11c as the white balance reference.
I find that having 3 beams works better than 2, when using auto white balance. If one of the beams is from a light source that other people are familiar with, it gives a relative CCT reference for sake of comparison.
I use my dSLR, on which I can manually set a white balance to any CCT, as well as adjust the green-magenta tint offset. The problem with auto-white balance, is the camera will not only set a color temp, but also set a tint offset (green or magenta).
But, yes, if you only have auto white balance to use, then using multiple lights is the way to go. It will usually set the balance according to the dominant light source in the frame. Or failing that, pick an average.
I find that anything warmer than 4000K looks very yellow to me even after I’ve had hours to adjust to it. My white balance perceptual range seems to go from about 4500K to 5500K, and common 2700K bulbs make my eyes bug out. Like, an hour or two in that kind of light and I can’t even see color any more; everything goes to alternating shades of grey like an embossed image where only edges and contrast stand out.
My 4000K high-CRI A01 is nice, nicer than my 4200K low-CRI Zebralight, but my eyes never quite adjust to either one. They’re just … yellow.