Hi all,
Sorry if this has been asked before,but I have not come across it yet if it has.
Are there any ‘budget’ zoom lights that have a ‘normal’ looking hotspot when zoomed, and not ‘emitter’ shaped? (Like a coast or led lenser has.)
Thanks
I think the main difference between my ledlenser p5 and a clone of it that I also have is the condenser type aspheric lens. which I think needs the led to be mounted on a pillar of some sorts to be at the right distance . as far ad getting that in a budget type light, I’m not so sure they make one. but if they did I would be interested as well.
.
the led lenser’s beam is round and the clone is square.
No it would simply not be fully zoomed in if it was an aspheric lens the lenders have their own system ... No budget lights use that ..
Yes.
Review here: Mini Review: POP lite T33 (BEAM shots added) a Led Lenser clone/copy/alternative - heads up and info
I’ve had the Pop lite T33 for some now and it is one of my all fav torches and massively versatile. I’ve also got the T34. It’s good too but it prefer the size and UI of the T33. And the T22 is wending its way to me now.
Fasttech has 3 Pop lites and at good prices. The also sell an unbranded “T7” which looks very Led Lensor like 
I’m going to get on of these next to compare to the pop lite versions.
DX has a bigger listing of Pop lites. Some are lower outputs and I have t yet tried any of the XR-E ones.
Hi Chicken Drumstick,
Thanks!
Although people may not like the beam quality due to the ringiness, I must say that when you have used a zoom with a round hotspot,like these have, anything else, like every other budget zoom I have seen,for instance, looks rather ugly….IMO…
This light looks pretty identical to my led lenser,p7.
People may complain about the led lenser here,I agree they are overpriced, but you cannot dispute the quality of their lights…
The only reason the spot beam on an LED Lenser isn’t square is that the designers purposely designed it to not bring the die image completely into focus. I have an LED Lenser P5 and that’s how it works. The spot image in max spot is round. But if I unscrew the bezel a few millimeters so the lens is further away from the emitter the square die image will come into focus, and the output will look just like a budget aspheric.
In theory, you could do the same thing with any budget aspheric light. Add a bit of wire or a thin strip of metal around back of the flared portion of the pill … the part that acts as a stop to prevent the bezel from falling off when in spot mode. The mod would prevent the die image coming into focus and give you a round spot.
The disadvantage is that with the round spot you won’t get quite as much throw as you’d get with the die image perfectly in focus.
I have a few earlier LED Lensers. My most recent one is an LED Lenser P5.
The quality is ok, but definitely not worth the high price in my opinion. From looking at my $50 P5:
1. Switch that tends to wear out. It has an internal rubber boot for waterproofing that tends to break making the switch either completely non-functional, or not function very well.
2. Type II anodizing that looks great out of the box but scratches easily. Carry an LED Lenser in your pocket with your keys for a few months and it will look like it has been through a war. Most lights in this price range use much more durable Type III hard anodizing.
3. One brightness mode with direct drive and no driver. It’s been common for years to have multiple modes with regulated output. The LED lenser is sorely lacking. Note that some newer LED Lensers do feature drivers. But on their small EDC sized lights the only available modes were 50–100-strobe. Definitely not well thought out.
4. Outdated emitter - though admittedly the newer LED Lensers do seem to be addressing this.
5. Lack of support for higher powered li-ion cells - LED Lensers don’t support 16340 and 14500. This is more for the flashlight enthusiast though, so not something that they can be seriously faulted on. Some rechargeable LED Lensers have supported 14500 and 18650, but their outputs still tend to be low.
The only really good thing about LED Lensers are their extremely well engineered optics.
My P5 features an aspheric lens with a pocket in the center. The optic wraps around the emitter in both flood and spot modes.
On my Sipik 58 and 68 with their conventional aspheric lenses - cycle from flood to spot mode, and half the lumens are lost - absorbed into the sides of the sliding bezel. This is instantly visible in a simple ceiling bounce test. A 500 lumen light in flood mode becomes 250 lumen in spot.
On my LED Lenser P5 - lumen output seems the same in both flood and spot modes. The well-engineered optic does a great job catching all the lumens, and in a ceiling bounce test there is no discernible change in output when cycling from one mode to the other.
The POP lites I linked earlier are very well priced. $22 from Fasttech. No idea on the anodising, it isn’t shiny like a Maglite and is comparable to my Crelant. Quality is fantastic, only my Trustfire A8 gets close in machine, fit & finish and feel.
Can’t comment on durability as I haven’t had them long enough and I don’t tend to get my lights wet.
In terms of emitter, older Led Lenser use XR-E’s although latter ones use XM-L’s. The Pop Lite’s are using XP-E’s with claimed output of 220 lumens. I admit compared to modern XM-L’s this isn’t high output, but it’s ball park with many other XP-E/XP-G 16340 or 14500 lights.
The POP lite’s also claim to be regulated. No idea if this is true or not. All I can say is the light output appears fairly stable on NiMh Eneloops and visually appears to maintain brightness better than most of my **fire budget lights do.
I like the T33 as it is single mode. In flood you can shine it at your hand and not blind yourself, it’ll light up a room with ease and at full zoom it easily out throws my L2M running an XM-L T6 driven at almost 3A and SMO reflector.
Led Lenser’s might be pricey, but the POP lites in my experience are flippin brilliant value for money and fantastic torches in their own right.
The only thing I don’t like on the T34 is the UI, not keen on it always going past low just to turn it off. It’s also more of a jacket pocket light than EDC, whereas the T33 can be EDC’d as easily as a L2M.
i’m curious, do these throw better than 5deg tir fixed optics (like the ones at dx)?
Thanks for the inputs. Firelight2, may I respond as follows: Like I said, I admit the led lensers may be overpriced. I am going to generalize now, let me limit my generalization to South Africans,and not everybody in the world,because they are my immediate context.
Most SA’ns will not spend over $50 on a light.Those that do,are highly unlikely to walk around with the light in their pocket with all their keys,resulting in damage to the ‘expensive’ light due to the not so great anodising that you have pointed out.It will probably stand on their bedside table or in a cupboard until it is needed.That is the case with my light, and it still looks almost as good as the day I bought it,around 2 or so years ago.
The average person,if comparing the zoomed image of led lenser to the zoomed image of a budget zoom will decide the led lenser image looks normal/better and be willing to pay more to have the better looking beam.
The average person DOES NOT buy a light to open it up and start modifying it to make it perform better, so while I agree that a budget light may be opened up and modified to have a normal looking hotspot, the average person is probably not going to do that, hence will probably spend more money to get that sweet looking hotspot above getting the budget light.
The led lenser is a beautiful looking light and when you open the light to put in the batteries you notice the quality of the gold plated springs and contacts, the general build quality overall
,which in my mind is quality that can not be disputed.
Isislis, I do not know the lens you are talking about,I am fairly new to this hobby, so hopefully others may be able to answer your question.
What I can say with confidence is that the led lenser p7 beam throws at least 150-200m, and the p14 over 250 m…
I am very pleased to find the pop lites, and I may be buying one soon to see how it compares to my led lenser.
Thanks for reading
The runtime on 1 set of batteries is excellent as well.
I don’t think I agree with your assessment that the average person who buys a $50 flashlight just to have it sit on their bedside table for fear that putting it in with their keys will scratch it.
If anything I think it’s the other way around. The average person who buys a small EDC sized flashlight IS going to stick it in their pocket with their keys. That’s the point of the light. It wouldn’t even occur to the non-flashaholic that doing so will get it scratched up. And even if it did, that might not be a big deal since the goal of the light is to produce light… not look good.
That said, to a flashaholic such as myself, I can’t recommend LED Lensers. There are too many things done poorly on them. If I was recommending a light for a casual user, for the same price as an LED Lenser, I’d rather recommend a much better constructed, more durable, and probably higher output light such as a Fenix or Zebralight. If the casual user really needs a pocket zoomable light I’d probably recommend a Sipik 68 or EDI-T11. The Sipik 68 has worse construction, but is smaller, brighter, throws much further and is less than 1/5 the cost.
For myself, as a flashaholic and modder, I prefer a light that I can mod to my taste. The LED Lenser P5 doesn’t fit the bill… its head is wider and body longer than I’d like for easy pocket carry. Half the pill is made of plastic giving it extremely poor thermal performance for a high powered light. The optic is optimized for an older generation LED, and because the LED is mounted on a pillar a conventional star won’t work without significant modding (I could probably make a new pillar out of soldered strips of copper separated by plastic, but it doesn’t seem worth the effort).
My favorite EDC is a small pocket zoomlight… a modded Sipik 58. It’s shorter and narrower than the P5, and more comfortable in the pocket since the head doesn’t flare out. Despite being smaller, at max power it significantly outhrows the P5 and in max flood it has a wider spot and enormously brighter flood. Using a Dr Jones electronic driver it also has ramping brightness with 19 different steps and shortcuts to minimum, 10% and 100%. Of course the downside is battery life at max is very short, and the light can get very hot… definitely a light for a hobbyist and not for the general consumer.
I’m not sure what lens the p5 uses. But I’m pretty sure most of the TIR optics found in other Led Lensers will not project an image of the led. I have another TIR equipped light and mewing about with it today as the lens is easy to remove, I could not get it even close to projecting the led image. I’ve not yet managed to open my POP lights so can’t confirm with those however.
As for performance the sk68 isn’t even close to the T33. Not even wih a 14500. Ok the sk68 is physically smaller. But in flood mode it lights up about 1/4 of the area and it doesn’t throw as far. Not too mention that on full throw it also lights up a smaller area and is less useful being a square shape
I like my sk68’s, they for fill a good role, either on AA or li-ion. But the T33 and 34 PolOP lites are far better torches when it comes to illuminating something.
To get the maximum possible throw with ANY led light, projecting an image of the die is unavoidable. That even goes for lights that use reflectors like some recoil throwers. It doesn’t really matter what optic is used.
The only practical way to avoid getting an image of the die is to sacrifice a small amount of throw and leave the die image slightly unfocused. This is how all focusable LED Lensers do it.
It would be nice if there were high-powered LEDs suitable for flashlights with circular shaped emitters without current spreaders on them. Such an LED would allow you to project an image of the die that would be round, but unfortunately such LEDs don’t exist.
Here’s an SK68 clone with a Nichia 219 in it. The tint is way off, silly camera phone.
Throw:
Flood:
I didn’t black out the emitter base or the star. That would clean up the beam even more.
It’s not a long distance thrower by any means, but the CRI and tint are very nice (in person).