This is the Emisar DA1K with a CREE XHP50.3HI in 4000K and the default optic. I got mine in the red color with a steel bezel and cyan switch light.
This light can be purchased here:
What’s so special about this light? It’s not so much the design - another compact 21700 light in the Dx family - but the driver, a 40W variant of the LumeX1 from @LoneOceans. This driver can be configured for 6v, 9v, or 12v emitters, has the AVR32DD MCU and 3-pin flashing pad layout, and has some serious improvements to moonlight capability and overall efficiency. It is extremely good.
This light wasn’t designed for super-high outputs, but is still very bright, with 2,850 lumens on turbo.
Turbo performance is very impressive here, even at the default thermal target of 45C the DA1K maintains over 1,400 lumens for the first 3 minutes, and it stabilizes at 700 lumens at 22 minutes.
On both Turbo and level 100/150 this light was able to sustain 700 lumens evenly. It ran for 142 minutes off a Molicel P42A, which is really great.
What impressed me most about this light is the incredible moonlight performance. You get a huge range of output, down to extremely low levels of output. Even better, it does this without any of the flaws that plagued older models: there is no flicker, PWM, pre-activation flash, delay, or instability. It works perfectly, instantly, and reliably. What more could you ask for?
The emitter is on in this shot!
Beam quality is excellent under this Carclo 10394 optic. No artefacts, and a well-balanced pattern with 2.78 cd/l. It’s nearly identical to the 519a quad lights, indistinguishable in use but for the output difference you get from the FET drivers.
The Aux emitters however are pretty poorly balanced, at least on my sample. The “low” settings is not much lower than high, which led to confusion in use as I wasn’t sure if my light was locked out or not (I set mine to low on lockout and high when unlocked). It was also pretty annoying at night because of the output, I ended up breaking the connection when the light was on my nightstand. This is the biggest flaw with the light for me.
This light uses the same body tube as the D4K, while the head is just a bit larger. I actually prefer the dimensions, it just fits in my hand very nicely. The button doesn’t look quite as nice as the D4 so there’s that. This red anodizing is of the shinier variety, similar to the green, so it feels much smoother in the hand than the chalkier cyan lights. I do really like this red finish… I’m so happy Hank finally introduced this color to his lineup as I have a slight obsession with the color red.
The new Lume driver puts the DA1K over the top to be the best Emisar, in my opinion. This and the D3AA are the first I recommend from the brand, they are really excellent enthusiast-oriented lights coming in at an awesome affordable price.
Unfortunately, the recent US tariffs could really impact the price of this light in the future… I don’t know what to expect as far as that goes. I purchased this light back in October of 2024 for the price of $49.25, which is a fantastic value for this light in my opinion.
Well… that’s all. I hope this post was helpful!