ENEDED

I got my V4A in today (ordered the neutral one and it looks 5000K-ish to me), and I quite like it, a tiny bit chunkier than my SWM D40A but its smooth reflector produces a nicer beam IMO, a nice distinct hotspot (slightly yellow in the middle as happens a lot with the XP-L Hi, but much better than some other lights that I have with Hi’s in them), around the spot a fairly bright and useful corona that smoothly fades into the spill.

The UI is very simple and I like simple: from OFF one click to the first adjustable brightness, another for the second adjustable brightness, another for OFF. I like starting in lowest then brightest so that is how I have set it by ramping the two levels, they are memorised until you break contact with the batteries (default is high first :frowning: ). I don’t like blinkies so it is good that it is not in the normal sequence. Can’t see any PWM, must be a high enough frequency.

I measured the lowest possible setting at 20 lumen, the highest 850 lumen (on freshly charged Eneloops 30 seconds after switch-on). If you only have one low setting like this light I think 20 lumen is a nice brightness, but of course there should have been an option for going lower than that.

It is great to have a bright flashlight again that runs on Eneloops, I have the SWM D40A but I can’t use it because it is my reference light for light measurements and have to keep it pristine. Too bad that this V4A has a suspicion of bad heat management (but hey, it works! :smiley: ), and the UI is ok but not great, as a low-to-high fan I will have to re-adjust the levels every time I switch batteries (so no lock-out for me, I hope the parasitic drain is not too much).

If it proves to be a robust light, for the price payed I’m perfectly happy with it :slight_smile: