Good. V1 with ~6000 lumens high steps down after about 2.5 minutes or so. So V2 with ~3000 lumens high stepping down after 15 minutes makes sense. My M43 with high of ~3000 lumens also steps down after about 15 minutes, although much more gently.
My actual measurements for v2 219 are
low 24 lumens,
med 780 lumens,
med1 1450 lumens,
high 2975 lumens,
turbo 11200 lumens
Yes it is Nichia, version 2. Probably one of the first delivered, direct from UK warehouse. Ordered October 9, shipped October 11, Royal Mail tried to deliver on October 17. Meanwhile I have been travelling and only collected it this Wednesday, 1 November.
The tint is really nice, the CRI seems excellent. The brightness is good and the floody beam will be very useful. It doesn’t compare with the Q8 for throw, the tighter hotspot on that is so much brighter, and I think can probably be sustained for longer. Once the MF-01 turns itself down, it is still a pleasant torch, but of course not as dramatic as when running brief bursts of enormous power. My quibble about quoted run-times vs. lumens is simply that they seem quite unrealistic, I never expected four 18650s to blast out e.g. 6800 lumens for four hours, in fact my test of “high” mode has just concluded after 2 hours 22 minutes, (switch LED went red at 3.24 volts in cells) most of that time spent very much turned down, frankly I doubt it has been delivering more than maybe 1500, at most 2000 lumens on “high”, even my BLF A6 still out-shines it conclusively in the hotspot on high (but not with the MF-01 on turbo, obviously).
I daren’t let it run down completely, because the first time I tried that it took the cells all the way down to 2.7V before cutting off, not too happy about that. Though it did prove how well the boost driver seems to perform, still seemed to be working brightly even with virtually dead cells.
I do have an issue with the weight of the thing, mainly due to the massive brass battery carrier. Compared with e.g. the Q8, it is a beast, approximately 750 grams. c.f. 600, loaded up with cells. Of which about 145g is entirely down to the battery carrier. A lightweight version in aluminium and/or plastic would be desirable, better still a simple tube. I don’t see the purpose of the carrier, which also makes loading the cells tedious. The TIR optics are compact and lightweight, the torch could also be so, but instead it seems unnecessarily heavy to me, almost “steampunk” in construction.
That carrier alone weighs nearly as much as the cells. Or several of my other torches. Including (a real favourite) a Nitecore EC4s that despite being a relative antique, still does a great job of spitting out 2000 lumens plus, seemingly rather efficiently from 2 cells, more elegantly. And fits in my pocket. And runtimes are correct and believable. And I keep a box of four more cells in the other pocket, so am never without. Oh, and the whole thing weighs only 20 grams more than the MF-01 battery carrier.
Nevertheless I do like this thing, bonkers and limited in real world use though it is. I am glad they made it, and glad that I own one, recognising what it can do, and also cannot, despite wishful thinking and a tenuous grasp of the laws of Physics by whoever wrote the spec. sheet. And 18 LEDs in the front do look rather cool, even when they are not, and maybe four would have been enough to do the real job.
Thanks for those numbers. Sadly I don’t recognise the “high” of 2975 lumens because for all useful purposes it steps down quickly, 15 minutes maybe, to what looks like Med1 or even less. I.e. it is really just an ordinary 1000 to 1500-ish lumen torch, which might run at most for four hours or so at that level, off four 18650s. I didn’t even get 3 hours, from brand new 3000mAh cells.
I would love to be proved wrong with better measurements, but I don’t think I will.
The turbo is impressive, but unsustainable beyond a very few minutes.
It is still a nice torch with good LEDs, that can wow you in short bursts, but please don’t expect miracles. An 18650, or four of them, can only do so much.
ANSI runtime was specified years ago before led lights were so powerful that they needed to step down due to heat. As long as output is above 10% of output at 30 seconds from start up, it’s ok. So an aggressive step down of the MF01 to ~2000 lumens is only in the benefit of ANSI runtime.
nevertheless the figures are pretty messed up. Clearly there is a difference in mode spacing between V1 and V2. Well that’s what this forum is for, and Freeme’s help is also much appreciated.
Surely there is a bit of mystery going on with this light in terms of specs, but it sure is one heck of an amazing light. :sunglasses:
Lights are only capable of maintaining what their mass allows them to run as far as heat is concerned.
Yes, but it is the programmed heat management that determines whether the light is actually performing what it is capable of physics wise.
That’s true people just need to remember it’s that way with most performance lights. I’m going to try mine on high to see how long it can maintain it.
Got 26 mins at 2950 on high throttled down to 1950 still running at 38 mins.see how long it stays.
Maybe 2, perhaps 2.5 hours left, with diminishing output I confidently predict. Not sure how you got yours to maintain 2950 for 26 minutes, mine seems to step down reliably after 15 and I don’t over-heat my house. Don’t let it suck your cells dry, it will if you let it. Stop the experiment once the green led turns red. Let it run down below that and you could be damaging your cells, it won’t turn itself off until the absolute minimum last gasp.
That’s a bummer. I couldn’t find anything about the run times but expected it to be able to hold high without much of a step down. But to be getting 2950 on high, that’s only 60% of the stated specs. Granted I figured the specs were inflated, but not by 2000. And then throttling down to 1950, it’s not much different from my EC4S. I ordered this two days ago and BG marked it as shipped. Think it’s too late to cancel?
Your EC4S is I think a better torch. I think I mentioned that earlier (I have one too).
This thing is in fact rather dismal, when it comes down to measurements, or just subjectivity, or hard facts and data, sustained for more than a few minutes, and dosed with some reality of what can realistically be expected.
But for the first few minutes it can be very bright, and that seems to be impressive to some. After that it is not really so great. If you want a truly bright torch with a focussed hotspot I think you might be better buying a Q8, for less money, and it would complement your EC4S nicely. Throw from the Q8, flood from the EC4S.
Ultimate flood from the MF-01,for a short while, but so heavy, bulky and restricted in what it really can do, sustained.
I have all three, so can pontificate. But I have never found the EC4S wanting, it has served me very well and is a delight to carry. The Q8 is growing on me and I am beginning to appreciate some of the sophistication. I do quite like the MF-01, but not in the same way. It is not a well rounded product, far from it, and some of the engineering deficiencies do rather irritate me, particularly in performance, although it is a pleasing (but far too heavy) tactile object in the hand.
It ran for 2 hrs 10 mins at 1900 lumens and the battery on my phone i was using as timer ran out so i quit. One note on this if i had handheld this the whole time i’m sure numbers would have been better. I doubt it would have stepped down from high.For reference i also ramped up my q8 to 2950 lumens it made it 5 mins 40 seconds before it stepped down to 1600.
I play handball and was planning to use it to light up the court so a flood light is more suitable. I have the X80 and after 2 games (approx 45mins) on high there isn’t a noticeable decrease in lumens. I was hoping to get a sustained 4k lumens from the MF01 to compliment the X80.
That’s quite possible, as your hand extracts a lot of heat from the light. Looks like I’m going to wait until 11.11 to see if there is more info or a sweet deal for this light.
Don’t think i would cancel this is a really nice light for the money.
Thermal management of the MF01 is terrible. It doesnt have any deep fins to evacuate heat.
I do prefer the haikelite MT03 floody light because it has deep fins.
All these lumens number make me laugh. No one consider the thermal wattage and the adequate way of getting this out ! When you deal with 100+Watts there is a minimal engineering research…
The MF01 is a bargain priced light for its output. The company can’t spend the time and money to do it up right like Olight, for instance. If you want more accurate run time numbers, you can spend $280 for the X7R.
Is the extra $200 worth getting accurate run time numbers or a solid working driver? Most would say no.
Mateminco/Astrolux also chose to go with a smaller, sleeker package compared to the MT03 because they think it will sell better or maybe it’s cheaper to manufacture. You can tell they wanted big output numbers combined with a very low price.
Perhaps the larger head and deeper cooling fins of the MT03 is the reason it costs more?
[quote=mizou51]
Thermal management of the MF01 is terrible. It doesnt have any deep fins to evacuate heat.
I do prefer the haikelite MT03 floody light because it has deep fins.
All these lumens number make me laugh. No one consider the thermal wattage and the adequate way of getting this out ! When you deal with 100+Watts there is a minimal engineering research…
I can’t think of to many lights out there that can deliver close to 3000 lumens for as long as this one for the price.If anything the thermal stepdown could be a lot higher.
Place an order 14 oct. And today i got xpg3 mf-01. Mine have 6 wires, so its v1?
according date placing order i should have v2 right?
