It’s a well built light but be warned it’s basically a 2-trick pony, either full spot or full flood (unless you like the black hole that none of the reviewers mention)
Donut hole in all in-between positions:
It’s also quite noticeable outdoors. It basically looks exactly like these wall shots when beaming into the green lawn outside in pitch darkness.
Fangle, can you please focus the light to the in-between/middle positions and comment on this?
Maybe that’s what you meant by “a white ring”?
“Moving the head from flood to spot a white ring forms at the edges of the flood pattern, gradually shrinking in size and growing in intensity until the center of the beam is a white hotspot.“
IMO “white ring” is a too nice and a cryptic way to describe what’s really going on with the beam on this. To say there’s a “black hole” would have been a better description for the donut hole effect.
Apparently the donut hole effect is a characteristic of most (all?) TIR lens zoomies. Some aspheric lens zoomies have a slightly dark center, but it’s usually hardly noticable, I’ve personally never seen one anywhere near this bad but I don’t have any other TIR lens zoomies.
Litesam does admit the donut hole is normal for this light:
Message from 3rd party seller:
“Hello, After cheking these attached photos, I would like to let you know that it’s normal”
Litesam
It may not be a con if you can live with it, or if you’re OK with using it only either at full flood, or full spot. It is something I’d want to know about before buying one. Except for leaving out this one important caveat it’s a great review, very detailed and professional. I especially like the real use battery comparison with a high drain cell.
Here’s some more of my thoughts on this light:
Pros:
Nice Knurling
Well constructed
Round spot instead of square
Cons:
Black hole/donut hole in all in-between zoom positions
Tint is much colder at full flood than at full throw.
Lacking in output and throw
Because it’s a forward (momentary) switch on multi-mode UI it takes full double clicks to change modes when on, and the tail clicky is quite stiff. Modes can be changed in momentary (from off) with quick half presses but it’s a bit tricky and takes some practice to get the timing just right for that. It’s being marketed as a “Tactical Flashlight” so a forward switch makes sense for that use, but if you’re not using it for tactical purposes changing modes will be something of a pain compared to the usual reverse clicky switch…
Also notable is the edge of beam at full flood looks like the spill on a reflector light, it’s not the well defined “circle” you see on an aspheric zoomie. This is subjective and could be a pro or a con depending on the users preference.
It looks like they’re giving this light away free right now when you buy their PS11 model.
E11Z: Amazon.com
PS11: Amazon.com