Lumintop Tool Magnet AAA review & Astrolux A01 comparison

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AAA Flashlights
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Theres one seller on Amazon that claims to offer a 4000k NW version of this with the magnetic cap. If this is true, I am wondering if he modded these himself or they are some foreign import or something.

And to OP, I did see this video on Youtube over the weekend. I decided to get the magnet Lumintop since my plan is to keep it in my car. I figure if I break down the Lumintop will be easy to attach under my hood. I went with the regular CW. Almost gambled on the NW guy but color rendering wont be that important for my needs.

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Hope it works well for you. I love lights with magnets myself. I find it very useful and easier than holding the light between my teeth:) though, this light is small enough that it might not be any harder to bite down on than a nice cigar. (I don’t smoke myself, but it’s the only illustration I could think of right now :smiley:

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With all my A01’s, the high mode is much much brighter than medium, until my Eneloop is almost completely discharged. Are you sure you’re using good Eneloops? If so, try cleaning the bare aluminum end of the battery tube, where it makes contact with the pill in the head. Maybe grease or dirt is making the circuit inefficient.

You should be getting close to 100 lumens on high, and less than 10 lumens on medium. Brightness should hold up pretty well until the Eneloop is almost discharged (which takes about 30 minutes on high).

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yes, i guess that is what i was trying to say. the eneloop does hold the brightness much longer. But on this light in particular i estimate med to be bright than 10lumens. I have a light meter now. I am still learning to use it so soon i will be able to offer some info that is not so subjective. (For the most part, my reviews will include subjective material. I want to write and allow all of my biases to influence my review. I know many will consider this useless but i hope in time i will be able to offer reviews that are interesting enough to be of benefit to everyone. :slight_smile: )

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I had some amazon credit to waste so I figured I would get both and gift the one I don’t like. The 4000k lumintop is too warm for my tastes, as I suspected. It doesn’t appear as orange/yellow in real life as it does in the pics, but it is def warm. I would not call it NW.

[Album] black lumintop tools and astrolux s1
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:disappointed: … Looks warm to me. I agree. With the higher cri neutral/cool white emitters that are now available, I find I am turning away from warm white. It’s funny, cause when I first took interest in flashlights, it had to be a crisp cool white. It’s bright and looks modern. Then I moved to warm as I noticed how dull the colors and color contrast is on most cool white emitters. Now I’m moving back. What’s next? :smiley:

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It’s still difficult for me to gauge which cw emitters wont have that blue or purple tint so I tend to go for 5000-5500k. Something like that. I feel like a pure white light would be the best for colors/contrast anyways. I can handle a slight vanilla tint to my light but I honestly don’t get why people love super warm tints, to my eyes they skew colors just like cw usually does, just in a different way.

Whats next you ask? It is this:

IMALENT-SA04

would like to see more like this in the future, tint for every whim or mood.

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Ahh… Funny you should mention that light. I’ve been slaving away at an overly difficult build. It entails 4x xml rgbw neutral white emitters on sinkpad, one cool white xpg3 led on noctigon, a lens from a 5led 110v socket type spot bulb, a diy copper heatsink, a 16x amc1735 expansion board, 1x diy fet expansion board, 1x dr jones rgbw driver w/ 8 stacked amc7135, and one blf d80 host with side switch installed. Ya, really…. I’ve been holding off talking about it as I’m guessing most everyone aside from Dale will think I’m crazy! :nerd_face:

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I like warmer tints (~4000K), because they emphasize reds and browns more than cooler tints that have the same CRI. There are very few natural blue or violet colors outdoors (except the sky), so you’re not missing much if you use warmer tints that don’t show those colors very well. But, there are a huge amount of reds and oranges and browns in the natural world. So, a warm tint allows you to see the contrast among them much better.

Okay, so the real reason is that warm tints are just more pleasing and relaxing to my eyes at night. But I’m allowed to justify that with the above.

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I like it

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I get the reasoning but its not what my eyes see. To me warm tints over emphasize reds and browns compared to a nw tint. Maybe its something about how men and women perceive colors differently. I have heard that cw works well in the desert but no deserts near me to test that theory. Its nice that theres so much variety. Something for everyone.

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The link to amazon is a much more expensive way to buy this light . Gearbest had it for 12~13$ forever now the best deal on this light is from bangood using a madmax coupon code…about the same as what gearbest was selling them for .

personally i like subjective reviews …best ones are like TomE does when he gets a new light .
i don’t need a polished mega pic high resolution review for shill .
the lumi tool is a great lil light … better when modded with a driver and a high cri emitter

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Tints seems to be such a personal thing. Personally, I tried warmer lights around 4000k and personally don’t like it that much except at the max brightness. But after trying a few tints, most of the time I seem to prefer around 5000k for general use, as its not as harsh as my cool white lights, but not too “yellow” compared to my warm lights. Especially the ones with just the right balance (to me) between white and creamy, which I like at all brightness levels.

But bringing it back to the 2 lights in the topic, I find my A01 to be pleasant at max brightness. Its too yellow otherwise at the lower levels. But I do like the spread between the levels. The A01 is so slick though that if I don’t clip it to anything, it always falls out of my pockets.

My Tool AAA has the blue-ish tint at lower brightness. At max brightness its pretty “white”. As my backup keychain EDC, I’m not picky with the tint though (its just something I observed). Too bad a few weeks ago I found out on Amazon a seller selling a neutral white version, but since I hardly ever use my Tool AAA, I didn’t feel like picking it up. Its too bad they don’t offer a Nichia aluminium version (I like the lighter weight).

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I mentioned in an earlier post that the nw version on Amazon is very warm. He should call it warm white.

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Or give the CCT, such as 4000K, etc. Most people have an idea what that will look like. What some people consider “warm”, others might consider “neutral”. If you give the CCT, there’s no confusion.

I’ve noticed a trend over the past year or two, where neutral whites seem to be getting a little cooler than they were 2 or 3 years ago. It used to be that neutral was around 4500K in most LED lights. Now it seems to be around 5000K. The Astrolux A01 was the exception, for the lights I’ve bought over the past year or so.

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I think NW is 5000k to 3500k

the problem I see with most nw tints is the green and then maybe what people are calling yellow or kahki .
i like more red in my NW tints…
The original 219A with it’s slight rosy tint is still what I consider the perfect tint .I can handle more red than either blue or green or yellow …or that flat dull brown of the 5A tints everyone was peddling the jaxman4000k nichia was a disappointement .

best part of the lumitop tool imho is the feel . i’t’s got great grip and is longer than most AAA lights so it fits perfectly across your palm . I really didn’t think i’d like the clicky that sticks out so much / like a forward clicky …. but I think it’s a very easy to use tailcap and I can’t see ever trying to tailstand a AAA light .
it’s obviously too big to use as a keychain light and I’m always wanting a smoother SS or ti light as a keychain lite .
it would be nice to see the magetic tail sold seperately

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I bought the 2 tailcap version.

I like the clicky tailcap when its not on the keys. Its too long and feels awkward for me to use when attached to the keys.

I switch to the magnetic tailcap cause it makes it pretty much the same length as most of my other AAA similarly styled keychain lights. It operates like a standard twisty and can tailstand. The magnetic tail is just a bonus. It doesn’t feel as strong as my Olight S1, but in a pinch, it works fine for me.

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I like both lights…I have the regular Tool…I have both in copper and my only real complaint about either of the lights is that the A01 needs a few more threads so that the head doesn’t wobble so much when you loosen it to keep it from being turned on by pressure from the side.
It is really frustrating.

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3-4k warm
4-5k neutral
5-6k cool

see how some people call 4k warm and some also call 5k neutral :-). They are reading the values down the right side of the chart

I call
3k warm
4k neutral
5k cool

both are right… better to say the K

High CRI does not exist at 6000k in the lights I typically consider buying
few 5000k lights are 90+ CRI
from 4500k on down, I can buy 90+ cri

tint is not K
tint is greenish, yellowish, reddish blueish

tint is not CRI

I care about CRI the most so I dont buy 5k+
I still hate green, yellow, blue tint, and hope for Rosy :slight_smile:

I have a Lumintop Copper Tool with Nichia 4500k and 90+ CRI w 80 lumen high. I use it because it shows reds, even though the Nichia is warmer AND less bright than the Tool w XP-G2 6000k and 70CRI w 110 lumen high. I usually use medium or low, so High CRI is even more important to me because I am looking at things at close range and want to see reds better. I dont need max brightness, I need max Red rendering.

I like 4000k better than 6000k when my eyes are adapted to the 3000k Warm White evening lighting in my house, in that scenario I do not need 80 lumens, 20 is usually enough. The Nichia Tool works best in this scenario.

the reverse is true during the day or when in an environment lit by Cool White light, I prefer 6000k when my eyes are adapted to bright sunlight, in that scenario I also need to use the High mode more. This favors the XP-G2 Tool

Imagine you are going to look under the hood of the car during the day, the Nichia Tool on medium will not suffice, it will be dim and orange.
otoh, look under the hood of the car in the dark of night (with your eyes already adapted to darkness), then the Nichia Tool on Medium is perfectly sufficient, and in fact more pleasing than a glaring cool white (looks relatively blueish) XP-G2 on High.

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After I’ve been using the tool for a while now, I find that the twisty tailcap bothers me. I don’t like it on the a01 either. I like the magnet, but not the twist. So I’m wishing I would have been sent the tailcap with the switch. :wink:

Jon_slider: you make a good point about eyes adjusted to darkness vs eyes transitioned from brightness.

Last week I took my daughter camping for a night. I had both lights with me. I used the tool when looking through the van for “Phyllis” (a funny looking stuffed woodchuck that was to be our cuddle bunny in the tent). I used the tool when getting more firewood for the fire. I used the tool for the walk to the bathroom. Then, I used the A01 in the tent to blow up the air mattress, set up our bedding, and reading books. For what it’s worth?