I just took this picture comparing my four 14500 flashlights, from top to bottom: Emisar D3AA Nichia 519A 5700K dedomed (purchased (2024/06/11, “batch 2” with the o-ring destruction issue fixed), Wurkkos TS10v1 4000K, Wurkkos TS10v2 4000K ‘new batch’ (purchased 2024/06/30) and finally my custom laser-engraved TiTS10v2 4000k (purchased 2023/09/25):
This side-by-side (err, top-to-bottom) comparison basically follows my order of preference:
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the D3AA beating every other light with a very neutral color (just very slightly pinky) showing nicely why the 519A is the top LED, and very well formed, perfectly shaped beam (no doubt thanks to its high-quality Carclo optics);
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The original (bought at launch in 2022) TS10v1, coming up very very close to the D3AA due to its miraculous CSP LEDs; not quite as good, but more or less indistinguishable unless it’s put up side-by-side with the D3AA; lots of other good qualities (better than the D3AA in many aspects IMO) and costing about a half of the top choice.
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My recently purchased TS10v2, clearly not as good as the D3AA and the original TS10v1, but still passable, and bought at discount for about a 3rd of the D3AA price;
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The beautiful-bodied, but ugly-beaming, TiTS10… what a disappointment that light was, and not only for the horrible beam color/tint, but also for other issues (some of which I knew going in, like Titanium’s bad heat-conducting properties and rougher threading, but also some I didn’t: battery length intolerance, mushier and sometimes unresponsive switch, and of course the really bad LEDs).
Will update this post later and add more details.
