I’ve got quite a few Anekim lights pretty much from when they started putting them out. My latest were the updated Predator series, both the monochromatic red and phosphor-converted green, and was impressed with them. Great throwers with nice tight beams concentrating the light to where you want it to go.
The UC90 is a bit different. It has a wider smoother beam like an aspheric, with little if any spill. But unlike most aspherics, the UC90 seems to have a pre-collimator lens over the RGBW emitters, which I’m thinking aids efficiency, as aspherics are notoriously inefficient. It also allows you to focus the beam by tightening/loosening the huge lens in front.
And huge describes the light quite well! It came in a box nearly the size of a shoebox. At first, I thought I got the wrong light, but on opening it, nope, it’s right! Inside is sculpted foam to hold the light and all the accoutrements. It also pretty much has everything you need to get started.
First off is the light itself, of course, along with included cell inside. The cell is a 5000mAH 21750, essentially a 21700 cell but with usb-C charging- and protection circuit built-in. Use the included cable, and plug in the cell to charge. It’s the usual, red while charging, green when done. Don’t forget to remove the insulator which protects the cell in transport, and to charge before using.
In one recess is the charging cable, cleaning cloth for the front lens, and clamp-type mount. In the other recess is the remote tailcap and the Picadilly rail-type mount. As for the mounts, choose whichever you prefer or need. The included lanyard is already attached to the standard tailcap.
The standard tailcap has a reverse-clicky switch, so click on, half-press to change modes if desired, then click off. The remote tailcap has the switch module on the end of a coiled cable like on old-style telephones. The module has a regular clicky switch on the thicker part, which functions the same as the switch on the standard tailcap. There’s also a momentary-only switch on the thinner end. While it’s possible to fool the light to switch modes by frantically whacking on the momentary switch, it’s not that easy to do, so even short fast blips of light are pretty safe.
As for the light itself, the user-interface (UI) is pretty simple. No brightness modes, just 100% full-on. You can select the color by counting blips on the clicky switch. Normal is white light, but another blip gets you red, then green, then blue, then back to white again. All the colors are monochromatic, even green. White light is bright white with just a hint of warmth, so I’d guess 5000K to 5500K. Definitely not Angry Blue like cheap 6500K-7000K lights.
The beam itself is incredibly smooth across the illuminated area, typical of aspheric lights. There might be some fuzziness around the edge, but very few if any noticeable artifacts. It’s a wider area than lots of Uberthrowers, so naturally range will be less, but field-of-vision will be lots more. At intermediate ranges, it’s perfect. Note that loosening the lens/ring will shrink the spot size for a tighter beam, and tightening it will give a large spot size for a wider beam. I don’t notice significant brightening with the narrower beam, which is why I leave it snugged up, as the wider field-of-vision is, to me, more useful, and it doesn’t leave threads exposed to the elements. And even if I’d loosen it for a tighter beam, I’d snug it up anyway for storage, to protect the threads from dust, etc. But definitely play with it and see what setting suits you best. You do you.
It’s important to note that while some reflector-type lights might be able to create a smaller tighter more intense hotspot for longer distance throwing, by their very nature they also light up your immediate foreground, possibly washing out what you’re looking at downstream, by lighting up what’s right in front of you incredibly bright. A no-spill aspheric puts all that light downstream, preserving your “night vision” by not washing out your foreground.
As for the light itself, just like the box it comes in, it has quite a presence! It’s big. Even with a 21700/21750 cell, it looks quite front-heavy due to the huge front lens and optics in general. It’s all air inside, so looks are deceiving and it’s not overly heavy, but it is quite substantial.
Looking into the front lens, you can see the platform inside, with the pre-collimating lens inside. You can’t see the emitters underneath that, though, but they’re there. Everything’s black inside, so secondary reflections and beam artifacts are simply not there.
That said, the light has lots and lots of cooling fins to shed heat quite well, so 100% output in each color is sustainable without having to throttle down.
And speaking of heat, I was curious about current draw, given that listed runtimes seemed to vary, even though it’s 100% output and not high/low or anything, and the results surprised me! Using a thick wire as a shunt and clamp-type ammeter on its 2A range for most accuracy. What I got was initial peak current and slow dropoff over a few seconds. It was hard trying to hold one end of the wire onto the sharp edge of the battery-tube, so the current seemed to jump around quite a bit, probably due to my rather painful grip on both ends trying to keep each end in contact. Anyway, I got (approximately)
| white | 1.8A - 1.6A |
| red | 1.4A - 1.3A |
| green | 0.5A - 0.4A |
| blue | 1.8A - 1.7A |
So green is every bit as bright as the other colors (if not brighter!), but draws only a third to quarter as much current. Interesting!
That said, use whatever color is best for the desired goal, regardless of current or runtime.
So, it’s not like any lights I have to-date, including a tri-color Brynite, the one with the “slider” to put the right emitter under the lens. That’s a more traditional aspheric, and when fully zoomed, you do in effect get The Bat Signal. Here, the collimating lens appears to be over all the emitters simultaneously, no mechanical system necessary. However it’s done, it’s a clever system!
So in summary, build quality is great, you have all the accessories you need to get started immediately, except for topping off the included cell, the UI is simple and easy to master, throw is quite reasonable, especially for a weapon-mounted light, and it’s just pretty impressive overall.
