I finally received my Cometa, a tribute light to CPF Italia.
The light was manufactured by Manker and distributed by Banggood. Unfortunately a lot of controversy and drama surrounds this light, which I feel has erroneously tarnished the reputation of this light. This zoom light comes equipped with an aspheric lens and our very own BLF driver (the same one used in the BLF A6 with TK's amazing firmware), XPL-Hi emitter on DTP Copper, and of course a PD68 lighted tail switch.
I was impressed by the packaging. Good packaging was once only reserved for the big names.
Included in the box are usual spare o-rings and a lanyard.
The very first thing that that I noticed was the size. As shown in the pics below, when retracted the Cometa is no longer than a Kronos SS X6 and a Fenix PD35. Fully extended it is not much longer than the other two lights.
Holding the light it feels good in the hand. The knurling is just right. Not sharp and nowhere near slippery. The anodizing also has a good feel and appearance unlike some of those that look like gloss black paint.
Disassembly and the ability to do future upgrades is incredibly easy. Once the bezel and lens is removed, the pill is easily exposed and unscrews out the top. The hood unscrews towards the base if one wants to remove it.
You will notice that there is a butterfly spacer on the emitter. That was a recommended mod to avoid the cover from possibly shorting against any soldering. I did not have that issue but I figured it would not hurt and since my soldering can be sloppy I knew there would be one there. Since this is a zoom light there is no emitter focus to be concerned with. You will also notice in the pic on the right that there is a white washer next to the butterfly spacer. That spacer is an insulating washer for the battery tube, to avoid a short to ground that can be possible with some batteries.
A brief note on that insulating washer. The factory did not take into account the difference in batteries and unfortunately a few of the adopters of this light ended up with direct shorts upon inserting the battery. I found that that this was caused by batteries that had a button top. All protected batteries will have a button top but since the driver comes equipped with Low Voltage Protection I would only use unprotected batteries. In this case I used a King Kong and did not have an issue but I did install the washer afterwards just because it was provided and would not hurt to be there. Below are some pics of the pill and of my batteries...Keepowers, King Kong, and LG IMR pulls.
Ironically, I have another popular 26650 light (also with a removable pill - if I remember correctly) that is the same way.
Next we will show all the various components, some with measurements.
Threads are good on all ends. The threads for zooming seem loose but since I am not a zoomy aficionado I waited until I ran the light before I came to any conclusions. I now understand why but that is for later in this review.
The pill in this Cometa is beefy. It helps a great deal for heat which really helps this BLF A6 driverand the driver cavity seems to able to accommodate a boost driver and possibly run a MTG2 or XHP...just saying :) The lens has some type of purple/violet coating that is visible on the edges but I could not get it to show in the pictures.
Using this light makes me appreciate a compact zoomy. Unlike all of my other lights, the majority being tube lights or the PD35 and similar, this light allows me to light up my pool and patio and has more than enough output to really light up a very wide area.
The pic on the left is with Cometa zoomed wide on level 5 and the pic on the right is the Cometa zoomed tight on level 5
The Cometa could also lend itself as a great walking light where you could drop output to be able to see light a hand-held street light as well as warn oncoming traffic truly see you because it is a lot easier to a a 10 foot spot/spill on the ground vs a 10 inch spot with a faint spill. I wonder how well it would work on a bicycle. My guess is that it would work very well.
Comparing this to my Kronos X6, without a light box, the Cometa is on par with it the X6 and it output.
The zoom takes approximately 2.75 turn from all the way out to all the way in. Many have complained that the the zoom is too loose. The tightest zoom I have ever held is the Maglite. The Maglite requires two hands to manipulate.The Cometa is easily manipulated by the thumb and yet even moving and walking does not lose or change its focus. I suppose I could make it tighter by adding teflon tape like many have or use an o-ring like what is used in many zoom lights BUT I am not sure that I want to.
I run the living hell out of my lights and that creates heat, especially if one is running a BLF driver. In my testing, I noticed that the light became warm (to me). Heat does not bother me as much as it can others but what did happen was that the body to hood area (the zoom portion) started to expand and in doing so you could feel that it became tighter. It was not so hot that it seized as I was still able to manipulate it with my thumb but heat causes things to expand and I can only wonder how much more expansion would occur with a big emitter which I could see many doing later. With that said and seen, I have no issue with the threading as it stands.
Still to be done is measuring the amperage and performing a drop test to prove that this light is safe or no more dangerous than any other Li-Ion power light or device. After using this light I am more concerned with my cell phone catching fire or parking my car in the garage.
Aside from those that received a non-working light or a shorted light - It is a shame that the controversy by a select few has tarnished this light before truly being given a chance to be seen for how nice a light it is. Mind you, this is not an ACEbeam K70 but one cannot expect an ACEbeam for what this light sold for. Unfortunately the Cometa is not going to be the only victim. All future cutting edge mega-amp lights and possibly all custom lights for BLF have either been put on hold or nixed in their entirety as most manufacturers do not want to risk unwanted controversy.
Controversy aside, this light sold for $40 and for that amount of money was well worth it and I have no issue getting another for my nephew.
Thank you for reading.
