I learned about this light in this thread.
And I ordered it from the seller’s eBay auction.
The seller had some delays in shipping so I had to wait nearly a month, but they made up for that by shipping via DHL (4 days from China to my house 
) and they threw in a couple of free Fenix E01 lights.
You should be able to view all of these photos in their full resolution here.
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The light comes in an unsealed blister pack style package. I didn’t have to cut it open, it just pops apart. It was wrapped in several layers of foam inside a DHL padded pouch. This is everything I got, including the free Fenix lights.
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Here’s the back of the light package.
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And here is everything that comes inside the package. One light, a couple o-rings, instructions, and a lanyard with a tiny split ring.
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The instructions are written in perfect English and are quite detailed.
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A few lights for size comparison. From left to right- Lumapower Mentor 2 C cell, Sunwayman T45C, Epsilon ED-P72, Nitefighter F40C, Fandyfire G36 (a very high quality light that doesn’t get the love it deserves), Solarforce M8, Fandyfire STL-V3 (souped up :bigsmile: ).
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Same lights, different angle.
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And one more time with the F40C turned on it’s side.
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The forward clicky tail switch turns the light on and off. It only turns the light on and off. It cannot change modes. Doesn’t matter how many times you click it, or how fast you click it, it only turns the light on or off. There is no gap between the rubber boot and the tail switch. You only have to press 1 or 2 mm to activate momentary on. If you like to communicate with Morse code, you’ll love this light. The switch is smooth and firm. Not hard to press, and not soft and wobbly like some cheesy lights I own.
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Cigar grip.
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The electronic momentary side switch changes modes. It only changes modes. It cannot turn the light on or off. There are 4 modes- low, medium, high, and turbo. There is also a hidden strobe mode. Each press of the switch changes to the next mode. Doesn’t matter how fast you press, it never goes into strobe, it just keeps changing modes.
There is a hidden strobe. You have to long press the side switch for a full second to get strobe. The strobe cycles between fast and slow. Press the side switch to go back to the normal 4 modes.
The side switch only works when the tail switch is turned on. If the tail switch is off, clicking the side switch does nothing.
When you change between the 4 normal modes, the light intensity smoothly ramps up or down. It doesn’t just jump to the next mode. If you are on low and you tap the side switch, it will ramp to medium. It does it very fast- a fraction of a second, but you can see it. The ramp from turbo to low takes a bit longer. Still less than a second, but noticeable. This effect gives the light a bit of a high quality feel. It seems somehow more classy than other lights, if that makes sense. It’s a subtle and smooth effect.
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Overhand mode changing with middle finger. It may look awkward in this picture, but this is how I usually hold it. The shape of the head makes this a very comfortable and secure grip.
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Moving onto the measurements. Here’s the length of the head.
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Thickness of the head. This view is looking down into the head from behind, where the battery tube screws in.
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Width of the head. Don’t be making fun of my Harbor Freight plastic digital caliper. It’s one of my favorite tools. Never have to worry about shorting anything out. Especially good for measuring battery length.
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Now we’re getting to the good stuff.
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Bezel outside diameter.
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Bezel thread diameter.
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Lens diameter. Looks like plain glass.
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Lens thickness
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Reflector diameter.
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Reflector depth.
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Reflector LED opening diameter is 6.7mm. It’s upside down because I was being very careful not to scratch the reflector. The reflector sits directly on the LED MCPCB. There is no insulator or alignment ring. The opening on the bottom of this reflector perfectly lines up with the four corners of the LED.
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Reflector widest internal diameter is 23.8mm. Yeah, it’s upside down and blurry, but I’m not redoing it. I managed to take all these measurements without scratching, or breaking, anything. I’m not testing my luck again for one blurry picture.
Check out the LEDs on the funky MCPCB in the background. More on that below.
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You can see here how the entire LED is inside the reflector. The reflector is aligned by the four corners of the LED base. If you were to reflow your own emitters onto this MCPCB, or replace them entirely with new Noctiogons, or similar, you would have to be careful not to have any exposed solder around the LED that could touch the aluminum reflector.
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Another shot of the reflector on the LED. Take a look at the o-ring. It’s not sitting on top of the reflector. It’s wrapped around the outside of the reflector between the reflector and the inside of the head.
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Here’s the same view with the reflector removed. The o-ring sits on a shelf machined into the head. When the light is assembled, as the bezel is screwed down into the lens, the lens presses this o-ring, squishing it, so it seals between the lens and the shelf, and between the reflector and the inner wall of the head. The lens sits directly on top of the reflector which sits directly on the MCPCB. Very close tolerances here.
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Both LEDs are mounted on a single, long, narrow MCPCB that looks just like a butterfly bandage. This MCPCB is not fastened down, it’s held in place by the pressure of the reflector/lens/bezel.
There is a small dab of grey heatsink grease under each end of the MCPCB. I did not remove the MCPCB, but you can see that there is a round recess machined under the LEDs that looks like a 20mm MCPCB would fit. The way the head is machined, the MCPCB does sit flat against the head, but it looks like they designed it to be compatible with standard LED mouning MCPCBs.
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Battery tube length.
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Battery tube inside diameter.
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Battery tube tail thread diameter.
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Battery tube head end diameter.
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Battery tube threads, head end. Came dry from manufacturer.
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Battery tube tail end threads. Gorgeous, huge, perfect, square cut threads. Came dry from the manufacturer, but are silky smooth anyway. You can also see the stainless steel ring for the lanyard. It’s loose and spins around easily. A bit rattly, but I like it. You can also see the soft rubber grip ring. I like that thing a lot. It really improves the overhand grip. Go back and look at the cigar grip picture to see what I mean.
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Looking down into the tail cap. The threads are anodized only to the top of the brass retaining ring. The brass ring is screwed into clean aluminum threads and presses against the switch PCB for a very good, reliable electrical connection.
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The switch components. Notice the shiny area machined inside the tailcap. The clickie switch side of the PCB is pressed against that shiny aluminum and the spring side of the PCB is clamped down by the brass ring screwed into the shiny aluminum threads. No worries of a bad switch contact here.
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On low, the light draws 11 mA. It’s pretty dim, but I not moon mode dim. Good for walking around the house at night.
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Medium is 322 mA.
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High is 900 mA.
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Turbo is 2 A.
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I did not remove the driver yet. The brass screw-in retaining ring is being a pain and I don’t have the right tool to remove it. My needle nose are too fat and my tweezers bent. Bent bad. I will get it out soon and add those pictures to this review. I’m being more cautious than I am with most of my lights because this is the first light I have ever owned that came from the factory with a near perfect driver that I don’t plan to replace.
The LEDs in this light are a nice neutral color. I have plenty of cheap lights with cool LEDs and this light looks warm and a little brown in comparison. I also have several lights with warm 5A, 5C and 7C LEDs ( I like warm lights), and this light is nowhere near as warm as those. This light looks cool and slightly greenish when compared against my warm lights. This is the only light I have that is not warm or cool.
The beam looks a little funny up to about 3 or 4 foot. Beyond about 3 or 4 foot, there is just a perfectly round, single hotspot. It looks just like any regular single XM-L LED light.
I was unsure about the two switch design. You do need two hands to operate the light if you want to turn it on or off and change modes. But, in use, it turns out to not be a big deal and I really, really like being able to use the rear switch in momentary mode and never having to worry if I left it on, or off, long enough for the mode memory to stay set. Mode memory is a non-issue with this design. And it’s pretty much impossible to switch into the obnoxious disco mode by mistake.
I did a ceiling bounce comparison against a few of my other lights. The only light I have that could beat the F40C is my 4-LED SkyRay Kung, but it’s out of commission right now, getting a little fine tuning. :bigsmile:
23 Lux- Fandyfire STL-V3 (3A driver, XM-L2 T5 5A2 LED)
16 Lux- Trustfire USB (stock)
6.3 Lux- Darktort (stock XR-E LED)
13 Lux- Regalight (1.4A driver, unknown cool LED)
14.8 Lux- Solarforce L2D IOS drop-in
21.6 Lux- Shadow JM26
25.8 Lux- Sunwayman T45C
33 Lux- DQG Tiny 26650
16 Lux- Epsilon ED-P72
35 Lux- Black Shadow Darth (XM-L T6 5C LEDs)
14.4 Lux- Solarforce M8 (XM-L T6 5C LED)
23 Lux- Nitecore EAW4
35 Lux- Fandyfire G36 (stock)
35 Lux- NiteFighter F40C
Pros:
- Anti-roll. It can’t roll, its not round :bigsmile:
- Neutral LEDs. I prefer warm, but I’m thrilled their not cool white.
- Really well hidden disco strobe mode. I’d be happy if no light ever came with a strobe mode, but I’ll settle for a well hidden mode.
- Perfect mode memory. It’s impossible to accidentally change modes turning the light on or off. I didn’t think I would like the dual switch design, but it’s worth it to not have to think about how long I’ve had the light on or off and what mode it’s going to be in when I turn it back on. I’m tapping the tail switch right now and laughing because the light comes on in the same mode. Every. Single. Time. I really hate most light’s user interfaces and especially hate disco strobe modes. I like this two switch design even better than the rotating magnetic ring design on lights like my Black Shadow Darth. Those ring light need two hands to change modes. This two switch design only needs one hand once the light is turned on.
- Flawless construction, machining, and finish.
- Very small for a 2x18650 light. Only 8.25” long. Fits perfectly in my hand.
Cons:
- Two switch design requires two hand operation to change grips form operating the rear swith to operating the side switch.
- Cannot tail stand. The switch protrudes from the tail cap. But this is the only way to go for a forward click. Much easier to operate.
- Slight audible whine in medium and high modes. Silent in low and turbo. I can only hear it in a very quiet room when I hold the light near my ear, but I’m getting close to 50 and my hearing isn’t what it used to be.
- Not warm enough. I’d prefer warmer LEDs, but that’s just a matter of taste.
Conclusions:
If you couldn’t tell already, I really like this light. It’s the best throwing light I have and has a very bright flood. I know there are better throwers out there, but most of them are huge and this thing fits in my pocket. The user interface is flawless. It always does what I want, when I want, without me having to think about the timing, or accidentally switching into the obnoxious disco modes. I have too many lights with too many different drivers. This thing is just dead simple, but still has 4 well spaced modes.
