Outstanding review Old. Hope mine arrive soon.
Ian, I´m sorry to hear about your light, hope you can solve with Manafont.
Sorry about your light Ian. Hope mine turns out okay. Keep us posted.
Hi lan, sorry to hear about that. Sounds like you got a bad one. Hopefully they aren't all like that and you can get it worked out with Manafont.
I wonder if all the BLF Editions are longer than their predecessor as in lan's pictures?
Jim from Manafont is currently investigating this with tank, hopefully mine is just an isolated case. Don't want to see disappointed guys around here, I could be calm but others can't. lol. Will keep you guys posted with the outcome.
Where I could get one? I could not find it managing
This version is already sold out. A revised version will come to Manafont soon. Please wait patiently.
Just received the TWO E07 I ordered!!!
I can confirm that this is really a well built flashlight - seems durable and of a more than average quality.
Unfortunately, I can also confirm IAN's remarks - especially the following 2:
> Not possible to fully thread the head (tried with an Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA/LR91)
> The tint is definitely NOT NEUTRAL, clearly cool in my case (in one of two, closer to yellow) - even my DQG II (R4) seems better!
The emitter is a standard Golden Dragon - not the plus model
More observations to come, but I can tell for sure that it's an excellent light for $16.50, just that we "expected" a little more, maybe version 09/2011 will be better!
(If this is inappropriate for thread, I'm happy to move it)
I also can confirm this torch is dissapointing, aside from the BLF label which is very cool
- It has very visible pwm (at least it does go down low)
- The battery tube wont tighten down
- It has a very ringy beam suggesting bad focus
- Mine has the (now known) standard HML memory mode
- It has a Very cool tint, coolest tint torch I have except for my $3 "police" light. Its actually Even cooler than my cool white gdp ex10.
So aside from the blf label, this torch is just another tank but with modes. Following the revealing of the bad modes, the last saving grace for this torch in my mind was the neutral tint, but it even that has turned out very wrong. Maybe its just me, but I'm quite dissapointed with what I have received.
Lumen should be about the same with the Tank probably being a little more. The runtime should be much more with the Tank since you're comparing AA vs AAA. AA has twice the capacity of AAA.
I'd prefer the ITP A3 however due to size. If you use the ITP with a 10400 it will be brighter than the Tank as well. The ITP A3 is my favorite light however so your mileage may vary :)
Thanks to everyone who has reported issues with this light. I just now contacted Jim about the three biggest complaints so far:
- Head not fully seating
- Cool tint
- Slow PWM
We'll see if Tank007 is willing to fix these issues. Hopefully Jim can negotiate something with them.
I can understand the cool tint and PWM happening but issues fitting standard battery sizes that it’s designed for is really puzzling. From those that have received the light it seems that Old is the only one that didn’t mention battery fitment issues in his review. I sure hope they can fix this problem more than the others as it almost makes the light completely useless. Can’t wait to get mine and report any issues.
I agree that the battery fitting issue doesn't make any sense. Especially after seeing the comparison photos showing that the BLF Edition is substantially longer than the original E07.
Like I mentioned before, doing a prototype (or 2-3) for a review, should be considered for every upcoming project. Costs could be put on the later batch. Would save us and the seller/manufacturer a lot of trouble. I would easily have paid 2-3 Dollars more, if it had all the specs that were promised... Captain hindsight strikes again ;-)
Potentially more components required for mode changing? - could be because of more pcb layers.
I think that may be the reason for the wider divider ring of the brass pill. They should have made it wider if they needed to. No excuse for not being able to take a standard AA or protected 14500.
its a length issue though, width is plenty..
Oh and mines very intermittent to boot! its so far only lighting up 20% of the time. (and its confirmed to be an issue with the head) potential bad contact within the driver/head. A good whack makes it work again.... QC issues too?
Well maybe mines just a bad one, but not having a lot of fun here.
BTW, appears to be regulated between 1.7-3.3v for high
This flashlight seems to be more of an experiment than a special edition promotion :P
What baffles me the most is the cool white tint as opposed to the alleged neutral that was boasted about so much. So now it's a subpar emitter with a tint we have in most of our other flashlights. That was supposed to be a key feature of this light that set it apart from most others - the nice tint and beam quality. Was there any testing conducted at all?
The next problem is we all blindly jumped on board and then we're expected to purchase the revised version if we want one that performs as advertised? Fortunately it didn't cost a lot and I can just gift it to my mom who won't need a bright flashlight to keep in her purse.
Mine arrived today. Here are my initial impressions:
- Quality looks and feels very good.
- The head doesn't seat correctly on the body, as others have mentioned. The gap is about the size of what would normally be filled by an O-ring. What happened here?
- Tint is nothing special. Not beautiful, not ugly either. It is warmer than my Trustfire R5-A3 (XP-G), cooler than my Uniquefire AA-S1 (OSRAM). The color changes quite a bit depending on the mode. The high mode produces a decently neutral color. The lowest mode is decidedly greenish.
- The low mode is very low. A bit brighter than my Ultrafire UF-H2, and dimmer than pretty much everything else. Well done here. Currently doing a long runtime test.
- Very ringy beam because of the smooth reflector, but at least no donut hole thanks to the tiny OSRAM emitter.
- High beam is bright enough to be very useful for a keychain sized light like this.
- Most importantly for me, PWM is not a problem. I can't detect it, even with my peripheral vision. I am normally very sensitive to this, so I either got a good one or I am not as sensitive as I thought. No complaints here.
So, Tank007 made some weird mistakes with this one. But it also has some redeeming points, and is definitely unique. I am reasonably satisfied for the price.
That’s what she said…
But seriously, what I was thinking of as width is what you are thinking of as length. Not the diameter of the pill band that is exposed but the width (length) of the band (exposed brass of pill) should allow more internal space for a taller driver.
“Head doesn’t seat correctly on the body” sounds a lot like the light was made to small to properly fit any batteries it is supposed to fit. That sounds a lot worse to me than a weird mistake and certainly wouldn’t leave me feeling satisfied for the price even if I bought a light at the dollar store. For $18 I can excuse LED tint, low not as low as promised, and even PWM issues but not being able to fit the battery it was designed for is a big F-up. 