I’ve tested the high CRI AA lights that I have with alkalines, because I was curious how they do. Originally it started with the fact the Malkoff shipped with an alkaline battery I had no intention of using, so figured why not test it. And then when tested, my question becomes “is this performance good?”. Which meant testing more lights and also re-testing the Malkoff with a standard battery.
Sam’s club eventually changed the batteries they sell, and I no longer had any from the pack I used to test the earlier lights. So I’ve tested newer lights with a different battery, but I’m not inclined to go back and re-test the old ones. I did re-test the M150 just to have some kind of rosetta stone. I added a normalized/scaled graph at the end where I applied a factor to the runtime of lights, but it’s not real testing so it’s just a guess at how these lights compare.
Here’s the first batch, and it seems the older batteries had more capacity. They had a shorter advertised shelf life, so perhaps that is the trade-off (though it was 8 years vs 10 so not a big change):
and here is an attempt to normalize the battery differences and make them all comparable (I ended up scaling the minutes by 1.2 or 20%). I didn’t bother putting the Malkoff in this because it’s extra work and didn’t seem worth it. It obviously has less runtime at >5 lumen level than the other lights:
The lights in some cases (Malkoff and E03 for sure, but I can’t recall on the D3AA) were still on, but not bright enough to register. I didn’t try to capture how long they provide “light” from a battery.
I obviously don’t need another 1AA light. But I am curious if there is something else I should be looking at in regards to efficiency (as in lumen-hours/runtime). I don’t really need another light that is pretty similar. And I don’t actually use alkaline, this would be with Eneloops.
I don’t believe the newer version of the M150 or E03 are any better on eneloops. I’m curious about the SC54. Reading, it seems the old SC5 was the ZL king of AA runtime though. But it didn’t have a compelling emitter.
I’d prefer a single emitter/reflector, and no intra-mode memory. But these aren’t required. I doubt I’d get a KR1AA though as it doesn’t do much the D3AA doesn’t. I’d be more interested if it were a reflector. It definitely needs to be high CRI and not a hideous beam.
FYI, I have a SC5 and a discontinued H53c. I have run some tests using alkaline cells on both. My goal was maximum run time. As such, I haven’t (yet) made measurements on higher output levels. The AA Zebras I have are able to put out 12 different light output levels. If level 1 is the lowest. both my lights use the least amount of power on level 2. The SC5 uses about 20% more power than my H53c on level 2.
Perhaps on higher levels the SC5 uses less power? If it interests you I can pick something towards the top of the output range and repeat my current measurement, let me know. Not sure how much this would help as I would be comparing two lights that aren’t in production anymore . . .
Yeah, that’s another variable, a light that is best at 200 lumens might have the worst runtime at 1 lumen. I’m thinking more the 50-100 lumen range. Though I don’t have a specific need for this and it’s not like the lights I have couldn’t meet that need. I just find it interesting and I like this form-factor of light (and 2AA) for some reason. I guess it might make more sense to target a lower lumen level given the battery size. Testing runtimes at low levels can be annoying though, for one it takes longer and for two with low output the meter may not be as sensitive to changes.
That’s interesting that the SC5 isn’t as good at the lower levels.
I’m sure it’s a fine light. Mainly they are expensive, I don’t love the UI or the intra-mode memory (I realize it can be removed by settling for fewer levels) or the way the tailcap spring carves a circle in the negative end of batteries. I think if I got it and it was largely similar in runtime to the lights I already have, I’d feel like I wasted my money. Not that it’s a bad light, more that I don’t need this and can wait for something else to come along.
