I recall seeing a pic here a few months ago with pics of the M150 in a variety of finishes including MAO. Maybe a V4?
Love this torch but the output just sucks. Anyone heard of a new version coming out?
What don’t you like about the output? Do you think it should be brighter or something?
200 lumens of Sustainable High CRI is normal for a 14500 light
here is a review that shows the flat regulated output lasts about an hour on medium:
if you want a light with higher sustainable output, look at lights with Low CRI LEDs, such as the TS10SG… I have not found a runtime graph for that one yet, but it seems to hold over 500 lumens for the first 3 minutes.
A High CRI TS10 otoh, sustains about 200 lumens, similar to the M150
the High CRI 14500 light with the highest sustainable output Im aware of, is the D3AA at about 250 lumens
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I think that I an just not satisfied with small higher cri torches during daylight hours as they just dont seem to be be bright enough. I have the Ts10sg and a d3AA with W1 and they are fine during the day.
Maybe I am just hopeful that the next version will have an option for a cooler emitter with higher candela.
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thanks for sharing your application, I agree small high cri lights are best suited for night time use, and other dark ambient light environments…
Definitely not the right tool for working on a car in the sun…
good to know your other options work better
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Agreed, I just love the form and “fidgit” factor of the M150.
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The one thing I’ve always found impressive of the m150/h150 is how moon-mode brightness is not impacted based the the battery chemistry that’s being used. Other 1xAA 14500 capable lights that I own, change their low brightness, based on what type of battery using.
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agree
Also true for the Emisar D3aa, moonlight is the same on both types of batteries:
Also both lights use NoPWM
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I think there’s room for improvement on the M150. The boost/linear driver means efficiency on Li-ion is not what it could be, and that means the sustainable level is not as high as it could be.
A boost-only driver like the D3AA combined with a single 6V LED would be really interesting. I’m not just saying this because I love the B35AM (but I do love the B35AM).
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My personal critique of it is that NIMH modes are underwhelming. Per 1lumen review of v4 version:
- main mode 1 level - 6 LM
- main mode 2 level - 20 LM
- main mode 3 level - 57 LM
- turbo 1 - 84 LM
- turbo 2 - 127 LM
To me there should not be a point to call turbo level what should be sustainable and clearly 200 LM should be sustainable if driver is efficient.
Proper spacing imho should be on NIMH AA to make it truly competitive with d3aa or kr1aa (hopefully one day we will have more throwy sibling in that family):
- main mode 1 level - 6 LM
- main mode 2 level - 70 LM
- main mode 3 level - 150 LM
- turbo 1 - 250 LM
- turbo 2 - 400 LM
If mode is sustainable it should be in main group UI. I still probably will buy it just to see if F35R led option any good 
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agree, but thats mostly the nature of AA power.. It is more than adequate at close range in the dark, but its not very useful for working on a car in the sun.. 
an AA Zebra does have a lower minimum.. and the recessed switch is a huge advantage imo, as it much less likely to get turned on accidentally in a pocket..
And the Zebra clip grips tighter.. The clip and the recessed switch are major factors why I have a Zebra in my pocket today. Its just a solid and safe carry option.
otoh the Zebra clip wont go on a hat the way a Skilhunt can.. nor will the Zebra run LiIon like the Skilhunt can. But I choose not to own a Skilhunt, because I dont want to worry about the switch. And since I dont wear a baseball hat the extra bulk of the Skilhunt clip is not appealing.
Skilhunt’s usually do a pretty good job hitting their posted numbers. Interestingly Zak’s review of the same light (500k 519A) showed substantial overperformance on turbo output. I don’t know if 1lumen got a bad light or whether Zak got a ringer. Or maybe the truth is somewhere in between.
My favorite version of the m150 is the sft25r and that puts out ~25% more than the 4000k 519a. I only run it on 14500 but have tried it on eneloop AA and found it surprisingly adequate.
Every version sustains about 30% less than on 14500 (w/ sft25r: 190 for 100 min vs 270 for 80). Doesn’t hit the high notes, but I consider this pretty adequate output for this class of lights. It can sustain both turbo outputs for a long time, so they aren’t just 1-3 minute token outputs the way they are on 14500.
It’s better than any maglite I’ve ever had!
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From my perspective it would be great to see mainstream dual fuel flashlight to get to a place when they can support 200 LM as sustainable output with 80+ efficiency of its driver when using NIMH which per D3AA driver we know is doable.
I asked gemini to generate a graph of Nichia 519A efficiency per watt. Should cross verify but should be ok as conversation starter
Even if we take non eneloop Chinese nimh (pick that cell since I have quite a number of its newer sibling) - recyko 2600 then it perfectly capable of generating up to 3A at 1.1 - 1.15 V which gives us 3.3 - 3.5 Watt.
At 2A discharge it has almost eneloop pro capacity of 2400mah so could be good base for high mode.
So if use for high 2A at 1.15 V and 80% driver efficiency with nichia 519a at 2W we have 130 lumen per watt we should have output of 240 lumen
For 4A at 1.1V and 70% driver efficiency we should get around 370 lumen for turbo mode.
Per above there a room for an improvements.
I have ec150 and clip is good probably the best I have but in many cases it is compared to various convoys and emisars which to me unusable in clip department so in most cases if I keep them only for light I do not use much as antiroll
The only clip I liked from Convoy is in TI/CU T6 which also unusable but it build in a way which feels smooth and good to hold and looks good so I am happy to keep it on as antiroll.
D3AA sustains about 200 lumens for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, according to this review:
Saw that discrepancy also.
My complaint here was more about UI since it looks to me that turbo modes are not really turbo on NIMH. If it sustainable it should be in main mode since it makes it more accessible from my perspective.
And turbo should be something that goes overdrive. For example manker-e05-ii per TimMc’s review on turbo nimh consumes 4.2 A (around 5 watt) to produce 440 lumen with low CRI led so clearly there room for overdrive.
So it not performance critique per se and more UI and config for nimh mode. I want max sustainable mode to be available and available in main group and turbo should be something extra not sustainable.
thanks for the link to Tims review, it has this chart that shows the Manker E05 2 sustains about 100 lumens on NiMh (the green line):
It looks like per that review they use nichia 519a 4500k
For 70 min runtime for lada nimh given us 2A per lygte review
For 2A discharge it 2.8 watt hour energy or 2.4 watt for 70 minutes which gives us around 83 lumen per watt that clearly better than many competitors more close to 50 lumen per watt on similar brightness.
Convoy T3 driver for example need 2.9A to produce 160 lumen albeit on more warmer nichia 4000K (which less efficient) so have around 50 lumen per watt.
They could push it higher since it is 100 lumen for 2:30 min so it is they decision and not system limitation since battery and driver could sustain higher power. I suspect they could implement a mode of 150 lumen for 1h but decided not to do it.
If it can sustain 300 lumen on liion then clearly it has around 3 watt for heat dissipation budget so technically it means it should be able thermally push 220 lumen on NIMH sustainably.
Here is a review of the Skilhunt M150V4, it shows that on Eneloop it sustains about 125 lumens for a bit more than an hour (orange line):
And here is a Zebra H53c N review that shows about 170 lumens for about an hour:
KR1AA** sustains about 125 lumens for 3 1/2 hours:
bottom line is AA lights dont sustain very high lumens.. its just the nature of the battery..
summary of sustained output on NiMh:
D3AA sustains about 200 lumens for a bit more than 1 hour
Zebra H53c N sustains about 150 lumens for about 1 hour
KR1AA sustains about 125 lumens for 3 1/2 hours
Skilhunt M150V4 sustains about 125 lumens for a bit more than 1 hour
Manker E05 2 sustains about 100 lumens for about 2.5 hours
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