It might be worth mentioning that “significantly longer on max before stepping down” is like… a difference of a few seconds.
It does help, and it can run brighter for longer, but it’s still capable of going way beyond a sustainable level.
Ok, thanks. I have a grey D4 with the 219C’s and bought one in blue. Wasn’t sure if it was worth having a different emitter as far as performance goes.
Dropping from 22 amps to 16 amps (guessing, didn’t measure) certainly helps with heat… but either one is still way too much on a host which can only shed half an amp of heat continuously.
That doesn’t mean there’s no reason to use XP-G2 though. I find it has the most agreeable tint, and it also has the highest efficiency on all but the highest levels. XP-L HI becomes more efficient above 3000 lm or so. I haven’t tried the new 90CRI Nichia option though, so it might beat the XP-G2. My 80CRI Nichia isn’t bad, but it looks positively green and cold compared to the XP-G2 3D.
(disclaimer: my “3D” model is actually 5D + 3D + 3D + 2B, on a Mtn MCPCB, with a frosted optic… so it’s not exactly stock… but the average tint is still very close to 3D even though the spectrum is wider)
Yep, the XP-G2 S4 3D is definitely one of my favs. I have a D4 & M43 with those emitters, and love the tint. Way better than the 5000k Nichias, IMO.
I do have a D4 with the XP-G2 5Ds inbound though, so it will be interesting to compare the two. :+1:
Yup, that’s! Specially on the hotspot, it goes from that yellowish (lower levels) to white (higher levels), although the spill colour is still rosy! It is not bad specially to mid and long range and non-white walls! I’ve used it outside and its really nice 
I’m not saying the tint is bad - not at all -, but those shifts are very noticeable on white walls and close range!
Just to compare, here is the Emisar D4 VS the only Nichia flashlight (219C) I have, on a white wall (1) and above white paper (2).
Despite the Nichia seems to have a sort of shift, its is considerably less than these XP-G2 S4 3D, and it is considerably more homogenous as well.
About the tint, and for what I’ve tried with my flashlight, I can say that moving from the regulated level to the unregulated (after the blink), it shifts. That is the “exact” moment when it becomes more white (when ramping up) or “yellowish” (when ramping down).
Don’t know if this makes sense, but this is what my eyes see over and over!
Can I ask one thing? Not that it matters much to me, but I noticed that the “lines” produced by Constant Current stop in the “exact” same moment (blink) it turns from regulated to unregulated.
Is this correct? On that moment my cellphone camera has no “lines”, while from there up or down they are noticeable, through the camera, of course.
About the pocket clip, well, the “shorty” one I’m using with the 18350 tube is not the best one, so far. In shape it is like a Olight S1R Baton clip, but has a larger diameter.
I’ve used during the day and it fits on diameter but the “pads” are too tall, considering the space on the tube. I may have to file/sand the pads down to make them shorter for a perfect fit!
Cutting and re-shaping a Convoy clip may be the best option. Even with heatshrink tube, it fits well on diameter and height of the “pads”. The only thing is that the clip is “taller” than the 18350 version, passing the head and the tail. I’ll provably cut it and rearrange it and it will serve both versions! 
The Astrolux MH10 clip may be a good achievement, even if it is not deep carry !
I just ordered a D4 XPL HI 1A in matte green! with VTC5 (max output) VTC6 (a little better run time) and Aspire 18350 for short tube. It was a hard decision between colors… one website has them all but it will take 2-4 weeks to get here… another is located US which has blue but out of blue short tube… so I picked matte green. I guess if I like this light I’ll get another one later lol
I can vouch for the matte green. Lovely lights. Have both the D1 and D4 in green.
The blue is also gorgeous. Just FYI.
I love my 5D, after having a 3D. Perfect evening edc.
^
I just got the 5D too in Cyan. I think the textured anodizing is fantastic. The 5D reaches out quite a bit further than my 219c too. Both are very good lights.
It’s not your imagination. Tint changes depending on how many amps are going through the LED during each pulse. Maukka has measured this effect in detail in his reviews. If you haven’t read any of those, I highly recommend doing so. He’s got the best toys…
The D4 has two power channels — 350mA and direct-drive. When it’s running below 350mA, tint is pretty nearly constant as brightness goes from moon to ~150 lm. When running at full power, tint is significantly colder. And in-between, it oscillates between the two power channels so tint shifts rapidly back and forth at about 15 kHz. But with such a large difference between 0.35A and ~20A, the FET tint rapidly drowns out the 350mA tint. The transition from one to the other is blended as much as the hardware can facilitate, but it’s still a pretty rapid change.
Adding a third power channel between, at around 3A or so, would make this effect much less noticeable, and would also allow for regulated brightness at significantly higher levels. So I’m hoping something like that will happen eventually.
The “lines” represent the individual pulses in the driver’s PWM signal. Many phone cameras have a rolling shutter which exposes one row of pixels at a time, so time passes from the top of the frame to the bottom. Last time I measured one, the total exposure time was 1/30th second but the image was like 3000 pixels tall so each row was about 1/90,000th of a second. Combine this with PWM pulses at 15.6 kHz, and each pulse is a few rows tall.
The driver oscillates between 0 and 350mA on the low levels, and then there’s a mid point with no PWM at all. Nearby levels have a little, but it’s not very visible. Then above that, it oscillates from 350mA to about 20A, which can again become visible.
On a 3-channel driver, the low modes would be exactly the same. However, higher modes should have a less noticeable PWM effect because the oscillations would be smaller — from 350mA to 3A, then from 3A to 20A. The extra step helps. OTOH, the extra channel also adds a second “elbow” in the ramp, which can be visible sometimes.
True constant-current circuits don’t generally do this so visibly, but they still tend to have smaller oscillations. My Zebralight, for example, oscillates at about 3 kHz… but the amplitude is relatively small.
BTW, if you ever get the chance, try taking a picture of a guitar string just after it’s plucked. It looks cool on rolling-shutter cameras.
Thanks so much for the explanation on this!! As you may have perceived, I don’t know these technical aspects, so those changes/shifts were confusing me a bit when passing the “regulation” threshold!
And now I also understand what you’ve said about the (implementation of a) 3rd channel to “regulate” the brightness and tint! That would be good in cases like this, to “avoid” such a change!
Despite this, and considering XPG2 S4 3D emitters, would that implementation of a 3rd channel avoid the “rosy” tint on the spill, of just the change from the yellowish to white? Or that has to do only with the type of LED and optics/lens above it?
If so, would frosted lenses “avoid” that rosy shift? Not that I will change mine, but just for curiosity!
Thanks again for the explanation on this TK! I really have a lot to learn about these phenomena! :person_facepalming:
And what you describe was what I’ve seen. On that mid point and on the highest level there are no lines, while on the others, even the lowest, they are there. Through my camera of course, probably on others it may not be visible, as far as I perceive!!
Lowest Level > between Lowest and “mid point” (regulation) > Mid point > between mid point and highest level > Highest level
Ahah, nice Guess I’ll have to play my guitar harder to make this happen :smiling_imp: \m/ 
Thank you very much for the above explanations! As I mentioned, I don’t know much about many things spoken here on the forum, so it’s very good to learn
It doesn’t really avoid the change… it mostly just makes the elbows a bit smoother. Here’s the effect, very approximately, in graph form. Blue is what the D4 does, green is how it might look with a 3-channel driver, and red is how it looks when the emitter gets exactly the current it needs instead of oscillating:
I’m pretty sure the lines in that graph are way off… it’s just intended to demonstrate the idea.
That’s all about the optics. The emitter emits different colors at different angles, and then the optics try to reflect that in more of a forward direction. This makes different parts of the beam have different color temperatures.
A frosted optic helps a lot, but doesn’t entirely eliminate this effect. It also helps to use emitters with better consistency. The Nichia ones are usually better about this than Cree emitters. Cree’s domeless emitters (“HI” versions) are also better about this. And from what I hear, XP-G2 does this better than XP-G3. The problem with a frosted optic is that, although it makes the beam look a lot smoother and more consistent, it also greatly reduces throw.
Im ready for a matte red d4 with 3000k emitters. Somebody important make this happen
Ohh, ok! So that jump on brightness would be less marked than it is now!
Would it be also good to “smoothen” the battery drain while ramping up on bightness levels?
BTW, earlier you mentioned:
Are you referring to the D4, or some of the Emisar flashlights, or generally about flashlights? Also, that “eventually” is something related to current drivers’ design, firmware configuration or other aspects? (These questions are just to get the “whole picture”, they can be skipped them as they are more curiosity than a “need to know”!)
So, even if I went to use a frosted optic it was probable that I would still get a rosy outer spill at least, right? I won’t change mine, but I wanted to perceive how it would work! This is my first multi emitter flashlight and my first light with this kind of optics, so the doubts start to appear :zipper_mouth_face:
And about the XPG2 vs XPG3, in the few flashlights I have, XPG3 has more tint shift. Maybe it has to do with the tint (the XPG3 are CW, the XPG2 are NW) but there is a difference in those. The only XPL-HI I have has some - but not much - tint shift and I like it a lot because of that, for inside and outside use! And also because it is a Convoy S2+ DT version 
Thanks for clarifying my questions, once again
No thoughts on this? Anyone?
Hey guys where is the cheapest source for these right now? Any coupon codes?
Thanks in advance
Do you guys know if the optics on the Astrolux S42 will fit the D4?
The S42/S41(are they the same optics) have bigger diameter TIR optic than the D4 based on pictures. The S42/S41 head is pretty much filled with TIR optics, while the D4 has lots of empty spaces.
Based on review measurement, it seems the S42 also have higher kcd than the D4 despite having less total output.
Anyone know the model of TIR optics used in the S42? Will a S42 optics on the D4 with Xp-L His have a more conventional beam profile of hotspot+spill?
pics:
S42 (pic from Lexel’s review)
D4( pic from TK’s review)
The larger one looks like a Khatod while the D4’s is a Carclo. If it’s the Khatod, it’s also taller by a significant amount. And 25mm instead of 24mm, which shouldn’t be as big a deal as the height.
Edit: Those in the S41 may be proprietary, could be made by Khatod for them but Khatod usually put a little window with their name in it on the Quad optic.
(a quick glance at my Ti/Cu EDC and the name doesn’t show behind the bezel, go figure. It is a Khatod that I use though)
The PL115106 Khatod 10° 25 mm Circular Beam Optic - Integrated Legs
Just ordered a Cyan D4 (S4 5D) from Mountain Electronics. Looking forward to receiving it .
Ha! Just ordered a matte green with the 219c. Can’t wait!