I got mine today. Not as bad as Th8tredude but a few disappointments. The zoom threads are quite loose and fairly dry. The light rattles unless tightened at either end of the zoom. I lubed up the zoom threads some more, but it is still rather loose. The beam and tint on full wide is gorgeous, nice and neutral (I got the 3b - 5300K) with a slight yellow diffraction ring around the outside, but zoomed in my LED is splotchy as well. Some parts are clean white, some an ugly yellow-orange and some a purplish blue. That and some green and yellow chromatic aberration fringing from the lens too.
I was hoping to do light-painting (photography) with this light, but with such colour abnormalities when zoomed tight, I’m not sure it will work out. I suppose that the average colour (when diffuse) is great, but the zoomed in beam is rather nasty looking, if fact, even when slightly defocused, it still has wacky colour. Only when the beam starts getting much wider, does the colour even out. My LED is also not that well centered either, leading to a bit of flare off to one side.
Also, when the light is at factory defaults, the modes all step down very slightly on a regular interval, definitely visible (even moonlight), maybe every ten seconds or so. If you wait a while, then long press to go dimmer, the light seems to actually get brighter on the next lowest mode! However, once I programmed in the thermal step-down, now there is no more slight stepping down at regular intervals. Or was it fixed because I changed to 5 modes from the default? Weird. Seems like a firmware glitch…?
Lastly, as far as the negatives go, the light doesn’t seem to be as bright as I had expected? When fully zoomed out (wide beam), on a ceiling bounce comparison with some other lights, I’d say maybe 900 lumens OTF? I am using a fully charged KeepPower 5200mAh protected cell. It is supposed to do 9.5 amps continuous but… I suppose an unprotected IMR might make the Cometa brighter?
The fully zoomed hotspot does not appear to be all that intense either, but I do have the warmer tint and it could be all the weird off-white colour artifacts that make it seem dimmer than it really is? I have yet to take it outside and let it stretch its legs against my SR52UT for example, but looking at the hotspot from 30 feet away indoors, my feeling as the Olight will handily out-throw it. However, I may be very wrong in that conclusion, so I really will need to get outside and try it at a few hundred meters. Plus, I have not had much experience with aspheric lights either, so take what I say with a grain of salt! Sorry, but I may not get to any beamshots or outdoor comparisons until next weekend, nor any photos of the light…
Now to the positives: apart from the slightly loose zoom threads (granted, which do make it very easy to turn one handed), the rest of the anodization and machining is top notch, flawless really. The knurling could be a bit more aggressive but is nicely done otherwise. The tail cap was well lubed and threads in very nicely with a nice tight o-ring seal, as does the front part of the zoom head that you remove for disassembly. The rear switch has excellent feel and I love the dim blue glow for finding it in the dark, or acting as a night-light. A quick turn of the tail-cap will lock out the light and turn off the glow too. I love the UI, especially now that the weird step-down dimming no longer happens. As mentioned, the super wide flood beam is very even with only a slight dark spot in the middle (slight bright spot at mid zoom), nice even colour and very pleasant to use. Nice low moonlight mode, easy on the eyes. Apart from the colour, when zoomed in fully, it seems that the focus is bang on, bringing the LED die into sharp focus at longer distances.
In any case, for the $40, it does seem a very nice light overall! I was perhaps hoping for too much, especially in expecting it to throw close to as well as my SR52UT? For everything else, it actually looks like it will be a nice, very useful light. It is also slightly smaller than I had expected. In fact, when zoomed to its shortest length, it fits quite nicely (head up) in a Nitecore EA41 holster. Oops… one more small negative I just noticed: the lanyard, while decent, is very short and I can just barely fit it over my bare hand when opened fully. Luckily, I have a slew of spare lanyards I can use.
I think I will take a chance, order the 1A tint version as well, since maybe the cooler white XP-L HI will have a cleaner LED die with less blotchiness? And maybe I’ll get lucky with a better centered LED too. I should also order an unprotected IMR cell to make sure that my particular choice of battery isn’t holding it back… EDIT: just tried a fully charged Sony VTC5 with the supplied 18650 adapter, and it didn’t seem substantially brighter, if at all. I might not bother with a high-drain IMR then.
Lastly, a question: does anyone know what the approximate current draw from the blue tail cap illumination is supposed to be?