beam0
February 6, 2018, 5:40am
21
Firelight2:
Got my Wowtac A3S. Here are my preliminary impressions:
What I like:
Noticeably brighter than the A3 . XPL HI is definitely superior to XPG2 in this kind of light. Brighter with the included battery. When I replace the stock battery with a Sony VTC5 18650 or IMR 18500 it gets much brighter.Same UI and body shape as the A3 . Nice knurling and side switch. The UI is excellent… probably the best I’ve seen in a stock zoom light.Super-smooth zoom action . Much better than my A3. In my A3S there is clearly an opening somewhere for air pressure to equalize. Result is butter-smooth zoom cycling. Probably the smoothest of any zoom light I own.Absolutely pristine beam pattern with no artifacts . The beam pattern is the cleanest of any zoomie I own. No rings or imperfections anywhere in the beam at any zoom setting.
What I am indifferent to:
The spot beam does not come fully into focus . This is aesthetic choice by Wowtac. By having the spot beam come to a fuzzy circle it looks better. But the downside is some throw is lost compared to a zoomie that brings the image of the LED die into sharp focus. The A3 is also designed this way.
What I don’t like:
The bezel is considerably wider than it needs to be. Lens looks to be a standard 20mm aspheric, but the bezel is 32mm wide. If you’re going to make a light with a wide bezel, make use of the extra width by including a wider lens or reflector… especially for a pocket EDC where size is important. Otherwise go with a narrower bezel.*The light comes with a Wowtac brand 18650 with built-in USB charging por*t. By itself this wouldn’t be a bad thing, except that the battery compartment length is designed to accomodate this extra-long 18650. The spring in the compartment is short. As a result most other 18650s are too short to make contact and the light won’t work with them without modification. Also you lose USB charging if you swap to a different battery.
Modding Potential: excellent :
*The head and tailcap threads are compatible with Convoy S2*. This means you can easily swap the stock body tube with those designed for the Convoy S2 or Jaxman E2L. Swap in an 18650 tube for those lights and the A3S becomes slightly shorter and no longer has issues with the battery compartment being too long for non-wowtac batteries. Also you can swap in18500 and 18350 tubes allowing you to use the light with different battery types.
Note that if you try the swap there may be an issue with the threads at the head of the light being slightly too short to make contact with the back of the driver. I fixed this by bending a thin strip of copper into a C-ring and inserting it at the back of the driver. But you could also use some wire or a bent paperclip.
I haven’t tried to open up the A3S yet, but I did open the head of my A3. Getting at the LED to swap to something else doesn’t look too bad. This might be a decent candidate for a dedomed SST40. I suspect a driver upgrade won’t be necessary. In my testing with the stock LED the light was substantially brighter on better batteries. The driver looks quite good.
Overall I’m quite impressed with this light. It’s one of the best stock zoomies I’ve tried. Great interface. Great feel in the hand. Excellent output. Easily lego’d for different battery types.
Thanks for posting all this detailed and useful information!
I’ve just came across this light and it looked like the best zoomie yet, now it looks even better! I guess as a mod host the 3S model would be best because of the smoother “vented” zoom action.
(Further comment/inquiry posted in robo819’s review thread )