Zebralight SC62w

[ToyKeeper]

FWIW, the green-tint thing seems to have improved a lot in the past year, and it’s good news that the OP reported more of a rosy tint. The poor ano seems to be common on their recent lights though, so again it’s nice to hear from the OP that it seems to be improved now.

I can’t really say anything for sure without seeing the products in person though. And probably seeing products from multiple batches.

[fnsooner]

@ToyKeeper

Looks like a nice light. Maybe I’ll get one when the SC62Fw comes out.

Or maybe not. I’ve gotten a little spoiled by custom lights and “pretty” lights in bare metal, and I find that even a small 1x18650 is usually too big. I like my original SC52, but it doesn’t really get used much these days because I have much more interesting items to play with. It’s a great workhorse light though, and I use my H52Fw nearly every time I have real work to do.

I understand. I just don’t have the patience to be a modder and figured I would have left a long path of destruction by the time I had the confidence that a finished product would be durable enough to handle my abuse.

For me, ZL is the closest I could find to a custom builder, with all their different tint options and usable UI, and still be “off the shelf”.

For the last year or so, I have alternated between the SC60W (18650) and SC52w(AA) depending on how much run time I might need for the day.

@jmpaul320

I am interested in this light… but I am trigger shy over the QC issues Zebralight has had over the past 2 years.

I have owned a sc600 and a sc52…. both suffered from crappy anno and horrible pea green tint…

I messaged Calvin from IS about a sc600w mk2 L2 and he said that the buttons still feel squishy on the warm models but were ok on the cool white models…

awesome light and awesome UI… but I think I will wait.

I can also understand this. With only a one year waranty, it hurts to break one soon after the warranty has expired. I know. My SC600w went down at about fourteen months. I thought about calling ZL but decided to just take my lumps. I used the crap out of it and I agreed to the one year warranty when I purchased it.

The only other problem that I have had is a first gen SC600. It had a switch problem that a lot of the first batch had. I did go on a mini tantrum on the forums about customer service but they took care of me.

Here is a rough cronological order of my ZL users.
SC60 (gave to my father) > SC60w > SC600 > SC600W (broke after 14 months) > SC60w > SC52w(lost it) > SC60w > SC52w L2(bought two weeks ago to replace the one I lost). I also have a h501w for around the house and a h51w that I keep in my tool bag.

Except for the SC600w that broke after warranty was out and the SC52w that I lost, all my ZLs are accounted for and in perfect working order. Some of them are pretty dinged up though.

[fnsooner]

@ToyKeeper

FWIW, the green-tint thing seems to have improved a lot in the past year, and it’s good news that the OP reported more of a rosy tint. The poor ano seems to be common on their recent lights though, so again it’s nice to hear from the OP that it seems to be improved now.

I can also confirm that the tint is getting better on the SC52w. The first one I received had a yellowish tint. I really didn’t mind too much as long as it wasn’t green but I have had better. My newest SC52w L2 has a nice creamy color to it, similar to my xpg based SC60w. Us tint snobs though are always at the mercy of the lottery. :cowboy_hat_face:

[ToyKeeper]

@fnsooner

I just don’t have the patience to be a modder …
For me, ZL is the closest I could find to a custom builder, with all their different tint options and usable UI, and still be “off the shelf”.

There’s a reason that the only EDC I haven’t rotated is my ZL headlamp. I carry one of those with me everywhere, plus whatever else I feel like using at the time. If I could only keep one light, it’d probably be my H52Fw. It’s not pretty or particularly interesting, but it’s amazingly practical and useful.

[blueb8llz]

keep us updated on how you like this light, im still on the fence on this one

[jmpaul320]

thats good to hear about the tint - It looks like anno and switch issues are limited to certain batches of the lights… seems to be a lottery

[Cereal_killer]

Has anyone managed to crack open their ZL yet? I would love to use one of these as a RGBW host but I never managed to get any of my ZL’s open except for my H50.

If I could get it open I’d like to have one with MELD and an XML color.

[ToyKeeper]

Haha, no.

As far as I’ve heard Zebralights are glued, sealed, potted, and otherwise generally the most mod-unfriendly hosts available. Otherwise I’d love to replace the lens (plain glass, no weird AR tint) and emitter and make myself a custom ‘H52n’ model with a Nichia 219B. Been bugging them for years to make that, but they haven’t.

[InfinitusEquitas]

Might want to ask Vinh, he's managed to mod a few zebralights, but definitely echoed your assessment of them being extremely mod unfriendly.

[Firelight2]

@Cereal_killer

Has anyone managed to crack open their ZL yet? I would love to use one of these as a RGBW host but I never managed to get any of my ZL’s open except for my H50.

If I could get it open I’d like to have one with MELD and an XML color.

Zebralights aren’t a mod friendly host.

To put in an RGBW LED you’d need a new driver. Even more difficult than swapping the emitter. Here’s why the SC62w is so hard to mod:

• Integrated driver / star - most lights have a star with the LED and then a separate driver. Changing the LED is as simple as desoldering the leads to the driver and then swapping in a new star. In order to save space and make for a shorter light the newer Zebralights use one board that contains both the driver AND the LED. This makes it very hard to mod. You can’t simply replace the guts with an RGBW driver board and separate star because there’s only room inside for one board. Even emitter swapping is difficult, because you’d need to reflow the emitter off the board without having all the other components fall off.

• The SC62w driver is sealed and potted … so even more stuff to go through to remove it.

• Soldered screws. For better heatsinking many Zebralights tend to have their boards held on with screws and then solder put on top of the screws. Because the screws are heatsinked directly to the body, good luck trying to remove that solder. The heatsinking will suck the life out of all but the strongest irons.

• Press fit bezels. For cost and to make for a shorter light, Zebralights use press-fit bezels. These are much more difficult to remove than screw-in bezels.

• The head and body of most Zebralights is a single piece. This makes for great heatsinking, but also makes it more difficult to service any components at the bottom of the battery compartment near the head.

[Boro]

Easily, the best small 18650 single light I own. Bright, good modes, nice switch, floody beam and nice tint.

[Ray-o-light]

Ditto on everything Boro said. It’s a mighty sweet little light. Now I see why so many guys collect Zebralights.

[DanielM]

What is up with the zebralight site. Almost everything is on backorder.

[jmpaul320]

@DanielM

What is up with the zebralight site. Almost everything is on backorder.

thats typical zebralight

[DanielM]

@jmpaul320

@DanielM

What is up with the zebralight site. Almost everything is on backorder.

thats typical zebralight

In the meantime I’ve looked everywhere online and they’re gone. Endangered species stuff really.

[jmpaul320]

@DanielM

@jmpaul320

@DanielM

What is up with the zebralight site. Almost everything is on backorder.

thats typical zebralight

In the meantime I’ve looked everywhere online and they’re gone. Endangered species stuff really.

I believe you can still order on zebralights website and theyll send you one when its in stock

I know illumn is getting some eventually too… they already have the cool white and daylight “d” model

[DanielM]

I kinda had my heart set on H600w. Seeing as I’m not buying $90 flashlights every day I’d wait for what I want.

[InfinitusEquitas]

I asked them about it, and the back order status for the neutral white version... their reply was that it would ship next business day, so I'm expecting a shipping notification today.

I'm a tad sceptical though because I also ordered an H502r Red AA headlamp over the weekend, it supposedly shipped monday, but I have yet to receive it, or have tracking update with USPS.

[DanielM]

I ordered we’ll see

[jmpaul320]

@InfinitusEquitas

I asked them about it, and the back order status for the neutral white version… their reply was that it would ship next business day, so I’m expecting a shipping notification today.

I’m a tad sceptical though because I also ordered an H502r Red AA headlamp over the weekend, it supposedly shipped monday, but I have yet to receive it, or have tracking update with USPS.

so then its really not back ordered?? lol