Yes, I made a post on Reddit about mine today. Here is my conclusion after testing outdoors tonight:
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Outdoors, and especially at longer distances, the SC64w HI is easily the king of these four. I found that CRI didn’t matter to me as much as pure output did when outdoors. Indoors, CRI and tint is everything.
The smaller hotspot on the new SC65c HI would be fine if it had more candela. Unfortunately, it has less intensity than the SC64w HI. All of these lights are excellent and better than their competition.
I received my SC65c yesterday. It does not use an optic. It uses a reflector that looks identical to the reflector used for the last 9 years in every SC62, SC63 and SC64 series light.
The SC65c looks and feels identical to an SC63 or SC64.
The “reduced length by half a mm” is so minor a difference as to not be noticeable even with close inspection comparing an SC64w side-by-side with the SC65c.
The only noticeable differences in external appearance are the emitter, the anodizing and the writing on the top of the light. These differences are subtle.
The SC65c’s anodizing is more matte than the SC64. I think the matte looks better, though I still prefer the lighter grey matte anodizing of the SC63.
I wish Zebralight would update their external body shape.
The Zebralight SC63 was released 7 years ago and there has been no update to the body design since. It’s getting a bit stale.
The SC63’s body style is nice, but isn’t perfect. It’s slippery in the hand due to lack of knurling. There’s definitely room for improvement.
When I buy a new light, I want it to look and feel new. I don’t want it to look and feel exactly like the old model.
The beam on the SC65c is nice. As expected, it’s warmer than the beam on my SC64w hi and has better CRI and R9. However, it has less spill and comparable or slightly less throw.
The beam is less rosy than the dedomed Nichia 519a that I’ve gotten used to in all my moded lights. On the upside, the SC65c actually maintains its brightness far longer than my Anduril lights. Gotta love that Zebralight heat regulation.
The SC65c is also quite lightweight. I measured 88g with a Sony VTC5a installed.
This is just their usual batch variation, not an update for the SC65c HI. My last SC64c LE order from June has identical ano other than a subtly different tint.
I agree it feels a bit weird to receive a light that looks essentially the same as what I bought back in 2016, but I suppose the change from the “ribbed for your pleasure” design was quite intentional, and they seem to be happy with the EDC models being untextured. The SC64 is still widely considered one of the best EDC lights on the market, so it’s not like they have much motivation to make any significant changes to the appearance. The difference in length is because of things like the PCB being 1.2mm instead of 1.3mm, just shaving off a tiny fraction of a mm here and there.
Funny. I can’t think of the reason I formulated my post like this… I always knew it had a reflector ( I have had several sw64’s). A big brain fart I guess.
I agree with Firelight2. While I don’t want change just for the sake of change, the Sc64 body is not perfect.
Adding knurling, a bit like the sc5 would be nice, something else do differentiate it from a 7 year old body style is nice. This is not an Hds. Change can be good.
i think shortening it is kind of redundant bc its already super short . in addition to new emitters i would like to see features added instead of removed: deeper heatsink fins, thicker button material to prevent any tearing (i would HATE to send back a zebra for RMA +6months), ss bezel made from 316SS, flat/matte black pocket clip/screws.
I’m not super into ZebraLight, but I generally like their compact host designs. I think the ZL SC64/SC65 has enough features for grip (and for fidgeting), while still being mostly smooth, so I don’t feel like I’m holding sandpaper. Knurling would make me like them less, because the sandpaper effect would make it feel bad to hold.
If I were to change something about it, I’d probably change the clip back to an older style, like the SC52 and SC62 used:
The new clip isn’t bad, but it’s not as good either. Removing the ribs was a good thing, but the new clip was a bit of a downgrade.
I don’t know if you have a SC600 or SC700 but they have knurling on the tube and it’s quite gentle on the hands, I’d say it’s the smothest knurling from the lights I have.
. in addition to new emitters i would like to see features added instead of removed: deeper heatsink fins, thicker button material to prevent any tearing (i would HATE to send back a zebra for RMA +6months), ss bezel made from 316SS, flat/matte black pocket clip/screws.
