Foursevens Mini Mark II

[weez82]

If anyone gets this light please post beam shots. I'm very interested in this light but I need to see it in action before I know if its what I want. Thank you

 

[was_jlh]

Ordered last night. First light I've bought in a couple of years. I have several 4/7s and love them all.

 

[jag-engr]

Sorry guy - wasn't trying to be personal or insulting. If you are as old as some of us around here shaky hands just come with the numbers. And I learned long ago there are fairly big differences in different peoples manual dexterity - not an insult - just a fact and I was thinking out loud an explanation for why one person was reporting issues with cross threading.

The original MiNis were a mixed bag - especially the CR123. I have an aluminum NW AA MiNi than is an awesome light. I have gifted several other AA MiNis that were rock-solid. On the other hand, I had a AA Ti MiNi that ground and cross-threaded and a CR123 aluminum MiNi that had such loose threads that I could not predictably change modes on it.

 

[oKtosiTe]

Probably, since David owns both companies.

Is this actually true? I can find a number of pages announcing a strategic partnership almost six years ago, and David Chow becoming chairman for Olight, but nothing recent that confirms this is still the case today.

 

[ZMZ67]

Is this actually true? I can find a number of pages announcing a strategic partnership almost six years ago, and David Chow becoming chairman for Olight, but nothing recent that confirms this is still the case today.

Foursevens belongs to David Chow but I didn't think he owned Olight only that he was or is chairman. I don't know if anything has changed since the original announcement either. Hard to believe it has been six years!

 

[RchGrav]

Hey guys.. I got mine.. I'm no expert at beam shots but I'll happily throw a spot on my shed and some trees try to take a picture of it with my Smartphone.

Here -> http://imgur.com/a/3UL1u

 

[lampeDépêche]

Got mine as well!

Looks good--the moonlight mode is genuine moonlight. The high is very high--I don't have any way of getting exact numbers, but I compared it to a ZL H52w running a 14500 on high, so about 500 lumens, and it was very plausibly twice as bright as that, when measured by ceiling-bounce.

Oddly, it did not step down after 15 seconds. It was getting warm at 30 or so, and was still manageable at 1 minute, though possibly getting a bit dimmer? If they do have a timed ramp-down, then it is very gradual.

The optic gives it a very large and uniform hot-spot with a much dimmer spill. Not my favorite beam profile--I prefer reflector beams--but a good one of its kind.

Anyhow--all in all, at a first glance, I'd say it behaves as advertised. Cute, tiny, and very very bright. A good refresh of the Mini line.

 

[RchGrav]

Oddly, it did not step down after 15 seconds. It was getting warm at 30 or so, and was still manageable at 1 minute, though possibly getting a bit dimmer? If they do have a timed ramp-down, then it is very gradual.

I never noticed it drop down to 300 Lumens, I think I waited a little bit longer than 30 seconds. I thought maybe I missed it or maybe I blinked or something.

 

[RchGrav]

Also.. Not sure if its worth mentioning.. but I like how the light remembers the last brightness level and returns to that mode when you twist it back on.

Rich

 

[matrixshaman]

Got mine as well!

Looks good--the moonlight mode is genuine moonlight. The high is very high--I don't have any way of getting exact numbers, but I compared it to a ZL H52w running a 14500 on high, so about 500 lumens, and it was very plausibly twice as bright as that, when measured by ceiling-bounce.

Oddly, it did not step down after 15 seconds. It was getting warm at 30 or so, and was still manageable at 1 minute, though possibly getting a bit dimmer? If they do have a timed ramp-down, then it is very gradual.

The optic gives it a very large and uniform hot-spot with a much dimmer spill. Not my favorite beam profile--I prefer reflector beams--but a good one of its kind.

Anyhow--all in all, at a first glance, I'd say it behaves as advertised. Cute, tiny, and very very bright. A good refresh of the Mini line.

Still waiting on mine - seems it got stalled out a 30 miles away for the next 2 days - does USPS realize what us flashaholics go through at times like this :laughing: If these honestly aren't stepping down after 15 seconds I think I'd consider manually dropping it down a step. At least I think that much heat for any extended times might be shortening the life of the LED unless it's really well heat sinked (which would seem difficult to do in such a tiny light). When I get mine I'll put it on the Lumen meter to see if there is a noticeable step down around 15 seconds. Sometimes with a light that bright it's hard to tell a difference in certain conditions as your eyes will adapt quickly but I would think if it is a sudden drop it would be noticeable. I've had lights I thought were identical in brightness until I put them on the meter to see hundreds of lumens in difference.

 

[gunga]

That's very relevant. Thanks for reporting it (the mode memory).

 

[lampeDépêche]

...If these honestly aren't stepping down after 15 seconds I think I'd consider manually dropping it down a step. At least I think that much heat for any extended times might be shortening the life of the LED unless it's really well heat sinked (which would seem difficult to do in such a tiny light....

Yeah, I turned mine off somewhere btw 30-60 secs for that reason--I did not want to take chances on a malfunction.

But it also was not that hot in my hand, and I assume that blood cooling does a lot.

Incidentally, there are at least three aspects to heat-sinking, and one of them is not affected by the size of the light.
1) does the mounting of the LED pull heat away from the LED and the driver, and conduct it into the body of the light?
2) does the body of the light dissipate the heat, by e.g. cooling fins, surface area, etc?
3) is the body of the light sufficiently heavy that it can act as a temporary reservoir for excess heat until it can be dissipated or throttled back at the source?

Issues 2) and 3) are very much affected by the size of the light: a small light will never be a big reservoir of heat, and will not present a large area for dissipating heat.

But there's no reason why a light the size of the Mini should do a bad job at 1). If the mounting of the LED is well-designed, then it should get the heat away from the emitter and into the body of the light, so that the temp of the body very quickly matches the temp of the emitter, and every additional calorie generated at the emitter is very quickly conducted into the body.

If the Mini is succeeding on issue 1)--and in past years, David Chow has been *very* obsessive about heat management--then the temperature of the body is a good reflection of temp of the emitter. What I was feeling were temps around 100-120 F, or 40-50C. Not worrisome temps for an emitter to be at.

Mostly I turned it off because it's a new light and a new design and there is no down-side to being cautious. As more reports come in we'll learn more.

 

[matrixshaman]

Thanks for that info lampeDépêche. I'm not surprised as David is one of us and wants a light as efficient as possible in heat management as well as it's other cool features. :twothumbs

 

[speculate]

That's fantastic information! Could someone kindly post a video of the beam shots? Would love to see how the flood is on this light.

 

[matrixshaman]

It is a very large hot spot - basically it's a flood light - at about 4 feet you have roughly a 2 foot diameter hot spot, at 10 feet it looks like about 4 or 5 foot diameter hot spot.
Got mine today. I noticed 4sevens talking about the battery with people on his site (or Facebook) and he mentioned to get full brightness on high the battery needs to be able to handle 10C (about 5 amps I believe) but the battery that comes with the light says on it 5C. I think batteries that are 5C can do about 2.75 amps if I recall correctly. Any thoughts or info on this?
I put the light on my Lux (lumen) meter and did some quick and dirty tests. It is brighter by a couple hundred lumens than the recent Olight S Mini I just got (stated 550 Lumens on high). I don't have a light sphere so these readings are all relative. I used the same battery in both lights. When I tried the AW RCR123a black label it was not as bright (maybe a couple hundred lumens lower). But with the battery 4sevens sent I can say it is very freakin' BRIGHT

 

[matrixshaman]

Also of interest I took a close look at the threads on this new light. They appear to be squared off (superior) and less threads per inch (coarser) than any of the previous Mini's I've gotten from 4sevens. So for those with concerns about cross threading or similar problems I would guess this one will not be as likely to have that sort of issue.

 

[matrixshaman]

That's fantastic information! Could someone kindly post a video of the beam shots? Would love to see how the flood is on this light.

I'm fairly close to 10 feet from this wall:

 

[StandardBattery]

This looks like a neat little light - something I'm interested in, but I can't help thinking that I'd prefer a medium mode that is 100 lumens or 150, so the runtime on medium would be significantly longer and there would be a more noticeable difference between the medium and high output levels.

A neutral version would increase my interest, if it proves to be a reliable light. I'm happy to see another tiny R/CR123 light appearing on the scene.

Strongly agree. I'd also like to see a mode-selection layout that does not require you to go through medium and high before you get to moonlight!!

Yep- a medium mode between 70 to 100 lumens would have been nice for good runtime.

I think this is going to be a common sentiment, seems a bit crazy, especially since it runs on a low capacity RCR123A. I wonder what the numbers are for a regular CR123A primary cell, maybe that is more reasonable. Or it could be they thought; well it's rechargeable so don't worry about the runtime on Medium.

I also wonder if this is a sign that Olight does not intend to make an Aluminum version of the S-Mini anytime soon. --OR-- 4-Sevens is no longer working with Olight.

 

[matrixshaman]

Thread comparison between regular 4sevens Mini and the Mini Mark II (on the right):

 

[lampeDépêche]

Nice pix, Matrixshaman--very helpful!

"speculate" above on thread was curious about the flood on this beam: "Would love to see how the flood is on this light."

Your reaction is: "It is a very large hot spot - basically it's a flood light - at about 4 feet you have roughly a 2 foot diameter hot spot, at 10 feet it looks like about 4 or 5 foot diameter hot spot. "


That's all true, but my reaction is: very little flood. A beam that is 2 ft in diameter at 4 ft distance is a 28-degree cone (tan 14 = 0.249). It's true that the beam inside of that 28-degree cone is very even and floody--no hot-spot internal to it. But that's still a relatively narrow cone.

And I would estimate that 90%-95% of the output is going into that cone--the spill outside of it is very faint (though it looks pretty good in your photo, because of the white-wall-bounce effect.).

So it's not a wall-of-light effect, like (e.g.) a ZL frosted lens putting out a 90-degree cone (tan 45 = 1, so that means an 8 foot circle when held 4 feet away). Much less is it a pure flood mule with a 120-degree cone, like the ZL X02 and X03 series.

It's more like a thrower that throws a big, hot spot with very little spill.

I think that's a useful beam for all urban and suburban uses--close up it's great, and at 50 meters away, it will bathe a 20m to 25 meter circle in even light. (So, across the parking lot you will see two cars end to end). Not a rural thrower (but then at this size, who would expect that?) and not an arms'-length flooder.