Kudos to Fenix on the L0D Q4 holiday special edition light

[Luminescent]

CPF still acting up - Deleted

 

[Luminescent]

Wow, great shot. Luminescent, is there some sparkle or glitter effect in that deep shine (like some car paints)?

In comparison the red in the stock photo provided by Fenix looks really dull like something dipped in red house paint.

That's my MA-1 flight jacket, and if you have ever seen one of these, you know that it's normally kind of flat olive-drab color, but develops a kind of iridescent sheen when the light hit's it just right.

Why mention that? Well, the red anodized finish on my L0D Q4 light has a very similar property. It does looks kind of like a simi-matt finish at first, then when the light hit's it right and you look a little closer, bingo! you see this really cool shiny almost 'metal-flake' effect.

Obviously, my L0D having almost exactly the same kind of drab-to-flashy iridescent quality as the nylon flight jacket makes the L0D look very, very cool in the sleeve pocket of the MA-1, but it sould also look quite nice in a lot of other settings.

I hate to get anyone too keyed up with high expectations on this though, because it's notoriously difficult to get perfectly consistent results when color dying hard coated anodized surfaces (so your mileage may vary).

 

[chibato]

Anyone know if the LOD Q4 will be available in other colors, or any rumors of a Q5 version?

 

[Luminescent]

Anyone know if the LOD Q4 will be available in other colors, or any rumors of a Q5 version?

As you may already know, the normal colors on the L0D are Black and Natural ('natural' is un-dyed anodized aluminum, which varies from satin silver to very light gray), but there don't seem to be any L0D's available with Rebel100's or Q5's so far in these standard colors.

A dealer in Japan had some nice 'natural' Rebel 100's made up, but that was a special limited run and they sold out very quickly.

Since that time, this is the first chance to get a L0D with a higher output emitter so far as I know, but Fenix has apperently only whipped up this one special batch of L0D Q4's for the holidays, and I haven't seen them in any color except red.

 

[gunga]

Luminescent, thanks you for your very informative post. I have been running L0Ds on 10440 on and off, and had decent success. 3 out of 4 were fine, but 2 tended to flicker on low mode for some odd reason. One flickered on low, then died eventually.

After reading your post, I see your logic on low mode not protecting the light. I think I will switch back to nimh full time. I don't get the blinding brightness, but I get a long running low mode back and I don't have to worry about killing my battery all the time.

I'll save the 10440s for a light designed to handle them (LF2, maybe new Lumapower) or just skip it.

Great info, makes sense.

:thumbsup:

 

[p1fiend]

I like my Q4, but mine really doesn't look like the above.

My Q4 looks much more pale, no where near as deep in color. It almost looks like copper-ish orange red.:shrug:

The beam is certainly in no means pretty, mine is quite ringy on a white wall, along with a noticeable halo surrounding the main spill.

However, this is the first light that made me say "WOW" since getting my first P1.......

It's one freakin bright light!

 

[PocketBeam]

Copper orange red sounds nice to me. As for the ring around the hotspot, well I didn't like that about the L2D Q5 I had. But it wasn't horrible, I gave the light to me dad, and he doesn't know any better, so he loves it. (Makes me think I am spoiled by perfect beams.)

I can't wait to get me two L0D Q4s I ordered.

 

[Luminescent]

I like my Q4, but mine really doesn't look like the above.

My Q4 looks much more pale, no where near as deep in color. It almost looks like copper-ish orange red.:shrug:

The beam is certainly in no means pretty, mine is quite ringy on a white wall, along with a noticeable halo surrounding the main spill.

However, this is the first light that made me say "WOW" since getting my first P1.......

It's one freakin bright light!

I'm not surprised that your light looks a bit different. I think both the beam profile, and the tint of both the beam and the light itself are a bit of a crap shoot.

I bought my original black L0D-CE from someone on EBay after seeing one owned by my friend. It made me say WOW, until I saw it side by side with my friends L0D. My beam was not quite as smooth and my friends light was noticably brighter (we even swapped the NiMH cells and his was still brighter). This is one reason I am not a big fan of 10440's (because I remember a reference to 'works with 10440' in the eBay listing, which should have sent up a red flag at the time, but I didn't know any better).

I have always figured that the guy probably cooked the emitter with months of heavy use on 10440's then just dumped the light on Ebay. Of course, it might have just been an earler CREE P4 that was near the bottom of the bin output wise, and my friends light may have just got a lucky bounce and scored near the very top of the P4 output range, but I won't be running 10440 cells in this light after that experence just to make sure.

I lost my original L0D, but my new one seems to have a little better beam, and MUCH more output than my old L0D (because it now beats the crap out of my friends light :nana, so WOW AGAIN! :wow: .

So the L0D Q4 IS brighter than the standard L0D-CE, but the beam is about the same, and all these smooth reflector CREE lights from Fenix show at least a little ringyness (some more than others), so everone should keep this in mind.

I have been very pleased with my light when I use it closeup for real-world jobs like reading a map. It looks very smooth and just incredibly bright (on high it's like holding a 100W incandescent work light).

For those who insist on a perfect beam, you might want to bug the Fenix-Store about coming out with a nice batch of textured reflector L0D Rebel 100's in the future. I have always found the Rebel80 L0D's a little disapointing (because they are not really much brighter than a P4), but they were reported to have near perfect beams.

A nice Rebel 100 based L0D-RB100 would be just as bright as the Q4 but with a near perfect beam, and the lower Vf of the Rebel emitter should even give a few extra minutes of runtime. As nice as this light would be, lots of folks have reported problems with 10440's in Rebel based L0D's, so this new light should probably carry a warning about not using it with 10440 cells.

Personally, I have no interest in running 10440 cells (because these new lights work incredibly well even with standard NiMH batteries), and if Fenix offers a L0D-RB100 (with textured reflector), I will buy one the day it's offered.

But I won't be selling my L0D-Q4, because it's defenetely a KEEPER :twothumbs :twothumbs :twothumbs

 

[GBone]

Anyone know if the LOD Q4 will be available in other colors, or any rumors of a Q5 version?

4sevens said he hasn't heard of any other colors as of right now, I asked him in another thread.

 

[da.gee]

I'm jealous. I want mine! Still waiting for arrival. Shipped 11/19 and not here yet.

 

[Marduke]

Anyone know if the LOD Q4 will be available in other colors, or any rumors of a Q5 version?

The Vf of the Q5 is too high for the LOD's circuitry, so it will probably never be made. Maybe we'll get lucky with an R-2 bin if the Vf is low enough, or some R100's with textured reflectors.

 

[spica]

I just got mine and it has the "copper-ish orange red" body color. It looks great and I am impressed by its performance. I ordered another one. Paul

 

[p1fiend]

But I won't be selling my L0D-Q4, because it's defenetely a KEEPER :twothumbs :twothumbs :twothumbs

Neither will I...infact...

I just got mine and it has the "copper-ish orange red" body color. It looks great and I am impressed by its performance. I ordered another one. Paul

...I just ordered a second one too!

 

[garence]

Wow, thanks for the super thorough details on this light, Luminescent. How could one resist buying it with such a convincing report?

Btw, do you own a Dexlight X.1? I'm curious to know your comparison thoughts, given the close pricing.

 

[Luminescent]

The Vf of the Q5 is too high for the LOD's circuitry, so it will probably never be made. Maybe we'll get lucky with an R-2 bin if the Vf is low enough, or some R100's with textured reflectors.

Q5's don't have any higher average Vf than Q4's. The Tint, Output, and Vf are all separate variables which change a little from batch to batch. There are Q5's out there now with Vf numbers that are just as good as the Q4's Fenix is using in the light right now, so they would work great.

I think this silly generalization got started because Fenix may have indeed had a very early batch of Q5's exhibiting very high Vf numbers at one point and found that they didn't work as well as they would have liked in the L0D and L1D single cell lights.

If that was the case, they should have bounced that whole batch of Q5's because such emitters are a sucker bet no matter which light you put them in (but Q5's of any sort were in such short supply at the time that they probably couldn't afford to be picky).

As I mentioned in a previous post, the goal of ALL manufactures is to drive the Vf down because that improves the 'lumens per watt' performance, and the Q4 in my L0D does seem to be doing a fantastic job, so I don't see any reason why a good low Vf Q5 shouldn't also work well, but remember, even if the Vf does remain the same and the Q5 is working perfectly, the advantage would only average about 7%, based on the bin power specifications (which would be hard to even see).

Here are some real numbers so you can understand what I am talking about.

Bin Q4 runs from 100 to 107 lumens @350mA.

Bin Q5 runs from 107 to 114 lumens @350mA.

Damn, that's only about a 7% average advantage!

Now let's assume that CREE has fobbed off some CRAPPY Q5's on you that average 5% higher Vf than your last batch of Q4's.

This small increase in Vf would cancel almost all (everything but 2%) of your average advantage in using the Q5!

Why? Because what matters are Lumens per watt, not just the lumens@350ma rating that they use to assign the power bins.

As any custom light builder or home modder knows, you can get more lumens out of ANY LED emitter if you push a little more current through it.

The tradeoff is more heat and your runtime goes to hell because you are pumping in more watts.

In thier "Q5 mania" what some of these gullible rubes don't bother to take into account is that the Vf drive voltage works the same way.

A "Q5" that puts out 7% more lumens then a Q4 or Rebel 100 at 350mA, but which also needs 7% more Vf than the Q4 or Rebel 100 needs for the equivalent power level would be A STUPID RIPOFF no matter which light you put it in, because the 7% higher Vf means it needs 7% more WATTS and you could get EXACTLY the same increased output with a lower cost Q4 emitter that had a 7% lower Vf just by bumping up the drive current up by 7%.

So why did Fenix single out the L0D as not being suitable for a Q5, when they were willing to put the somewhat marginal high Vf Q5's in other lights?

Well, let's consider that previous example of a Q5 with a 5% higher Vf that cancels out all but 2% of the advantage of the Q5.

The L0D uses a 'boost' type DC/DC converter circuit, which has to work pretty hard to raise the low single cell battery voltage up to the 3.2 to 3.5 volts needed to drive the LED emitter. If the Vf is higher, this boost circuit has to work even harder because the boost ratio is higher, and it will loose some efficiency. Given the relatively small change in Vf this loss would be small, but if it cost's you even a few percent, then that eats up the remaining tiny advantage of using the crappy Q5 with the 5% higher Vf.

In other Fenix lights using CR123 cells, the voltage boost ratio is lower (or they use 'buck' converters which actually have to lower the voltage), so the Vf of the emitter doesn't cause a hit on efficiency, so even a relatively crappy Q5 with higher Vf might still be a few percent better, and therefore marginally worthwhile.

Again, all these issues go away if you use the better Vf grade Q5's that are available now, or Rebel 100 emitters (which have had lower Vf numbers all along).

 

[p1fiend]

A BIG :thumbsup: to Luminescent and his participation in HIS thread.

 

[Luminescent]

Wow, thanks for the super thorough details on this light, Luminescent. How could one resist buying it with such a convincing report?

Btw, do you own a Dexlight X.1? I'm curious to know your comparison thoughts, given the close pricing.

Never got into the Dexlights, since they are clones of older Jetbeam models that have since been improved.

Also, I never warmed up to the complicated UI on either the Dexlight or Jetbeam higher end X1 lights and preferred the little Jetbeam C-LE v1.2 because it seemed to offer a better blend of simplicity vs. capability.

Another HUGE advantage as far as I am concerned is that the C-LE uses EXACTLY the same mode switching sequence as my little L0D-Q4 (HOW COOOOL IS THAT!!!). :twothumbs

I have the older 'twisty' V1.2 C-LE's and find it makes it a great incremental step up from the little L0D when you can afford to carry a slightly larger light. It works exactly like my L0D-Q4 (Med, Low, High, Strobe, SOS), but with a bit more throw, and almost exactly twice the runtimes (except low which is almost exactly triple the runtime at a full 24 hours).

The only real difference is that the C-LE 1.2 has memory, and the L0D always starts up in medium, but I find that this is actually the way I prefer it for both lights (larger light with memory, smaller light always defaults to medium), because that way I can set the larger light to come on in HIGH since it has longer runtimes and doesn't eat batteries so fast.

Some don't like multimode lights at all, but I don't mind them in this case because both my two favorite EDC lights work the SAME, which makes things nice and simple.

 

[BentHeadTX]

Received pinkish red L0D Q4
Put dual-layer heat shrink on flats of light to protect the finish, cover the snowflakes/bell and increase grip.
Installed Sanyo Eneloop AAA NiMH cell.
Tested light and it was white, bright and very light.
Removed FireFlyIII from keychain. The FF3 was brighter but larger and much, much heavier.

Been screwing around with the L0D Q4 for a few days and am comfortable with the modes and light output. I am now content with my keychain light.

 

[chibato]

For those who insist on a perfect beam, you might want to bug the Fenix-Store about coming out with a nice batch of textured reflector L0D Rebel 100's in the future. I have always found the Rebel80 L0D's a little disapointing (because they are not really much brighter than a P4), but they were reported to have near perfect beams.

A nice Rebel 100 based L0D-RB100 would be just as bright as the Q4 but with a near perfect beam, and the lower Vf of the Rebel emitter should even give a few extra minutes of runtime. As nice as this light would be, lots of folks have reported problems with 10440's in Rebel based L0D's, so this new light should probably carry a warning about not using it with 10440 cells.

Personally, I have no interest in running 10440 cells (because these new lights work incredibly well even with standard NiMH batteries), and if Fenix offers a L0D-RB100 (with textured reflector), I will buy one the day it's offered.

I would be right behind you in line for that light. :thumbsup:

 

[shakeylegs]

Hi Luminescent,
You may remember when I received my LOD reb 100s in August -
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/173150#22
I use the LOD more than any other light I've got. I carry it everywhere always. And every time I fire it up I'm still amazed. I've dropped it on tile floors repeatedly, washed it in the Maytag 3 or 4 times, and it still works and looks like new.
Soon after I got it I was on my way to the beach, stopped at a backwater Safeway for ice, and the store power had failed. Took me 30 minutes before I could extract myself from "escort duty". Not one person who saw the LOD perform was unimpressed. BTW, the pickle and olive isle is sparklingly beautiful under the influence of a rebel 100.
I'd be hard pressed to give up my rebel, but that red bodied Q4 is very enticingoo: