?? I thought they all (LOD's) used the same driver. The brightness increases are due to emitter efficiency right? How could the q4 in one light have the same high but lower med and low? Methinks it's a typo or just general confusion with a p4 or rebel (the med and low levels for the light linked to here are the same as a rebel lod). Weird Whatever the case I freaking LOVE my lod-q4 (red). I can't stop comparing it to my original cmg infinity, which is still a great light and gets alot of use! I would have paid Titan prices for this light 5-7 years ago
I don't want to cause anyone to feel bad about their purchase (especially so close to the holidays), but you are correct about the L0D driver having a fixed ratio between Medium, High, and Low, so something seems a bit fishy here.
The lower levels are set by the PWM ratio which is fixed in the lights MPU software. Folks have been bugging Fenix to update the L0D to a higher PWM frequency forever and they haven't, so the chance that they magically kicked out a special batch of lights with a different PWM ratio between medium, high, and low is essentially ZERO.
A more likely explanation by far is that the seller was LYING (this was EBAY right?). The way it works is like this; first someone who has read this thread sends a auction enquiry asking if the L0D lights the seller is offering are Q4's. Realizing that this is what folks want to hear, the light
magically becomes a Q4. Some of the Hong Kong dealers are really bad about this. Maybe it's a language issue, but they seem to consider claims like "Q4" to be on the same order as U.S. companies do words like "stylish" (which essentially means nothing).
Then why would the light look about the same on the HIGH mode?
First, It's harder to judge brightness when the L0D is in the super bright high mode, and if he had been playing with the original Red Q4 light for a few days when the Black "Q4" arrived, the battery in the original Red Q4 light would most likely have run down a little and not have been able to sustain quite as much output in the high mode as the fresher cell in the newer light. This would explain why the lower modes were still noticeably brighter on the original Red L0D-Q4, and the seeming conflict with the modes not working the same between the two lights. Actually the modes ARE working the same, it's just that on the L0D, as the battery runs down, the difference between high and medium shrinks (low modes stay regulated, but high drops down a bit as the battery can't sustain the needed current).
So my guess it that this guys "black L0D-Q4" is actually a standard black L0D-CE P4 light, and it's just yet another case of an Ebay seller who figured that Q4 was the right 'magic word' he needed to make the sale, like all the 180 lumen lights on Ebay that only put out 60 to 80 lumens (if they work at all).
The bottom line here is that if you just really can't stand the idea of a RED or COPPER colored L0D Q4, then it's probably a good idea to wait until one of the more reputable dealers like the Fenix-Store have another version in stock.
