My Quick NiteCore D10-EX10 Review

[paulr]

I continue to be amazed that only certain makers have issues attempting to match HA color between components.

I think clear HA color is harder to match when the coating is thicker (and therefore more durable). Draw the obvious conclusion.

 

[Patriot]

This is a very helpful review and a great reference thread.

Thanks for taking the time to record all of this TIN.

 

[Sharpy_swe]

Thanks for another great review

 

[gottawearshades]

I had a chance to play with my EX10 last night. I agree with the label. I is a high quality flashlight. I wanted a pocket light that had an interface kind of like my NovaTac, but smaller just in case I ever want a smaller light. If this one were any smaller, it would be a swallowing hazard for children.

This is my first piston-driven light, and my first ramping light. I like the piston, not so sure about the ramping. The piston has an good feel and an kind of neat click sound.

As for the ramping, I dunno. My favorite light is my Novatac, partly because the UI is perfect for me.

My one suggestion is that it would be nice if the memory of the custom brightness you set was not erased when you went directly to high or low. I don't much like always having to adjust it. On my NovaTac, I decide ahead of time, and then I always know how bright it is. Life is all about committing yourself, and living with the consequences.

This interface brings uncertainty into my life I am not sure I'm ready for. One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics.

 

[Marduke]

Changing the background from grey to white will GREATLY improve the readability. As a former instructor, printing out charts with grey background (the default) instead of white earned a 5 point deduction in my grade book after the first week.

How to:
Right click center of chart in the grey area > format plot area > "Area" should be selected as "none" instead of "automatic"

 

[ruriimasu]

will ultra fire or trustfire 14500s produce similar runtimes as AWs?

 

[streetmaster]

Changing the background from grey to white will GREATLY improve the readability. As a former instructor, printing out charts with grey background (the default) instead of white earned a 5 point deduction in my grade book after the first week.

How to:
Right click center of chart in the grey area > format plot area > "Area" should be selected as "none" instead of "automatic"

lol Nascar, you just got "schooled". :hahaha: Even though I had no problems reading your charts. Constructive criticism I suppose... :shrug:

 

[BabyDoc]

The fact that the memory is erased by switching to low or high and then you have to reset your user defined level every time is a deal breaker for me. I will stick with my NDI which has a user defined mode that stays fixed where I want it, and a high I can switch to if I need it. Even though the PD Switching is a great improvement over the NDI's cheap clickie, what good is the PD if it switches off your user defined mode every time you access quick low or high. What makes this even worse is that switching to high or low can easily happen unintentionally, but then to be punished by losing your user defined setting? What could EdgeTac or 4 Sevens could been thinking about when they designed this into this light? In my opinion, they would have been better off without the instant low and high, if the cost for that was losing the user defined setting. It is hard to imagine a good reason if this was an intentional design plan. If anyone could give a good reason for this design, I would love to hear it.

 

[Phaserburn]

The fact that the memory is erased by switching to low or high and then you have to reset your user defined level every time is a deal breaker for me. I will stick with my NDI which has a user defined mode that stays fixed where I want it, and a high I can switch to if I need it. Even though the PD Switching is a great improvement over the NDI's cheap clickie, what good is the PD if it switches off your user defined mode every time you access quick low or high. What makes this even worse is that switching to high or low can easily happen unintentionally, but then to be punished by losing your user defined setting? What could EdgeTac or 4 Sevens could been thinking about when they designed this into this light? In my opinion, they would have been better off without the instant low and high, if the cost for that was losing the user defined setting. It is hard to imagine a good reason if this was an intentional design plan. If anyone could give a good reason for this design, I would love to hear it.

I agree with not caring for the loss of the user defined level when you use the min-max functionality. I prefer the NDI/Extreme UI. I could see alot of people enjoying this UI, though, so I don't find fault with it's design.

To me, the ideal UI would be the NDI/Extreme one where you could also get the lowest setting on demand. Nitpicking, really. If you always have solid access to max and low, then you really would benefit from memory on the user defined level. The ability to define "medium" is what it is about, IMHO, and not have min/max override the user setting in memory.

 

[patycake57]

What could EdgeTac or 4 Sevens could been thinking about when they designed this into this light? In my opinion, they would have been better off without the instant low and high, if the cost for that was losing the user defined setting. It is hard to imagine a good reason if this was an intentional design plan. If anyone could give a good reason for this design, I would love to hear it.

Is this tone really called for? These discussions usually are more productive without this kind of arrogance.

This is a fairly novel UI, and I applaud 4-7s and Nitecore for it. I think it is a nice and simple UI (having used an EX10 for the last 2 days). Is it perfect? Probably not. The ramping direction clearly needs to be reset if the min or max is set. Other than that, it works well for MY uses as an EDC. I do think I would appreciated a model which was more complicated, with user settings, along the lines of LF5XT (on the way) or Novatac (I have an 85P). I suspect there will be follow up models, and look forward towards aquiring more lights along this design.

I also have an NDI, and I much prefer the EX10 to that. The interface is simpler with only one button to worry about, and I find myself using middle modes more (I'd use my NDI mostly as hi/lo). Plus, the EX10 is considerably cheaper, and the PD is quite a new feature.

Is it perfect for you? Obviously not, but people differ, and I recognize that.

 

[FsTop]

I've got a D10 on order - looking forward to it.

Just a thought on an ideal UI - the Infinity has a twisty ring for choosing output level. Let's develop that ring function a little farther, and drop the clicky entirely.

Let the ring go all the way around, with maybe 8 detents, one deeper than the others. The deep detent is Off. Turn in one direction, and you'd get Low, ramping up toward High, until you go all the way around to Off again. Start turning in the other direction, and get High, ramping down toward Low, then Off again.

It's intuitive and predictable, solves the High-first vs. Low-first dilemma, and can be used as a momentary On/Off.

Then extend it even further in the next generation, and make the ring a continuous level-set, with maybe 100 levels and no detents except Off.

 

[BabyDoc]

I also have an NDI, and I much prefer the EX10 to that. The interface is simpler with only one button to worry about, and I find myself using middle modes more (I'd use my NDI mostly as hi/lo). Plus, the EX10 is considerably cheaper, and the PD is quite a new feature.

Is it perfect for you? Obviously not, but people differ, and I recognize that.

I am sorry that you took personal offence at my opinion. I am glad you are enjoying your light and don't mean to deminish your joy of owning it. You are absolutely right. No light is perfect for everyone.

 

[Thujone]

Looks like the D10 performs a bit better than the EX10 when both using rechargable Lithium Ions cell - 14500 and RCR123 respectively.


This is very interesting for a rechargable cell.

I had mentioned this in talks before. 14500s have more energy capacity than to rcr123s. I will stick my graph below containing all of my AW RCR123 cells and 14500 cells. The three poor performing 123s are old blue label, the rest are black, and the three top performing black label are from the last couple months..

 

[jbviau]

The fact that the memory is erased by switching to low or high and then you have to reset your user defined level every time is a deal breaker for me. I will stick with my NDI which has a user defined mode that stays fixed where I want it, and a high I can switch to if I need it. Even though the PD Switching is a great improvement over the NDI's cheap clickie, what good is the PD if it switches off your user defined mode every time you access quick low or high. What makes this even worse is that switching to high or low can easily happen unintentionally, but then to be punished by losing your user defined setting? What could EdgeTac or 4 Sevens could been thinking about when they designed this into this light? In my opinion, they would have been better off without the instant low and high, if the cost for that was losing the user defined setting. It is hard to imagine a good reason if this was an intentional design plan. If anyone could give a good reason for this design, I would love to hear it.

Question for you: When is it absolutely crucial to have instant access to medium?

 

[Marduke]

Is this tone really called for? These discussions usually are more productive without this kind of arrogance.

Is it perfect for you? Obviously not, but people differ, and I recognize that.

Let it go, It's an ongoing theme which you won't win. Don't bring up LED tint either, trust me.

 

[Ty_Bower]

My one suggestion is that it would be nice if the memory of the custom brightness you set was not erased when you went directly to high or low. I don't much like always having to adjust it.

I'll disagree. While my EX10 is my first "ramping" light as well, I'm finding it's really growing on me. I'm not a "tactical" light user. I'm not often placed in life or death situations. I just putter around the house and the yard. For me, the EX10 works really well. I double click to put it on the lowest setting, then ramp it up to whatever brightness seems appropriate. If it's late at night inside the house, then a relatively low setting is perfect. If it's outdoors, maybe a little brighter is better. I don't care exactly what the setting is. In some ways, it's nice that the interface encourages (requires) me to set the level each time I use it for a different task. That way I get the right amount of light for the job.

My only complaint is the 50% of the time when I double click to low, and then it tries to ramp down.

 

[tennisplyr3]

will ultra fire or trustfire 14500s produce similar runtimes as AWs?

I would like to know this as well. Anyone?

 

[BabyDoc]

Question for you: When is it absolutely crucial to have instant access to medium?

It isn't CRUCIAL. It is a CONVENIENCE. Except for people in tactical situations needing instant HIGH, I doubt there is a crucial need for instant access to any light level.

If your point in asking this question is to say it isn't crucial that the EX10 dumps its user defined medium setting when low or high are activated, you are absolutely right. You could possibly reset that level within 4 seconds, although it more likely will take a few tries to get it exactly where you want it.

I have a question for you: If there was no need that the user definable setting needed to be saved, why would you guess the EX10 was designed to save the level in the first place, only to lose it when low or high was activated?

 

[clintb]

Changing the background from grey to white will GREATLY improve the readability. As a former instructor, printing out charts with grey background (the default) instead of white earned a 5 point deduction in my grade book after the first week.

How to:
Right click center of chart in the grey area > format plot area > "Area" should be selected as "none" instead of "automatic"

And save to .png so you don't get the nasty lossy artifacts.

 

[jbviau]

I have a question for you: If there was no need that the user definable setting needed to be saved, why would you guess the EX10 was designed to save the level in the first place, only to lose it when low or high was activated?

That's a fair question. Why allow a user-set level at all? It seems clear that the light isn't 100% designed to satisfy people who want one. If I had to guess, I'd say that 4Sevens is trying to entice some % of people who really dig lights like the NDI that allow users more control over level-setting while simultaneously appealing to a broader market by offering different features/a simpler UI. It might work. Look at the iPod shuffle. Many people didn't think they could do without the screen, but it's sold pretty well.

There's something else lurking in the background of this debate, I think, which is the search for THE perfect flashlight. Some people are definitely on that quest. I can relate, because I'm someone who tends not to want multiple lights, each with its own specific niche. I want one that can do it all. It's just hard to do it all well.

Ok, starting to ramble here ...