ErickThakrar
Enlightened
(This unit provided by the manufacturer for review.)
SunwayLED is one of the newest entrants into the sometimes over-saturated flashlight market and looks to be bringing a breath of fresh air with it, in the form of some outstanding machining.
A sister-company of Sunwayfoto, they're based in China, but nevertheless produce some outstanding products. I'm going to take a look at one of these products today, their flagship flashlight, the M40C.
We'll start with the specs as per the usual approach.
Features
● CREE MC-E LED, with a lifetime of 50,000 hours; Red and Blue LED each 6pcs
● Three modes constant output and one strobe mode (below is the output and runtime of using 2*2600mAH 18650 batteries)
Three modes constant output：630 Lumens( 2 hrs)- 165Lumens(10 hrs)-45Lumens(40 hrs)
Red beam mode：12 Lumens(10hrs)
Blue beam mode：9Lumens(10hrs)
● Digital Sensor Magnetic Control system, slightly twist the Rotator Ring to select from different modes
● Digitally regulated output - maintains constant brightness
● Effective range of 300 meters
● Compatible with both 4*CR123A and 2*18650 batteries
● Working voltage：5.6V~12.5V
● Battery Indicator Lamp for rechargeable batteries, when battery is low, the lamp is red; and when battery is lower than safety value, the red light will flash, this time please turn off the flashlight immediately and replace with new batteries; this function can effectively protect the rechargeable batteries from over-discharge;
● Reflector of good quality maintains both great throw distance and spread, perfect beam pattern
● Dimension：154mm (length) x57.3mm(head diameter)
● Weight：267.8g（battery excluded）
● Aerospace-grade aluminum alloy
● Military Specification Type III hard anodized
● Waterproof accords with IPX-8 standard
● Ultra-clear toughened glass lens resists scratches and impacts
● Push-button tail cap switch
● Tail stand and can be used as a candle
● Accessories: O-ring, rubber cap,lanyard
As you can see, the M40C is a handful. Running off two 18650 Li-Ion batteries or four CR123 lithium cells, the M40C holds the batteries in a side-by-side configuration, similar to the EagleTac M2C4 which I've reviewed here previously. Unlike the EagleTac however, the M40C uses a significantly simpler design for its battery-tube. That is just where the differences start.
The M40C is also unusual in having three different light-sources built-in. The primary one is of course the Cree MC-E LED, nestled at the bottom of a well-stippled reflector. The second comes from a ring of blue LEDs surrounding the main reflector and the third comes from a ring of red LEDs interspersed between the blue LEDs.
Construction Quality
The M40C has overall outstanding machining quality and fit and finish. It's seriously some of the best I've seen in a while and is bordering on, if not surpassing the quality of a brand like Surefire.
Some of the many details are things like square-cut threads everywhere, crisp edges that aren't sharp and just flawless finishing. SunwayLEDs' background in photographic equipment really shows here, I think. The anodizing is smooth and even, and all the lettering is crisp and clear.
The magnetic control ring moves smoothly and firmly, with an easily detectable detent at each level of light from the primary source, to the two different color sources. While not having any checkering, the layout of depressions and ridges provides plenty of grip without being abrasive. This is, of course, subjective, but I found that the M40C felt extremely comfortable in the hand.
The tail switch is easy to access but well-protected from accidental activation by being recessed into the tail of the flashlight. The rubber cover has the SunwayLED logo molded into it which provides a bit of extra grip. Switch action is generally pretty firm, but does not require a great deal of force to activate. There is a noticeable click when the switch is actuated and the switch is a reverse-clicky only. Once activated, even very light pressure on the switch can make the light momentarily turn off and back on. It's the closest thing to a momenary function that the M40C has.
The head of the M40C has a crenelated bezel, which isn't so aggressive as to make the M40C appear weapon-like in nature but still provides for an easy visual indicator of having left the light on. There is also a battery indicator lamp on the side of the bezel, letting you know when you're running low on power. I did notice that contrary to the specifications released by SunwayLED, the light doesn't flash when you've reached dangerously low levels of power. Rather, the indicator starts flashing when the batteries are getting low, only to turn solid as they almost run out. To be safe, I would suggest replacing or recharging your batteries when the indicator LED starts flashing.
Heat management seems to have been handled well, both by a solid heat transfer path to the body of the light, but also with an array of heatsinking fins on the lower part of the bezel.
The battery carrier is remarkably simple in construction, consisting of two metal rods holding together the two contact boards, with the switch mounted directly on the battery-carrier. It feels very solid, although I admit to liking the feel of the EagleTac M2C4 battery-carrier more. Overall, construction is impeccable.
The battery carrier, loaded with one 18650 battery. Note the gold-plated springs and the sheer thickness of the aluminum contact plate.
In this shot you can see how the battery carrier fits into the battery tube. There is very little rattle as it is a quite snug fit.
The switch mounted on the battery carrier. Construction is very simple and solid, which is a good thing in my opinion. No reason to get fancy with something that doesn't need it.
The sealed end of the head. The brass pill in the middle is spring-loaded to ensure good contact and to accommodate wear of the mechanisms. Quite clever, really. I don't know if it's possible to remove the magnetic control ring for cleaning.
Output
The output of the M40C on high, as listed by SunwayLED is listed as 630 lumens. I'm not entirely sure if these are emitter or out-the-front numbers, but it seems consistent with being out-the-front, when compared to my other high-output lights. At anything more than a few feet of distance, the output is smooth, with a well-defined hot-spot and a mostly artifact free spill-beam. The three levels available from the primary LED are all well-spaced, and while the lowest setting is reported as being approximately 45 lumens, to my eye, it appears somewhat lower. Perhaps around 20 lumens or so. The tint of the LED is a very nice pure white with no hint of blue.
The secondary and tertiary sources are almost entirely floody and up-close produce a unique flower-petal like beam pattern. The output is fairly low, but sufficient to handle navigation and up-close tasks with ease. The blue is intensely blue, getting close to being UV, but not quite.
One thing that I found very peculiar about the M40C is that there is a very noticeable delay when turning it on. I would put it somewhere at about half a second or maybe even a little longer. This delay is according to SunwayLED normal and a part of their circuit design.
I'm not entirely happy about this characteristic, but it doesn't hugely impair functionality for someone using this as a utility light. However, for military, law-enforcement and perhaps even Search-And-Rescue, I would argue that this delay makes the M40C almost entirely unsuited for their use. The delay, in combination with the reverse clicky, means that you can't use the light for signaling, such as morse-code, nor can you use it in a tactical setting simply because in a tactical scenario when you need light, you need light right now. Not in half a second or in one second.
Removing the delay and using a forward clicky switch, would go a long way towards making the M40C a far more viable choice for military, law-enforcement and SAR. This is of course easier said than done, so I would just keep this in mind as a prospective buyer.
Conclusion
I'm really quite happy with the M40C. For the relatively reasonable price that they ask, the M40C is of amazing quality. The machining is nigh second-to-none, the quality of output is first-rate and the features, with the Surefire Kroma-like ring of secondary and tertiary LEDs are are almost unprecedented in a flashlight in this price-range. If SunwayLED can fix the issue with the delay and go to a forward clicky for the tail-switch, they will have a monster on their hands. Their machining quality is simply that good! They also managed to fix one of my major issues with the EagleTac M2C4, by designing a battery-tube that is machined from a single piece of metal. This means that the M40C is a stronger design by damn near an order of magnitude!
Personally, I plan on continuing to use the M40C for my subterranean explorations, as it is stronger than the EagleTac M2C4 but also slightly smaller.
Addendum: It appears that in the time it took me to test for and write this review, SunwayLED has removed the reference to a strobe mode in their specifications.
SunwayLED is one of the newest entrants into the sometimes over-saturated flashlight market and looks to be bringing a breath of fresh air with it, in the form of some outstanding machining.
A sister-company of Sunwayfoto, they're based in China, but nevertheless produce some outstanding products. I'm going to take a look at one of these products today, their flagship flashlight, the M40C.
We'll start with the specs as per the usual approach.
Features
● CREE MC-E LED, with a lifetime of 50,000 hours; Red and Blue LED each 6pcs
● Three modes constant output and one strobe mode (below is the output and runtime of using 2*2600mAH 18650 batteries)
Three modes constant output：630 Lumens( 2 hrs)- 165Lumens(10 hrs)-45Lumens(40 hrs)
Red beam mode：12 Lumens(10hrs)
Blue beam mode：9Lumens(10hrs)
● Digital Sensor Magnetic Control system, slightly twist the Rotator Ring to select from different modes
● Digitally regulated output - maintains constant brightness
● Effective range of 300 meters
● Compatible with both 4*CR123A and 2*18650 batteries
● Working voltage：5.6V~12.5V
● Battery Indicator Lamp for rechargeable batteries, when battery is low, the lamp is red; and when battery is lower than safety value, the red light will flash, this time please turn off the flashlight immediately and replace with new batteries; this function can effectively protect the rechargeable batteries from over-discharge;
● Reflector of good quality maintains both great throw distance and spread, perfect beam pattern
● Dimension：154mm (length) x57.3mm(head diameter)
● Weight：267.8g（battery excluded）
● Aerospace-grade aluminum alloy
● Military Specification Type III hard anodized
● Waterproof accords with IPX-8 standard
● Ultra-clear toughened glass lens resists scratches and impacts
● Push-button tail cap switch
● Tail stand and can be used as a candle
● Accessories: O-ring, rubber cap,lanyard
As you can see, the M40C is a handful. Running off two 18650 Li-Ion batteries or four CR123 lithium cells, the M40C holds the batteries in a side-by-side configuration, similar to the EagleTac M2C4 which I've reviewed here previously. Unlike the EagleTac however, the M40C uses a significantly simpler design for its battery-tube. That is just where the differences start.
The M40C is also unusual in having three different light-sources built-in. The primary one is of course the Cree MC-E LED, nestled at the bottom of a well-stippled reflector. The second comes from a ring of blue LEDs surrounding the main reflector and the third comes from a ring of red LEDs interspersed between the blue LEDs.
The business end of the M40C. Note the ring of blue and red LEDs surrounding the main reflector. The lens appears to be anti-reflective coated.
One selects between these sources with a control ring located right behind the head of the light. Turning it on and off is accomplished with a tail-cap switch that is well-guarded, allowing the M40C to tail-stand like a champ.
Construction Quality
The M40C has overall outstanding machining quality and fit and finish. It's seriously some of the best I've seen in a while and is bordering on, if not surpassing the quality of a brand like Surefire.
Some of the many details are things like square-cut threads everywhere, crisp edges that aren't sharp and just flawless finishing. SunwayLEDs' background in photographic equipment really shows here, I think. The anodizing is smooth and even, and all the lettering is crisp and clear.
The magnetic control ring moves smoothly and firmly, with an easily detectable detent at each level of light from the primary source, to the two different color sources. While not having any checkering, the layout of depressions and ridges provides plenty of grip without being abrasive. This is, of course, subjective, but I found that the M40C felt extremely comfortable in the hand.
The tail-cap switch. Note the lanyard attachment points and the four Hex screws that hold the switch assembly in place. There is a shaped rubber seal underneath the tail-cap assembly.
You can clearly see in this picture how well-guarded the switch is. There is also a large area for the M40C to stand on, which makes it quite stable in a tail-standing position.
All the seals appeared well-done, including the tail switch attachment which is handled by 4 Hex screws. I would frankly like to see SunwayLED switch these to a Torx head screw, simply because they are more durable than Hex. The M40C survived immersion to about a foot with no water ingress. The lanyard attachment point is quite beefy, but could stand to have been made a little larger to more easily accommodate something like a paracord lanyard.
The head of the M40C has a crenelated bezel, which isn't so aggressive as to make the M40C appear weapon-like in nature but still provides for an easy visual indicator of having left the light on. There is also a battery indicator lamp on the side of the bezel, letting you know when you're running low on power. I did notice that contrary to the specifications released by SunwayLED, the light doesn't flash when you've reached dangerously low levels of power. Rather, the indicator starts flashing when the batteries are getting low, only to turn solid as they almost run out. To be safe, I would suggest replacing or recharging your batteries when the indicator LED starts flashing.
In this shot you can see how the battery carrier fits into the battery tube. There is very little rattle as it is a quite snug fit.
The switch mounted on the battery carrier. Construction is very simple and solid, which is a good thing in my opinion. No reason to get fancy with something that doesn't need it.
The sealed end of the head. The brass pill in the middle is spring-loaded to ensure good contact and to accommodate wear of the mechanisms. Quite clever, really. I don't know if it's possible to remove the magnetic control ring for cleaning.
Output
The output of the M40C on high, as listed by SunwayLED is listed as 630 lumens. I'm not entirely sure if these are emitter or out-the-front numbers, but it seems consistent with being out-the-front, when compared to my other high-output lights. At anything more than a few feet of distance, the output is smooth, with a well-defined hot-spot and a mostly artifact free spill-beam. The three levels available from the primary LED are all well-spaced, and while the lowest setting is reported as being approximately 45 lumens, to my eye, it appears somewhat lower. Perhaps around 20 lumens or so. The tint of the LED is a very nice pure white with no hint of blue.
The beam of the M40C in a real-world setting. Any hint of blue comes from the color balance on my camera. Notice how any minor artifacts become essentially unnoticeable when using in a realistic setting.
The blue setting. As if that wasn't obvious. The intensity of this is close to being able to make some things fluoresce. It is not quite there, but very, very close.
The red setting. Pardon the blur, but my camera really didn't like this setting at all.
The red is a very useful setting for low-light navigation as it provides plenty of output for that kind of use..
Despite what it says in the specifications, the M40C does not appear to have a strobe-mode, which I can't say I'm unhappy about. I would suggest however, that SunwayLED remove this reference, since the mode doesn't appear to be available. While I do not have the equipment to do accurate runtime tests, the numbers listed by SunwayLED appear to be fairly accurate.The red is a very useful setting for low-light navigation as it provides plenty of output for that kind of use..
One thing that I found very peculiar about the M40C is that there is a very noticeable delay when turning it on. I would put it somewhere at about half a second or maybe even a little longer. This delay is according to SunwayLED normal and a part of their circuit design.
I'm not entirely happy about this characteristic, but it doesn't hugely impair functionality for someone using this as a utility light. However, for military, law-enforcement and perhaps even Search-And-Rescue, I would argue that this delay makes the M40C almost entirely unsuited for their use. The delay, in combination with the reverse clicky, means that you can't use the light for signaling, such as morse-code, nor can you use it in a tactical setting simply because in a tactical scenario when you need light, you need light right now. Not in half a second or in one second.
Removing the delay and using a forward clicky switch, would go a long way towards making the M40C a far more viable choice for military, law-enforcement and SAR. This is of course easier said than done, so I would just keep this in mind as a prospective buyer.
Conclusion
I'm really quite happy with the M40C. For the relatively reasonable price that they ask, the M40C is of amazing quality. The machining is nigh second-to-none, the quality of output is first-rate and the features, with the Surefire Kroma-like ring of secondary and tertiary LEDs are are almost unprecedented in a flashlight in this price-range. If SunwayLED can fix the issue with the delay and go to a forward clicky for the tail-switch, they will have a monster on their hands. Their machining quality is simply that good! They also managed to fix one of my major issues with the EagleTac M2C4, by designing a battery-tube that is machined from a single piece of metal. This means that the M40C is a stronger design by damn near an order of magnitude!
Personally, I plan on continuing to use the M40C for my subterranean explorations, as it is stronger than the EagleTac M2C4 but also slightly smaller.
The M40C being put through its paces deep in the bowels of the earth.
Recommended, but with a few reservations as per the above.
Addendum: It appears that in the time it took me to test for and write this review, SunwayLED has removed the reference to a strobe mode in their specifications.
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