Sunwayman D40A (XM-L2, 4xAA) Review: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS, VIDEO + more

[Midnight.Sun]

At first My D40A CW used to make humming sound on strobe and high modes, but the sound stopped after I reversed the battery holder direction. At some point of its life it has started to show the faint very dim LED light for a second or two after I turn the moonlight off, but then gone on its own!

I bought it in 2014, I got the CW for use inside and around the house where colours are mostly grades of white and other synthetic colours, especially handy when I open appliance for maintenance where I need to observe many coloured wires, so the CW is perfect to distinguishing white, yellow, blue, black, gray, green .. etc.

Mine is always fit with an Olight defuser (4mm), makes perfect beam for indoors, and the D40A is amazingly much better looking when fitted with it. I use this light a lot everyday (literally) to better illuminate so many dark and poorly lit areas for inspections, and it tail stands perfectly for ceiling bounce when needed, and the moonlight is perfect for eye sight adaptation at night times, so again it gets used every single home night in my case. Tried to take it out once belt carry in its pouch, it was not a good experience, it's a bit too heavy and wide for pocket or belt carry IMO, unlike my single cell flashlights.

It has so many imperfections from the first day I opened it out of it's package, I'll try to list what I can remember:

1. Ramps up in reverse, but you get used to that quickly, and was not a big deal for me at all.

2. By nature, the XM-L2 U2 has that pale brass tint around the white hotspot, but in my case the Olight defuser eliminate it completely into a beautifully even and pure white cloud of wide beam.

3. The highest mode 980 lm looks almost the same as the second high 550 lm, the closest I've experienced, and both of them heats the whole light very quickly, as it is often the case in small size flashlights.

4. The battery tube from the start screws and closes-in in a different position every time I open and re close it, it's a real mystery, the threads keeps screwing deeper and deeper every time especially when freshly lubed, and sometimes they stops a lot sooner, so I opened the head plate in the first week and got inside where the driver is located, checked where it's fixed to the head mass and everything was normal, I found nothing there, so the problem remained, I just stopped opening the battery tube unless I need to recharge or change the batteries.

5. The thin plastic buttons cover wore out and the two round buttons were shaved off leaving the under rubber that covers the electronic buttons exposed, but they look perfectly fine, only have to keep them away from water, although I think they can even withstand that the way they were chipped out in perfect fashion.


So, a lot of history with it, all in all it's a great little and very stable light source, quick to jump to the highest output from the low when needed, it's very comfortable to hold in the hand, and the blinking modes are very variant and easy to start, bringing a lot of fun.

 

[Midnight.Sun]

Having read the posts about the dim firefly, and to be more precise, my D40A cw still dim out of the moonlight into the dim firefly, but only for about 1 second, but, that wasn't always the case, I remember that at some point it used to turn into the dim firefly for about 7 seconds or more before it dims completely out or get too dim to be seen, but also it could be that it stayed permanent at times, as I used to quickly turn the tube to break off the circuit, or jump to low and then turn it OFF again, because I didn't like it and didn't see it as additional mode, I saw it as another imperfection because it wasn't there before, but it wasn't long before it disappeared and stopped happening, then I remember it reappeared for a while them it disappeared again somehow. One thing I did at some point is that I switched from using Eneloop's XX in this light, to Alkaline's (of known brands) in permanent fashion, and since than (years now) the dim firefly hadn't appeared noticeably since. I don't know, maybe it's not related to the batteries but that's something worth mentioning, also that I flipped the battery carrier direction a couple of times before. One thing I'm sure of, which is in the past the dim firefly used to stay lit for as long as 7 seconds before shutting off or going too dim, now it's quickly disappears in 1 second, but the Energisers are low in charge now I have to say.

Anyway, I remembered two more negatives:

6. The battery tube inside anodisation at the inner bottom and sides part is too thin, and into almost none existence at some spots, showing the colour of the Aluminium barely covered with faint spray of black.

7. The battery holder is very very tightly short in hight, and changing batteries is not easy at all, and the Eneloop XX's used to make spark and smoke when pulling the last one out, or inserting the last one in. You defiantly need your nails not be trimmed, and I more often needed to use something edgy (plastic or wood) to take the first battery out, and once I chipped a tad bit of the protective sealant Blue plastic/nylon from the batteries holder circuit, luckily it didn't expose conducting parts, but it came so so close to, and that's why I started using disposable Alkalines in that light.

I forgot to mention that the Olight diffuser filter I fit it with is the M22 warrior, and its great like it was designed for the D40A, much better than it's original look.


P.S. In my previous post I mistaken the second high mode for 680 Lm while the correct value is 550 Lm, and between the 550 lm mode and the highest 980 Lm mide there is not much difference in output, using either fully charged Eneloop's or fresh Alkalines.

 

[Midnight.Sun]

Love it, great flashlight, great blinking modes, in cool white and with a good diffuser, you can imitate lightning indoors on some of them very well.

Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder