# ZL Floody Headlamps - Which Gives The Best Beam Profile??



## Stevie (Oct 7, 2016)

Hallo everyone,

For about seven years now, I have used one of the first ZL incarnations - the H30. It is such a useful little light and I'm very fond of it. I love the floody beam for camp and close up work. The 80 degree beam does not glare onto the face and is perfectly uniform throughout - there is not the slightest hotspot and the flood is completely uniform right to the edge. But - it's cool white and to be honest gives a 'cold feeling' when in use. I'd like to try a modern warm tinted one, but would love to hear your opinion on which one is the 'best' in your opinion, why you like your model and what made you choose it over the other ZL incarnations?

I see that the models ending 'F', or warm version 'FW' use the frosted lens design and claim to give 90 degrees of flood. However, I was a bit confused when looking at reviews on you-tube because I think that I could definitely see a 'hotspot' with these (if I may call it that?)....the centre of the beam was definitely more focused than the edges. Is that right? You see, I want the beam to mimic what I have in my old H30 - perfectly uniform flood.

I see that the models ending '02' use an open emitter style without reflector, and a clear glass covering lens. These giving 120 degrees of flood. The uniformity of the beam flood looks to be much better than the frosted version.....but....I fear that the 120 degree beam spread is going to severely annoy me regarding glare to the face. In every you-tube vid I watched, the person using this light had a VERY well illumined nose and brow....this would drive me crackers (to compound things further I wear glasses / specs so glare is a subject I always consult with regard to my headlamps).

What works for you out of these two? What do you like? What do you dislike? I would very much like to hear from you - thanks for looking - Steve


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## StandardBattery (Oct 7, 2016)

The H30 is a classic. To replicate that in a newer light you have to go with the x02/x03 lights. Yes the angle is specified higher but it does not bother me, it's the only way to get that even light. I just recently tested this again comparing the H602Fd III with the H603c. No contest for near field task work the H603c was the clear winner for me. If i was using it at lower levels H603d or 603w might be better being just a bit brighter and higher color temp, but it depends on the environment. I wear glasses, although fairly close fitting. Keep the H30 for really close up work where you don't need more brightness. 

The H603c is quite warm compared to the H30. My H30 does not have the glow button, i suspect it's the first version. I wish i had bought more of the H30 models, but mine is still going strong. I don't think i have a spare of that exact one.


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## tops2 (Oct 8, 2016)

The only model I have is the H600Fd. The reason was partly to test out a headlamp and I wanted a higher CRI.

I debated between the standard version, the F models and the mule models.

Before buying the H600Fd, I have the SC5w and tried the magic tape trick and found for indoors I love the resulting flood. So I know I can buy the standard version and put a diffuser tape to get basically the "F" version. If if I'm going to leave the tape on permeantly, I might as well get the F version.

Between the F and the mule version came down to the distance I'd like the light to work in. I wanted close to medium distance so that ruled out the mule version. The mule version had awesome flood, but in especially videos, there's the "donut hole" effect when looking out further. I can see the mule will be awesome indoors or maybe up to 10 feet?

The H600Fd strikes the balance for distance vs flood to me. The H600Fd does indeed look like there's a smooth hotspot to spill transition..but it still has that mild hotspot. But it's so much more pleasant to me than the light with a bright hotspot for indoors. On days and depending on pants, I end up bringing the H600Fd as my pocket EDC instead of my Olight S1 despite the huge size and weight difference.

I do also have an Armytek Wizard Pro v3 XHP and the honeycomb lens on that gives a wide flood (but not like the Zebralight mules) but with a very even lit beam. If I could, ideally I'd like my H600Fd to use the same Armytek honeycomb lens for a even more even beam.


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## Collins (Oct 9, 2016)

This is a good thread. I wear glasses and had also been debating between Pure Flood and Floody for upclose things. i.e. working on computer or working on car. Sometimes I work on my car at night and have to walk in/out through the darkness outside.

I really liked the idea of Pure Flood no hotspot. But I'm leaning towards Floody, as I'm thinking it will appear to be brighter at the same lumens setting of the Pure Flood. And so maybe you could set the Floody to a lower lumens setting compared to Pure Flood and so get more battery life out of the Floody.

Also like the other mentioned. I had seen videos of someone outside looking around and you get the donut hole black center when looking around. Which would be annoying. Also with Pure Flood, read of some talk about even when indoors that the stuff to the sides can appear to be brighter than what you are looking at in the middle.

So right now I'm deciding on which Floody for the 18650 battery.


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## jorn (Oct 9, 2016)

I like the F versions. Got a floody beam, and got the extra reach (outdoor use). Also got the old h30, but to see past 10 meters, you need to crank it up to max, and that will eat batteries. With the F models where you still got some kind of hotspot, you wont need to run it on max to see whats out there.


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## CoherentRays (Oct 9, 2016)

Collins said:


> This is a good thread. I wear glasses and had also been debating between Pure Flood and Floody for upclose things. i.e. working on computer or working on car...
> 
> So right now I'm deciding on which Floody for the 18650 battery.



I think I've been seeing your posts agonizing over the decision between pure flood or floody for more that a month now. I'm glad you've finally reached the decision of floody. I have both and floody is perfect for me for every closeup task like working on the car or computer, changing furnace filters in the crawlspace, working on electrical wiring in dark areas, just about everything I do. The one area where floody isn't as good for me as pure flood is reading a book in bed. There the hot spot is distracting. In all other situations it isn't noticeable. 

My go to headlight is my H600Fc Mk III. I chose the c instead of the d because I generally like the warmer color temperature of 4000K instead of 5000K. I haven't tried the d (5000K) so I'm not making a truly informed choice there, I would probably like the d model too if I had gotten it. 

Good luck in making your decision.

Ed


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## StandardBattery (Oct 9, 2016)

The OP is trying to replicate the beam of the H30... F series ain't it. As nice as they are for many things. Of course the OP may change their mind when the see the F series, but sorry it can never come close to the H30 in terms of beam dispersion.


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## Collins (Oct 9, 2016)

CoherentRays said:


> I think I've been seeing your posts agonizing over the decision between pure flood or floody for more that a month now. I'm glad you've finally reached the decision of floody. I have both and floody is perfect for me for every closeup task like working on the car or computer, changing furnace filters in the crawlspace, working on electrical wiring in dark areas, just about everything I do. The one area where floody isn't as good for me as pure flood is reading a book in bed. There the hot spot is distracting. In all other situations it isn't noticeable.
> 
> My go to headlight is my H600Fc Mk III. I chose the c instead of the d because I generally like the warmer color temperature of 4000K instead of 5000K. I haven't tried the d (5000K) so I'm not making a truly informed choice there, I would probably like the d model too if I had gotten it.
> 
> ...



On the H600Fc Mk III, do you notice the "cross" thing like that has been reported on the Pure Flood 600 MkIII Hi Cri model? Some say the frosted lens blocks the "cross" thing you get with the Flood 600 MkIII Hi Cri.


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## Stevie (Oct 10, 2016)

StandardBattery said:


> The OP is trying to replicate the beam of the H30... F series ain't it. As nice as they are for many things. Of course the OP may change their mind when the see the F series, but sorry it can never come close to the H30 in terms of beam dispersion.



Yup, that's pretty much it regarding the beam I want, love that H30. I'm seriously looking at the H302W. Same(ish) size format, but more advanced and warm tint. 120 degree flood. Thinking about the possibility of glare, I could just rotate the light until the glare is gone from the face, but with 120 degrees should still get good close range coverage.

The situations where I use my current H30 are reading, jobs around the house and also when camping, by clipping it to the roof of the tent, or hanging it form a tree branch. It is only used as a task / close range light. I would never use it for walking, and appreciate comments made about the lack of throw when used for this purpose.

Re the 'cross' issue with the larger models, reading up on that, I think that's due to the large 4 part LED (X02?) and I'm not up for artifacts in the beam. So I'll stick with the XML single die for it's cleaner beam. 

Reason I am not considering the floody F series now is because I already have a Fenix HL55. The hotspot on that is enormous and the spill is huge. So I think that the 'F' series would not complement that light, as the beam profiles may be very similar.

Looks like I'm going all out flood boys. H302W...


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## StandardBattery (Oct 10, 2016)

I'll see if i have the H302w for a direct comparison. I'll check tonight. Maybe someone else here does. 

I need to back up a bit on my blanket statement of the F series as not all if them in the series are the same. Which LED is behind tge difuser makes a difference and it's possible not all the difusers are the same? 

The new SC600Fd Plus has a beautiful smooth beam dispursion, but it's not yet available in a headlamp. 

The SC5Fd also has a smother dispersion than some other F series lights. 

I'm quite happy with the H603d Mk III, for beam dispersion, but it may be different than some other 602 or 603 lights. I'm not bothered by any artifacts in the beam on the H603d, but i'm sure tgere are some very slight ones if i looked hard. Never bothered by any in regular short range use.


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## lampeDépêche (Oct 10, 2016)

StandardBattery said:


> I'm quite happy with the H603d Mk III, for beam dispersion, but it may be different than some other 602 or 603 lights. I'm not bothered by any artifacts in the beam on the H603d, but i'm sure tgere are some very slight ones if i looked hard. Never bothered by any in regular short range use.



I have an H603d III, and I like it a lot.
Unlike you, SB, I was bothered by the artifacts of the emitter, but I learned on this forum that it is easy to get rid of them by coloring over the stainless steel bezel with a black magic marker. Artifacts gone.

About the larger post--I do sometimes have trouble with glare on my glasses from the pure mule H502/H603 ZL lights. It is not a huge deal, but it makes me wish that I could try the old ZL mules of the H30 generation, when their beam-angle was more like 80 degrees instead of 120 degrees.

In actual use, I find it's not that hard to work around.


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## Stevie (Oct 10, 2016)

That's the only thing that worries me about the 120 degree flood, do you find that you have to rotate the light upwards quite a lot to reduce glare? In this case, I feel that then the ceiling might be illuminated and then light is just wasted??


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## StandardBattery (Oct 10, 2016)

I don't have an H302 at this time, so I could not check it. I do have an earlier smooth bodied H502d which is wonderful, but uses a Luxeon emitter not a cree and it is not that bright.

I think the H302 will be very nice, as it has a a higher output Cree emitter and it is a single LED die emitter so the artifacts should be minimal if at all.

I say go for it as you need another point of comparison.


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## Collins (Oct 11, 2016)

I wear glasses and don't want the light shining down on my face/glasses as that would be annoying. So that pretty much rules to me getting an H600F model. I'm also thinking with a hotter center and narrower beam compared to the Pure Flood. Then you should be able to lower the lumens on the Floody and get same level of brightness than having to turn up the Pure Flood that has a wider beam and no hot spot in the middle.


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## Stevie (Oct 11, 2016)

H302W just ordered...it's from a UK dealer...should be here in few days


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## CoherentRays (Oct 11, 2016)

Collins said:


> On the H600Fc Mk III, do you notice the "cross" thing like that has been reported on the Pure Flood 600 MkIII Hi Cri model? Some say the frosted lens blocks the "cross" thing you get with the Flood 600 MkIII Hi Cri.



I've not noticed any cross pattern in my use. 



Collins said:


> I wear glasses and don't want the light shining down on my face/glasses as that would be annoying. So that pretty much rules to me getting an H600F model...



I've got an H502w (flood) headlight that I like for reading in bed and I've never noticed any of the light shining on my glasses. 

Ed


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## Stevie (Oct 12, 2016)

CoherentRays said:


> I've got an H502w (flood) headlight that I like for reading in bed and I've never noticed any of the light shining on my glasses.
> 
> Ed




That's very encouraging, that is definitely something I want to avoid. Hopefully the H302W will be the same...


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## Stevie (Oct 12, 2016)

Well, the H302W has arrived. Some preliminary observations:

It's about 50% bigger then the H30.

The reflection of the LED die is visible on a white wall. Not too bad though, in fact hardly noticeable. The flood is perfectly clean throughout the rest of the beam.

There is no glare onto my glasses (hurrah!). The tip of my nose can be illuminated, but it is not really noticeable. In that case, even so, a small rotation of the light gets rid of that completely. This was a biggie for me and I'm very pleased that it's worked out.

H1 is impressive for a small light. Some initial PID step downs and step ups over about 1 minute when I first turned it on. Thinking hard about this, I was holding the head for a bit whilst unscrewing the tailcap and inserting the battery. My warm hand might explain the initial slight variance in output. Leaving the light alone for a bit and then coming back to H1 without me touching the head revealed no further mishaps, H1 was stable. 

All other modes are well spaced.

I really like L2, 0.35 lumen mode, seems this will be good for getting out of bed in the night and not waking the wife.

The warmer light is very pleasant at close range. Much nicer than the H30, which seems to cast a ghostly shade in comparison. (Still love the H30 though!).

Steve


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## lampeDépêche (Oct 12, 2016)

Stevie said:


> Well, the H302W has arrived. Some preliminary observations:
> ....
> The reflection of the LED die is visible on a white wall. Not too bad though, in fact hardly noticeable. The flood is perfectly clean throughout the rest of the beam.
> ....
> Steve



I'm surprised that the H302 shows an artifact. I own the H502w, and it does not show any image of the emitter.

If there is an image of the emitter on the white wall, then there has to be something to focus the image. There's no lens, and no dish-reflector. But if the 302 is like the 603, then the stainless bezel is *enough* of a reflector to cast a very dim image of the emitter.

My advice: take a fine-tip sharpie, and cover the stainless-steel bezel with black ink. No more focusing reflector. For my H603d, that was enough to make the image go away.

Oh--and if you like the 0.35 lumen level, then play around with the even lower ones, too. You will be amazed at how useful even 0.01 lumens can be when your eyes are totally dark-adapted. It's totally enough to navigate around rooms inside of a dark house (or hotel room or whatever). One of the best features of ZL lights, to my mind.


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## Stevie (Oct 13, 2016)

I think the H302W has a slight problem on H1. A non-flashaholic may refer to it as a flicker, however at least having some experience of lights this is more of a pulse. The light ramps down _very slightly_ and then ramps back up again within a split second. This occurs every 3-4 seconds and is repetitive, so more of a definite pulse rather than a random flicker. It's as though the driver can't quite decide if it likes the amount of current it's drawing and is indecisive, but in a precise way, a square wave type phenomenon.

Anyone seen this before? I'm in two minds about getting another one sent out to me...


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## eraursls1984 (Oct 13, 2016)

lampeDépêche said:


> Oh--and if you like the 0.35 lumen level, then play around with the even lower ones, too. You will be amazed at how useful even 0.01 lumens can be when your eyes are totally dark-adapted. It's totally enough to navigate around rooms inside of a dark house (or hotel room or whatever). One of the best features of ZL lights, to my mind.


I wish that we could enable all of the L2 modes. It's hard to use the two lowest modes after using the 2 lumen mode, but if we could drop down from .35 to the .1/.01 modes it would make it even more useful.


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## lampeDépêche (Oct 13, 2016)

eraursls1984 said:


> I wish that we could enable all of the L2 modes. It's hard to use the two lowest modes after using the 2 lumen mode, but if we could drop down from .35 to the .1/.01 modes it would make it even more useful.



Agreed! I would also like an option where you could choose the lowest-low (e.g. the 0.01) as an alternative-off setting. So whenever you clicked your ZL off with a single-click, it would go into 0.01 mode. At that level, it is hardly any drain at all, and it auto-locates the light, just like a tritium vial. I really like using the lowest-low at night in strange hotel rooms as my always-on light-locator mode--it's there on the bed-side, not bright enough to wake me up, but instantly visible if I look for it. But then when I want to *use* the light, my only option is to hop all the way up to the 2.7lumen mode (too bright!!) or have to reprogram to a higher L2.

So, yeah, some way to get instant access to several of the L2 modes, I would totally love that.


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## StandardBattery (Oct 13, 2016)

Stevie said:


> I think the H302W has a slight problem on H1. A non-flashaholic may refer to it as a flicker, however at least having some experience of lights this is more of a pulse. The light ramps down _very slightly_ and then ramps back up again within a split second. This occurs every 3-4 seconds and is repetitive, so more of a definite pulse rather than a random flicker. It's as though the driver can't quite decide if it likes the amount of current it's drawing and is indecisive, but in a precise way, a square wave type phenomenon.
> 
> Anyone seen this before? I'm in two minds about getting another one sent out to me...



Glad to hear you like the beam and the light in general.

I've heard other talk of a pulsing on different lights, but I've not seen it myself on any light. Sometimes the problem has been solved by cleaning battery contacts, ensuring the tail cap really is tight, using a better battery. These are some things to look for and if not contact Zebralight and see what they say. I presume you are using a non rechargeable CR123A cell?


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## Stevie (Oct 14, 2016)

StandardBattery said:


> Glad to hear you like the beam and the light in general.
> 
> I've heard other talk of a pulsing on different lights, but I've not seen it myself on any light. Sometimes the problem has been solved by cleaning battery contacts, ensuring the tail cap really is tight, using a better battery. These are some things to look for and if not contact Zebralight and see what they say. I presume you are using a non rechargeable CR123A cell?



Yep, done all that...I'm using a 123 primary and have changed out the battery to different brands.....tightened tail cap.....inspected the connections...all looks ok, but no luck on the slight pulsation in H1. I'll get in touch with the UK dealer and get another one....


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## eraursls1984 (Oct 14, 2016)

lampeDépêche said:


> Agreed! I would also like an option where you could choose the lowest-low (e.g. the 0.01) as an alternative-off setting. So whenever you clicked your ZL off with a single-click, it would go into 0.01 mode. At that level, it is hardly any drain at all, and it auto-locates the light, just like a tritium vial. I really like using the lowest-low at night in strange hotel rooms as my always-on light-locator mode--it's there on the bed-side, not bright enough to wake me up, but instantly visible if I look for it. But then when I want to *use* the light, my only option is to hop all the way up to the 2.7lumen mode (too bright!!) or have to reprogram to a higher L2.
> 
> So, yeah, some way to get instant access to several of the L2 modes, I would totally love that.


Not a bad idea. I currently leave middle L2 on all night so my pregnant wife can see during the 10 times she gets up at night.


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## StandardBattery (Oct 20, 2016)

Did you get your issue resolved? i just added a H302w to my collection. I'm going to have to test it out this weekend.


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## Stevie (Oct 21, 2016)

StandardBattery said:


> Did you get your issue resolved? i just added a H302w to my collection. I'm going to have to test it out this weekend.



Well, this is a story...

The dealer was exceptional and sent me another. Before sending it, he tested it on H1 and reported no flicker / unstable behaviour. I also tested it when received, and dealer did me a good favour as he was right about that sample. I'm very happy. I sent the duff one back to him.

A few days later, he called me to say that he'd had about five H302w's out on the table from his stock. All but one exhibited the unstable behaviour on H1! Bad batch me thinks? He said he'd report it to Zebralight.

Seriously, look carefully at H1 output when you get yours....it should be completely stable, no ramps, no flicker.


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## StandardBattery (Oct 22, 2016)

Stevie said:


> Well, this is a story...
> 
> The dealer was exceptional and sent me another. Before sending it, he tested it on H1 and reported no flicker / unstable behaviour. I also tested it when received, and dealer did me a good favour as he was right about that sample. I'm very happy. I sent the duff one back to him.
> 
> ...


Thanks! I think I might have one with the same issue. What I see is that almost as soon as it is activated (not even close to hot yet) the PID kicks it down to H2 in a series of steps about .5-1 sec apart looks like a pulsing, but it's really a step-down. The weird thing is once the light warms up it does not do that, it seems to adjust correctly. It's almost like the calibration of the temp señor is incorrect and when the light is at ambient, some software bug things it is actually hot. Once it is hot and the sensor has a signal it seems work better. It's like the dynamic range of the sensor is not set up for the right mid-point. I've never tried programming the PID trigger level, but maybe that would help. I'm going to test a bit more and then maybe send a message to Zebralight.


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## Stevie (Oct 24, 2016)

StandardBattery said:


> Thanks! I think I might have one with the same issue. What I see is that almost as soon as it is activated (not even close to hot yet) the PID kicks it down to H2 in a series of steps about .5-1 sec apart looks like a pulsing, but it's really a step-down. The weird thing is once the light warms up it does not do that, it seems to adjust correctly. It's almost like the calibration of the temp señor is incorrect and when the light is at ambient, some software bug things it is actually hot. Once it is hot and the sensor has a signal it seems work better. It's like the dynamic range of the sensor is not set up for the right mid-point. I've never tried programming the PID trigger level, but maybe that would help. I'm going to test a bit more and then maybe send a message to Zebralight.




Hi S.B.

How'd it go with your testing?

If yours is also exhibiting the pulsing behaviour, I might send Z.L. a link to this thread, it may be something they are currently unaware of, so it may help them to look into it?


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## Collins (Oct 26, 2016)

Stevie said:


> Well, this is a story...
> 
> The dealer was exceptional and sent me another. Before sending it, he tested it on H1 and reported no flicker / unstable behaviour. I also tested it when received, and dealer did me a good favour as he was right about that sample. I'm very happy. I sent the duff one back to him.
> 
> ...



Who's the dealer?


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## Stevie (Oct 26, 2016)

Collins said:


> Who's the dealer?



Flashaholics.


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## StandardBattery (Oct 28, 2016)

Stevie said:


> Hi S.B.
> 
> How'd it go with your testing?
> 
> If yours is also exhibiting the pulsing behaviour, I might send Z.L. a link to this thread, it may be something they are currently unaware of, so it may help them to look into it?


I have not got back to testing this. I need to pullout a light meter so I can accurately see what it is doing in different scenarios other than cold start. It should happen in the next two days.


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## myflashguy (Dec 2, 2016)

I was wondering why very few discussion about ZL H603....I like the smooth wide spread beam but at turbo it can do seriously blinding to anyone looking at me while it's on my forehead felt bad for them sometimes but......


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## Collins (Dec 23, 2016)

I was a while back debating flood and floody. But I decided to go floody as a nice compromise. I like nice wide beam, but also don't want a black hole in the middle when say looking at the other end of the room. So with floody, there will be a hotter center.

Also looking at floody for example. Other day got a used surge protector. and I used my crapo store bought spot light to look inside the female plug ports to make sure they weren't loaded with lint, or had coke spilled into them. Don't know how well that would work out with pure flood seeing down inside the female outlets.


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