OK.... My mail guy finally got here at 5:25pm. Its now about 5:50 and I've had some time to check out the SC52 with an Eneloop 1.2v battery and a 4.2v 14500 battery as well. On the Eneloop, the SC52 is pretty bright. Whether its 280L or not I dont know but its close. Most of its lower levels seem pretty useful as well. It has a low low. Its lowest low setting is actually lower than my SC600's lowest low setting.
On a 14500 it is very bright, and if 500L is whats advertised with the 14500, then its pretty close to that. The other lower modes work on the 14500 too, unlike my Jetbeam Pa10 which only works on turbo with a 14500. But I slipped the Eneloop back in the SC52 because thats what I'll be using in that light. If I need a 450+ lumen light, then I'll use the SC600 or another 18650 light which has much better run times and wont get as hot. Besides, I dont hardly every really need that much brightness anyway, and lets face it, 280L is more than I will usually need.
But to the biggest complaint and issue that has been raised about this light, ie. its tint, mine is almost neutral. There's only a very slight yellowish hue around the outer corona outside the hot spot, but when I compared it to a couple other lights that are more yellow and even one that is greenish, this light then looks completely neutral and white in comparison! You can just barely detect the slight yellow in its corona, but its hot spot is 95% neutral white.
The size of its beam is what I'd call intermediate. Its hot spot is a good deal smaller in diameter than the Sc600. So it should be somewhere between a flooder and a thrower.
It is a very small light. Its smaller than I thought it would be, and it feels about 1/3 the weight of the SC600. So overall, its seems like a nice light.