I guess I may as well add some of my personal opinions to the discussion.
The bad:
I have some sort of strange surface defect on the optic of my light, which is slightly less than half the total area of the optic. It kind of looks like the rainbow effect produced by a thin layer of oil. It is not really noticeable when I look at the optic directly. As it does not seem to affect the color or output of the headlamp, I'm considering this a quality issue I can live with. To be honest, I kind of think it looks cool, but if you're dead-set on having a crystal clear optic then I doubt you'd find it "cool".
It is slightly heavier than my h600w, but not significantly so. The difference to me is almost imperceptible.
The half and half:
I'm not usually one to be bothered by such things, but the blinking indicator light is annoying! I am very pleased they give me the option to turn it off.
I received my light, but not the charger/battery. After some conversation with customer support, I was given the battery and charger. I guess it's not really their fault for the most part; I did not use the checkout process correctly.
I haven't played around with it too much yet, but long enough to get a good feel for it. I haven't experienced some of the issues others have reported, but I admit I am slightly concerned my light will possess or develop some of those issues. The good news is, it sounds like none of these issues, if I encounter them, will leave me hanging in the dark with no way to neutralize/avoid the issue. If I do encounter one of these issues, at least I have the warranty to fall back on.
The good:
It seems well-built. I plan on using this for caving, so a beefy light is a plus.
The switch requires some pressure to activate, but I think this is a good thing for a switch that is not recessed. If it were soft, I would be bumping it accidentally all the time while caving, and maybe even damaging it. A recessed switch might be a better design, but I'm fairly certain this must have been some sort of design tradeoff. Perhaps they will find a way to include a recessed switch in a future iteration without sacrificing something else.
I wish it produced more light (don't we always want more light?), but I feel it is truly squeezing as much light out of this emitter as I could reasonably hope for. When running this light on turbo and my H600w on turbo in a cave, my Armytek washes out the H600w almost completely. I was very impressed, especially given the fact that the Armytek is not as concentrated as the Zebra.
Others may think the thickness of the rubber mount and the resistance to rotation to be a negative, but for my application I wouldn't want it any other way. While caving, my light is constantly bumped and tugged on, so the more resistance to tugging and bumping, the better. I guess it depends on your usage.
I really like this beam profile. It is an excellent transition from hotspot to spill to dark.
Overall impressions:
Judging from my own experience and from what others in this thread have shared, I think Armytek shows promise, but they certainly have room for improving on product quality and perhaps one or two things to learn about design compromise and optimization. That said, I feel much the same about Zebralight (my H600w utterly died on me while I was caving, and I had to send it back after a lethargic response from Zebra). Personally, I feel that not a single product or service in the world is perfect, and that it's a question of how imperfect it is, and what imperfections I am willing to accept. In the case of my Wizard Pro (YMMV), my particular light seems to have relatively few imperfections. I am not at all disappointed with my purchase. This light fills a good gap in my headlamp collection that my H600w can not provide, and I bought it for a very reasonable price. For me, the good far outweighs the bad. The ten year warranty is a great thing to have in case I ever need to use it, but if initial impressions are worth trusting at all, I don't expect I'll ever need it.
The bad:
I have some sort of strange surface defect on the optic of my light, which is slightly less than half the total area of the optic. It kind of looks like the rainbow effect produced by a thin layer of oil. It is not really noticeable when I look at the optic directly. As it does not seem to affect the color or output of the headlamp, I'm considering this a quality issue I can live with. To be honest, I kind of think it looks cool, but if you're dead-set on having a crystal clear optic then I doubt you'd find it "cool".
It is slightly heavier than my h600w, but not significantly so. The difference to me is almost imperceptible.
The half and half:
I'm not usually one to be bothered by such things, but the blinking indicator light is annoying! I am very pleased they give me the option to turn it off.
I received my light, but not the charger/battery. After some conversation with customer support, I was given the battery and charger. I guess it's not really their fault for the most part; I did not use the checkout process correctly.
I haven't played around with it too much yet, but long enough to get a good feel for it. I haven't experienced some of the issues others have reported, but I admit I am slightly concerned my light will possess or develop some of those issues. The good news is, it sounds like none of these issues, if I encounter them, will leave me hanging in the dark with no way to neutralize/avoid the issue. If I do encounter one of these issues, at least I have the warranty to fall back on.
The good:
It seems well-built. I plan on using this for caving, so a beefy light is a plus.
The switch requires some pressure to activate, but I think this is a good thing for a switch that is not recessed. If it were soft, I would be bumping it accidentally all the time while caving, and maybe even damaging it. A recessed switch might be a better design, but I'm fairly certain this must have been some sort of design tradeoff. Perhaps they will find a way to include a recessed switch in a future iteration without sacrificing something else.
I wish it produced more light (don't we always want more light?), but I feel it is truly squeezing as much light out of this emitter as I could reasonably hope for. When running this light on turbo and my H600w on turbo in a cave, my Armytek washes out the H600w almost completely. I was very impressed, especially given the fact that the Armytek is not as concentrated as the Zebra.
Others may think the thickness of the rubber mount and the resistance to rotation to be a negative, but for my application I wouldn't want it any other way. While caving, my light is constantly bumped and tugged on, so the more resistance to tugging and bumping, the better. I guess it depends on your usage.
I really like this beam profile. It is an excellent transition from hotspot to spill to dark.
Overall impressions:
Judging from my own experience and from what others in this thread have shared, I think Armytek shows promise, but they certainly have room for improving on product quality and perhaps one or two things to learn about design compromise and optimization. That said, I feel much the same about Zebralight (my H600w utterly died on me while I was caving, and I had to send it back after a lethargic response from Zebra). Personally, I feel that not a single product or service in the world is perfect, and that it's a question of how imperfect it is, and what imperfections I am willing to accept. In the case of my Wizard Pro (YMMV), my particular light seems to have relatively few imperfections. I am not at all disappointed with my purchase. This light fills a good gap in my headlamp collection that my H600w can not provide, and I bought it for a very reasonable price. For me, the good far outweighs the bad. The ten year warranty is a great thing to have in case I ever need to use it, but if initial impressions are worth trusting at all, I don't expect I'll ever need it.
