edwardparker
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
- Messages
- 1
Zebralight SC52w Review
When the SC52 came out and its specs were released, there was a peal of cathedral bells. That was the death knell of the CR123a EDC light. There is no real reason to opt for the more expensive CR123a cells anymore, this from an avowed CR123a-only guy, less than two years ago. The performance gap was closing then and now it is almost gone. Sure the S10 Baton from Olight and the F1 from LED Lenser still hit higher highs than the SC52w, but the reality is the difference between them in terms of real world performance is almost meaningless and certainly not enough to justify the increased expense.
Part of this has to do with how the eye perceives increases in lumens. Here is a very useful chart on perceived brightness. Running a NiHM rechargeable, the SC52W pumps out 280 ANSI lumens, while the S10 hits 320. There is very little perceptible difference between the two. Similarly, the 280 lumens compared to the F1's 400 lumens is also almost imperceptible. To get a real bump at this lumens count you need to jump into the 600s. But this is not the end of the story. In my daily life, I have found that I rarely need more than 200 lumens for a task. Punched up the end of my driveway at night to figure out what that bump was needs around 100-150 lumens, 200 on a stormy day. Before the SC52 that level of performance on a single AA cell light was unheard of absent a rechargeable cell. Now, on a primary AA, you can get around 280 lumens. That's plenty and now competitive with most CR123a lights. Eye physiology, brain processing, and practical use means that you probably won't need something more than what the SC52 puts out and that means, in turn, that you can go back to buying regular batteries (though I find it helpful to have many different format lights in an emergency).
design
When the SC52 came out and its specs were released, there was a peal of cathedral bells. That was the death knell of the CR123a EDC light. There is no real reason to opt for the more expensive CR123a cells anymore, this from an avowed CR123a-only guy, less than two years ago. The performance gap was closing then and now it is almost gone. Sure the S10 Baton from Olight and the F1 from LED Lenser still hit higher highs than the SC52w, but the reality is the difference between them in terms of real world performance is almost meaningless and certainly not enough to justify the increased expense.
Part of this has to do with how the eye perceives increases in lumens. Here is a very useful chart on perceived brightness. Running a NiHM rechargeable, the SC52W pumps out 280 ANSI lumens, while the S10 hits 320. There is very little perceptible difference between the two. Similarly, the 280 lumens compared to the F1's 400 lumens is also almost imperceptible. To get a real bump at this lumens count you need to jump into the 600s. But this is not the end of the story. In my daily life, I have found that I rarely need more than 200 lumens for a task. Punched up the end of my driveway at night to figure out what that bump was needs around 100-150 lumens, 200 on a stormy day. Before the SC52 that level of performance on a single AA cell light was unheard of absent a rechargeable cell. Now, on a primary AA, you can get around 280 lumens. That's plenty and now competitive with most CR123a lights. Eye physiology, brain processing, and practical use means that you probably won't need something more than what the SC52 puts out and that means, in turn, that you can go back to buying regular batteries (though I find it helpful to have many different format lights in an emergency).
design
