Re: Noctigon Meteor D4
Got my black Emisar D4 today.
This was one of Richard's leftover stock from the first one. Fortunately he flashed it with the updated V2 UI before shipping. Mine's S4 2B.
Also purchased at the same time for this light:
* Black 18350 tube
* some of those new ultra-high capacity 1100 mAh 18350 cells
* One of Richard's offset quad boards with high-CRI 4000K Nichia 219C on them.
Though I purchased the 18350 tube to try out, this light is small enough I'll probably just run it on 18650.
Here are my initial impressions:
* Fit and finish - excellent. The black anodizing is flawless and everything is assembled well. Light worked perfectly out of the box. Looks and feels very high quality.
* Size - very nice. Definitely small enough for EDC. Smaller than the Nitecore Concept 1 I've been EDC'ing for the last 3 weeks. It's also considerably smaller than the Astrolux S42 and Manker E14II (with all 3 lights using 18650 tubes. Note that the comparison isn't completely fair: All 3 lights are small quad-emitter setups, but the D4 lacks onboard USB charging present in the other lights. This allows the D4 to save some space.
* "Hand feel" - OK, but could be better. This is the term I use to refer to how secure and comfortable the light feels in my hand. With the stock 18650 tube, the light is nicely sized to fit the hand and the switch and heatsink fins provide a small amount of extra grip. However, the light really needs some kind of knurling on the battery tube to get a higher rating. Smooth battery tubes may look good, but they feel slippery. Even a small amount of knurling in the right places goes a long way and this light has none except for the ribs on the tailcap. Maybe they will sell some 18650 tubes with knurling on them. A knurled tube would increase the "hand feel" rating to excellent.
* Output - Outstanding. This really is a pocket-rocket. Output at max power is tremendous... over 3500 lumens at max turbo going all the way down to a true moonlight mode (NOTE: I consider "moonlight" to be low enough that you can stare into the emitters without hurting your eyes. If it's brighter than that it's "low", but not "moonlight"). After I swap the Nichias into this one I'll buy another and put in XPL HI with 5A2 tint. XPL HI should produce more lumens and more throw than the Nichia.
* UI - EXCELLENT. Truly one of the best UIs out there. Very simple, with shortcuts to moonlight and turbo and smooth fast ramping between. The light remembers the last used mode. This is truly one of the best UIs out there. That said, it could still be improved slightly: Rather than having a single-click go to last used mode, I would prefer it to remember and go to the last ramped mode. As-is, if you use the shortcuts to moonlight or turbo they will override your memorized intermediate mode. It's not a huge issue though since ramping is so smooth and easy in this light. I would probably also add an extra click to all the multi-click shortcuts after the first two. That would free up triple-click to use as another preset mode... maybe have triple-click be 30% power or something like that.
The ramping on this light deserves special mention. It's fast, taking maybe 3-4 seconds to go from moonlight to max turbo. It is also incredibly smooth with no visible steps, and it ramps both directions. I've tried other lights with ramping and this is by far the smoothest. The only other lights I've tried that are as smooth as this are ones with infinitely variable brightness rings.
* Thermal management. As expected, the head of the light does get hot quickly at max turbo. After 10-20 seconds thermal management kicked in an gradually diminished the output. This decline occurred in gradual, but noticeable, steps. The thermal management is fully programmable in the UI, but I found that in the stock configuration it was just right. The head got quite hot, but never dangerously so. This is calibrated just how I like it, so no need to recalibrate.
* Switch - the switch button is relatively small and has ridges making it very comfortable to find and press. It is not recessed. The center of the button projects maybe 1 mm above the head of the light. When I rolled the light upside down on a table and pressed, the light turned on from the pressure of the table. The button is close enough to the head that it is almost, but not quite flush. To me this is not ideal. For hot-rodded side-switch lights I prefer to have the button recessed like on Zebralights, to minimize the chances of accidental activation. A lot of the convenience of a side-switch light is lost if lockout must be used.
I'll have to do more testing to see if I like it as-is or have to use the lockout. Even turning off the light in moonlight mode probably won't help because if it turns on in the pocket it will likely ramp to turbo and stay there.
The light does feature electronic lockout so can be locked or unlocked easily with one-handed operation. However, a better solution may be for the next version of the Emisar to use a taller switch retaining ring that projects above the surface of the head and helps shield the button.
Overall Impression: This is an outstanding light that breaks away from the pack. Truly one of the best I've tried in years. The size, output, UI, weight and choice of emitters make this light much superior to the other small quads on the market from Manker and Astrolight. I'm extremely impressed and will definitely be buying more samples of this light. This is about as close to a perfect pocket EDC that I've come across yet.
