**NEW** Nitecore EA8

[InquisitiveInquirer]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

For those of you who already own the light, when white wall hunting (i know that's not its intended purpose), may i ask how the tint is? No dreaded green or anything else undesirable?

 

[herosemblem]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

For those of you who already own the light, when white wall hunting (i know that's not its intended purpose), may i ask how the tint is? No dreaded green or anything else undesirable?

Correct. I own the EA8W​.

 

[Devildude]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

I also have the EA8W and the tint seems fine. Not as neutral as the EA4W but hey not everything falls your way.

 

[Lite_me]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

I also have the EA8W and the tint seems fine. Not as neutral as the EA4W but hey not everything falls your way.

Which way does it lean.. more towards cool or more towards warm?

My EA4w is very neutral to me. I love it.

 

[herosemblem]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

That's really tough for me to say. My EA8W is more towards warm.
My EA4W is very neutral, with a hint of warmness. My EA8W is even more warm.
Yet, I wouldn't call either one warm, really. Just more toward the warm spectrum. Take-away message: the tint is fine on the W​ model.

 

[Curious_character]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

For those of you who already own the light, when white wall hunting (i know that's not its intended purpose), may i ask how the tint is? No dreaded green or anything else undesirable?

I got a cool white EA8 and it was greenish. It was also defective (no button light indication) so I returned it. Replacement is on its way back -- I'll post info about the tint when I get it.

c_c

 

[rjdriver]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

I got mine on Monday and I would say it was more cool than warm

 

[herosemblem]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

You received what, rjdriver?

 

[InquisitiveInquirer]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

I got my CW EA8 in the mail. The tint is greeeeeen, especially in the low mode. I'm debating on whether i should exchange it (and eat the return s/h overseas, which'll be expensive) or just live with it... What would you guys do?

 

[melty]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

Ordered an EA8W. I just love neutral/warm lights. Limiting my purchases to neutral/warm also keeps my spending down. It took a while to find a seller in the US, nobody seems to stock the W version. This'll be my first foray into bigger lights with throw... coming from Zebralight sc600w and smaller! I started looking at OSTS TN31mb and DEFT-X and thought perhaps those have too much throw, so I decided to take baby steps... that is if going from ~5 000cd to ~60 000cd can be considered "baby".

 

[tickled]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

For those of you who already own the light, when white wall hunting (i know that's not its intended purpose), may i ask how the tint is? No dreaded green or anything else undesirable?

Having had a chance to use the EA8W for a couple of days and compare, when shining at a white ceiling, I have to say the tint looks very similar to the neutral Xeno E03 that I have. Both of these reportedly use 3C binned LED's so that's no surprise. It has a very tight hot spot that looks white surrounded by a yellowish corona. The spill is a bit cooler with a purplish-blue halo out at the edge of the spill, which maybe from the AR coating on the glass?

 

[Curious_character]

Re: NEW Nitecore EA8

Got my replacement EA8 back today (thanks, Battery Junction, for the super fast turnaround!), and the tint is very nice. No hint of green.

c_c

 

[MachtSchnell]

So are the standard EA8s warm in tint? (warmer will seem brighter to the eye)
I purchased the regular rather than the neutral white.

 

[InquisitiveInquirer]

So are the standard EA8s warm in tint? (warmer will seem brighter to the eye)
I purchased the regular rather than the neutral white.

Mines is a regular EA8 and it's greenish. :shakehead

Sort of off topic, but since i don't have any way to measure lumens, i thought i'd ask. Say there is a light that uses, say, a cool white xm-l and is supposed to be rated at 100 lumens. 3 different people buy the same light, but due to quality control or just plain tint lottery, the 3 received lights with different tints. One person gets one that is slightly greenish, the other is a nice cool white, and the third has one that is too cool and somewhat purplish. Would the lumens still be @ 100 for all 3 or would it be like this: green < cool < too cool ?

 

[pjandyho]

In case if anyone is interested, this is from the beam shot of the neutral white EA8W. Took this using an iPhone 5 as I did not pack my camera along. Surprisingly the iPhone nailed the exposure for this and the color is pretty close to what I see. The actual beam is just slightly warmer than here.

Below is from the Surefire UB3T which was rated at 800 lumens.

 

[herosemblem]

pjandyho, excellent picture. The pic approximates what my EA8W is like in person, with the light being slightly "warmer" than what the picture conveys (as you said).
I'm going from memory here since it isn't dark right now, but I'd say the picture certainly illustrates the dominance of the spot compared to the spill. However, I'd say that in real life, the spill is a bit less intense than the photo. What do you think?

 

[bon1]

I'm not sure whether this is the appropriate place to ask this question, but how does the beam of the EA8 compare to that of the Fenix TK41? For what you guys are saying it seems like the spill of the EA8 is too dim compared to its spot for it to be useful, is it so? I'd be interested in a flashlight that has some throw, but not in one that is all throw (my mid-range light is a Fenix LD41).

 

[Trevtrain]

Re: Prefer the EA4W

I took my dog and my EA4W and EA8 out for a walk tonight. If I needed to see things 500 yards away, then the EA8 would be great. The beam on the EA8 is quite hot in the center and provides less usable spill than the EA4.

I do not share the common obsession with "long throw" lights. I wish there were some modern (CREE XM-L U2) lights out there with Orange Peel, lots of spill, and lots of battery life.

I will be returning the EA8.

Maybe a bit late now for you dmevis, but did you know that Nitecore has a diffuser/filter option for this light?
Check out the Nitecore site and look at the 60mm NFD60.

It is true that there is probably more of a bias on this site towards throw and it seems to me that this is the market Nitecore is aiming at with the EA8.

Smart move though to make a clip-on option that would help to cover both markets.

Has anyone actually tried this diffuser option? (Note - I haven't seen Patriot's video review yet - apologies in advance if this question was covered in there)

 

[fatbrad]

pjandyho, excellent picture. The pic approximates what my EA8W is like in person, with the light being slightly "warmer" than what the picture conveys (as you said).
I'm going from memory here since it isn't dark right now, but I'd say the picture certainly illustrates the dominance of the spot compared to the spill. However, I'd say that in real life, the spill is a bit less intense than the photo. What do you think?

I would say that the pic has it about right. I compared the spill of my EA8W with my EA4W and they look the same. With the EA8W held at waist level or lower and almost parallel to the ground, the spot spreads out in a long oval and the spill fills in the foreground just like with the EA4W. However, if you bring the hot spot too close or shine it on something vertical that reflects it back (even a dark tree), the spill area "disappears" as your eyes adjust to the bright light reflecting back at you. In the same carry position, the EA4W will have a more round and larger hot spot, but the fill behaves about the same.

 

[pjandyho]

pjandyho, excellent picture. The pic approximates what my EA8W is like in person, with the light being slightly "warmer" than what the picture conveys (as you said).
I'm going from memory here since it isn't dark right now, but I'd say the picture certainly illustrates the dominance of the spot compared to the spill. However, I'd say that in real life, the spill is a bit less intense than the photo. What do you think?

I think the spill beam looks identical in real life usage.

I would say that the pic has it about right. I compared the spill of my EA8W with my EA4W and they look the same. With the EA8W held at waist level or lower and almost parallel to the ground, the spot spreads out in a long oval and the spill fills in the foreground just like with the EA4W. However, if you bring the hot spot too close or shine it on something vertical that reflects it back (even a dark tree), the spill area "disappears" as your eyes adjust to the bright light reflecting back at you. In the same carry position, the EA4W will have a more round and larger hot spot, but the fill behaves about the same.

I think fatbrad could have answered the question in regards to the spill. Thanks Brad for the explanation.

In this case, I chose to project the hot spot out further so that it won't be too intense for the camera to capture. By doing so, I sort of brought down the difference in brightness between hotspot and spill, making it easier for the otherwise limited dynamic range of the camera's sensor to record the image. If I were to shine the beam on say a flat surface (like a wall), the hotspot would be too bright for the camera, and the spill would be too dim. Likewise, our human eyes work in a similar way. If the hotspot is bright, our eyes compensate for it by reducing the iris opening thus making the spill beam seem dimmer. Shining the hotspot further away would reduce the intensity of the hotspot and this time our eyes could then see a brighter side spill.