Photos & beamshots 3 AA-based lanterns

NickBose

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 27, 2006
Messages
317
These are the 3 AA-based lanterns

You can compare beamshots with those in this thread (same exposures and white balance)

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The far left is from an eBay seller vikicompany under the title "7w 3-mode Cree Q5 LED camping lantern"
Cost A$ 17 incl shipping. The idiot told me it's "400 lumens"! but looking at the photos you know you can forget about this lantern
Quality of the real lantern is even worse than what was posted on the eBay page
The diffuser can be removed. First click on the black switch turn it on High, second click Low and third click Strobe then off

eBay 4xAA lantern High
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eBay 4xAA Low
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eBay 4xAA High ceiling bounce (I didn't take the ceiling bounce shot on Low as it's too dim)
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Second latern is the Uco Flip from Amazon which is a rebadged Favourlight LTC-20E4AA (no magnifying lens)
A$37.5 shipped
It uses 4xAA, the LED can turn 180 degree and the lantern turns into a flashlight (floody one unlike the other version)
This is what it says on the package

Cree XR-E (Q4) up to 185 lumens
Battery life: 25 hrs High (max output 5 hrs), 45 hrs low, 50 hrs flashing, and 2 years green led indicator

The green flashing LED is absolutely useless as it is too recessed (you have to be almost directly facing it to see it), too dim, and flash too slow.
Build quality is high, I'd say even better the famous 3xD version

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Battery compartment
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The cap
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The pill
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The body
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The plastic thread - This will be the first thing to go after a while
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Uco Flip High. I reckon it's close to the claimed 185 lumens but not quite. Maybe 160?
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Uco Flip Low
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Uco Flip High ceiling bounce
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Uco Flip Low ceiling bounce
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Now this is the surprise buy from DinoDirect at just A$9.7 shipped
It uses 3xAA and claim to use a Cree LED but doesn't look like so
First click turn it on Low, second click High then OFF
It also has a green flashing LED locator which is much brighter, more visible and faster flashing than the Uco (also means it will drain the batteries much faster)
No info on runtime, LED model, and output

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The LED
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It has a weird hole on top of the diffuser dome
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3xAA Dino High - looks a bit bluish but surprisingly bright
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3xAA Dino Low
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3xAA Dino High upside down - less ringy and less shadow for close range illumination
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3xAA Dino Low upside down
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3xAA Dino High ceiling bounce
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3xAA Dino Low ceiling bounce
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This is the Sunwayman M40A XM-L on High (600 lumens) with the diffuser from the eBay lantern
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Medium
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Conclusion:
Forget the eBay collasible 4xAA
The Uco is very bright and quality
And the DinoDirect 3xAA is cheap and surprisingly bright, quality is acceptable

That's it
 
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