Whoah larcal, please add some paragraphs/new lines when making a long post (a large, unbroken wall of text is just too hard to read)
Thanks for that clarification Gregozedobe.
I must say this gets really confusing ferreting out fact from fiction and I'm starting to think I'll need to blow a grand I don't have just to find my own flashlight truth. But of course the few people like yourself who have owned 2 of something similiar are top tier.
So my apparently faulty info came from trying to analyze a youtube video on the H51f and listening to the reviewer saying the center spot was very minor which seemed to be true from video but of course you would know better.
Perhaps you will feel inclined to clear up this quandry I have that I have asked a couple of others but no response. Like some others, you say you prefer a totally even beam for close up work.
Now, I have only used cheap lights with definate hot spots for such work in the past so to find out what you mean I would have to blow 100 bucks, a waste if I don't like the torch. Other posters seem to disagree with you, saying what I at least used to think was true. That an even beam means less light is falling on your work (lower lux) assuming equal lumen level, so that you have to run the pure flood at perhaps max level to get the same workable visibility. So quick battery drain. Perhaps you don't care about battery drain, however, or it is outweighed by certain advantages of pure flood, but what are those advantages?
To me the term "close work" means that all that matters is whats on the table in front of you, so a wide beam is not critical. If "close work" means picking up firewood, then yeah, give me a H502 or spark sd52! In your case, the h501 topped out at 96 lumens so even if battery drain is irrelevent to you (not to me or most people) since that 96 is so evenly spread out it seems possible it might be insufficient sometimes whereas with the more focused h51f it would be enough. But in addition, the H51f can go almost twice as high.
Sure, having to move you head constantly to focus the hotspot on a tiny area and having the lamp slip constantly is a drag, but maybe worthwhile if the alternative is having to recharge 8 eneloops after every worknight (an exageration) or not be able to see that damn row of screws at all, even in turbo.
So, since you have direct experience, I'm asking you and all others to address these points and also say why the H501 was better and for what type of work, and if there is any type of close work in which you preferred the H51f.
That H502 seems really bad, with it's 120 degrees. Obviously too much throw, like a fenix ld 20, is not good but that's not what we are discussing. It's not about hiking. Am I totally stupid here?
OK, I'll start out by saying preferences for throw vs flood are very personal, which is why I say
I much prefer a totally even (ie all flood) beam for close-up work to something like a H51f (or even less so, a H51). Other people may prefer a wider, semi-diffuse (or even a tight) hot spot, and I'm not saying they are wrong in any way, just that they have different preferences to me.
When I say close-up work I'm talking about reading or working on something intricate at arms length or less.
The real issue for me is not the total width that is illuminated (to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the beam profile), it is how even the level of illumination is across the beam. I find any kind of hot spot irritating in these circumstances, as the contrast between the hot spot and the spill beam makes it harder to see anything not currently in the hot spot (eg tools off to the side of the thing you are working on) so you have to move your whole head to illuminate other things (not just move your eyes), plus hot spots can dazzle you when reflected of anything shiny (eg polished metal).
The 96 lumens of a H501 is more than enough for close-up work, in fact it is a bit more than I would prefer (but Medium doesn't provide quite enough illumination). I actually prefer to use my H502 on the M1 setting (50 lumens 7.5 hrs) as that level of light is what I find comfortable for this type of work. In fact these days I prefer my H502 over my H501 purely because the H502 has many more levels of illumination to choose between so I can get pretty close to what I want. So my H501s aren't getting much use any more (and I was a huge H501 fan for a long time). Some people are talking about the H502 having "too wide" a beam, but I don't see it as a big issue at all now that I have used a couple of them (H502 and H502d) for a while. Sometimes I adjust the light up slightly so it isn't shining on my glasses.
I use rechargeable eneloops, so I'm not concerned about all that "wasted" light outside of what I am looking at, and 7.5 hours for one eneloop battery is more than I'm likely to need in any one session. If it was, I'd look at the (planned) H602 which will give much brighter illumination or longer run times on its single 18650 li-ion battery.
I didn't find any situations where I preferred my H51f over my H501s or H51 so I sold it. But the bloke that bought it tried all of them out and preferred the H51f. This demonstrates what I said previously about choices of lights being personal preferences and usage rather than objective right/wrong, better/worse.
I think you need to make up your own mind about what you like, rather than over-analyse other people's opinions. In your case, I'd think about buying a H51 (not H51f) and putting some diffuser film on the lens. This will give you a semi-floody beam to try out, and if you don't like it you can remove the film to give you a conventional beam headlight for hiking etc. If you then decide you want to try out a totally even floody headlamp buy a H502 (or H502d if you like High CRI). If you don't like either light you can always sell them on the CPF Marketplace and you won't have lost much money at all. Certainly this way you won't "need to blow a grand I don't have" to find out what YOU like and don't like.
I hope that helps.