New H53c AA Headlamp Neutral White High CRI!

[Nichia!]

Still no images yet

Cree XP-L2 EasyWhite LED
Nominal CCT 4000K
Typical CRI: 93-95


http://www.zebralight.com/H53c-AA-He...CRI_p_194.html

[holygeez03]

Excited to finally have a replacement for my beloved H52Fw... but a little disappointed that H1 won't reach anywhere near the 475lm burst mode of the H52 with 14500... 400lm H1 with AA would be awesome.

Also not sure about the "pre-installed clip"... I really like the clips on the old headlamps since they are "deep carry" and not overly tight or bulky.

Will there be a H53Fw with slightly less CRI, but way more output?

This will probably get moved to the Headlamp section, but I hope not since I EDC my H52Fw and almost never use it as a headlamp.

[twistedraven]

I like the idea of sustained output over a bust output that PID throttles down to 285lumens within a minute. Still waiting for an 18650 version though.

[holygeez03]

I'm afraid that the pre-installed clip will not be "deep carry"... I really hope I'm wrong since that really changes the EDC-ability...

The SC5w mkII appears to be able to sustain 407lm with the 80 CRI emitter, so I am really hoping for that in the H53Fw.

[sddsww]

good，I like it。

[eh4]

I don't see why they'd remove an option for the clip, pre-installed may very well simply mean that it's already clipped onto the light, it doesn't say permanently installed or anything.
Maybe they got a bunch of feedback from people who had trouble putting the clip on?

[TCY]

Waiting for the F version.

[Chaitanya]

No estimated runtimes, but that looks like a useful headlamp either for work or running. Tempted to preorder it.

[davidt1]

Excited to finally have a replacement for my beloved H52Fw... but a little disappointed that H1 won't reach anywhere near the 475lm burst mode of the H52 with 14500... 400lm H1 with AA would be awesome.

Also not sure about the "pre-installed clip"... I really like the clips on the old headlamps since they are "deep carry" and not overly tight or bulky.

Will there be a H53Fw with slightly less CRI, but way more output?

This will probably get moved to the Headlamp section, but I hope not since I EDC my H52Fw and almost never use it as a headlamp.

I am curious about this "pre-installed clip" too. If it's not a swiveling clip like on their previous AA headlamps, I am not interested.

[holygeez03]

It does list a pocket clip as an accessory in the box... so hopefully it's the traditional removable "deep carry" clip!

Really want a photo!

[TCY]

I actually asked ZL about the pocket clip on the H53 series about three weeks ago. Their response: "The H53Fc will continue use the same clips as in the H52 series."

[TCY]

The Fc version is now available for pre-order too.

[Nichia!]

Here's another one the flood version

H53Fc AA Headlamp Floody Neutral White High CRI

http://www.zebralight.com/H53Fc-AA-H...CRI_p_195.html

[wolfgaze]

Very interested... Hope we get photos soon...

[Woods Walker]

Thread moved to headlamps. Redirect link left in previous forum to expire in 1 day.

[davidt1]

I actually asked ZL about the pocket clip on the H53 series about three weeks ago. Their response: "The H53Fc will continue use the same clips as in the H52 series."

Thanks for this info. Things are looking good. I notice the length is 2.9 in. vs. 3.0 in for the H52.

Now what to do with my H52w and H502w. Thousands of hours of use and they still don't die so I can justify buying new lights.

[lampeDépêche]

Generally good news, and I'm glad to see it go up for pre-order.

But I'm really puzzled about the H1 level, and how low it is.

When they announced that the H53 would no longer support the 14500, I assumed this meant it would have a circuit like the SC5's circuit, i.e. a dedicated 1.2 volt circuit that could put out a very high amperage to the emitter.

Now it looks like it is the worst of both worlds--does not support 14500, and does not produce high outputs from 1.2v cells.

Is 285 lumens enough for most headlamp uses? Maybe....

But having that 500 lumen option for a quick flash was a *huge* advantage. It made the h52 a much more plausible EDC for all purpose.

I will still pre-order this, but I will be disappointed if it really does max out at 285. I hope there is more to this story?

[lampeDépêche]

Okay, I went ahead and pre-ordered one. I'm excited!

We'll learn more about the numbers and details as they get closer to the release.

[iamlucky13]

Honestly, while I'm a bit disappointed it doesn't share the same H1 output as the SC5c II, it's not a big deal to me. If I get the light, there will probably be a few occasions where I'd like to be able to kick the output up just a bit more for a moment to see further down the trail, but they won't be critical.

It's a pity I don't really have a legitimate excuse to buy one of these. My current headlamp is good enough, but this just looks great.

Interestingly, the H52 headlamps are currently listed as $5 more on Zebralights site than the H53 headlamps.

[mellowman]

Bought my H52w like 3-4 years ago. Current stock is out of stock, not even back ordered. The replacement is about same lumens and some additional modes G6, G7 which personally don't like as I have relatives who for whatever reason tend to just mash on the button multiple times till light comes out. Love me some high CRI but after so many years feels like a step down without 1450 support.

Wonder what the larger led will do to the hot spot. From the specs it will be narrower, 10 vs 12 deg but that doesn't seem right to me. Larger LED should give larger hot sport all else being equal.

[roger-roger]

Disappointing. I'm not enough of a fan boy or interested in high CRI enough to upgrade.

[holygeez03]

I actually asked ZL about the pocket clip on the H53 series about three weeks ago. Their response: "The H53Fc will continue use the same clips as in the H52 series."

Excellent news... now I will just hope for a H53Fw with slightly less CRI and more output.

[lampeDépêche]

No peeking! top-sekrit theory about to come! This is my top sekrit and you can't look!

[Okay, now that it's just the two of us in here:

I wonder whether this is the same circuit as the new SC5, throttled way down.
*And* I wonder whether there will be a way to program it in order to get its H1 up to a higher figure, like closer to 500.
Think about it: it shares a *lot* of the characteristics of the new SC5 circuit: only handles 1.5v max; has the G5/G6/G7 groupings for programming.
But the body is a lot lighter than the SC5: 31g vs 49g, so it won't handle heat as well.
What does a responsible manufacturer do? They throttle back the output so that newbs won't get burned.
BUT--once we get one in our hands and start figuring out the cheat-code, we'll figure out how to re-program it.
Like: up up down down left right left right BA. Boom: 500 lumens.

Do I have *any* evidence for this theory? Nope. Not a bit. This is just pure speculation on my part.]

[holygeez03]

That's what I assumed regarding the SC5 driver... ZL doesn't want it heating up since it is a headlamp... but I almost never use my H52Fw as a headlamp and I use it with a 14500... I do not want to go backwards in terms of output... thus my hope for a Fw version with lower CRI and higher output.

A way for advanced users to re-program the light for a 400 - 500 lumen level would also suffice and be an instant buy.

[lampeDépêche]

A way for advanced users to re-program the light for a 400 - 500 lumen level would also suffice and be an instant buy.

Yeah, I want to repeat that I have *no* evidence for this speculation (I did correspond with ZL about springs, but nothing about programming or lumen-levels.)

I think what put it in my mind was reading Hondo's "Brief History of the HDS universe," where he talks about how it was later revealed that all lights were user-programmable if you clicked it 250 (!!) times in a row. That sort of thing is a pretty good barrier to having casual users get into trouble, but it would let advanced users get access to higher modes.

[holygeez03]

Waiting for pictures...

250 clicks to enter programming mode??? That's preposterous... was it intentional or essentially a glitch?

[mellowman]

if lack of boost is a heat dissipation issue they could just reduce the boost time to say 1min or 30sec from the 3min that the SC5w has.

[iamlucky13]

Zebralight has implemented step downs before. I doubt heat management is all that is going on here.

It could be the slightly smaller size compared to the SC5c II is just enough to force them to downsize parts like the inductor used for boosting the voltage, such that getting much more than 250 lumens from a 1.2v source isn't really practical.

As I understand, this is the main factor driving the sizing of transformers and other inductors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturation_(magnetic)

If so, I expect the presumed next generation of the SC52 will either have a similar output limit as the H53, or will retain 14500 support.

[davidt1]

Price is cheaper than previous models. You get what you pay for?

[lampeDépêche]

250 clicks to enter programming mode??? That's preposterous... was it intentional or essentially a glitch?

This was HDS, remember, not ZL.

I really don't know why HDS did it--check Hondo's "Brief History" in the LED thread. No real answer given there, either, but it sounds like it was intentional: they sold the lights as non-programmable, but in fact they had been programmable all along.