Zebralight H501 Part 2

[Alan B]

Mine also took about 3 weeks to California.

I used my 501 tonite. It is so light that you forget it is on your head after awhile. I really appreciate how easy it is to turn on and off. It is definitely a keeper.

 

[Egsise]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2913042&postcount=448

OK, you are right, my mistake :o

But then explain me one thing:

Here in that post: http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/show...19&postcount=2
is written, that H501 produces 460lux at 0,4m distance and H50 produces 240lux at 0,4m distance.

Then we get the formula from some your post in this thread:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shorty66
Area of a circle: r²*Pi
r= sin(1/2 alpha)*distance

For H501 it will be: (sin(40)*0,4)²*Pi * 460lux = 95.535 lm
Then for H50 it will be (sin(60)*0,4)²*Pi * 240lux = 90.478 lm

OK, there is a difference, but c.a. 5, not 30 lumens.
What is wrong - lux measures done by Ichoderso, your formula quoted above, or specifications at Zebralight website?

From http://www.zebralight.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=186

Light Output: Constant ratio output level spread. Current regulated.

• 96 Lumens (2.3 hr) on High
• 18 Lumens (19 hr) on Medium
• 3.3 Lumens (3.5 days) on Low

Light output and runtimes are measured using a Sanyo 2700 mAh NiMH battery.

http://www.zebralight.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=183

Performance: Constant ratio output level spread. Fully regulated.

• Low 2.6 lm for 3.5 days
• Medium 13 lm for 19 hr
• High 66 lm for 2 hr 20 min

Light levels are out of the headlamp values. Runtimes performed using a Sanyo 2700 mAh NiMH battery.

Has anyone compared H50 and H501 output with a lightbox, H501 efficiency just seems too good to be true....

 

[ichoderso]

Hi all,
I don't read all the last posts, but I can say, my measurement from the H501 was from a "warm white" version (I wrote this in my review). This is a Q3-5A XR-E LED. Q3 is not so bright like Q5!! Thats why the difference is not so big.
I got a second H501 and a H60W today and will make beamshots and measures soon!
greetings, Jens

 

[davidt1]

Heavy rain storm caused intermittent power outages at my work last night. With the H501 clipped to my shirt, I was able to work without interruption. This light is proving itself everyday.

That said, there are improvements that can be made and I hope Zebralight pay attention to the suggestions and modifications people made here and implements them in future lights.

As I said before, 80 degree beam is nice, but 90 degree would be better for me.

 

[Alan B]

Heavy rain storm caused intermittent power outages at my work last night. With the H501 clipped to my shirt, I was able to work without interruption. This light is proving itself everyday.

That said, there are improvements that can be made and I hope Zebralight pay attention to the suggestions and modifications people made here and implements them in future lights.

As I said before, 80 degree beam is nice, but 90 degree would be better for me.

I used mine last night to do some things on the outside of the trailer. We are RV camping this weekend. Worked nicely.

I wonder if 5 degrees on either side (80 to 90 degree) would make any noticeable difference. That is a very small change. Might make more sense to have a snap-on lens that takes it out to 100-120 degrees. Could even be an optional accessory, maybe a rubber ring with the lens in it that slips over the head. Then folks who want it could have it. You could store it on the other end when not in use if desired.

Having had the wider beam H50 before I find the 80 degree beam to be a lot brighter and more useful so I haven't missed the wide beam so far.

 

[Marko]

Might make more sense to have a snap-on lens that takes it out to 100-120 degrees. Could even be an optional accessory, maybe a rubber ring with the lens in it that slips over the head. Then folks who want it could have it.

That sounds nice, although I like the regular 80 degree flood also.

What I really want, is better adjustable pocket clip. Something like with this lamp:
http://www.lssproducts.com/product/4003/portable-lamps

...or even better if the clip could be removable like this one: http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=104721

Then it would be more convenient to use H501 attached to belt etc. Now with the regular pocket clip the flood isn't always aimed to the best direction.

 

[f22shift]

i dont think anyone listed the current at the battery.
this is my measurements with a dmm and a nimh fully charged.

1.12a-high
0.13a-med
0.03a-low

i'm sure it'll change as the battery is depleted.

 

[wapkil]

I have measured the initial current while trying to understand why the H501 behaves differently for different chemistries. The NiMH results are similar to yours:

        NiMH                            LiIon
        Current [mA]    ~Power [mW]     Current [mA]    ~Power [mW]
High    1150            1380            134             495.8
Med     160             192             71.9            266.03
Low     35.5            42.6            14.5            53.65

No wonder that in the high mode LiIons when compared to NiMHs give ~40% output and ~270% runtime. I still don't understand though why in the medium mode the light has similar output but with only around half the runtime.

 

[Shorty66]

Has anyone compared H50 and H501 output with a lightbox, H501 efficiency just seems too good to be true....

Your quote of Kwieto (which is the first quote, quoting myself correclty ;-) ) has wrong numbers. For the H501 it is quite accurate, as the beam pattern is quite uniform over the whole 80 degrees.
The beampattern of the h50 however is anything but uniform. It has a clear hotspot at the center (where the lux measurement was taken) and fades to the outer rings. Therefore its about right to multiply the lux with the lit-up m² to get the lm for the h501. But its absolutely wrong for the h50. To get the lm of the H50 you need an integrating sphere, or know the fading rate to integrated by yourself before calculating the lm.

 

[Egsise]

Your quote of Kwieto (which is the first quote, quoting myself correclty ;-) ) has wrong numbers. For the H501 it is quite accurate, as the beam pattern is quite uniform over the whole 80 degrees.
The beampattern of the h50 however is anything but uniform. It has a clear hotspot at the center (where the lux measurement was taken) and fades to the outer rings. Therefore its about right to multiply the lux with the lit-up m² to get the lm for the h501. But its absolutely wrong for the h50. To get the lm of the H50 you need an integrating sphere, or know the fading rate to integrated by yourself before calculating the lm.

I am not interested of the real lumens for H50 and H501, but with lightbox readings we could compare the efficiency of these two models.
As I said, H501 efficiency just seems too good to be true.
96 lumens 2,3 hours with just one 2700 mAh NiMH, that must be the most efficient boost circuit there is, right?

 

[jirik_cz]

I think that it is possible. But not 96 out the front lumens but we are talking about 96 bulb lumens...

 

[Marduke]

I think that it is possible. But not 96 out the front lumens but we are talking about 96 bulb lumens...

Except ZL quotes OTF from an IS.

I suspect their optical setup with the narrower flood is continually tweaked to eek out a couple extra percentage every design iteration.

 

[Woods Walker]

A Fenix LD10 runs 94 lumens 2.2 hours so the 96 lumen 2.3 hours for a H501 is very very good. Often Fenix is tops for runtimes etc.

 

[wapkil]

I'm not even sure what is the exact meaning of the "96 Lumens (2.3 hr) on High" statement.

In the high mode the light output gradually lowers to achieve 80% close to the end of the runtime. Looking at the runtime graph I think that the average value is around 90% of the initial value.

Should "96 lumens" mean "96 lumens for a few seconds with a fresh battery" or "average 96 lumen output during the full runtime"?

 

[davidt1]

Used it to work on my car in the middle of the day today. It was dark enough underneath the car that a light was needed. The H501 performed again.

 

[Mikellen]

If anyone has the H501W (Q3 5A) and regular H501(Q5), can you please post if the Q5 is noticeably brighter? And if so by what degree, meaning just a little, moderate, or very noticeable.

I like the warm tint but wondering if brightness might be more important on an all flood light. If the warm tinted H501 is not that much dimmer than the Q5 version, then I think I will go with the H501W. If the Q5 version is very noticeably brighter, then I'll lean towards that model.

Thanks.

 

[wapkil]

If anyone has the H501W (Q3 5A) and regular H501(Q5), can you please post if the Q5 is noticeably brighter? And if so by what degree, meaning just a little, moderate, or very noticeable.

The specification by ZebraLight and the results of my tests show that the difference in lumen output is around 10-20%.

It's hard for me to tell if this difference is even noticeable. The lights have visibly different tint and that makes them hard to compare. I'd say that to my eyes the low mode seems to be a little bit brighter on H501 but I'm not even sure about that. I haven't tried to perform any real world tests to compare the output so maybe there are some situations where the difference can be spotted.

I think that with a thrower 20% more lumens may be important but with a pure flood light like the H501 it's negligible. As always, YMMV - maybe someone else has a different opinion?

 

[Mikellen]

Thanks wapkil for your response. If that is the consensus that the difference in brightness of the H501W compared with the H501 is negligible or even just slightly lower, then I think the H501W will be the choice for me.

Thanks in advance for any more responses.

 

[aeromys]

I'm just getting into all this and mine arrived today, would agree that a headband clip that allowed use of the pocket clip as wll would be nice. I had a spare Maxpedition "Web Dominator" clip http://www.maxpedition.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=15&idproduct=591 and that fits quite nicely, it secures the H501 to a strap with or without the clip attached. The back of the clip is quite flat and not uncomfortable -

Cheers,
Dave

 

[StandardBattery]

aeromys,

Great Idea. I just bought abunch of MaxP with their recent 30off sale, but those items were the only ones that did not register the discount so I removed them from the cart. I'll have to remember to grab a few on my next order. Could probably put something on the back to make it more comfortable if needed. I like the simplicity of it, although I'm having no problem with my current bracker mod I might worry more if I had to remove and install it often.