4sevens delivery and my new Quark AA2 - Updated with pigeon test

[JaguarDave-in-Oz]

As can be seen in my little profile thing at the corner of my posts, I live in Australia. Australia is a fair distance from America which is why I was rather shocked to find this morning, at the post office, a parcel from 4sevens containing my new Quark AA2 that I ordered at 2 AM Aussie time on the 23rd of December. Yeah you heard it right, I ordered a day and a half before Christmas and it arrived here in my home town a mere six days later despite the fact that Christmas holidays intervened. Amazing.

Thanks to 4sevens for their efficiency in getting something to me that I didn't expect to see for another week (and to the US and Aussie Postal Services too). I just felt I had to mention the great service here.

The torch I ordered is the R2 version of the Quark AA2. I wanted a spottier beam and from what I read on this site I thought the new R5 version might not suit me so I went for the old R2 version which was on special so it was a nice price.

It's my first Quark (and my first torch from 4sevens) and came out of the box looking like a good quality solid unit. The knurling is fairly grippy, almost on a par with my Nitecore D10 R2 and the anodising is much blacker than the D10 too.

The light has a real low setting that's even lower than the lowest setting on that D10 so I could use it for night checks on sleeping kids in the house if need be which is something I can't do with my Fenix L1D since its low is just too bright for that. The only thing I'd change wiht this Quark is that I want to make the clip grab the pocket a bit tighter. I'll have a go at changing the tension a bit later but it's a personal preference thing and nothing against the torch itself.

On high the torch appears plenty bright though it's still daytime so a real test out in the paddocks won't happen for about 9 hours yet but you can bet that's the first thing I'll do once the burning ball drops behind the rocks tonight.

At first glance (and touch) this torch seems extremely good value for money and I think there may be some more Quarks on the horizon for me.

 

[batmanacw]

Re: 4sevens delivery and my new Quark AA2

I just received the R5 version. I love the low mode and it seems to be have a nice wide spot, which suits me perfectly.

4sevens has been a great company to work with.

Let us know what you think of it once you get to play with it some.

 

[Light11]

Re: 4sevens delivery and my new Quark AA2

:twothumbs to 4sevens for their great service as i too dealt with them in the past.

 

[alfreddajero]

Re: 4sevens delivery and my new Quark AA2

They also have great customer service....usually i would have to get someone on the phone if i had a problem with a vendor, now i can just send 47's and email about an issue and there response is quick.

 

[JaguarDave-in-Oz]

Re: 4sevens delivery and my new Quark AA2

There's a fair bit of moonlight out tonight but I went outside and did a sort of real world (for me) comparative test in my paddock between this AA2 and some other torches I have. I called it the "pigeon test". All the torches had fresh batteries charged this afternoon. All but the TK20 are using PowerPlus NiMH, the TK20 having fresh Energizer Lithiums instead (I don't know if that makes it brighter or duller).

I have a tree in my paddock where two light grey pigeons roost each night and what I did was compare each of the torches at forty yards from this tree, then sixty yards, eighty yards, then a hundred yards. My judgement was based on whether I could see the two pigeons by the light of each torch at that range. That test is a fair approximation of the prime use of my torches. I don't use them inside much, mostly outside and mostly to look at (and for) objects from a range. I figure anything that will do that reasonably effectively will do any of the other things I use a torch for (like looking under cars and in nooks and crannies etc).

My current torches are Fenix L1D Q5 Prem, Nitecore D10 R2, Fenix TK20, Led Lenser P7, Led Lenser P17 and the Quark AA2 R2.

At forty yards all the AA torches illuminated the tree well enough to see the pair of pigeons. I didn't bother using the P17 Led Lenser on Max at that range since I didn't want fried pigeon for a late night snack but anyway, the smaller P7 already lit them well enough to wake them. In order, going down, of brightness it seemed to go P7, TK20, AA2, D10 and L1D.

At sixty yards the L1D and the D10 were showing two light coloured birds but the L1D was only just seeing them. All the others allowed me to see two pigeons clearly.

When I moved out to eighty yards things looked a bit different. The Fenix L1D gave some general light to the tree itself but the pigeons had disappeared to the eye. The Nitecore D10 lit the tree a bit better than the Fenix but I was only able to discern the pigeons as a bit of a light smudge. The AA2 lit the tree and the pigeons were obviously two light grey lumps but I couldn't have identitified them as pigeons. The TK20 is where I departed from mainstream views. It lit the tree quite well with a concentrated hotspot but the yellowish orangish tint caused my eyes to see the pigeons no better than with the broader beamed whitish AA2 so despite the TK20's obviously tighter beam and "outdoors tint" it worked no better for me than the AA2. The Led Lenser P7 showed the pigeons as two light coloured birds of some sort very obviously in love and the P17, well it showed them as well as the P7 did at forty metres.

By the time I hit a hundred yards the L1D barely helped me see that the tree was a tree, the D10 showed a vague tree but no pigeons, the AA2 lit the tree enough to still see branches etc but I could not see the pigeons. Thanks to a tighter beam the TK20 lit the form of the tree better than the AA2 but showed not a trace of pigeon either, the P7 was a little bit better, showing two light grey lumps, not necessarily birds and the P17 showed two obviously grey lumps on a branch but my eyes were at such a distance that I couldn't identify conclusively that they were live birds.

Where does this leave me? Well, pretty much where I thought it would. I originally bought my TK20 to replace my Led Lenser P7 for nightly carry since AAA alkaline batteries had become a problem to get but the P7 outperformed the TK20 at longer ranges by such a margin (to my eyes in my environment of course) that I just couldn't do the swap (and I hated the yellowy orange tint of the TK20) so I ordered the AA2 in the hope that it could do the job instead.

Now, I went into the AA2 fairly sure that it would not compete on distance with the P7 (and I was right) but also in the hope that the features like the very low low (for checking my cockatoo cages at night) plus the AA battery situation would make up for that. For my use the AA2 turns out in this test to be quite decent, as good as I htought and certainly better for me than the TK20 when I consider the AA2's other features (and what I personally feel is the yucky tint of the TK20) but I'm going to have to give it some weeks to see if it can really push the P7 aside for sure now that I've actually solved the P7's battery problem by buying rechargeables and a charger. I'll carry both for a while and see how it goes but it's looking ok.

 

[kts]

Now try turning the TK20 to high

 

[Light11]

Thanks for sharing Jaguar

 

[JaguarDave-in-Oz]

Now try turning the TK20 to high

It was on high with new lithiums so I gave it every chance I could, now if you can please just point me to how I manage to turn it off dirty yellow and on to bright white so I can actually see with the thing we may be half way to making it useful.........

 

[reflecyion]

so the quark AA2 has just as much throw as the tk20?

 

[JaguarDave-in-Oz]

so the quark AA2 has just as much throw as the tk20?

No, it doesn't appear so, the TK20 seems to have more "throw". The beam of the TK20 is tighter (and either is, or appears, a bit brighter in the centre and I can light up trees further away than I can with the Quark.

The problem for me is that for my eyes the dirty yellow tint of the TK20 makes it difficult to see small objects inside those trees or sitting in scrub as clearly as with the whiter beams of say my Led Lenser P7 which has a similar tight beam (though appears brighter again) and even the Quark (though the distance it will do that appears more limited). The smaller lighter coloured objects seem to blend into the background of leaves or grass more with the dirty yellow tint than with the bright white tint but that's only to my eyes. For me it's like the beam paints everything a dirty yellow/orange colour. Everyone else here seems to have the opposite results and can supposedly pick objects out due to colour differntiation. I call it a "dirty yellow" tint because it makes the trees look dirty yellow when shine on them, just like they wore covered in a thin layer of yellowy orange coloured dirt.

That yellow/orange "washout" problem for me means that for small objects like the birds in question last night, I can pick them up no better at a certain distance with the TK20 than with the quark despite the TK20's better "throw". If the TK20 had been a bright white beam the situation would be reversed and I'd never have gone off looking for any other torches.

I need to try a similar test using the torches to spot a much larger animal like a fox or dog amongst sheep at say a hundred and fifty yards (which is what the torches are used for quite often), it's quite possible the same results will not occur because the larger darker object may stand out better against the background. Not a test i can set up at my convenience though, gotta wait for the marauders to decide to come. I suppose I could send my sheep dog down there and shine my torches on him for a test. I'll see what i can do.