Beamshots and impressions so far: LD01, LD20 R4, E01, Quark AA2 nw, QAA2 turbo

[bbb74]

So a few weeks ago I searched the internet to buy *1* torch for cycling with, find CPF, and a couple of weeks later I've got 5 torches, and I think I've gone crazy. My wife thinks I'm very odd (in a cute way I hope), although thankfully she is rather patient... So thanks *VERY* much you all have a lot to answer for.

Anyway, here's my impressions on the torches I have so far...

Fenix E01
Nothing new here. Yes beam is purple-ish but you don't notice it too much when using it for something real rather than white wall hunting. Feels good in hand. Love its simple design and toughness.

Fenix LD01
Perfect EDC for my needs, and its low is actually reasonably low (not quark low though). Really nice threads and finish quality.

Fenix LD20 R4
This was my first proper torch and now look where I am... Anyway, the finish quality (in particular I mean the threads) is great. However a couple of things I didn't like about it:

• donut in hotspot. It doesn't bother some people, but I always notice it and personally I do find it annoying, especially in real use outside.
• tailstanding is pretty unsteady compared to the quarks (2 small tabs vs a continuous ring to balance on)
• It seems the machinest/designer got a little too excited when designing the body and its really busy with lots of grooves and raised areas. I actually don't like the feel of it in my hand.
• Either I didn't notice at first or it has changed with a bit of heat and use, but the HA on the body near the head is a different shade of black compared to the head.
• Wish it threw a bit better but this means its a more practical torch for general use so that's ok.

Quark AA2 neutral white

• Finish quality not quite as good as fenix in regards to the threads, otherwise finish quality similar. Can't compare HA quality as I haven't scratched fenix or quarks.
• Very smooth floody light (floody in comparison to LD20 anyway), love it.
• I still haven't decided what I think of neutral white. Its nice when lighting up a room with ceiling bounce, but otherwise when shining it at things its definitely a lot warmer/yellower than the cool whites I'm used to.

Quark AA1 body only (for lego with AA2 parts)
Initially had a problem with the o-rings that came with this body being too big, once I put the spare ones from the AA2 torch on, it was fine. 4Sevens customer service so far has been good

Quark AA2 turbo
This is definitely my favourite yet I very slightly hate it at the same time! It feels great, I love the throw (way better than LD20, and donut either gone or not as noticeable as ld20), and the tactical interface is perfect for the turbo torch. If I want to go outside to play with lights, this is the one I reach for If I want to fiddle with a torch while watching tv (I'm fidgety) this is still the one I reach for. The threads are actually the best of all of the above AA torches including the LD20, very smooth. Build and finish quality are great. The only problem with this torch is ironic - it doesn't have the standard square threads, so I can't lego on a new head later on which is really disappointing. I love it though so guess I'm going to have to keep it??????????

Grip/ergonomics
I much prefer the simpler quark bodies covered with knurling vs the LD20. The LD20 is bizarre...

An oddity
The quark regular switches back to whichever moon/low/medium/high/strobe mode you were in earlier when you loosen the head after temporarily tightening it to turbo mode, which is the way I like it. The LD20 will always switch back to low when you loosen the head.

Keychain holes/tail standing
I don't like the LD20, its really hard to balance even on a hard flat surface, and the lanyard is always in the way and has to be shifted.
The regular quark is much easier to tail stand, although it seems for that the key ring has to always stick out the side?
The best design for a tail standing tail with a key ring hole is IMO the one on the LD01.

Preflash
There is preflash on the turbo when I turn it on in a lower mode after having had it on turbo within a short time before. After a delay there is no preflash though. It doesn't bother me because I turn it to low before turning off if I'm expecting to need low next time, or I just use turbo all the time On the regular nw, there is always a really faint fast preflash. If the quark came on in low mode rather than moon mode you would not see it. It has to be dark to see it, and its not bright enough or long enough to affect night vision. If the torch is aimed at something a couple of meters away in the pitch dark you barely even notice the preflash. It doesn't bother me at all.


Obviously have to love the moon mode on the quarks too - probably use this mode the most and its great.

Beamshots
Here are beamshots of LD20/QAA2 neutral white/QAA2 Turbo. Its pretty obvious which one is which

LD20

Quark aa2 neutral white

Quark aa2 turbo

LD20

Quark neutral white

Quark turbo

LD20

Quark neutral white

Quark turbo

LD20

Quark neutral white

Quark turbo

LD20

Quark neutral white

Quark turbo

LD20

Quark neutral white

Quark turbo

 

[ti-force]

Re: My impressions so far: LD01, LD20 R4, E01, Quark AA2 nw, QAA2 turbo

Thanks for sharing and :welcome:.

I'll have to do some beamshots this weekend if anybody is interested? :naughty:

I always enjoy looking at beamshots so if you get a chance, that would be nice.

 

[SixM]

Re: My impressions so far: LD01, LD20 R4, E01, Quark AA2 nw, QAA2 turbo

I have a couple of the lights you posted your thoughts on and like to hear what others think of them.
Beamshots are always appreciated also, thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[bbb74]

Re: My impressions so far: LD01, LD20 R4, E01, Quark AA2 nw, QAA2 turbo

Beamshots added!

Note: All photos were taken locked down to daylight white balance, and each set of 3 photos was taken with the same (manual) exposure settings.

 

[HorseFilms]

Wonderful beamshots! Thanks!

 

[woodrow]

Fantastic beamshots. Shows the advantages of the neutral color...but the advantages of throw that the turbo has as well. Again, one of the best beamshot comparrisons I have seen. Well done!

 

[bbb74]

Update: I tried out the spare o-rings that came with the AA2 torch on the standalone AA1 body that was too tight. This fixed my problem! On comparison the o-rings that came fitted to the AA-1 body were a little bit bigger in diameter and possibly a bit thicker.

Now its cleaned and lubed again, the threads are smoother than the ld20, I guess because they're not anodised.

Given a choice I'd get the quark again over an ld20 due to moon mode, the feel of them, legoability, and 4sevens support.

Glad you liked the beamshots I like doing stuff like that!

 

[Monocrom]

Sweet pics!

Thanks for posting those. :twothumbs

 

[Hellbore]

Awesome beamshots man! You are good at this.

I gotta say, the neutral Quark looks GREAT! Big fan of the neutral and warm LED's!

 

[entoptics]

This "illuminates" (yuk yuk) how personal preference influences decisions.

I far prefer the white LEDs to the neutral or warms. Not just in photographs either.

Good beam shots and info. I generally agree with most of your information, so perhaps I'm biased.

 

[mcnair55]

Nice and it is good to hear when you are good enough to say you are not keen on something when you have spent your money building your collection.

I am going through a similar love/hate relationship with my most recent purchase Nitecore EZAA,something I really do not like about this light but for the life of me cannot really put my finger on it but for ceiling bounce in my kitchen in the evening you get this massive wow factor with it.

I am still very tempted to add the Fenix LD10 R to my collection though.

 

[bbb74]

This "illuminates" (yuk yuk) how personal preference influences decisions.

I far prefer the white LEDs to the neutral or warms. Not just in photographs either.

Good beam shots and info. I generally agree with most of your information, so perhaps I'm biased.

I know what you mean about preferring white to neutral or warms. I guess its a personal preference thing. I actually can't decide between them, they're just different. I think something in between would be the best. The neutral comes across a bit too yellow to me at times, and the cool white is a bit too blue!! Based on photos only I don't think I'd like a warm white. My cool whites do make things a bit flatter or greyer outside, but on the other hand I think its closer to daylight than the neutral. Six of one, half a dozen of the other for me...

 

[bbb74]

Nice and it is good to hear when you are good enough to say you are not keen on something when you have spent your money building your collection.

I am going through a similar love/hate relationship with my most recent purchase Nitecore EZAA,something I really do not like about this light but for the life of me cannot really put my finger on it but for ceiling bounce in my kitchen in the evening you get this massive wow factor with it.

I am still very tempted to add the Fenix LD10 R to my collection though.

Its funny like that isn't it.

LD10 is meant to be good. Don't forget to compare against the Quark AA though Very similar except you get moon mode

 

[ti-force]

I know what you mean about preferring white to neutral or warms. I guess its a personal preference thing. I actually can't decide between them, they're just different. I think something in between would be the best. The neutral comes across a bit too yellow to me at times, and the cool white is a bit too blue!! Based on photos only I don't think I'd like a warm white. My cool whites do make things a bit flatter or greyer outside, but on the other hand I think its closer to daylight than the neutral. Six of one, half a dozen of the other for me...

I'm assuming you have an XP-G NW emitter? I haven't seen one of the Quark limited run NW XP-G's in person, but I do have two of the Quark limited run XP-E Q3 5A NW runs, and neither one is what I would consider neutral white. They are both darker than NW, but one of them is certainly darker than the other. I have a beamshot of the darkest one, but not of the lighter one. I wanted a real neutral white tint so I purchased an XP-G R3 in the 3A to 3D tint range, which is almost pure white, and modded one of my Quark 123-2 heads with it.

I've been extremely happy with the results. All of the colors appear more natural than with a cool white or a warm white emitter. In the images below, notice the color change from cool white to the custom XP-G R3 neutral white, and from the XP-E Q3 5A NW to the custom XP-G R3 NW. Look at the color of the tree bark, the color of the pine straw on the ground and the green grass. The color of everything I just named off appears more natural with the custom XP-G R3 NW emitter than any of the others.

Here are some gif images that I've put together comparing the lights mentioned. Distance from each light to the edge of the woods is roughly 54 yards according to Google Earth. White balance was set to daylight, and all settings remained the same for every image:

Quark AA XP-G R5 Cool White tint vs Custom Quark 123-2 XP-G R3 3A-3D NW tint:

Custom Quark 123-2 XP-G R3 NW 3A-3D tint vs limited run Quark 123-2 XP-E Q3 5A NW tint:

Quark AA XP-G R5 Cool White tint:

Custom Quark 123-2 XP-G R3 NW 3A-3D tint:

limited run Quark 123-2 XP-E Q3 5A NW tint:

 

[ToNIX]

Wow those beamshots are awesome! Thank you very much

 

[bbb74]

I'm assuming you have an XP-G NW emitter? I haven't seen one of the Quark limited run NW XP-G's in person, but I do have two of the Quark limited run XP-E Q3 5A NW runs, and neither one is what I would consider neutral white. They are both darker than NW, but one of them is certainly darker than the other. I have a beamshot of the darkest one, but not of the lighter one. I wanted a real neutral white tint so I purchased an XP-G R3 in the 3A to 3D tint range, which is almost pure white, and modded one of my Quark 123-2 heads with it.

I've been extremely happy with the results. All of the colors appear more natural than with a cool white or a warm white emitter. In the images below, notice the color change from cool white to the custom XP-G R3 neutral white, and from the XP-E Q3 5A NW to the custom XP-G R3 NW. Look at the color of the tree bark, the color of the pine straw on the ground and the green grass. The color of everything I just named off appears more natural with the custom XP-G R3 NW emitter than any of the others.

Here are some gif images that I've put together comparing the lights mentioned:

How did you get the 3a's, and how did you get them installed? Its hard to tell from photos but they look more "neutral" to me.

 

[ti-force]

How did you get the 3a's, and how did you get them installed? Its hard to tell from photos but they look more "neutral" to me.

Click here to see the process of swapping a bare emitter into a Quark head. The link isn't of my XP-G 3A mod, but the process is the same; doesn't matter if it's an XP-E or an XP-G. You might be better off getting your emitters from Cutter for two reasons: 1.) You live in Australia, and 2.) You can purchase the emitter soldered onto an MCPCB so you don't have to worry with re-flow soldering the bare emitter onto the Quark MCPCB. Click here. Like I previously stated, this mod is the closest to neutral white that I've seen. Are the .gifs working correctly for you? Some browsers may not support gif viewing.

 

[GadgetGeek]

Excellent beamshots! I see a Quark AA2 Turbo in my future.

Thanks

 

[Colorblinded]

This "illuminates" (yuk yuk) how personal preference influences decisions.

I far prefer the white LEDs to the neutral or warms. Not just in photographs either.

Good beam shots and info. I generally agree with most of your information, so perhaps I'm biased.

Technically they're all "white" and Cree even labels them as such (they make warm, neutral, outdoor, cool white). It definitely is preference though, a cool white without any serious purple or blue tint is ok to me but I am personally becoming quite fond of the neutrals over the cools for most things. I just prefer how things appear with them.

Interesting comment on the feel of the body of the quark vs fenix LD20. I have an LD20 and while it's not the R4 it has the same body as yours and it's never bothered me. It is definitely not as "simple" as the Quark bodies which I don't really think of as being good or bad really. The Quarks fill your hand more but the Fenix isn't going to fall out. So far in my experience the Fenix anodizing does seem to be tougher and I prefer the less glossy finish of the Fenix to the quarks as well.

I also had a problem with ill fitting o-rings on my neutral white Quark AA2, although the warm white one I have was fine. All of my Quarks preflash :sick2:, except my Mini.