More beamshots on page 2
Short review of the DEFT Q5 WC from Michael at OMG Lumens.
Today I received my long awaited secret weapon from Michael at OMG Lumens and thought I'd share my impressions.
First impressions:
The Bezel is amazing! The carbon weave is very cool and the polished finish has a deep luster. It looks like it could adorn the engine air intake tube on a Formula One car. It fits very nicely to the head of the light and there are no open seams or gaps around its circumference. Very impressive fit with regards to the bezel, lens and flashlight head.
It's smaller than I thought it would be. Although I saw many pictures of the DEFT before, I suppose I was expecting it to be longer than it was. Although not compact because of the bezel diameter you can easily tuck the battery tube into a front or back jean pocket should you need a free hand.
The quality and feel of the switch was a big surprise. It's small enough to not be obtrusive while still large enough to quickly find in the dark while capturing my beamshots. It's firm enough that it wont be activated accidentally and protrudes enough from the body that makes it easy to find by touch.
At first I was slightly worried about the threads because when I cleaned them with a cloth, loose silver bits of machined aluminum attached to the cloth. After a good cleaning and some fresh Nyogel, they work great and there's not much play to speak of. It does have a recessed and very functional lanyard attachment point in the center of the tailcap that's quite beefy.
The exterior of the light itself is fairly average of something that we might see on some of the cheaper lights at DX. That is to say that it's not going to win any beauty prizes for most elaborate design or machining. The cuts are shallow and some, like the small ones around the tailcap or poorly defined. Actually they appear to be cast rather than machined. The square blocks designed into the handle provide slightly more friction than if the tube was smooth. In my opinion the light could really benefit from a spin on the lathe to clean up the strange designs and cut down past some of the small dents and metal imperfections that occurred prior to finishing. I'm probably making this sound much worse than it actually is because only tight macro shots would reveal what I'm talking about. I'm just trying to be objective in saying that this thing isn't machined like a Surefire, JetBeam or JilLite. For that matter it's probably not as cleanly cut as a Fenix, Olight or EagleTac, all of which are pretty good in my opinion. (More on this subject at the end of the review)
The finish or more specifically the anodizing is quite good. It appears to be thick, durable and uniform in pleasant satin black color.
The battery holder is an average 4 x AA holder which utilizes small coil springs and tabs to firmly hold the cells in.
The battery contacts inside of the battery tube are long and skinny. The attachment point of each wire is small so it would be best to go easy on these things when dropping the loaded battery holder down into the tube. They seem durable enough as long as they're not snagged by anything or pushed down to hard. On a side note to having the tailcap off, care should be taken because small debris can fall past the switch and light engine directly onto the inside of the aspherical lens. Whatever you do don't spray any lubricant or deoxit down there with the head on because it will end up finding its way on the lens. (Murphys Law) In the picture below I placed a small LED button cell light near the front of the lens so that the gaps (bright spots) could be easily seen from the battery side.
The aspheric itself is BIG. It's not as transparent or crystal clear as the glass PL-1072 on the Mac's but it doesn't seem to hurt the performance when compared to any other aspheric light. Yes, it would perform even better with high quality optical glass but at the DEFT's price point I'm not going to complain. I'm very impressed with it overall.
Beamshots:
First set was against a garage door at 36 yards.
Mac's Aspheric with Cree Q4
DEFT Q5 WC
Both together
Second set is aimed at a powerline tower 319 yards
Mac's Aspheric
DEFT
Sky shots
Mac's Aspheric
DEFT
Overall I'm utterly amazed by the performance of the DEFT. This is the first single LED light that's able to out throw my 10W JiL EzNite with Polarion reflector. The color of the beam on the garage door shots is pretty accurate while the powerline tower and sky shots are much bluer than actual.
Regarding the quality of the light chassis itself it's good enough for me. If this light had a custom body and head on it I could easily see the price shooting well above $500 and possibly into the Elephant price range. I actually feel like I received more than my money's worth and the quality of Michael's build and assembly work is extraordinary. It's on par with any of the custom builders who's lights I already own. I want to thank Michael for exceeding my expectations for both build quality and performance.
More to come later, I just wanted to get my main thoughts down.
Enjoy the pics
Short review of the DEFT Q5 WC from Michael at OMG Lumens.
Today I received my long awaited secret weapon from Michael at OMG Lumens and thought I'd share my impressions.
First impressions:
The Bezel is amazing! The carbon weave is very cool and the polished finish has a deep luster. It looks like it could adorn the engine air intake tube on a Formula One car. It fits very nicely to the head of the light and there are no open seams or gaps around its circumference. Very impressive fit with regards to the bezel, lens and flashlight head.
It's smaller than I thought it would be. Although I saw many pictures of the DEFT before, I suppose I was expecting it to be longer than it was. Although not compact because of the bezel diameter you can easily tuck the battery tube into a front or back jean pocket should you need a free hand.
The quality and feel of the switch was a big surprise. It's small enough to not be obtrusive while still large enough to quickly find in the dark while capturing my beamshots. It's firm enough that it wont be activated accidentally and protrudes enough from the body that makes it easy to find by touch.
At first I was slightly worried about the threads because when I cleaned them with a cloth, loose silver bits of machined aluminum attached to the cloth. After a good cleaning and some fresh Nyogel, they work great and there's not much play to speak of. It does have a recessed and very functional lanyard attachment point in the center of the tailcap that's quite beefy.
The exterior of the light itself is fairly average of something that we might see on some of the cheaper lights at DX. That is to say that it's not going to win any beauty prizes for most elaborate design or machining. The cuts are shallow and some, like the small ones around the tailcap or poorly defined. Actually they appear to be cast rather than machined. The square blocks designed into the handle provide slightly more friction than if the tube was smooth. In my opinion the light could really benefit from a spin on the lathe to clean up the strange designs and cut down past some of the small dents and metal imperfections that occurred prior to finishing. I'm probably making this sound much worse than it actually is because only tight macro shots would reveal what I'm talking about. I'm just trying to be objective in saying that this thing isn't machined like a Surefire, JetBeam or JilLite. For that matter it's probably not as cleanly cut as a Fenix, Olight or EagleTac, all of which are pretty good in my opinion. (More on this subject at the end of the review)
The finish or more specifically the anodizing is quite good. It appears to be thick, durable and uniform in pleasant satin black color.
The battery holder is an average 4 x AA holder which utilizes small coil springs and tabs to firmly hold the cells in.
The battery contacts inside of the battery tube are long and skinny. The attachment point of each wire is small so it would be best to go easy on these things when dropping the loaded battery holder down into the tube. They seem durable enough as long as they're not snagged by anything or pushed down to hard. On a side note to having the tailcap off, care should be taken because small debris can fall past the switch and light engine directly onto the inside of the aspherical lens. Whatever you do don't spray any lubricant or deoxit down there with the head on because it will end up finding its way on the lens. (Murphys Law) In the picture below I placed a small LED button cell light near the front of the lens so that the gaps (bright spots) could be easily seen from the battery side.
The aspheric itself is BIG. It's not as transparent or crystal clear as the glass PL-1072 on the Mac's but it doesn't seem to hurt the performance when compared to any other aspheric light. Yes, it would perform even better with high quality optical glass but at the DEFT's price point I'm not going to complain. I'm very impressed with it overall.
Beamshots:
First set was against a garage door at 36 yards.
Mac's Aspheric with Cree Q4
DEFT Q5 WC
Both together
Second set is aimed at a powerline tower 319 yards
Mac's Aspheric
DEFT
Sky shots
Mac's Aspheric
DEFT
Overall I'm utterly amazed by the performance of the DEFT. This is the first single LED light that's able to out throw my 10W JiL EzNite with Polarion reflector. The color of the beam on the garage door shots is pretty accurate while the powerline tower and sky shots are much bluer than actual.
Regarding the quality of the light chassis itself it's good enough for me. If this light had a custom body and head on it I could easily see the price shooting well above $500 and possibly into the Elephant price range. I actually feel like I received more than my money's worth and the quality of Michael's build and assembly work is extraordinary. It's on par with any of the custom builders who's lights I already own. I want to thank Michael for exceeding my expectations for both build quality and performance.
More to come later, I just wanted to get my main thoughts down.
Enjoy the pics
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