Elzetta- The industry's best kept secret.

[Megalamuffin]

Well I'll soon have my first elzetta, compromised of parts.

I got a crenelated zfl-m60 head from a forum member, and a charlie body with hi/low tailcap from elzetta. The plan is also to eventually get a high candela head for the charlie and an alpha.

 

[aznsx]

Well I'll soon have my first elzetta, compromised of parts.

I got a crenelated zfl-m60 head from a forum member, and a charlie body with hi/low tailcap from elzetta. The plan is also to eventually get a high candela head for the charlie and an alpha.

Can't speak to the 'hybrid' Charlie, but I can tell you that the Alpha G3 I have is on my very short list of 'best money I ever spent' on flashlights. If I had to go somewhere and only take 1 light with me, it would likely be that one, and is a regular, primary, 'do-all', front pocket carry light. With the regular bezel, it's very pocketable, and they way they designed it, it is quite capable w/16340 and HI-LO tailcap. It's not a lightweight, but I think it's worth every gram.

 

[Megalamuffin]

The rest of the parts came in today, so now I've got a zfl head charlie with an m91bw and hi/lo tailcap. This is a really nice host, and looks great. The hi/lo tailcap gives it versatility points over my favored surefire c3 as a host.

Just messing around with it seems like the hi/lo cap will work great with the thyrm low profile clip in a syringe grip. It also works with a thyrm switchback, but there is a chance of clicking the switch on if you are pressing hard on it, so maybe best to go with a rotary switch for the switchback method.

I was pleasantly surprised that elzetta sent 3x cr123 cells with my order. I didn't expect that when I was just buying parts a la carte.

 

[slumber]

I sold all my Elzettas, but the 3 Cell with the M60 bezel was one of my favorites. Good ergonomics and awesome balance.

 

[Monocrom]

The rest of the parts came in today, so now I've got a zfl head charlie with an m91bw and hi/lo tailcap. This is a really nice host, and looks great. The hi/lo tailcap gives it versatility points over my favored surefire c3 as a host.

Just messing around with it seems like the hi/lo cap will work great with the thyrm low profile clip in a syringe grip. It also works with a thyrm switchback, but there is a chance of clicking the switch on if you are pressing hard on it, so maybe best to go with a rotary switch for the switchback method.

I was pleasantly surprised that elzetta sent 3x cr123 cells with my order. I didn't expect that when I was just buying parts a la carte.

Put together my Leef-bodied SureFire M4 all from spare parts quite a few years (over a decade) ago. Was deciding on how to track down each part after I got the Leef body, first. Then, bizarrely, a member of CPF put his M4 up for sale on the MarketPlace. All parts, except the stock body. So, I bought all the parts in one sitting. Still have that Leef-bodied M4 to this day.

Which is good because before that stroke of luck, I realized my cheapest alternative was to buy a brand new M4 from SureFire and then sell the stock body on the CPF MarketPlace.

 

[Megalamuffin]

I sold all my Elzettas, but the 3 Cell with the M60 bezel was one of my favorites. Good ergonomics and awesome balance.

The 3 cell lights are my favorite, be it surefire, malkoff or elzetta. The elzetta is super nice.

 

[bykfixer]

Bones is available in black now.

On battery stations. Impressive

 

[letschat7]

Blue is better.

 

[pdeethardt]

I picked one up back in February when they were running a promo on them. I have the original gray HA Bones, but I prefer black HA lights. I was disappointed to find out that it was much cooler than the original Bones, and it looks like all of their lights are now 6000K. I preferred the warmer temperature (5000K maybe?) they used previously. I also noticed that the lens no longer has the hidden Elzetta logo that shows up on my Bravo and original Bones when the lens is held at a certain angle. Other than that, it's a very solid light.

 

[bykfixer]

Yeah, I like the old neutral tint series of Elzettas too. But to gain 25% more output I suppose a whiter tint was required.

 

[GMT2330]

Does anyone know when Elzetta release their special edition lights? I think it was a yellow coated Charlie last year. Have I missed this years light?

 

[GMT2330]

OK, looks like there isn't a limited edition this year (yet).
But at least the Bones is back in stock in all three finishes (type III grey, type III black and type II blue).

 

[Fuzzywuzzies]

Ok lads and lassies. It's been a while coming.

I finally put down some time, and the prototype Elzetta Bravo emitter swap is done. I swapped in a Nichia 519a 4500K 95+ CRI emitter pre-mounted on a Noctigon copper MPCB. It's better than factory; better heat-sinking, slightly more piercing beam due to the smaller package size (3.5mm instead of 5.5mm), and a beautiful neutral tint.
The colour rendition - as expected - is exceptional.

I had some difficulty extracting the original MPCB due to the potting, but just the right amount of heat works a charm for the Gen 2 black type of AVS head potting compound. The MPCB was too snug for my liking, and needed some modifications for the screw mounting and wire paths.

It's not pretty, as I was a while experimenting with different things, scraping potting compound out and so on. When I lay out a dozen and do them all back to back it should come out very cleanly though. I'm very happy with the results, and most importantly I believe it will hold up to as much or more physical punishing as a 'stock' torch.

Tonight when it gets dark enough I'll do some real-world night testing and report back with some beam shots etc.

 

[Monocrom]

Might not be pretty, but she still looks good.

 

[Fuzzywuzzies]

@Monocrom Thank you! To be perfectly honest, none of these are show torches. They're made to be beaten, and beat them we certainly do. Physical resilience is always king over clean paintwork!
But I still like to do the sharpest job I can.

 

[Fuzzywuzzies]

I'm actually stupidly excited about this.

It's a stormy night here, and dark as pitch. And as promised, here's some beam shots for your perusal.

The differences are significantly more stark and obvious than any photo can convey. In person you can see the improvements instantly when switching between torches. Up close for general work it is a beautiful thing to behold. This is a game-changing modification for our inspection tasks, for sure.


All torches are 18650 bored, running charged batteries, and everything is normalised as much as possible. These are all dirty, beat up work torches, so the lenses were checked and cleaned as needed. All torches have the AVS flood lens fitted.
All images are taken with the DSLR on manual, exposure and white balance set and locked. Focal length 30mm. No post-processing enhancements etc. etc.

Approximate distances are:
- Light foreground grass patch ≈ 6m
- Sapling, right ≈ 6m
- Tall lighter grass, centre ≈ 10m
- Small bushy tree, centre ≈ 14m
- Tall dead tree, left ≈ 18m
- Distant shed, right ≈ 26m

In order, with "personal perspective" descriptions:
1. Elzetta Bones AVS "Gen 1" with flood lens. Good. 80-ish CRI, cool-ish tint.
1a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.
2. Elzetta Bones AVS "Gen 2" with flood lens. Very poor. sub-70-ish CRI, bright blue tint. I hate it.
2a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.
3. Elzetta Bravo AVS "Gen 1" with flood lens. Very good. 80+CRI, neutral tint.
3a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.
4. Elzetta Bravo AVS "Gen 2" with flood lens. Average. 80-ish CRI, blue tint.
4a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.
5. Elzetta Bravo AVS "Gen 2" with flood lens and Nichia 519a 4500K 95+CRI emitter and copper MPCB swap. - Unicorn excellent. Perfect colour rendering, perfectly neutral tint, slightly more "punch" in the beam due to the smaller emitter package size. Definitely slightly brighter, maybe around 10-15%, visually speaking, although it's hard to say how much is general (lumens) and how much is peak (candela) brightness.
5a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.


Edit: I'm not a reviewer or anything, so I'm not set up to hand out numbers or even go white wall hunting. This is just my impression as someone who uses these torches enough to flatten a 3400mAh 18650 most days.

This is a massive improvement over the stock emitter, and I'm incredibly pleased with it. I'll be interested to see how it goes in the long run, and will try and remember to report back to this thread with an update in a few months' time on usability, battery performance, and any further thoughts or issues.


1. Elzetta Bones AVS "Gen 1" with flood lens. Good. 80-ish CRI, neutral to cool-ish tint.

1a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.

2. Elzetta Bones AVS "Gen 2" with flood lens. Very poor. sub-70-ish CRI, bright blue tint. I hate it.

2a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.

3. Elzetta Bravo AVS "Gen 1" with flood lens. Very good. 80+CRI, neutral tint.

3a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.

4. Elzetta Bravo AVS "Gen 2" with flood lens. Average. 80-ish CRI, blue tint.

4a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.

5. Elzetta Bravo AVS "Gen 2" with flood lens and Nichia 519a 4500K 95+CRI emitter and copper MPCB swap. Unicorn-grade excellent. Perfect colour rendering, perfectly neutral tint, slightly more "punch" in the beam due to the smaller emitter package size.

5a. As above, but with the beam averted toward the distant shed.

 

[sgt253]

Great work. Thanks for sharing. Gives real world performance views.

 

[Monocrom]

I'm actually stupidly excited about this.

It's a stormy night here, and dark as pitch. And as promised, here's some beam shots for your perusal...

Very nice. Thanks for sharing those with us, Fuzzy.

 

[Random Dan]

That's a pretty sweet mod. One of the reasons I sold my bravo avs was that I didn't love the tint.

 

[Fuzzywuzzies]

That's a pretty sweet mod. One of the reasons I sold my bravo avs was that I didn't love the tint.

Yeah, the newer "Gen 2" AVS heads seem to sacrifice a ton of colour tint and CRI for the higher lumen numbers. That's what sent me off down this track too.

I now consider this to be my unicorn torch. It's pretty well perfect now.

PM me if you're interested in this.