Apologies in advance for a long post, it covers pretty much everything I can report on my LD01 which arrived today (and has the odd photo).
Wehey, my LD01 actually arrived today (Friday)! It was supposed to be sent recorded delivery and require a signature, but the postman must have decided differently and almost (but not quite) ripped the recorded delivery sticker off as the enveloped arrived looking like this:
Still, kudos to the Royal Mail for getting it from Somerset to Tyne and Wear overnight. Just a shame the final part of the delivery wasn't so good, and relied on the honesty of a another tenant where I live who placed the package behind my lockable mailbox (as it wouldn't actually fit into it). I'm overjoyed to have it (and not have to get up early tomorrow for the postman, not that it would have made any difference it seems as he wouldn't bother with the recorded delivery bit).
First impressions-- wow! That is seriously bright, even on low. My Maglite Solitaire doesn't even come close. I thought the Solitaire was pretty bright in a room with the lights off. The LD01 is pretty bright in a room with the lights on, especially on high.
The light tint is definitely bluish compared with all the CFL and standard fluorescent lights I have, but when it is the only light source in the room, it just looks like a "cold" (as in harsh bluish) bright white. I'm afraid I don't have the equipment needed to give a colour-temperature figure, but from what I can compare it with, I'm guessing somewhere in the region of around 7000K. Certainly, when photographed shining at a white wall with my camera's electronic-flash, the main central beam of the torch has a slightly greenish look compared to the flash (after taking care to balance the brightness of the two to avoid any over-exposure in the picture).
At close-range (say 50cm), there is a very bright circular central region, surrounded by three much larger circular areas of light. The first is quite bright (though somewhat darker immediately around the central spot- and I have checked to ensure that the darker bit just outside the bright spot isn't an optical illusion). The second and third areas further out are much fainter and irrelevant really to any normal use of the torch. At 50cm, there are some slight detectable variations in brightness in the first "ring" but nothing to be bothered about. As such, it will certainly be superb when I need a bright light for close in work (that central spot is seriously bright when close up).
At more like the sort of distance I might actually be using it at, 5 metres (16ft), indoors with the lights off at night I have a roughly 1 metre (3ft) central bright spot, surrounded by a roughly 4 metre (12ft) flood. Apart from perhaps a marginally darker central area of the spot part of the beam at this distance, the two areas are well defined without any rings. The two much darker and wider areas are still visible, but not really relevant. I will say that the low setting is much more than I'd ever need indoors in an emergency. In fact I'd say the low-setting is unnecessarily bright for indoor use, but its better to be brighter than ideal rather not enough.
Time for the final test, there's an area of woodland and generally not street-lit fields just over the road...
Brrr... it's quite cold tonight but I'm definitely glad I chose the LD01 rather than the E01 there. The low power output would be fine to see where you're going along the pavement (even before your eyes adjusted to the dark), but on medium it was providing enough light to easily scan much further ahead, and after stopping next to an unlit bowling-green (roughly 30 metres in length) for a bit, it was quite capable of making the far end visible on high. I'm just blown away at how bright this tiny torch is when used outdoors at night.
I'm not going to risk putting a 10440 in it. It's more than I need already without going mad with it!
On a side note, quite literally, I noticed some people mentioning the PWM or whatever circuitry making a noise. Mine does too. Comparing it with a freeware Electronic Piano program I'd downloaded in the past, on medium power it makes a tone around D#6 on the musical-scale (1245hz), whereas on low it is slightly lower pitched near to D6 (1175hz). It is silent on high as would be expected since the PWM isn't pulsing the current. Not quite the 1600hz I read the PWM operates at, but way above any frequency where you could detect any flickering.
I think this photo I've just took of the LD01 on low-power (with the NiMH cell that has been used all night since I received the torch) and the Maglite Solitaire (with a brand-new alkaline, give or take a minute or so of precussive-maintenance to get it up to maximum brightness- it was a lot brighter still than with a NiMH) says it all. If anyone else is in my position and wondering if an LD01 is worth buying over something like a Solitaire, just look at these (and remember that the LD01 was on low power, it can be a lot brighter than this). The torches were roughly a metre from the wall, and the dark section at the bottom is because the light was blocked by what they were resting on. The dark line near the left edge of the second shot is because that is the corner of the room and you're seeing some of the wall at the side.
Correctly exposed
Over-exposed to show the flood area of the LD01 (being just 1m from the wall, a darker flood area is noticeable immediately outside of the spot, but it disappears when used a few metres further away).
And those were both taken with the LD01 on low power.
I'm sure you can tell I'm very impressed with it
!!!
