Just wanted to give a thumbs-up to this particular Quark model and say that I have the Tactical (programmable) model, and even today it's still an impressive light. Very good flooder for indoor areas (warehouses and such) and shorter range outdoor use. What used to be called a "wall of light" on CPF.
These have an XM-L2 emitter (has a silver base) which is still a good performer. If you look at Cree's data sheets, the lumens-per-watt at 700mA and 85degC isn't really much different than what an XP-L will produce at that drive current.
The flashlight-testing CPF Saint known as Selfbuilt did a review of Quark XM-L lights here (this is from his site; don't know if the CPF post still exists):
flashlightreviews.ca/QuarkX.htm (add the http and www prefixes)
He shows an initial turn-on measurement of 400 lumens before it drops down and levels off; I don't know if my copy starts off that bright. It may have been revised with the XM-L2 batches, whereas he was testing the original XM-L version.
I do agree with his statement regarding the impressive output vs runtime on the high mode though!!
"
I was particularly struck by the runtime advantage on the QAA-2 X model on Hi (i.e. one down from Turbo)."
Just wanted to give a shout-out to a good light that's still impressive!
