gadgetnerd
Enlightened
It gives me great pleasure to announce that my search for the almost perfect 1xAA torch has now officially ended, with the arrival of a black LiteFlux LF5XT.
After having my interest piqued by this thread: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=198193 I immediately ordered one via LED Cool as soon as they became available. Thanks Khoo!
OK, enough preamble. After playing with it constantly for several hours, here's my thoughts. A lot of comparisons with the NiteCore Defender Infinity, since that torch generated a lot of recent buzz
Dimensions About 0.5cm longer than an NDI, same diameter. Similarly knurled. Feels nice in the hand, very solid. Head: crenellated, with the lens O-ring protected. Not sure if the lens is AR coated. Tailcap: has a metal button with a very nice feel, similar to pushing a button on a mobile phone. Lanyard slots are provided. Torch can tail stand, but can also roll.
Fit & finish: Perfect. Not as much of a selling point since most recent torches >$40 are well put together. Nevertheless, the anodising is spot on, the LED is perfectly centred and there's not a speck of dust. The thread machining is smooth and even the innards of the head and tail are clean and well presented, with clean brass and no solder blobs. The torch comes in a nice wooden presentation box with O-rings, lube, lanyard, but no holster.
Beam: Finally a Cree beam without raccoon eyes! The "frosted" reflector does a great job, the beam profile is similar to my Novatac, with no rings. The beam profile is narrower than most 1xAA Cree beams, with a less distinct hotspot. I'd say max brightness on par with an NDI with the same battery type. No PWM visible. I did not detect flickering at any brightness level (others have http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2522403&postcount=351).
UI Again, very HDS/Novatac like. And like those torches, the button controls the torch by sending signals to a microprocessor, so there are no flickering issues as observed in some recent forward clickies such as the NDI, and no bezel twisting (which I dislike) required - true one handed operation. I would rate the programming difficulty on par with the Novatac. It takes a few minutes but once set, you'll probably rarely use it. The torch can be set to remember last mode or always come on in 1st mode; brightness (1-100lm on NiMH) and strobes can be assigned to any mode (I set mine up with a locator beacon on one mode, a la HDS/Novatac); the number of modes themselves can be changed from the default 5 down to 1 if desired. True momentary mode can be activated. The torch will report back battery voltage, and can be set to protect 1.2V NiMH and 3.6V Li Ion batteries. There's no thermal stepdown though. Nor automatic switch off.
OK, so how would I sum things up?
Pros: Incredibly well built; true microprocessor controlled with great switch; flawless beam; extremely versatile UI. Looks and behaves like a >$100 torch
Cons: <1lm low would be nice; some inductor whine at higher brightness; the laser engraving is in a cheesy font (!, this should show how hard I am scrabbling to find cons).
Personally I think LiteFlux has done an incredible job to get such a fully featured 1xAA torch out the door with such high quality and at such a good price. I think it will be a big hit and hopefully will inspire other manufacturers to follow suit. I'm also sure that v2 will be out before too long with further improvements.
Is it perfect? No, but it's as good as I've yet seen in a 1xAA torch, and as close to a 1xAA Novatac/HDS/Ra as we're ever likely to see. YMMV
I'm sure more comprehensive photo and run time threads will appear as more people get hold of their LF5XTs, but in the mean time here are a few pix to give you an idea about beam quality. Notice the smaller beam and lack of rings compared to all of the other Cree torches.
The culprits, in order of size:
Proton Pro, NDI, L1D-Q5, LF5XT, Angel-A
Beamshots.
All taken at 15cm from the wall. Colour rendition not accurate.
Left: NDI, minimum. Right LF5XT, minimum
Left: Proton Pro, adjusted to same output as... Right LF5XT, minimum
Left: L1D-Q5 medium. Right: LF5XT adjusted to similar output
Left: Wolfeyes Angel A, minimum. Right: LF5XT, minimum
LF5XT outdoor beamshot
NDI outdoor beamshot. Tighter hotspot, dark ring, wider spill
Looking for a better review? The LF5XT is the highest rated torch at Light Reviews.
http://light-reviews.com/liteflux_lf5xt/review.html
Harada77 has some good pix here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=200448
EDIT: Thoughts after 24 hours
If I could only keep 1 of my AA torches, this would be the one, no questions about it. If you're one of many on CPF (like me) who think that HDS/Novatac are the last word in 123 torches, then you'll likely feel the same about the LF5XT for AA torches.
EDIT: Thoughts after a week
It's a shame that LiteFlux had LED delays, as I feel a bit lonely - I'd hoped there would be more people joining in the LF5XT love fest by now. With this and the D10 it looks like a new generation of high quality AA torches is finally here.
After having my interest piqued by this thread: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=198193 I immediately ordered one via LED Cool as soon as they became available. Thanks Khoo!
OK, enough preamble. After playing with it constantly for several hours, here's my thoughts. A lot of comparisons with the NiteCore Defender Infinity, since that torch generated a lot of recent buzz
Dimensions About 0.5cm longer than an NDI, same diameter. Similarly knurled. Feels nice in the hand, very solid. Head: crenellated, with the lens O-ring protected. Not sure if the lens is AR coated. Tailcap: has a metal button with a very nice feel, similar to pushing a button on a mobile phone. Lanyard slots are provided. Torch can tail stand, but can also roll.
Fit & finish: Perfect. Not as much of a selling point since most recent torches >$40 are well put together. Nevertheless, the anodising is spot on, the LED is perfectly centred and there's not a speck of dust. The thread machining is smooth and even the innards of the head and tail are clean and well presented, with clean brass and no solder blobs. The torch comes in a nice wooden presentation box with O-rings, lube, lanyard, but no holster.
Beam: Finally a Cree beam without raccoon eyes! The "frosted" reflector does a great job, the beam profile is similar to my Novatac, with no rings. The beam profile is narrower than most 1xAA Cree beams, with a less distinct hotspot. I'd say max brightness on par with an NDI with the same battery type. No PWM visible. I did not detect flickering at any brightness level (others have http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2522403&postcount=351).
UI Again, very HDS/Novatac like. And like those torches, the button controls the torch by sending signals to a microprocessor, so there are no flickering issues as observed in some recent forward clickies such as the NDI, and no bezel twisting (which I dislike) required - true one handed operation. I would rate the programming difficulty on par with the Novatac. It takes a few minutes but once set, you'll probably rarely use it. The torch can be set to remember last mode or always come on in 1st mode; brightness (1-100lm on NiMH) and strobes can be assigned to any mode (I set mine up with a locator beacon on one mode, a la HDS/Novatac); the number of modes themselves can be changed from the default 5 down to 1 if desired. True momentary mode can be activated. The torch will report back battery voltage, and can be set to protect 1.2V NiMH and 3.6V Li Ion batteries. There's no thermal stepdown though. Nor automatic switch off.
OK, so how would I sum things up?
Pros: Incredibly well built; true microprocessor controlled with great switch; flawless beam; extremely versatile UI. Looks and behaves like a >$100 torch
Cons: <1lm low would be nice; some inductor whine at higher brightness; the laser engraving is in a cheesy font (!, this should show how hard I am scrabbling to find cons).
Personally I think LiteFlux has done an incredible job to get such a fully featured 1xAA torch out the door with such high quality and at such a good price. I think it will be a big hit and hopefully will inspire other manufacturers to follow suit. I'm also sure that v2 will be out before too long with further improvements.
Is it perfect? No, but it's as good as I've yet seen in a 1xAA torch, and as close to a 1xAA Novatac/HDS/Ra as we're ever likely to see. YMMV
I'm sure more comprehensive photo and run time threads will appear as more people get hold of their LF5XTs, but in the mean time here are a few pix to give you an idea about beam quality. Notice the smaller beam and lack of rings compared to all of the other Cree torches.
The culprits, in order of size:
Proton Pro, NDI, L1D-Q5, LF5XT, Angel-A
Beamshots.
All taken at 15cm from the wall. Colour rendition not accurate.
Left: NDI, minimum. Right LF5XT, minimum
Left: Proton Pro, adjusted to same output as... Right LF5XT, minimum
Left: L1D-Q5 medium. Right: LF5XT adjusted to similar output
Left: Wolfeyes Angel A, minimum. Right: LF5XT, minimum
LF5XT outdoor beamshot
NDI outdoor beamshot. Tighter hotspot, dark ring, wider spill
Looking for a better review? The LF5XT is the highest rated torch at Light Reviews.
http://light-reviews.com/liteflux_lf5xt/review.html
Harada77 has some good pix here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=200448
EDIT: Thoughts after 24 hours
If I could only keep 1 of my AA torches, this would be the one, no questions about it. If you're one of many on CPF (like me) who think that HDS/Novatac are the last word in 123 torches, then you'll likely feel the same about the LF5XT for AA torches.
EDIT: Thoughts after a week
It's a shame that LiteFlux had LED delays, as I feel a bit lonely - I'd hoped there would be more people joining in the LF5XT love fest by now. With this and the D10 it looks like a new generation of high quality AA torches is finally here.
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