In the second of this duo of Lupine reviews we take a look at the Betty TL S, a 7 XM-L, yes 7 XM-L U2 emitter light! Not only that, the Betty TL S is a super compact light with over 2300lm output.
Of course as mentioned before, Lupine are well known for making high-end bicycle lights for extreme night time off-road riding, and the bicycle light 'Betty' light head is the basis for the Betty TL S flashlight.
The Betty TL comes in two versions, the Betty TL and Betty TL S. The S version on test has the shorter 2.5Ah 'Batterytank' which is half the size and makes the Betty TL S super compact for a light with this much output.
Initial Impressions:
As you open the box and find the Lupine transport case you see that this is a cut above the rest. Nothing is overlooked and as a customer experience you feel pampered by the quality of finish and attention to detail.
At first the Lupine interface can seem too complicated with a long list of programs printed onto the body of the light, but as you get to know the Betty TL S you find it is intuitive.
Just as with the Piko TL there is only the one control, the soft click switch, which has two colours of LEDs, and the Betty TL S uses these to give you lots of useful feedback which initially seems confusing, but you quickly get used to it and appreciate it. I am starting to wonder how I lived without this.
What is in the box:
The first box was actually the original delivery of both the Betty TL S and Piko TL Mini (reviewed previously) sent directly by Lupine.
The Betty TL S's outer box is really just a wrapping for the Lupine transport case
The Lupine transport case is included as part of the Betty TL S kit
Moving the twin zip fasteners fully open, the case lid lifts to show the neatly arranged kit consisting of the Betty TL head with Short Battertank, the Microcharger and both mains and car adaptors along with the Betty TL and Lupine charger manuals
The Betty TL S is supplied in a cloth bag and this is shown with the mains and car adaptors, and the Microcharger.
Taking a closer look and looking inside:
Looking straight at the side of the Betty TL S showing the domed control soft click button (rated at 500,000 operations plus), cooling fins and the printed list of programs.
Views of both ends of the Betty TL S
And a closer look at the 7 XM-L head
There are two surface finishes with the main body and head having a matt finish and the lens ring being smooth anodised.
The underneath surface has a flat recess with threaded hole for attaching the optional bicycle mount (not on review).
The batterytank unscrews from the head of the light. Here the contacts of the light's head are shown.
And here the contacts of the batterytank. At 9 o'clock, you can also see the charger port which is only accessible with the batterytank removed from the head.
The batterytank has a coarse heavy duty thread. This is very strong, and reduces the number of rotations required to remove the head.
One of Lupine's excellent features is the upgradability of their lights. As you are buying into a quality system which should serve you for many many years, it is likely that new components will be able to deliver better performance. The Betty system is user upgradable and the lens/cap can be changed for a different colour. In this photo, you can see the lens removed which exposes the optic.
The precision high-purity polycarbonate optic is held in place with six torx bolts. These can be removed to expose the LEDs and heatsink board which can be replaced with an upgraded board with different LEDs and the optic can be swapped for a different beam angle.
Replacing the lens with a different coloured cap gives the user a choice of two-tone effect. The cap and lens are a single piece, so should the mineral glass lens ever be damaged, replacing it is very easy.
With the Betty TL S standing next to an AW unprotected IMR 18650 (so slightly smaller than most 18650s) and an AA Eneloop, you get an idea of how compact this light is. And remember, there are 7 XM-L U2 LEDs up font!
With a low level selected some of the optic's detail.
Modes and User Interface:
For anyone who has already seen my earlier review of the Lupine Piko TL Mini this section will seem very familiar, mainly because the two lights operate in the same way.
The Betty TL S does have one main difference, and that is due to the fact that the battery is removable, and has to be removed to be charged. This is where the extra feature shows.
When the batterytank is first fitted to the Betty TL light head, the switch flashes to tell you the current battery voltage. As the contacts touch, the Betty TL runs a self test/initialisation the switch lights up purple (both red and blue LEDs on together) red, blue and the lamp flashes once.
Then the blue LED flashes once for each whole Volt, and following this the red LED flashes for each 0.1V. So if the battery voltage is fully charged at 8.4V, then there will be eight blue flashes and 4 red. You can use this function at any time you want to check the battery voltage.
The long list of programs printed onto the Betty TL and corresponding pages in the manual (you can view a copy of the manual on Lupine's website) are a little imposing at first, but the whole system turns out to be simple to use.
Altogether the following output levels/modes are available in various combinations according to the programming:
2600lm – 26W – 100% - 45min
1590lm – 15W – 58% - 1h 15min
1080lm – 10W – 38% - 1h 45min
480lm – 3W – 12% - 6h 30min
250lm – 1W – 4% - 17h
Disorientation flash
RVLR flash (Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations)
The manual lists which of these levels are included in which of the programs listed on the body of the light.
The user interface is all based around the single soft click button with red and blue lighting which:
Switches on and off
Changes output mode within the active program
Selects the programming
Provides status information
To program the Betty TL, starting with the light off, you hold down the button. While holding it down, it will flash red, the number of flashes corresponding to the output programs listed on the body of the light. One you have reached the number of flashes matching the program you want to use, let go of the button.
For example, is you want the 4 step program which has 26W, 15W, 10W and 1W output levels, simply hold down the button until it has shown 5 red flashes. Now when you switch it on it will have the four output levels available.
The blue programs are for selecting the way the Betty TL functions and allows you to switch stealth, low start, and double click on and off.
Double click means that you need to double click the button to switch on the light. This protects against accidental switching on of the light. If you want only a single click to switch on, simply select the double click off program by holding down the button until 6 blue flashes have been shown.
Low start makes the Betty TL turn on in the lowest of the available output levels within the selected program.
Stealth allows the information flashes to be mostly suppressed and prevents the button being illuminated when the light is on.
Lupine light-heartedly explain stealth in the manual that "stealth on" does not mean that the Betty TL will become invisible.
Switching off requires the button to be held down until the light goes out. Once on, cycling through the output levels of the active program is by single click.
Battery status information is provided by the button's red and blue LEDs when you switch off the light. Red flashes represent 0.1Ah of battery capacity have been used since the last full charge, and a blue flash means 1Ah has been used. So if when you turn off the Betty TL it shows four red flashes, then 0.4mAh has been used, and if one blue and one red flashes are show, 1.1Ah has been used.
By default, the Betty TL operates in the 2-step low mode with stealth off, low start off, and double click off.
So as supplied, to turn on the Betty TL you click the button once and it will come on in the 100% output and display status information.
The Betty TL shows the following battery low signals:
Stage 1 - Dips beam briefly and button goes RED
Stage 2 - Dips beam red light flashing
Stage 4 - Pulsing with purple (red + blue) button, then shortly afterwards switches off
There is then a reserve power stage available.
When switched on again the button flashes red and blue alternately and only the lowest output level is available. The reserve power will only provide light for a couple of minutes at most, then it switches off.
Though this explanation seems long, once you get the hang of this you change the programming to suit without a second thought. I've more or less settled on 2-step low, low start on, stealth off and double click off.
Batteries and output:
The Betty TL is a rechargeable light so there are no real battery choices or considerations as Lupine have done that for you. With the Betty TL system there are two sizes of batterytank and of course you can buy spares and choose the standard or S size (on test here)
Inside the Betty TL S batterytank are 2 x 18650 Sanyo cells in 2S1P configuration which Lupine have found to be the most reliable ones.
The charger (show previously) can be used with the car or mains adapter and the batterytank itself deals with the cell balancing.
To measure actual output, I built an integrating sphere. The sensor is a photo-diode restricted to visible light only (so Infra-Red and Ultra-Violet will not register). This was chosen as our eyes can only use the visible wavelengths of light so this is generally the only useful output. The integrating sphere was calibrated using 12 different reference sources and taking an average of the factor used to convert the measured voltage output to Lumens. Output figures are quoted as ANSI lumens where the measurement is made 30s after turning on the specified output level. Initial figures when first switching on are always higher, but all quoted measurements are ANSI.
Please note, all quoted lumen figures are from a DIY integrating sphere, and although every effort is made to give as accurate a result as possible, they should be taken as an estimate only. The results can be used to compare outputs in this review and others I have published.
The levels listed above are ANSI, but the Betty TL S manages 2372lm at switch on.
The flash output is at 15.1Hz and the RVLR is 3.8Hz. All output levels exhibit very high frequency PWM only detectable with an oscilloscope.
Output is regulated and as the batteries become depleted, the Betty TL will not drop to lower levels instead maintaining the output level until it no longer can while showing the battery warning signals.
Being a soft click button, there is parasitic drain to be considered as the internal circuit is kept powered, but I have not yet been able to measure this.
In The Lab
In an attempt to quantify the actual beam profile I developed the following test. There are probably many flaws in my method, but it is simple and easy to carry out and seems to provide a good enough comparison.
The method used was to support the light 1m off the floor and 1m from a wall, with a tape measure on the wall. The zero of the scale is placed in the centre of the hotspot and a lux meter is then positioned at points along the scale, with the measurements recorded. Beam shots are often taken with the light shining on a flat white wall, so this method is simply measuring the actual intensity across the beam on a flat surface, not the spherical light emission.
The results are then plotted on a graph.
For the best throw you want to see a sharp peak with less of the distracting spill. For the best flood light the trace should be pretty flat.
The Betty TL S beam profile is shown here compared to the Fenix TK41 and to the Lupine Piko TL Mini.
The Betty TL has a nice smooth bump of a profile smoothly transitioning from hotspot to spill.
Taking this a little further, I calculated an approximate factor to apply to the lux measurements, as each measurement gets further from the centre of the beam, it corresponds to a larger area onto which the light is falling. It seems to me that this should also be taken into consideration, so I applied these area corrections and came up with this odd looking graph.
The key quantity here is the area under the graph line. This should correspond to the total light output.
This is the widest version of the Bettl TL's beam being the 26° version, so although it does not have the sharp peak of the TK41, it swamps it as far as overall output.
The beam
As shown by the previous beam profile graphs, the Betty TL has a refined, smooth beam profile.
I normally expose the beamshot to give an impression of the beam's brightness to the naked eye. Now remember, that the eye automatically stops down when exposed to bright light. Here, as the Betty TL is outputting so much light at 100%, indoors it is too much to use pointed directly at what you are looking at. Instead you are better off ceiling bouncing the beam. But here the beam character is the main focus not the apparent brightness.
The beam is very smooth and even, the very outer edge of the spill shows any sign that this is a beam from 7 emitters.
Beam colour is something Lupine take seriously, and they actually check all the emitters to ensure they match and are a neutral tint for better rendition of nature's colours. (the walls are not white, but the woodwork is)
Now for some comparative photos using the well-known and impressive Fenix TK41.
Starting in the garden with the TK41 and using the same exposure for both shots.
And then the Betty TL S, and yes the exposure is the same.
Then out to a tree line track again starting with the TK41
And you can see that although the TK41 does throw better, the Betty TL S lights up everything else!
What it is really like to use…
As mentioned in a previous section I've settled on a preferred programing for the Betty TL S, however I do find myself changing from time to time and doing so is so straight forward and clearly indicated.
One of the best features of the Lupine flashlights, both the Betty TL and Piko TL, is the confidence they give you from knowing how much battery power has been used. The Betty TL S is fitted with a 2.5Ah battery, the battery status information tells you how much of this you have used. This is reported every time you switch off the Betty TL as long as at least 0.1Ah has been used. Of course you can also remove the batterytank, re-fit it and see the reported battery voltage as well.
The method of switching off by holding down the button does mean that the output level changes first, before the light goes off. If, like me, you have it set to low start on, this means that it flashes up to high, which is 2343lm, before going off.
With the constant reminder of the battery usage since the last full charge, there is little excuse for running the Betty TL S right down to the point you are using the reserve power (apart from having too much fun using its massive output).
As with the Piko TL, an interesting result of the design of the optic means the spill light is not dazzling, so when using the Betty TL tail-standing you can be close to it without light stabbing your eyes.
Maximum output is like turning the sun on. Standing on a golf course and using the Betty TL to light up the club-house about 100m away.
The Betty TL is awesomely bright for a light this size and can maintain maximum output for extended periods. If left free standing indoors on the maximum output it will get very hot, but the casing distributes and radiates the heat effectively. If hand held or used outdoors, overheating is not a problem.
As a hand held flashlight the Betty TL provides a rich user experience and a beautifully smooth neutral beam with astounding maximum output.
Test sample provided for review by Lupine.
Of course as mentioned before, Lupine are well known for making high-end bicycle lights for extreme night time off-road riding, and the bicycle light 'Betty' light head is the basis for the Betty TL S flashlight.
The Betty TL comes in two versions, the Betty TL and Betty TL S. The S version on test has the shorter 2.5Ah 'Batterytank' which is half the size and makes the Betty TL S super compact for a light with this much output.
Initial Impressions:
As you open the box and find the Lupine transport case you see that this is a cut above the rest. Nothing is overlooked and as a customer experience you feel pampered by the quality of finish and attention to detail.
At first the Lupine interface can seem too complicated with a long list of programs printed onto the body of the light, but as you get to know the Betty TL S you find it is intuitive.
Just as with the Piko TL there is only the one control, the soft click switch, which has two colours of LEDs, and the Betty TL S uses these to give you lots of useful feedback which initially seems confusing, but you quickly get used to it and appreciate it. I am starting to wonder how I lived without this.
What is in the box:
The first box was actually the original delivery of both the Betty TL S and Piko TL Mini (reviewed previously) sent directly by Lupine.
The Betty TL S's outer box is really just a wrapping for the Lupine transport case
The Lupine transport case is included as part of the Betty TL S kit
Moving the twin zip fasteners fully open, the case lid lifts to show the neatly arranged kit consisting of the Betty TL head with Short Battertank, the Microcharger and both mains and car adaptors along with the Betty TL and Lupine charger manuals
The Betty TL S is supplied in a cloth bag and this is shown with the mains and car adaptors, and the Microcharger.
Taking a closer look and looking inside:
Looking straight at the side of the Betty TL S showing the domed control soft click button (rated at 500,000 operations plus), cooling fins and the printed list of programs.
Views of both ends of the Betty TL S
And a closer look at the 7 XM-L head
There are two surface finishes with the main body and head having a matt finish and the lens ring being smooth anodised.
The underneath surface has a flat recess with threaded hole for attaching the optional bicycle mount (not on review).
The batterytank unscrews from the head of the light. Here the contacts of the light's head are shown.
And here the contacts of the batterytank. At 9 o'clock, you can also see the charger port which is only accessible with the batterytank removed from the head.
The batterytank has a coarse heavy duty thread. This is very strong, and reduces the number of rotations required to remove the head.
One of Lupine's excellent features is the upgradability of their lights. As you are buying into a quality system which should serve you for many many years, it is likely that new components will be able to deliver better performance. The Betty system is user upgradable and the lens/cap can be changed for a different colour. In this photo, you can see the lens removed which exposes the optic.
The precision high-purity polycarbonate optic is held in place with six torx bolts. These can be removed to expose the LEDs and heatsink board which can be replaced with an upgraded board with different LEDs and the optic can be swapped for a different beam angle.
Replacing the lens with a different coloured cap gives the user a choice of two-tone effect. The cap and lens are a single piece, so should the mineral glass lens ever be damaged, replacing it is very easy.
With the Betty TL S standing next to an AW unprotected IMR 18650 (so slightly smaller than most 18650s) and an AA Eneloop, you get an idea of how compact this light is. And remember, there are 7 XM-L U2 LEDs up font!
With a low level selected some of the optic's detail.
Modes and User Interface:
For anyone who has already seen my earlier review of the Lupine Piko TL Mini this section will seem very familiar, mainly because the two lights operate in the same way.
The Betty TL S does have one main difference, and that is due to the fact that the battery is removable, and has to be removed to be charged. This is where the extra feature shows.
When the batterytank is first fitted to the Betty TL light head, the switch flashes to tell you the current battery voltage. As the contacts touch, the Betty TL runs a self test/initialisation the switch lights up purple (both red and blue LEDs on together) red, blue and the lamp flashes once.
Then the blue LED flashes once for each whole Volt, and following this the red LED flashes for each 0.1V. So if the battery voltage is fully charged at 8.4V, then there will be eight blue flashes and 4 red. You can use this function at any time you want to check the battery voltage.
The long list of programs printed onto the Betty TL and corresponding pages in the manual (you can view a copy of the manual on Lupine's website) are a little imposing at first, but the whole system turns out to be simple to use.
Altogether the following output levels/modes are available in various combinations according to the programming:
2600lm – 26W – 100% - 45min
1590lm – 15W – 58% - 1h 15min
1080lm – 10W – 38% - 1h 45min
480lm – 3W – 12% - 6h 30min
250lm – 1W – 4% - 17h
Disorientation flash
RVLR flash (Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations)
The manual lists which of these levels are included in which of the programs listed on the body of the light.
The user interface is all based around the single soft click button with red and blue lighting which:
Switches on and off
Changes output mode within the active program
Selects the programming
Provides status information
To program the Betty TL, starting with the light off, you hold down the button. While holding it down, it will flash red, the number of flashes corresponding to the output programs listed on the body of the light. One you have reached the number of flashes matching the program you want to use, let go of the button.
For example, is you want the 4 step program which has 26W, 15W, 10W and 1W output levels, simply hold down the button until it has shown 5 red flashes. Now when you switch it on it will have the four output levels available.
The blue programs are for selecting the way the Betty TL functions and allows you to switch stealth, low start, and double click on and off.
Double click means that you need to double click the button to switch on the light. This protects against accidental switching on of the light. If you want only a single click to switch on, simply select the double click off program by holding down the button until 6 blue flashes have been shown.
Low start makes the Betty TL turn on in the lowest of the available output levels within the selected program.
Stealth allows the information flashes to be mostly suppressed and prevents the button being illuminated when the light is on.
Lupine light-heartedly explain stealth in the manual that "stealth on" does not mean that the Betty TL will become invisible.
Switching off requires the button to be held down until the light goes out. Once on, cycling through the output levels of the active program is by single click.
Battery status information is provided by the button's red and blue LEDs when you switch off the light. Red flashes represent 0.1Ah of battery capacity have been used since the last full charge, and a blue flash means 1Ah has been used. So if when you turn off the Betty TL it shows four red flashes, then 0.4mAh has been used, and if one blue and one red flashes are show, 1.1Ah has been used.
By default, the Betty TL operates in the 2-step low mode with stealth off, low start off, and double click off.
So as supplied, to turn on the Betty TL you click the button once and it will come on in the 100% output and display status information.
The Betty TL shows the following battery low signals:
Stage 1 - Dips beam briefly and button goes RED
Stage 2 - Dips beam red light flashing
Stage 4 - Pulsing with purple (red + blue) button, then shortly afterwards switches off
There is then a reserve power stage available.
When switched on again the button flashes red and blue alternately and only the lowest output level is available. The reserve power will only provide light for a couple of minutes at most, then it switches off.
Though this explanation seems long, once you get the hang of this you change the programming to suit without a second thought. I've more or less settled on 2-step low, low start on, stealth off and double click off.
Batteries and output:
The Betty TL is a rechargeable light so there are no real battery choices or considerations as Lupine have done that for you. With the Betty TL system there are two sizes of batterytank and of course you can buy spares and choose the standard or S size (on test here)
Inside the Betty TL S batterytank are 2 x 18650 Sanyo cells in 2S1P configuration which Lupine have found to be the most reliable ones.
The charger (show previously) can be used with the car or mains adapter and the batterytank itself deals with the cell balancing.
To measure actual output, I built an integrating sphere. The sensor is a photo-diode restricted to visible light only (so Infra-Red and Ultra-Violet will not register). This was chosen as our eyes can only use the visible wavelengths of light so this is generally the only useful output. The integrating sphere was calibrated using 12 different reference sources and taking an average of the factor used to convert the measured voltage output to Lumens. Output figures are quoted as ANSI lumens where the measurement is made 30s after turning on the specified output level. Initial figures when first switching on are always higher, but all quoted measurements are ANSI.
Please note, all quoted lumen figures are from a DIY integrating sphere, and although every effort is made to give as accurate a result as possible, they should be taken as an estimate only. The results can be used to compare outputs in this review and others I have published.
Lupine – Betty TL S | I.S. measured ANSI output Lumens | PWM frequency (Hz) |
---|---|---|
26W | 2343 | 312000 |
15W | 1550 | 312000 |
10W | 987 | 312000 |
1W | 144 | 312000 |
The levels listed above are ANSI, but the Betty TL S manages 2372lm at switch on.
The flash output is at 15.1Hz and the RVLR is 3.8Hz. All output levels exhibit very high frequency PWM only detectable with an oscilloscope.
Output is regulated and as the batteries become depleted, the Betty TL will not drop to lower levels instead maintaining the output level until it no longer can while showing the battery warning signals.
Being a soft click button, there is parasitic drain to be considered as the internal circuit is kept powered, but I have not yet been able to measure this.
In The Lab
In an attempt to quantify the actual beam profile I developed the following test. There are probably many flaws in my method, but it is simple and easy to carry out and seems to provide a good enough comparison.
The method used was to support the light 1m off the floor and 1m from a wall, with a tape measure on the wall. The zero of the scale is placed in the centre of the hotspot and a lux meter is then positioned at points along the scale, with the measurements recorded. Beam shots are often taken with the light shining on a flat white wall, so this method is simply measuring the actual intensity across the beam on a flat surface, not the spherical light emission.
The results are then plotted on a graph.
For the best throw you want to see a sharp peak with less of the distracting spill. For the best flood light the trace should be pretty flat.
The Betty TL S beam profile is shown here compared to the Fenix TK41 and to the Lupine Piko TL Mini.
The Betty TL has a nice smooth bump of a profile smoothly transitioning from hotspot to spill.
Taking this a little further, I calculated an approximate factor to apply to the lux measurements, as each measurement gets further from the centre of the beam, it corresponds to a larger area onto which the light is falling. It seems to me that this should also be taken into consideration, so I applied these area corrections and came up with this odd looking graph.
The key quantity here is the area under the graph line. This should correspond to the total light output.
This is the widest version of the Bettl TL's beam being the 26° version, so although it does not have the sharp peak of the TK41, it swamps it as far as overall output.
The beam
As shown by the previous beam profile graphs, the Betty TL has a refined, smooth beam profile.
I normally expose the beamshot to give an impression of the beam's brightness to the naked eye. Now remember, that the eye automatically stops down when exposed to bright light. Here, as the Betty TL is outputting so much light at 100%, indoors it is too much to use pointed directly at what you are looking at. Instead you are better off ceiling bouncing the beam. But here the beam character is the main focus not the apparent brightness.
The beam is very smooth and even, the very outer edge of the spill shows any sign that this is a beam from 7 emitters.
Beam colour is something Lupine take seriously, and they actually check all the emitters to ensure they match and are a neutral tint for better rendition of nature's colours. (the walls are not white, but the woodwork is)
Now for some comparative photos using the well-known and impressive Fenix TK41.
Starting in the garden with the TK41 and using the same exposure for both shots.
And then the Betty TL S, and yes the exposure is the same.
Then out to a tree line track again starting with the TK41
And you can see that although the TK41 does throw better, the Betty TL S lights up everything else!
What it is really like to use…
As mentioned in a previous section I've settled on a preferred programing for the Betty TL S, however I do find myself changing from time to time and doing so is so straight forward and clearly indicated.
One of the best features of the Lupine flashlights, both the Betty TL and Piko TL, is the confidence they give you from knowing how much battery power has been used. The Betty TL S is fitted with a 2.5Ah battery, the battery status information tells you how much of this you have used. This is reported every time you switch off the Betty TL as long as at least 0.1Ah has been used. Of course you can also remove the batterytank, re-fit it and see the reported battery voltage as well.
The method of switching off by holding down the button does mean that the output level changes first, before the light goes off. If, like me, you have it set to low start on, this means that it flashes up to high, which is 2343lm, before going off.
With the constant reminder of the battery usage since the last full charge, there is little excuse for running the Betty TL S right down to the point you are using the reserve power (apart from having too much fun using its massive output).
As with the Piko TL, an interesting result of the design of the optic means the spill light is not dazzling, so when using the Betty TL tail-standing you can be close to it without light stabbing your eyes.
Maximum output is like turning the sun on. Standing on a golf course and using the Betty TL to light up the club-house about 100m away.
The Betty TL is awesomely bright for a light this size and can maintain maximum output for extended periods. If left free standing indoors on the maximum output it will get very hot, but the casing distributes and radiates the heat effectively. If hand held or used outdoors, overheating is not a problem.
As a hand held flashlight the Betty TL provides a rich user experience and a beautifully smooth neutral beam with astounding maximum output.
Test sample provided for review by Lupine.