Nitecore D11

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Got my D11 yesterday and tested it the evening. I have to say that I really like it. I really like the beam profile and the form factor. Only the tints of the anodizing of the head and the body differ a little bit. The piston drive is nicely smooth. Regarding the short cuts to strobe and SOS I couldn't figure it out yesterday if I like it or not. Time will tell that. I think this one is a keeper 😉.

rayman
 
Got mine as well and comparing it to a first gen D10 it has a much nicer beam with much brighter spill. Tint is perfect and form factor is very nice in the hand. The flat sides do keep it from rolling and the piston feels very nice. This thing on a AW 14500 blows my mind. Easily my second brightest lightest only outshadowed by my L2P SST-50 nailbender. It's not a perfect light, as I do miss the shortcuts, but I can adjust and ramp up and down. Oh well a few seconds won't ruin my life. Definitely a nice upgrade and a keeper for me. It is handy having a strobe for catching people's attention whether I'm out for a night time walk or blinding some opponent...who knows when it might come in handy. Clip would be nice, but I usually keep it in a holster so not a deal breaker. Doesn't throw as far as a Q5 but the increased brightness and nicer beam make up for this in my opinion. Hopefully on the next upgrade they put out they'll bring back the shortcuts, but if they don't I won't lose any sleep over it.
 
Are people who actually HAVE a D11 finding that theirs HAS a 'beam', and not ALL FLOOD, like mine has?

Because, compared to the really nice beam the D10 has, at least MY D11 REALLY SUCKS.

Perhaps mine is defective from the factory.

And, despite what some people say, putting my D11 on the very small slope on the hood of my car, something which is commonly done, resulted in it almost falling on the ground: it rolled IMMEDIATELY.

The D10, with a clip installed, of course, does not.

But, I'm mostly curious about the beam profile.

I have a little pocket flood light, and I really, REALLY hate it.
 
I have a D11 and I have to agree with rayman - yeah there are a lot of faults but nothing worth getting anxious over - it's a 50 Euro torch at the end of the day.

This is what I think - Beautiful form factor, miss-matched ano but top notch 'Snow White' tint. Lovely beam pattern, with a few artifacts but a very nice XPG-R5. Silly UI changes - they could have incorporated SOS, Strobe and lockout without loosing the shortcuts IMO. A bad move from Nitecore but not one I will lose sleep over.
 
I felt the same way about the Infilux as some of you do about your D11 and I paid twice as much. It was a big let down and the D11 is a let down as well, I don't have one and don't plan on it the way it is now.

However just keep in mind it's one run of light's and if your that passionate about a light maybe you could give the manufacturer just a bit of a break this time and see what they do next.

That is what I plain to do is put the Infilux and D11 behind me and wait to give Nitecore another shot. It seems they got it wrong this time but you guys are probably flashaholics for life and hopefully NC will be there with us as well, just not with the D11.
 
jhc37013 said:
I felt the same way about the Infilux as some of you do about your D11 and I paid twice as much. It was a big let down and the D11 is a let down as well, I don't have one and don't plan on it the way it is now.

However just keep in mind it's one run of light's and if your that passionate about a light maybe you could give the manufacturer just a bit of a break this time and see what they do next.

That is what I plain to do is put the Infilux and D11 behind me and wait to give Nitecore another shot. It seems they got it wrong this time but you guys are probably flashaholics for life and hopefully NC will be there with us as well, just not with the D11.
Click to expand...

Isn't the Infilux closer to THREE times the cost of a D11?

What didn't you like about it?

On paper it sure looks nice...
 
The beam is not the best, as you may expect from an XP-G (slightly uncentered) in a smooth reflector. There is a non-uniform hotspot, a wide and bright corona, plus two rings and a lot of sidespill. This light is not a thrower, and I plan to use it for close to midrange illumination.
Click to expand...

Wow, even using a SMOOTH reflector, the newest and most expensive NiteCore, the Infilux has NO THROW at all.

I have NEVER been able to keep up with the secret hieroglyphics of bin codes, so I don't know *WHY* 'as you may expect from an XP-G' equals a REALLY crappy beam, with NO THROW, EVEN FROM A SMOOTH REFLECTOR.

I thought the whole idea of a smooth reflector was ONLY to give a flashlight VERY good throw, at the cost of artifacts, etc.

It sounds like NiteCore REALLY effed up the MUCH more expensive Infilux as bad, or perhaps WORSE, than they did with the less expensive D11.

Hard to believe, but obviously true.

I feel sorry for the people who were expecting the Infilux to live up to it's FACTORY specifications....

It sounds like the next nice NiteCore flashlight is an entire GENERATION away.

It could be several YEARS before a NiteCore flashlight is even remotely worth buying again.

They made many nice flashlights, some very reasonably priced....and NOW their products are....real garbage.

Well, there are a lot of consumers in China who probably won't know any better....but you HAVE to wonder: HOW MANY can afford an Infilux?

Not many, is my guess.

Sorry for breaking up the D11 thread...but now I know it's not JUST the D11 that is crap.

NiteCore has gone from producing REALLY good flashlights, to making....really, REALLY BAD flashlights.

That's just sad.

I hope the company survives their own engineering and design stupidity.
 
goldenlight said:
I thought the whole idea of a smooth reflector was ONLY to give a flashlight VERY good throw, at the cost of artifacts, etc.
Click to expand...

Its been my experience with mass produced light's like the Infilux, RRT-0 and many others that went from the XR-E to a XP-G and use smooth reflector all have a donut hole and the hole not only looks bad but it actually has less throw than the same light with a textured reflector. Why manufactures continue to use this principle is beyond me, perhaps manufacture cost? For me this has become my bugaboo in the flashlight world and for me worse than blue tint and cree rings has ever been and with more models being released with the SMO and XP-G all the time it seems I will have to deal with it.

Ok yes so we are not the largest part of the market but even the average person who spends top dollar for a $65 flashlight is eventually going to ask where is the throw.

One of my friends who buys maybe 3-4 light's a year for the past few years bought a RRT-0 XR-E last year when I did and was really excited about the "brighter" XP-G model. When he got it he called me and said "I thought light was suppose to be brighter", I explained lux vs. lumens the best I could but the end result is he will not by another light that has XP-G written anywhere on it.

Anyway back to the D11 I guess their is one positive, no donut hole right?
 
Yes, I do have to admit, among it's MANY serious faults, I cannot say it has a donut hole.

NiteCore didn't get that on the D11 MOSTLY through sheer LUCK: the D10 had an orange peel reflector, and in what seems to be an extremely rare bit of good luck in the horrific 'redesign' of the D10, NiteCore KEPT the OP reflector.

Perhaps somebody on their design team flipped a coin, and got lucky, because they seem to have done everything ELSE wrong, and it WASN'T random.

I suppose for people who don't have anything to compare it to, (...'cough'... people in China... 'cough'...) the D11 may not seem all that bad.

I doubt that will be the case for the Infilux, though: it's just too expensive, to have so many flaws.
 
goldenlight said:
I have NEVER been able to keep up with the secret hieroglyphics of bin codes, so I don't know *WHY* 'as you may expect from an XP-G' equals a REALLY crappy beam, with NO THROW, EVEN FROM A SMOOTH REFLECTOR.
Click to expand...

I've spent some time researching this-
IIRC, the area of the XP-G is 1.4mm^2, while the area of the XP-E is ~.9mm^2. That means that the XP-G die is almost 2.5 times bigger, and therefore has less throw. I'm not sure if it's directly proportional, ie exactly 2.5 times fewer lux at the hotspot, but it's there. And keep in mind that not everybody wants throw... the best "throwy" LEDs pale in comparison to newer, more efficient ones.
 
wyager said:
I've spent some time researching this-
IIRC, the area of the XP-G is 1.4mm^2, while the area of the XP-E is ~.9mm^2. That means that the XP-G die is almost 2.5 times bigger, and therefore has less throw. I'm not sure if it's directly proportional, ie exactly 2.5 times fewer lux at the hotspot, but it's there. And keep in mind that not everybody wants throw... the best "throwy" LEDs pale in comparison to newer, more efficient ones.
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense.

I think another real contributing factor is that the D11 has the SAME reflector as the D10, and the emitter in the D11 is right at the BASE of the reflector, while the emitter on the D10 sits UP just a TINY bit, to put it at the FOCUS of the parabolic reflector.

Nitecore cheaped out when they 'redesigned' the D10, and DIDN'T redesign the D11 reflector to MATCH the EMITTER in the D11

I can see them doing that on the less expensive D11, but on a brand new, very expensive, TOP OF THE LINE, light like the Infilux, Nitecore should have done a better job of matching the emitter to the reflector, ESPECIALLY, a smooth reflector.

Oh wait: Chinese engineering, and design. I forgot that point, for a few minutes.

Silly me.
 
goldenlight said:
the D10 had an orange peel reflector, and in what seems to be an extremely rare bit of good luck in the horrific 'redesign' of the D10, NiteCore KEPT the OP reflector.
Click to expand...

Interestingly, in my D10 R2 XR-E the orange-peel surface is more matte (less shiny) than reflector in my D10 R2 Hybrid XP-E, which has a shinier-surface to the orange peeling, so there have been some changes to the degree and shininess of the texture on the reflectors. The beam characteristics of these dissimilar emitter/reflector combinations are, however, very close to one another, so it would seem as though Nitecore changed the reflector surface with the XP-E D10 R2 to achieve a similar beam characteristic to it's predecesor, the XR-E D10 R2.

Not sure how the reflector in the D11 compares to either of these D10s that I have.
 
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DHart said:
Interestingly, in my D10 R2 XR-E the orange-peel surface is more matte (less shiny) than reflector in my D10 R2 Hybrid XP-E, which has a shinier-surface to the orange peeling, so there have been some changes to the degree and shininess of the texture on the reflectors. The beam characteristics of these dissimilar emitter/reflector combinations are, however, very close to one another, so it would seem as though Nitecore changed the reflector surface with the XP-E D10 R2 to achieve a similar beam characteristic to it's predecesor, the XR-E D10 R2.

Not sure how the reflector in the D11 compares to either of these D10s that I have.
Click to expand...

Well crap... I have the XR-E version. 🙁
I also can't figure out how to get the reflector out, LOL.
 
rayman said:
Got my D11 yesterday and tested it the evening. I have to say that I really like it. I really like the beam profile and the form factor. Only the tints of the anodizing of the head and the body differ a little bit. The piston drive is nicely smooth. Regarding the short cuts to strobe and SOS I couldn't figure it out yesterday if I like it or not. Time will tell that. I think this one is a keeper 😉.

rayman
Click to expand...

You're selling the light today in the CPFMP... :thinking:
 
DHart said:
Interestingly, in my D10 R2 XR-E the orange-peel surface is more matte (less shiny) than reflector in my D10 R2 Hybrid XP-E, which has a shinier-surface to the orange peeling, so there have been some changes to the degree and shininess of the texture on the reflectors. The beam characteristics of these dissimilar emitter/reflector combinations are, however, very close to one another, so it would seem as though Nitecore changed the reflector surface with the XP-E D10 R2 to achieve a similar beam characteristic to it's predecesor, the XR-E D10 R2.

Not sure how the reflector in the D11 compares to either of these D10s that I have.
Click to expand...

That's probably just a variation due to crappy quality control in two different lots of reflectors, or the final finish on them was put on by two different ( one being crappy...) Chinese subcontractors.

My D10 and D11 reflectors look the same, to my untrained eye.
 
goldenlight said:
That's probably just a variation due to crappy quality control in two different lots of reflectors, or the final finish on them was put on by two different ( one being crappy...) Chinese subcontractors.

My D10 and D11 reflectors look the same, to my untrained eye.
Click to expand...

Is your D10 an XR-E or and XP-E? I'm guessing an XP-E.

I'm thinking the shinier surface was called for when Nitecore went from the XR-E to the XP-E to be able to maintain the beam pattern, perhaps. The XR-E needed a slightly matt-ier surface to minimize XR-E rings and XP-E didn't need ring control so much but did need slightly more focus to maintain the characteristic "D10" beam.
 
DHart said:
Is your D10 an XR-E or and XP-E? I'm guessing an XP-E.

I'm thinking the shinier surface was called for when Nitecore went from the XR-E to the XP-E to be able to maintain the beam pattern, perhaps. The XR-E needed a slightly matt-ier surface to minimize XR-E rings and XP-E didn't need ring control so much but did need slightly more focus to maintain the characteristic "D10" beam.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I have no idea whether my D10 is an XR-E, or an XP-E.

I bought it after they were discontinued, but it came from Hong Kong, so it could have been NOS.
 
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