I have the EA11, which is the fraternal twin of the EC11. My main led is perfectly centered and without artifacts, so if that shot was of your main led it definitely needs to go back. You might be withing the guarantee time frame from Ebay if you just got it. If that was a shot of the red led, then yes, it would be lopsided like that, and there will be artifacts. It is a matter of where it is placed in the reflector, and even orange peel will not do much to correct the artifacts.
I have purchased at least a half dozen lights from Nitecore over the last three years, and have had absolutely no problems with any of them. I will be the first to admit that lemons get through. Even with five nines quality (99.999%) one in one hundred thousand will have a problem. Hope you can easily get things taken care of.
It is a picture of the main beam. Could you please confirm that your EA11 does not have a large protrusion in the main beam on the opposite side of the red LED and has no artifacts? From analyzing my light further, the lopsided protrusion seems to be coming from the small half-cone of the red LED, which would actually be normal. It is very bright however and can be seen pretty much anywhere I shine the light on. The artifacts I speak of are in the spill and corona of the beam which can't be seen on the picture. They aren't very apparent and is something I can only see when shining on a wall. The artifacts are dull and sort of blend together, unlike artifacts of the red LED.
Shining a light directly at a wall will reveal imperfections. In typical everyday practical use, you would not notice these imperfections. Any imperfections in the reflector, even the red LED hole, will show up on a white wall test. When there are complaints about square beam pattern or donut holes in the beam, this pic helps visualize why.
The protrusion from the spill of the main beam is very apparent in usage. The artifacts are something I can only see on a wall test.
Sorry to hear about your problem. I own ten Nitecore lights, from small CR2 to large 8xAA and 4x18650 lights and I've never had a problem so far.
I guess I'm just unlucky with my purchases
Very sorry to hear that issue. But as we all know, ideally, all hotspots should be on the center of the beam. Have you contacted Nitecore CS regarding your issue?
The hotspot is pretty much at the center of the beam, disregarding the protrusion from the beam. The beamshot might be a little misleading due to the spill and hotspot being washed out. No I have not contacted Nitecore and I don't know if I should. Ebay has refunded the MH20 on the count of the seller completely ignoring me and my multiple inquiries.
Nitecore is notorious for bouts of spotty QC. Recently I have read it has gotten much better, not so much in the past. Im coming from the day of the D10....the ones that worked usually were rock solid the ones that didn't everything from DOA, suddenly pooping out to literally breaking in half.
They have some very cool stuff but a checkered past in several areas, but as mentioned QC as a whole, does appear to be better than it has been.
Sorry about your issues.
I was under the impression Nitecore was suppose to have good QC being one of the larger and more well known high output(supposedly high quality) flashlight manufacturers
Contact the owner of the shop you bought the Nitecore lights thru. My bet, they're counterfeit lights. I could be wrong on this point but check to make sure and at the same time, what does the shop owner have to say about warranty work.
I've never seen a center piece looking so skewed as the one you posted an image of. The skewed nature of the center piece makes me wonder about if it's a Nitecore light or a knockoff light.
The 2 lights are from different sellers. I haven't messaged the EC11 seller but the MH20 seller has absolutely ignored all my messages after I proved the problem to them with a video indicating the problem. Ebay has refunded for the defective MH20 though, so I am at ease finally.
Nothing about both the lights has indicated to me that it is a counterfeit. Both being fairly new and uniquely small for the output, I doubt there is a counterfeit.