quark mini AA & CR123 users thread

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Wow! I just noticed the lanyard has two adjustable buttons on it. COOL!
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applevision said:
I am so with the sentiment here!

I will try to post beamshots tonight as well, but this is the first light in recent memory that I actually said "wow" outloud when turning it on! [Others in that group for me include the Modamag Drake and the EagleTac M2CX4.]

It is also the ONLY light in my collection where I honestly feel that medium is perfect because BRIGHT IS TOO MUCH.

Let me repeat that and make sure it is in the proper context, because, you see, I am a lumenophile and a luxwhore. I love light! And I am really saying that, somehow, the bright is TOO MUCH. Well, almost. I mean, I am in *•.•:*¨¨*:•♥LOVE♥•:*¨¨*:•.•* with it (!:kiss::twothumbs:naughty:!) but feel GOOD about staying at medium.

This has never happened to me. Ever. Not with the Fenix TK11 when it first came out, certainly not with my somewhat disappointing Pilot Whale with its highly-touted Ostar emitter...

I am beaming with delight at this little guy. I am showing everyone I know (something I have also not done) and buying them as gifts now.

This is a remarkable light, an inflection point of great little lights.

What's crazy? The small light realm is just starting to heat up with competition... so it will only get better. It is my daily mantra now: what a great time to be a flashaholic!😀
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I"m sorry you dont like it! :grin2:
 
Ilikeshinythings said:
I'm no expert but in some of my travles I've noticed rechargeable batteries don't seem to hold as much juice as primaries?
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They dont... but I never get too far from my charger so I might as well have a million ah battery.... I dont like buying batteries and I dont like not knowing how much of a charge I have left.

With primaries... you want to run them down so you dont waste them, but that means you never know when your going to run out.

Its either buy batteries and carry spares, or run RCRs.

Besides RCRs usually give brighter performance. If it didnt have a medium and low mode, I would be more nervous.
 
HarveyRich said:
Just received my MiNi 123. Tested it using AW protected RCR123 (3.7v). It clicked off with the battery at 3.1v at 30 mins on high. Using primaries, the instructions indicated that it should stay on for 1.2 hr. The run time on high seemed somewhat short to me. Anyone else test theirs either on primaries or RCR123?

The AW can be recharged after the PCB circuit kicks in, at least. I haven't had such luck with Ultrafire or Trustfire. They seem to kick off at a lower voltage too. I don't know what others have used to kick-start their Ultra or Trustfire batteries after the protection kicks in, but if one can't reuse them, they are useless as protection except to keep the battery from venting and exploding.
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Most rechargeables will have less than half the capacity of a good primary battery.

You shouldn't run you light until the protection circuit kicks in, a LIion cell is flat at 3.6Volts your shortening the life of the cell by running it down untill the protection kicks in.
The protection can be reset by placing it in your charger for a couple of seconds
Norm.
 
Originally posted by Norm:
You shouldn't run you light until the protection circuit kicks in, a LIion cell is flat at 3.6Volts your shortening the life of the cell by running it down untill the protection kicks in.
The protection can be reset by placing it in your charger for a couple of seconds
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Yes, I know it shortens the life. I was just doing a run time test on high until the protection circuit kicked in. There's an entire thread which asks how to reset your pcb protected battery:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=245032

One poster mentioned that AW batteries have no problems in chargers after they are triggered. I believe it is because they go off at 3.1v. The Ultrafire and Trustfire gray protected batteries seem to go lower, but I've not had luck overcoming the protection circuit the couple of times I've triggered them. The AW batteries can just be put back into a charger and recharged, no problem.
 
dealgrabber2002 said:
I believed the "turbo" mode is on the Quark AA not the Quark MiNi AA.
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Correct. My comparison photos are of a MiNi AA and a Quark Ti AA (same emitter). Sorry for any confusion. I wanted to show the highest output of each
light.
 
Ok Ok just was waiting for the dark 🙂

First is a control shot - everything shot at f5.6 and 1/15 sec. manual mode and camera at 24 feet from the white wall (still under construction in this room but it has a coat of very white paint) :

qminibeam0.jpg


Next is the former title winner of "Wall of light" the Surefire L4:

qminibeam1.jpg


This is the new winner of "Wall of light" Quark Mini 123"

qminibeam2.jpg


And finally a shot of the Quark Mini bounced off the ceiling but still from behind the camera a few inches just to show how much it lights up the formerly totally dark room:
qminibeam3.jpg


You can see the Surefire L4 with it's 2 x CR123 batteries powering a Luxeon V (at the time this came out it was by far the highest power LED on the market) has a fairly similar hot spot size - close to the same beam pattern as the new Quark Mini although I believe the Mini is even smoother especially at closer distances where many L4's suffered a donut hole. But the Quark clearly blows the L4 away is sheer brightness. Amazing.
I may get the chance to compare against some other lights here tonight also.
 
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matrixshaman said:
Ok Ok just was waiting for the dark 🙂

First is a control shot - everything shot at f5.6 and 1/15 sec. manual mode and camera at 24 feet from the white wall (still under construction in this room but it has a coat of very white paint) :

You can see the Surefire L4 with it's 2 x CR123 batteries powering a Luxeon V (at the time this came out it was by far the highest power LED on the market) has a fairly similar hot spot size - close to the same beam pattern as the new Quark Mini although I believe the Mini is even smoother especially at closer distances where many L4's suffered a donut hole. But the Quark clearly blows the L4 away is sheer brightness. Amazing.
I may get the chance to compare against some other lights here tonight also.
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Great shots! That 3rd one shows exactly why you get blinded by the little rocket, the spill is intense.


I said this once and just have to say it again. This little light is so smooth from spot to spill and is the most useful light in my aresenal. It's like having the MC-E beam profile with much less power consumed.

Cree and 47 nailed it with this LED and flashlight, IMO.
 
Hey,

I pretty new to flashlights. I have a surefire e2e, a fenix T1, and I just got my mini123. All I can say is OH MY GOD! I didn't think this kind of light was even possible. It makes my surefire look dark. I keep going into a dark closet and turning it on and shaking my head in amazement! Not much else to say but WOW!

I am getting an Aeon in a day or two...it will be interesting to see how that compares.

Thanks for all the help and knowledge!
Josh Out
 
As promised a few more comparisons:

Ra clicky 140 on burst mode:

raclicky140.jpg


Nitecore Smart PD EX10 with a Q5 bin Cree on high:

86103311.jpg


LF2XT neutral tint model on high:

lf2xt.jpg


LF3XT on high:

lf3xt.jpg


Quark Titanium 123 XP-G on turbo:

quarktixpg.jpg


Not intended to burst any bubbles as this is no $39 light. But I've been promising beam shots of this one for a long time. This is another single cell RCR123 light that not even the Quark Mini can touch in terms of brightness - it's a custom HDS in the Military body (looks just like a Novatac) Darkzero mod single RCR123 based P7 on high (guestimating 600 Lumens per darkzero) and requires an AW IMR cell to safely drive to this level:

hdsdarkzero.jpg
 
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