mhanlen
Enlightened
Hey everyone. This is a video/picture review of the Skilhunt DS10 EDC flashlight. About 2 weeks ago they sent me this light and the H02 headlamp for review, so after a ton of work here is the first of two reviews.
Here are some of the specs for the light, as provided by Skilhunt.
| Skilhunt DS10 Specs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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And here are the lumen ratings, I pulled from the operation manual.
| FL1 Standard | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 |
| Output Lumens | 300 | 180 | 60 | 2 |
| Runtime | 1 hr 20 mins | 2 hrs 30 mins | 7 hours | 140 hours |
So first off this light is small, it's even smaller than my EDC Sunwayman V11R. And up until this point I had never used a Skilhunt light.
As far as carry options go, every EDC light should at least come with a clip. The DS10 has an easily removable clip that lets you carry it either bezel up or tailcap up. I find it pocket carries and tail stands much better if mounted with the bezel up.
While I don't use the lanyards that seem to come with every flashlight, the DS10 comes with one and has a hole in the tailcap that allows you to attach the lanyard.
The light uses a cool white XML-2 emitter. As far as color temperature goes, it's not overly blue, like a lot of the budget lights out there.
The head of the flashlight is top notch. You have a highly polished reflector and a nice coated lens held into place by a stainless steel bezel!
Inside the battery tube you get two springs, which help adsorb shock if you drop the light. Since the switch is electronic, you might have to turn the light back on if it's dropped hard. I tested this several times in the video.
The threads are anodized at the end of the battery tube, and they down into a semi-square thread.
There's also a removable magnet in the tail cap, that works very well. You'll need a tiny Philips screwdriver to remove it. This gives the light quite a bit of versatility as a work light too. You replace the magnet with the included thick rubber o-ring.
I mentioned earlier that the switch is electronic on this light. It's balanced very well for functionality. It's isn't sensitive enough to active in your pocket, save for a heavy jarring, but it's also easy enough to intentionally activate with your thumb. If we consider the Armytek one of the more harder electronic switches to depress, and the Sunwayman D40A an easy switch to depress, figure that it falls in the middle to the slight Armytek side of the scale.
Also nearby the switch it has a battery life indicator that seems to activate right after the mode stepdown, and it flashes telling you it's time for a charge. No worries though about being cut off too soon after the indicator begins flashing, because it seemed to have a good 20 minutes of lower but usable light left when I was using it in high mode.
Ok so now 2 beamshots. These two shots are just here to give an idea of the beam. I'm not much of a beam profile snob, so I found this one just fine.
First photo is a little under exposed. 2.2f, 1/15, 1250 iso.
The second is a little brighter. 2.2f, 1/30, 50 iso.
Next up are the mode level comparisons. For this test the camera was set to manual and all of the settings were the same for each photo. The mode spacing isn't my favorite, it probably be better with a moonlight and getting rid of one of the medium modes.
Ok so the levels are named backwards, compared how the are laid out in the user interface. When you scroll through the modes it goes from low to high. Anyway here's mode 4, which is technically the first mode you come to when turning it on. For a detailed step-by-step operation on how to use the user interface check out the video. I go over everything. Also I was not able to detect PWM on any level- which is awesome. To check for PWM I turn the lights off and aim it at a fan blade or running water. I am usually sensitive to noticing PWM, and don't like it in a flashlight- unless it's a very high frequency.
Here are a few comparisons between other lights I own. All are similar sized lights, some rated lower and some rated higher in output. I feel that considering the manufacturer rated output of all lights, the DS10 is pretty close to the 300 lumens claim. For reference, the Fenix is 117 lumens, the Spark 280, the Sunwayman 500.
Ok, what about the runtimes? There is a detailed account in the video along with brightness levels, but heres what I found when testing the lights. I used the Keeppower 700mah seen in the picture to get these runtimes.
Level 4... 76 hours before it shuts off. There doesn't seem to be any sort of step down.
Level 3... 4 hours 30 minutes (tested twice with nearly the same result).
Level 2... 2 hours before cut off.
Level 1... Total time 1 hour 16 minutes with stepdown at 53 minutes. At the 53 minute mark the red low voltage light begins flashing. At this point the battery reads 3.45v.
So that about wraps it up. If I could sum it up in just two sentences, it would be this. The mode spacing needs improvement. The DS10 is a great, high quality EDC light that is very versatile.
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