supergravy
Newly Enlightened
Finding this forum has really sent my flashlight buying compulsions into overboard! The newest addition to the collection is this Tiablo TL-1 that I purchased from 4sevens. It is my first Tiablo as I wasn't sure what to make of the brand after reading threads here and on the marketplace. Having them available at a reputable dealer helped to push me over the edge.
Upon arrival I was pleased to find it quite nicely packaged in snappy cardboard box with magnetic latch. The flashlight itself is very nicely machined and finished. The color of the anodizing is very even from part to part and reminds me of the finish on my Jetbeam III ST. I was also extremely happy to find the reflector and AR coated lens nice and clean. Last of all, everything comes apart easily enough with nice o-rings everywhere you would expect them. Overall build quality seems to be right up there with the best in my opinion.
Unfortunately one other thing jumped out at me that I didn't like so well… I could definitely figure out the battery orientation without the help of this logo: :huh:
I was also a little surprised by the length of this flashlight given that it is 1 x AA! Maybe I was distracted by the teeth while shopping. Regardless, the overall length puts it somewhere in between a "normal" size AA light and some of the smaller powerhouse lights such as the P10C2.
From left to right; Jetbeam III ST, Eagletac P10C2, Tiablo TL-1, Nitecore D10:
Here is another shot. From left to right; Nitecore D10, Tiablo TL-1, Ese LZ2, Jetbeam III ST, Fenix PD20:
To start things out I put in a freshly conditioned and charged (using C9000) Eneloop battery and clicked the TL-1 on. First impressions were fantastic as it was clear this light is pushing the emitter harder then any other AA light I have tried (using Eneloops). The beam is a fairly cool in tint and close to white in my eyes. I tend to like warmer tints better, but all in all I can't complain as it is more neutral then many of my other lights. Here are some measurements I took using my mediocre light meter LX1010B and multimeter:
Current at tailcap using freshly charged Eneloop - 1.68 Amps
Light Meter Readings from 1 Meter using Eneloop batteries: Tiablo TL-1 2720 lux, Nitecore D10 1420 lux, Ese LZ2 1300 lux, Ultrafire C3 870lux
The beam on the TL-1 is quite a tight cone of light. It does not put out much sidespill as you can see in the beamshots further down. I would describe the beam as being quite throwy because of this. There is also a very tight and well defined hotspot in the middle of it all. The beam has very smooth transitions and keeps the cree rings nicely under control. While I would prefer a bit more sidespill, such as the Fenix PD or LD series, this TL-1 has a very nice quality to the beam. Almost like shining a Malkoff M60 at the wall and carving the center out. My apologies if this doesn't make sense.
Next I changed out the battery for a freshly charged Trustfire 14500. Tiablo says this thing puts out 230 lumens so expecations were high! Unfortunately I am quite certain that my flashlight isn't reaching these lofty numbers. In reality, I knew this would likely be the case. The TL-1 is indeed quite bright though and easily walks all over my Nitecore D10 (also using 14500 for this comparison). My best guess is that it is putting out about the same amount of light as a Fenix PD20 on turbo. Here are the measurements I got for this setup:
Current at tailcap using freshly charged Trustfire 14500 - .65 Amps
Light meter readings from 1 meter with all using lithium chemistry batteries: Tiablo TL-1 4100 lux, Nitecore D10 2020 lux, Fenix PD20 4320 lux, Nitecore Extreme SS Bezel 4600 lux.
Before going on to the beamshots, here are a few more pictures showing a comparison from the front and some detail of the head and switch:
Front shot, from left to right: Nitecore D10, Tiablo TL-1, Fenix PD20, Jetbeam III ST
Here are some beamshots, the Tiablo TL-1 is always on the left:
TL-1 vs Nitecore D10 (Eneloops for both)
Again compared to D10 with faster exposure:
TL-1 (14500 battery) vs PD20 (CR123 primary):
Faster exposure TL-1 vs PD20:
I have beamshots comparing the TL-1 to most of my flashlights but think it might be overboard to post them all. Let me know if there is some combination that you want to see.
I am running out of time but need to mention the user interface. To be short, I am not impressed. As described there are essentially two user defined modes. The first (A) is essentially your light mode, allowing you to set brightness as you like. The second mode (B) is the gizmo mode with strobe or other "special effects". Once setup, you can move between modes A & B by turning on and off the light as is common. On a positive note, I haven't had any accidental mode switching while turning it on and off.
[EDIT - thanks to a fellow CPF member I have found the following is incorrect. You can set mode B to a low beam!]
The thing I don't like is that gizmo mode B is worthless for my purpose. It won't allow you to set mode B as an actual light - just the flashing features. This prevents me from setting up how I would like, which would be a low beam for mode A and then a high beam for mode B.
When adjusting brightness for mode A, the ramping sequence moves fairly quickly but also very smoothly. The low mode doesn't go as low as my D10. It is lower then the lowest setting on my PD/LD20 though. I think I could grow to like the interface if it always worked.
This brings me to the biggest problem I have encountered... For some reason it is almost impossible to get the light to go into the programming mode when using a lithium 14500 battery. :duh2: I have tried and tried only to get it working once or twice. Programming works fine with the Eneloop batteries however. Using the Eneloops it has never missed a beat when following the programing sequence. At first I thought maybe it was an issue with the extra length of the 14500 battery compared to the Eneloop. I switched it out with a similar but unprotected and shorter 14500 but had the same problems. Not sure what is causing this, but this seems like a serious problem to me.
If not for the programming problem when using lithium batteries I would really like this light. It runs so bright on Eneloops that I can almost forgive the shortcomings.
Upon arrival I was pleased to find it quite nicely packaged in snappy cardboard box with magnetic latch. The flashlight itself is very nicely machined and finished. The color of the anodizing is very even from part to part and reminds me of the finish on my Jetbeam III ST. I was also extremely happy to find the reflector and AR coated lens nice and clean. Last of all, everything comes apart easily enough with nice o-rings everywhere you would expect them. Overall build quality seems to be right up there with the best in my opinion.
Unfortunately one other thing jumped out at me that I didn't like so well… I could definitely figure out the battery orientation without the help of this logo: :huh:
I was also a little surprised by the length of this flashlight given that it is 1 x AA! Maybe I was distracted by the teeth while shopping. Regardless, the overall length puts it somewhere in between a "normal" size AA light and some of the smaller powerhouse lights such as the P10C2.
From left to right; Jetbeam III ST, Eagletac P10C2, Tiablo TL-1, Nitecore D10:
Here is another shot. From left to right; Nitecore D10, Tiablo TL-1, Ese LZ2, Jetbeam III ST, Fenix PD20:
To start things out I put in a freshly conditioned and charged (using C9000) Eneloop battery and clicked the TL-1 on. First impressions were fantastic as it was clear this light is pushing the emitter harder then any other AA light I have tried (using Eneloops). The beam is a fairly cool in tint and close to white in my eyes. I tend to like warmer tints better, but all in all I can't complain as it is more neutral then many of my other lights. Here are some measurements I took using my mediocre light meter LX1010B and multimeter:
Current at tailcap using freshly charged Eneloop - 1.68 Amps
Light Meter Readings from 1 Meter using Eneloop batteries: Tiablo TL-1 2720 lux, Nitecore D10 1420 lux, Ese LZ2 1300 lux, Ultrafire C3 870lux
The beam on the TL-1 is quite a tight cone of light. It does not put out much sidespill as you can see in the beamshots further down. I would describe the beam as being quite throwy because of this. There is also a very tight and well defined hotspot in the middle of it all. The beam has very smooth transitions and keeps the cree rings nicely under control. While I would prefer a bit more sidespill, such as the Fenix PD or LD series, this TL-1 has a very nice quality to the beam. Almost like shining a Malkoff M60 at the wall and carving the center out. My apologies if this doesn't make sense.
Next I changed out the battery for a freshly charged Trustfire 14500. Tiablo says this thing puts out 230 lumens so expecations were high! Unfortunately I am quite certain that my flashlight isn't reaching these lofty numbers. In reality, I knew this would likely be the case. The TL-1 is indeed quite bright though and easily walks all over my Nitecore D10 (also using 14500 for this comparison). My best guess is that it is putting out about the same amount of light as a Fenix PD20 on turbo. Here are the measurements I got for this setup:
Current at tailcap using freshly charged Trustfire 14500 - .65 Amps
Light meter readings from 1 meter with all using lithium chemistry batteries: Tiablo TL-1 4100 lux, Nitecore D10 2020 lux, Fenix PD20 4320 lux, Nitecore Extreme SS Bezel 4600 lux.
Before going on to the beamshots, here are a few more pictures showing a comparison from the front and some detail of the head and switch:
Front shot, from left to right: Nitecore D10, Tiablo TL-1, Fenix PD20, Jetbeam III ST
Here are some beamshots, the Tiablo TL-1 is always on the left:
TL-1 vs Nitecore D10 (Eneloops for both)
Again compared to D10 with faster exposure:
TL-1 (14500 battery) vs PD20 (CR123 primary):
Faster exposure TL-1 vs PD20:
I have beamshots comparing the TL-1 to most of my flashlights but think it might be overboard to post them all. Let me know if there is some combination that you want to see.
I am running out of time but need to mention the user interface. To be short, I am not impressed. As described there are essentially two user defined modes. The first (A) is essentially your light mode, allowing you to set brightness as you like. The second mode (B) is the gizmo mode with strobe or other "special effects". Once setup, you can move between modes A & B by turning on and off the light as is common. On a positive note, I haven't had any accidental mode switching while turning it on and off.
[EDIT - thanks to a fellow CPF member I have found the following is incorrect. You can set mode B to a low beam!]
The thing I don't like is that gizmo mode B is worthless for my purpose. It won't allow you to set mode B as an actual light - just the flashing features. This prevents me from setting up how I would like, which would be a low beam for mode A and then a high beam for mode B.
When adjusting brightness for mode A, the ramping sequence moves fairly quickly but also very smoothly. The low mode doesn't go as low as my D10. It is lower then the lowest setting on my PD/LD20 though. I think I could grow to like the interface if it always worked.
This brings me to the biggest problem I have encountered... For some reason it is almost impossible to get the light to go into the programming mode when using a lithium 14500 battery. :duh2: I have tried and tried only to get it working once or twice. Programming works fine with the Eneloop batteries however. Using the Eneloops it has never missed a beat when following the programing sequence. At first I thought maybe it was an issue with the extra length of the 14500 battery compared to the Eneloop. I switched it out with a similar but unprotected and shorter 14500 but had the same problems. Not sure what is causing this, but this seems like a serious problem to me.
If not for the programming problem when using lithium batteries I would really like this light. It runs so bright on Eneloops that I can almost forgive the shortcomings.
Last edited:
