Xtar TZ-50 Pics & More

jelsey01

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
17
I've had the new Xtar TZ-50 for about 12 days, and since I haven't seen any pics or review posted yet, I'm going to give it a shot.

First, I ordered this light to replace a Jetbeam M1X that I lost last month on a project site. Very surprising that nobody found it... ahem. I used it to look into wet-wells that are ~80 feet deep. If your eyes are adjusted to the sun, it's very hard to see in a deep well without a VERY bright and good throwing light. I have quickly learned that this isn't a very good replacement for a M1X.

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The overall quality is pretty good. The finish is a very smooth black with some useless texture. It's not really deep enough knurling to give a good grip.

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Slightly different finishes.

The bezel is not SS...??

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I really wish it came with a smooth reflector.

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LOW

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MEDIUM

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HIGH

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Compare with a Trustfire P7-F16 from DX.

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~3 Feet. Xtar TZ-50, Trustfire P7-F16 (unregulated), Jetbeam Jet III Pro ST SMO

I'm no pro at this, but I thought I'd share a little. This is a great light for general / tactical use. Unfortunately for me though I'm gonna have to buy another real thrower to replace my M1X. Any suggestions other than another M1X or Thrunite?
 
Thanx for taking the time to do this Jelsey. I have been eyeballing this light for awhile

So what are your opinions on this light qaulity wise? It seems like it is a bit subpar with a fake SS bezel ring and questionable annodizing? Also from the tailcap measurments its not driven as hard as otherlights?

Seems from the pics to be a bit cheezy? Ok at the $70 price tag but is it worth the now $99 price?
 
Thanx for taking the time to do this Jelsey. I have been eyeballing this light for awhile

So what are your opinions on this light qaulity wise? It seems like it is a bit subpar with a fake SS bezel ring and questionable annodizing? Also from the tailcap measurments its not driven as hard as otherlights?

Seems from the pics to be a bit cheezy? Ok at the $70 price tag but is it worth the now $99 price?


The quality is much better than most DX lights. It's definitely worth the $69 price tag, and would have bought another, but for $99 I'm going to look to some higher end throwers. I've picked up some plastic optics from DX Item 12437 to make this a better thrower, but I doubt they will work. We'll see.

Overall, I'm glad that I took the plunge and bought this light. It will be great for camping / dog walking / wall hunting....etc.

I'll try to get some outdoor shots tonight.
 
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Fake SS?

It's only very slightly magnetic ( that could be due to impurities ), but I am 99% sure that it's real SS.. what made you think it was fake?
 
Outdoor beamshot comparison. Here is the lineup: (no snickering)

Stanley 3 in 1, 3C LED Mag, TZ-50, Ultrafire WF-008, Trustfire P7-F16, Jetbeam Jet III Pro ST (SMO), D-Mini P4, Ultrafire RL-168 Osram

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The camera is 12' from the gazebo, 25' from the deck rail, and 34' from the
fence.

Stanley
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3C LED Mag
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TZ-50
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WF-008
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P7-F16
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Jet Pro III
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D-Mini
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RL-168 Osram
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My wife was making fun of me the whole time I was doing this... I'm sure that I'm not the first. I just told her that it was either flashlights or crystal meth, honey. She prefers the flashlights!
 
Thanx Jelsey.

I shouldnt use the term Fake SS that is silly. Jelsey made a comment that it possibly wasnt a SS bezel ring . I guess maybe Aluminum? Maybe he can elaborate.

Beam shots show it to be pretty darn impressive!!!!
 
Thanx Jelsey.

I shouldnt use the term Fake SS that is silly. Jelsey made a comment that it possibly wasnt a SS bezel ring . I guess maybe Aluminum? Maybe he can elaborate.

Beam shots show it to be pretty darn impressive!!!!

The bezel ring IS aluminum. It was made to look like SS. Trust me - the ring is lighter than a Mexican penny. The bezel from the Jet - III Pro is heavier..

You be the judge

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The bezel ring IS aluminum. It was made to look like SS. Trust me - the ring is lighter than a Mexican penny. The bezel from the Jet - III Pro is heavier..

:candle: I'll poke at it with some chemicals later, then :faint: to verify.
 
How did you get yours apart?

Does the top part of the head unscrew? I got the bezel to unscrew but not the top part of the head.
 
So am I going to be disapointed by this light when it arrives? Mine hasnt shipped yet...

I was hoping for it to be a little brighter then my MG RX-1 with more flood and/or brighter spill.

Why is the light drawing so little, they advertise 2.5a on any battery config
 
:candle: I'll poke at it with some chemicals later, then :faint: to verify.

No need. My bezel has already bent just carrying in my back pocket. It took a strap wrench to unscrew and bend back into shape. They should send out SS replacements for those who bought one.
 
Judging from the last set of pictures it looks like it might be brighter than an Olight M21. Can anyone verify this?
 
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The bezel ring IS aluminum. It was made to look like SS. Trust me - the ring is lighter than a Mexican penny. The bezel from the Jet - III Pro is heavier..

You be the judge

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the SS is finished by metal finish on subdue light, that's why it looks a little difference with the normal SS. To judge it real or fake, you can try some chemicals.
 
I got to test one of these for OTF lumens.

1 sec = 463 OTF lumens
4 min = 363 OTF lumens

It actually looks brighter than the 400ish Average OTF lumens, and my sample was pulling a bit more current too. 1.33A on high with 2 AW 2600mAh. I really expected at least 500 constant lumens, but surprised the lumens dropped soo much. I thought this is a big light with big bezel and it did less OTF than my P60 SST-50 2.5A driver drop-ins.:oops:

Still, a very good built light with plenty of throw.
 
I have actually been pretty happy with this light. I got it for 70 bucks and it is a great fit for that price range. I am not sure its worth 100 though.

Beam-wise it has a good flood corona and fairly tight hotspot. Compared the the A6 Polestar, it's hotspot and corona are about 60% of the diameter.

I was very pleased with the beam on this flashlight. It has a wide bright-spot with a good sized useful spill. It really lights up an area, but still retains some pretty decent throw in my opinion, being easily able to see details of my garden from 70 feet away at night.

The beam is really nice with no artifacts or funny looking corona at all. It emits a solid white light. The specs call it 6700K, but I don't quite believe it. There is no blue-tint at all, and it looks to me more like a 5400ish K. Colors look natural in my estimation. My camera sucks but it does at least accurately capture the correct tint of the light.

When the light arrived, it was in a manilla envelope with some bubble wrap. It comes with the flashlight assembled in 1x18650 mode, with an anti-roll thingee at the end with a cheapo strap attached to the anti-roll device. Then, the extender tube is included as well. That's it. NO instructions at all, nothing.

I personally believe that a flashlight really doesn't need a briefcase-sized guncase. I do admit that it makes you think you are really getting something special though, and prevents damage in transit. I think a middle ground could be had though. A small cheap plastic case 9 inches by 5 by 2 would be sufficient to ship the light, extender tube, then throw in some minimal instructions and a few O-rings.

As it stands, my light was not at all damaged but this style of shipping is more akin to DX and other lowest price-tier sellers.

Another modest problem is that the extender tube does not appear to fit! Actually it works just fine, but it is not intuitively obvious what is going on. You see, there is a threaded anti-roll device that screws inbetween the bottom of the tube and the tactical switch. When you take the switch off, the extender tube will not fit, because the anti-roll device acts as a spacer which prevents the threads from contacting.
So you have to take off the anti-roll thingee, which is also not obvious. It unscrews and then stops unscrewing. At that point you must force it over the O-ring to pull it off. Basically, it feels like it should not come off. Once it is removed, the extender tube can be attached.

The extender tube comes with a ring that acts as a spacer. To fit the tactical switch to the extender tube (or the regular tube for that matter), you MUST have either the anti-roll spacer OR the ring spacer. In my pictures I ditched the anti-roll so it would fit in my pocket better. Anyways, this is not intuitive and I did see several complaints about the extender tube 'not working'.

In any case, some basic instructions would alleviate these concerns and produce a more positive opening experience.



I really like the UI for this light. You lightly press the forward clicky to turn it on and release to turn it off. It is pretty sensitive. If you have a mode on for more than 2 seconds, memory will apply. When you turn the light off and back on, you will be in the same mode. Anyways, the light-tap lets you quickly cycle thru the different modes, which are High, Medium, Low, Strobe, and SOS.

A full click turns the light on and keeps it on. What I personally like is that once the light is on, you can NOT change modes! A half-click will not advance modes, which will cause some people to gripe. However, many lights do use half-presses to change modes which means a simple tap or bump against something or even shaking the light will force a mode change. A lot MORE people gripe about this from what I've read. :)

The memory feature works very well and you can effectively use this flashlight as a single mode light if desired. All you have to do is simply keep the light on for 2 seconds or more at a time and it will never change modes.

No UI is perfect for all users and people are going to gripe no matter what, but I think this UI is very solid.


The top of the light has a nub which allows it to work with flat-topped batteries such as the AW 2600 protected 18650. This is a nice feature which some lights neglect. I really like the battery versatility that this light has as far as two size configurations and support for multiple battery types.


Heat Sinking appears to work well. Within 5 minutes on high the light starts to warm up. The head becomes warm, then transfers the heat down the entire shaft of the light. This indicates to me that no undue amount of heat is being built-up in the pill. I have not disassembled the light to prove this though... someone more experienced would have to perform that analysis.


The lens is very clear and the aluminum orange peel reflector looks great.


The knurling is not very aggressive. The light holds fine to me, but some might want more 'feel'.


The light has an O-ring for every joint, so I can see that it would be waterproof. I would not want to test this theory however. If you transformed it often between extender tube and non-tube, you would have to put on and take off the spacers, which rub over the O-ring each time. I can see the O-rings breaking due to the stress eventually.


The flashlight has an anti-roll at the head of the light. By itself with the extender tube on, it is insufficient to prevent rolling. It works just fine in 1x18650 configuration, OR with the screw-on anti-roll at the bottom of the light.
 
P7F16 seems to have way more light than the TZ-50; is that a camera trick? If not, please provide the DX sku for P7F16.
 
P7F16 seems to have way more light than the TZ-50; is that a camera trick? If not, please provide the DX sku for P7F16.

If you search dx, you can easily find the light. The P7 lights from dx have variable quality, but they all seem to have a maximum output of 350-400 lumens.
 
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