Zebralight SC52 Owner's Thread

[roadkill1109]

Just got one myself. My first thoughts are that it is incredibly small. My second are that fit and finish are excellent. It's a neat little package.

I love moonlight modes and this one's lowest moonlight mode is really low. Like the LED barely glows. Is it at all useful? Does anyone use it on the lowest? I haven't had a chance to use it with dark-adjusted eyes.

Moonlight is useful when you need to work in total darkness without having to cause any disturbance. I usually use moonlight to check on the kids sleeping or when i have to sneak around in the dark. (like going to pee or get something from the fridge at midnight)

Not everyone likes moonlight, but the good thing about this light, love it or not, at least its there should you need it.

Kudos on your SC52!

You'll love its various modes better when running it with a 14500 as you can see how much light it can put out, yet it can go into moonlight when you need it down really low. But its not for everyone.

 

[Gregozedobe]

I love moonlight modes and this one's lowest moonlight mode is really low. Like the LED barely glows. Is it at all useful? Does anyone use it on the lowest? I haven't had a chance to use it with dark-adjusted eyes.

I find the lowest Lo setting 0.01 Lm (3 months) on my recent ZLs is so low it isn't much use for illumination to see anything (for me, anyway), but it does make a good marker glow to let you find the light in pitch black, without draining the battery very much. The other Lo settings are useful for illumination with night adjusted eyes.

 

[Swede74]

Has anyone else noticed a strange behaviour when using the lowest of the low modes (0.01 lm)?

I almost don't know how to describe it; flickering would not be an accurate word, maybe "pulsation" comes closer. About 60-80 times per minute, it looks like the light turns off for a fraction of a second, just enough to notice. So it's like the light emits 0.01 lm 90% of the time, and zero lm 10% of the time. If I understand correctly, this is how PWM works, but all levels on the SC52 are current regulated, so something else has to be going on here. (I don't think PWM at 1 Hz would catch on )

The light displays this behaviour regardless of which battery I use. I've tried AW 14500, Trustfire 14500 and GP ReCyko NiMH.

Any theories on what causes this?

 

[GunnarGG]

Swede, no theories but I have a Novatac Storm that behaves similar when I use the lowest settings.
If I ramp up a little bit it gets a solid light.
I don't recall if that light uses pwm though.

 

[TweakMDS]

No theories, and mine doesn't do this either. I just popped a 14500 in mine, and all modes behave as expected. With the small addition that the output on 14500 is quite mindblowing

 

[drew78]

Has anyone else noticed a strange behaviour when using the lowest of the low modes (0.01 lm)?

I almost don't know how to describe it; flickering would not be an accurate word, maybe "pulsation" comes closer. About 60-80 times per minute, it looks like the light turns off for a fraction of a second, just enough to notice. So it's like the light emits 0.01 lm 90% of the time, and zero lm 10% of the time. If I understand correctly, this is how PWM works, but all levels on the SC52 are current regulated, so something else has to be going on here. (I don't think PWM at 1 Hz would catch on )

The light displays this behaviour regardless of which battery I use. I've tried AW 14500, Trustfire 14500 and GP ReCyko NiMH.

Any theories on what causes this?

so I just tried this with my SC52. I mean i'm at the computer, the light is in my pocket, and the forum is open...why not...

So I set it down to the lowest, low mode and what do you know. Mine pulses too! I would say that about one quick pulse per second, perhaps just a hair faster. The diode never blacks out, it stays in the lowest low and at each pulse seems tor brighten quickly then pulses down to the orig low, low setting.

I did some more testing and it will flicker sometimes, and then other times I cant get it to flicker. Weird. Not a biggie for me as it is SO low, I have no use for it. I have my L2 set to the next level up from the 0.01lumen setting.

 

[cyclesport]

Mine flickers on the 0.01L mode also. Not sure why either but feel there's no reason for concern. Other lights that I have that are capable of fractions of a lumen flicker too when dropped to barely perceptable levels...JetBeam RRT-01, Niteye EYE 10, etc. Perhaps the emitter simply can't stabilize @ such low current levels?

 

[mgscheue]

Has anyone else noticed a strange behaviour when using the lowest of the low modes (0.01 lm)?

I almost don't know how to describe it; flickering would not be an accurate word, maybe "pulsation" comes closer. About 60-80 times per minute, it looks like the light turns off for a fraction of a second, just enough to notice. So it's like the light emits 0.01 lm 90% of the time, and zero lm 10% of the time. If I understand correctly, this is how PWM works, but all levels on the SC52 are current regulated, so something else has to be going on here. (I don't think PWM at 1 Hz would catch on )

The light displays this behaviour regardless of which battery I use. I've tried AW 14500, Trustfire 14500 and GP ReCyko NiMH.

Any theories on what causes this?

I just tried it with mine on low (with an AW 14500). I can't say I'm seeing the ~1 Hz pulsation.

 

[Swede74]

Thank you all for replying.

TweakMDS, you have to look really hard (and be geeky enough to enjoy playing with your lights in a dark room) to see it, so maybe it's possible yours does it too?

Drew78's description it better; at first I thought the diode blacked out or at least got dimmer for a very brief moment about once per second, but now I agree, it's on all the time and brightens briefly. That's rather the opposite of how I initially perceived it - hopefully not a sign of too much wear and tear on my brain or my eyes. :laughing:

As Drew78 also said, it's definitely not a biggie. I find the 0.06 lm setting more useful, and I doubt this almost imperceptible phenomenon is a nuisance to those who do use the lowest setting.

 

[drew78]

Juat as a data point, I run my SC52 on a L91 primary only. Still have 4 "blinks" on the batt tester.

 

[CVLPA]

Got the pulse at the lowest low as well. Had to sit in a dark room and look in to the reflector to see it. Cannot imagine i would ever notice it if i didn't read about in Swede74's post.

 

[mgscheue]

Thank you all for replying.

TweakMDS, you have to look really hard (and be geeky enough to enjoy playing with your lights in a dark room) to see it, so maybe it's possible yours do it too?

I'll have to try it again, too. It's possible I missed it. I'm definitely sufficiently geeky. My first thought when I read your post was to think "Oh cool, an excuse to play with the SC52."

 

[bodhran]

I had been thinking about posting the same comment myself. I don't use mine for long periods but I do use it often and it just keeps going. Still show four flashes. Has anyone done a runtime test with the L91?

 

[drew78]

I too have noticed the really great run time so far. I use the light in relativly short intervals and still have 4 flashes on the battery. Running L91 and am impressed so far!

 

[PocketBeam]

As far as the lowest low modes, this is the first time I have seen that no one has said they wished it went lower. I don't use the lowest it will go, but I did try it and I am glad I have the option.

Soon we will have enough efficiency to get 3-4 lumens, and 3 months run time. And still I will want the lower modes... which could give one year run time.

Been pocket carrying for a couple weeks with no accidental turn on's. Still very happy with the light, except the sharp edge next to the pocket clip.

 

[Wiggle]

I'm liking the SC52 quite a bit. It's been my EDC choice almost everyday (sometimes Ti Preon 2 wins out due to slimness). My other 14500/AA EDC (the Quark AA-T /w deep clip) I'm sad to say may not see much pocket duty now. The superior low battery behavior with li-ion is a big bonus, not to mention the battery meter, smaller size, higher output across the board. I do miss the Tactical interface a little, momentary was great sometimes but I'm also digging the ZL UI alot too, it's quite effective once you get the feel of it.

 

[miswas]

14500's and high-setting flicker on SC52?

Hello,

Please do point me to the right post in this thread / elsewhere if this has already been talked about. Thanks!

My SC52 will run fine on IMR 14500's, save for the highest setting for the light. The light will shine brightly for 3 - 5 seconds, then begin to flicker: doesn't seem to have a consistence Hz, or speed up / slow down, just fluctuates.

I've not let it run for long at all in this flickering mode, and testing the highest setting with primaries shows the flashlight can still go into that mode without flicker. So I don't think I fried the emitter...?

I have protected 14500's coming shortly, so I will also test the highest setting with them.

But has anyone seen this type of flickering running a (IMR/standard) 14500 and highest setting on their SC52?

Thanks in advance!


-Ben

 

[GunnarGG]

Hello,

Please do point me to the right post in this thread / elsewhere if this has already been talked about. Thanks!

My SC52 will run fine on IMR 14500's, save for the highest setting for the light. The light will shine brightly for 3 - 5 seconds, then begin to flicker: doesn't seem to have a consistence Hz, or speed up / slow down, just fluctuates.

I've not let it run for long at all in this flickering mode, and testing the highest setting with primaries shows the flashlight can still go into that mode without flicker. So I don't think I fried the emitter...?

I have protected 14500's coming shortly, so I will also test the highest setting with them.

But has anyone seen this type of flickering running a (IMR/standard) 14500 and highest setting on their SC52?

Thanks in advance!


-Ben

Hi!

I don't have a SC52 yet so I can't help you, but

Please, don't change the subject line in an ongoing thread.
It get's totally unreadable after a few quots.

This thread is still: Re: Zebralight SC52 Owner's Thread

Edit:
I noticed that you have been a member 3 times aslong as I have but see now that this is your first post.

Welcome to CPF! :wave:

 

[mgscheue]

An admittedly rather crude measurement but perhaps of some use for comparison purposes: Doing a ceiling bounce and measuring with a Sekonic incident light meter, I got f/5.6 at 1 S at ISO 100 with my SC52 (EV 5, or about 80 lux) and f/7.1 with my SC600 (EV 5.6, or about 112 lux). My 4Sevens Quark AA^2 Turbo produced f/4 (EV 4, or about 40 lux).

 

[reppans]

An admittedly rather crude measurement but perhaps of some use for comparison purposes: Doing a ceiling bounce and measuring with a Sekonic incident light meter, I got f/5.6 at 1 S at ISO 100 with my SC52 (EV 5, or about 80 lux) and f/7.1 with my SC600 (EV 5.6, or about 112 lux). My 4Sevens Quark AA^2 Turbo produced f/4 (EV 4, or about 40 lux).

Nice... I assume the SC52 measurement is with a 14500. If so, I was wondering if you could test it with Eneloops against the Quark AA2 Turbo - not sure which Quark emitter you have, but the SC should easily beat any of them, according to the specs.

Also, if you're interested, PM me for a more accurate and efficient bounce method, and perhaps to compare notes on light meter methodology - you might be able to evaluate any mode of any light with one calibration as I do with a DSLR.