It took some time to find this thread again. It had dropped to the fifth sheet meaning that this will not turn to be the most popular light out there.
However, I have received my 52d and want to share my thoughts. Everything is flawless - overall quality, anodizing, clip, centered LED and so on. But, what about the tint? It´s nice.... Just nice? Well... it´s not an MT-G2 with even tint through spill, corona and hot spot. It´s only a matter of issue when you are shining on white walls/roofs. All other situations it´s quite nice... Compared to my PD32UE it´s unfortunately almost spot on regarding the spill, i.e with a little bit of blue. The surrounding corona is on the other hand better, more like its neutral hot spot. The PD32UE has a slize of yellow/green in its corona. The Luxeon made me attention this corona, because the Luxeon had that part more neutral. One point to the Luxeon... The hot spot tint look almost the same which should be in the 5000K area, but again the Luxeon has a more white-ish (very neutral hot spot). Another point goes to the Luxeon. So, the luxeon wins over the neutral XM-L in every regard, but only by a marginal, mostly thanks to a more neutral corona. The blue spill is the weakness. This is a little bit of a dissapointment to me as I thought the spill should have had a more beautiful tint without the blue, but it is ok for now. I must stay away from the indoor white wall hunting... Outdoor is very beautiful. I don´t notice the high CRI that much compared to other neutral XM-L's. The color pops out good and feel balanced. I don´t know what to say. Compared to a cool white there is a huge difference, even not comparable...
I like the smaller hot spot thanks to the smaller emitter. This will give you a relative good throw, but still practical for up close work and indoor business. I am still waiting on my 14500's so I am only running it around 200 lumens with an Eneloop for now. It´s quite enough for most tasks... But if you can have more output without loosing the lows you go for it. It will be fun to compare 200-ish with 300-ish, but deep down I know that the differens is marginal, maybe only a 20-30%-ish perceived increase?
Another comparison, only made because I have found the holy grail tint from the same brand, but from another model:
Let me present the H52Fw. I bought this at the same time, simply because I was missing a good head light, and this one has already a place in my heart, you can say love at first turn on. OMG, this tint is probably the best I have seen. It´s more pinkish, brownish compared to the 52d - very nice, very easy on the eyes. It´s so beautiful. No greens, no yellows, no blue's. The spill, corona and the hot spot are all in the same color. Do not forget that this light has a factory diffusion lens which spread all the color, but lets make another comparison to my SWM D40A with a diffuser attached to compare apples to apples. The SWM looks greenish in the corona and more yellow in the hot spot. The spill is some what more neutral without any distracting colors, i.e better with the diffuser then without. So, without the diffuser the SWM has a bluish spill, a green corona and a yellow hot spot. Does it sound like a winner - nope! Don´t get me wrong, everything else is almost perfect on this ligth, but that´s another story. My conclusion is that the emitter in my H52Fw must have a great tint. I guess I was lucky with the tint lottery this time. Will I be lucky next time? However, after I laid my eyes on that H52Fw I must let somebody swap that ugly emitter in the SWM D40A. It´s not healthy to get a new light making all other lights feel a shame about them selfs. Another thing, the H52Fw has a wonderful beam - so practical. I am so happy I did not choose the even more spread out sister version. This is diffused enough and will be a treat to use when you need both hands.
I am sorry to drag in other lights in this thread, but I had to, to be able to explain... Without preferences there is nothing to compare. I guess I was lucky with that H52Fw, which make me want to test another w model from ZL, but without the diffuser ofcourse. This 4400K-ish can be the right tint to my eyes. However the MT-G2 at 5000K was also a winner, but it probably has to do with the spill color difference compared to the 52d...
The SC52 size is noticable in my front left pocket and a little bit too bulky to my taste, but you can´t have a smaller head with an electronic switch I guess... The positive is that you get a larger reflector with some throw. These lights from ZL are NOT my last. The hunt for a w modell with a nice tint in a 52 or 62 body will probably be my next buy... I am not lonely saying/thinking these last words, I guess... The hunt will give more cash to ZL :tinfoil:
I made a pre-thought comment about this SC52d some post above and I can just say that I was almost right about all of my assumptions. The blue spill became the only negative thing in real life comparison. I don´t know if I made any sense with all this - please be gentle