Nope- I was going to get one eventually, but after the 6th Zebralight to have a switch flake out on me, I am not going to be buying anymore ZL flashlights.
ZebraLight SC600 MkII
- Thread starter BWX
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Nope- I was going to get one eventually, but after the 6th Zebralight to have a switch flake out on me, I am not going to be buying anymore ZL flashlights.
stevenkelby
Enlightened
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- Mar 17, 2011
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That's a pity, the new switches are spot on and reliable.
I'm not going to tell you to marketplace your Mk I and get a Mk II; or to just live with the Mk I; I don't find fault with your personal decision, but I just want to emphasize what I wrote a little above about my own experience. I found the Mk I very temperamental just like yours, but the Mk II is a completely different story for me. A joy to use. As for my Mk I, if this helps at all, I found that if I use extreme superhuman force on the button, and operate it with extreme deliberation, it does pretty much work properly.
FWIW (not a whole lot!), my impression is that the problems ZL does have are not QC so much as they are bad human-engineering choices. They did listen to us. Nobody liked the SC50/51/60 because they came on in the pocket by themselves; they addressed THAT problem effectively but introduced another problem therein. It seems to me in the Mk II they did get it right, but hey, I'm only judging by my own sample.
I do have a few SC/H/50/50a/51, and a couple of them have switch wonkiness too, so the above is probably too simplistic. I just live with it - unpleasantly. I'm just not going to get into the game of the slow boat to (and from) China returns.
peterharvey73
Flashlight Enthusiast
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- Apr 12, 2011
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I don't have a Mk II yet, but I find that with my Mk I, I must press the button truly the whole way down to get it to work. Just pressing the old Mk I down, and making a click sound does nothing...
peterharvey73
Flashlight Enthusiast
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- Apr 12, 2011
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I guess Zebralight tried really really hard to make the SC600's button as stiff as possible so that it would not accidentally turn on. Maybe they should have thought more ergonomically, and just let the user lock out the tail cap to prevent accidental turn on???
That was/is always possible on the SC60/600.
The MkII seems like a fine flashlight. The SC52 is my favorite small flashlight by far, and a true neutral tint would make it the pinnacle of small size flashlights in my eyes. The switch seems great.
I don't doubt for a second any of the negative reports. If Surefire was making these lights the price would be $200 easily. The factory in China making Zebralights has clearly made mistakes. Some of the previous design flaws have been improved upon. Some would consider the profusion of discontinued models a sign of innovation, a desire to improve. Others see it differently and they may be right. Maybe Zebralight is a struggling company. It would be nice if any members of this community had evidence one way or another; I don't.
My MK1 (b) switch worked flawlessly but suddenly died in march this year, 13 months after i purchased it. I can still occasionally select modes but it takes great skill due to the level of difficulty and pressure required to try and get into the mode i need. This light is now unreliable and i cannot use it.
I have an older SC51 (used for 2 years) and a H51 (used for 15 months) which i use daily and have no issues though these use the older 'soft' switches.
I may purchase another headlamp from them in the future but for the moment, i look elsewhere for flashlights - i don't trust the build quality of Zebralight atm.
cheers
ArcaneLogic
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2011
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- 10
My MkI had a flawless switch initially, but now it's over a year old and takes a decent effort to click (double clicks are doubly dubious). My H600's switch is flawless to date and is about a year old. My MkII's switch is flawless so far (I've had it about a month now). We'll see how it's working after a year.
Woohoo! H600 MkIIs are out - PID thermal regulation!!!! 1020 lumens! A true H602 flood model! Neutral tints! Oh my goodness...
Woohoo! H600 MkIIs are out - PID thermal regulation!!!! 1020 lumens! A true H602 flood model! Neutral tints! Oh my goodness...
Yeah the new headlamp is tempting.. See? I am an idiot for even thinking about getting one! I'm sure it would be broken the second it goes out of warranty if it even lasted that long. I don't EDC headlamps though, so it might.
I have a SPARK ST6 500CW headlamp that I use all the time, and it works great. It puts out a ton of light on turbo, and it is the ver.2 that has more power and runs cooler and has no timer on turbo.
My Spark SL6-800CW is a piece of crap that shuts itself off when put into turbo mode, and it needs to have tail cap removed before it turns back on.. The first one did the same, I sent it back to goinggear, they sent me this one out after they "tested it", and it does the exact same thing. That's another $95 light that I got burned by. I thought ZL and Spark were related as companies somehow, or the same guy owns both or something. not sure.
Oh, and my SC600 Mk1(b) also acts completely differently when it has a brand new freshly charged battery and it really starts acting crazy when I run it on high for a while and it gets warmed up, then the switch barely works at all. It's just a bad design or bad QC, or something, it doesn't matter to me what it is, all I know is that it was expensive, and it is crap.
I have a SPARK ST6 500CW headlamp that I use all the time, and it works great. It puts out a ton of light on turbo, and it is the ver.2 that has more power and runs cooler and has no timer on turbo.
My Spark SL6-800CW is a piece of crap that shuts itself off when put into turbo mode, and it needs to have tail cap removed before it turns back on.. The first one did the same, I sent it back to goinggear, they sent me this one out after they "tested it", and it does the exact same thing. That's another $95 light that I got burned by. I thought ZL and Spark were related as companies somehow, or the same guy owns both or something. not sure.
Oh, and my SC600 Mk1(b) also acts completely differently when it has a brand new freshly charged battery and it really starts acting crazy when I run it on high for a while and it gets warmed up, then the switch barely works at all. It's just a bad design or bad QC, or something, it doesn't matter to me what it is, all I know is that it was expensive, and it is crap.
ghodan
Newly Enlightened
What is the trow in meters of the SC600 MK2 and how much candela does it have?
roadkill1109
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2011
- Messages
- 2,309
Have there been any recent quality report issues with the SC600 MKII?
After being impressed by the SC52, im looking to purchase it's big bro, the MKII. Is it okay to get this or do we have to wait a bit more for ZL to sort out any quality issues?
After being impressed by the SC52, im looking to purchase it's big bro, the MKII. Is it okay to get this or do we have to wait a bit more for ZL to sort out any quality issues?
Fallingwater
Flashlight Enthusiast
I have a MKI, improved model (according to the site I got it from, it's had several improvement over the very first original, including lower vampire draw and other minor things I can't recall). I'm unwilling to spend the money for another SC600, since my MKI works flawlessly and has no switch issues whatsoever (yet, fingers crossed). However, I do like increased efficiency.
Is there any way of upgrading my MKI's circuit board to a MKII? Do Zebralight sell bare boards at all?
Is there any way of upgrading my MKI's circuit board to a MKII? Do Zebralight sell bare boards at all?
Overclocker
Flashlight Enthusiast
ok my sample size =4 only but fwiw they've all been very good. imho better wait for sc600w mk2 with the new PID.
personally i'll be getting the h600w mk2 + 7777 deep-carry clip. PID. lighter and slimmer than sc600
Not sure how this went under the radar with so many hi-performance light fans around here, but ZL will be updating the SC600 mkII with XM-L2 and—wait for it!—PID controller similar to the one in S6330. Already! Quickest ZL product obsoletion ever?
I'll let you marvel at the OTF and runtime numbers for yourself. Pants shat in 3...2...1...
I really, really think it's high time to release S5310 if things get as wild as they do!
I'll let you marvel at the OTF and runtime numbers for yourself. Pants shat in 3...2...1...
I really, really think it's high time to release S5310 if things get as wild as they do!
markr6
Flashaholic
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2012
- Messages
- 9,258
Can't say about custom builds (those guys will always find a way to fry the LED in the most torturous ways), but among mass production lights this would be the brightest as far as I'm aware. I'm wondering what the peak current draw is—might be that it goes slightly above 3.0 amps if the thermal controller says the LED is cool enough.
Earlier this year I was thinking about retiring my SC600-U2 which I'd been using as a bike lamp and secondary trek light in favor of an AA-based light, but considering it usually takes me at least two weeks to deplete a 3400 mAh cell, I might upgrade it to SC600 mkII L2 after all. If it's at least as thrifty as the normal mkII I will never need to bring a replacement battery with me, saving quite some weight compared to 3×2 eneloop XX cans... or quite some money compared to 3×2 lithium primaries.
