L1T and Civictor first thoughts???

Any one else get one in?

The color and brightness is well off my regular L1P.

The L1P spanks it, even the Civictor has better lightput in color and brightness.

Did I get a couple bunked lights?

The rotating bezel works well though.

The Civictor is deff a winner

I just got my L1T through last night and compared it to my L1 (with the 2 stage mod) and L2P. I didn't expect the L1T to be a revolutionary improvement over the L1P (eg 150% brighter on the same battery), and so I'm not disappointed

My impressions (all torches running NiMH):

-The L1T on high is maybe 25% brighter than the L1 on high, but not as bright as the stock L2P.
-The L1T on low is much brighter than the L1 on low (I have a 5ohm resistor in there). I really don't think the L1T low mode is low enough to be really useful - it's still too bright for night reading for example. The high/low selector bezel works well though.
-The fit and finish on the L1T is better than the L1 and my L1P (which I gave away). The anodising is definitely nicer than the slightly rough L1P anodising.
- The L1T beam is nice and white, essentially the same tint as my L2P.

Just for kicks I tried swapping my modded L1 tail onto the L1T, to see if I could get a 4 stage fenix. Unfortunately it just functions as an on-off switch with the L1T (ie you can twist it on or off, and the push button switches it on or off instead of changing brightness)!

I think the major improvement to the L1T is the 3W head which can cope with higher voltages. I'm going to pop a lithium AA into it (might try finding a 3.7V AA in Australia) and keep it as a spare, and just keep using the NiMH L1 as my EDC. I really like that little torch.

I'd give it a 4/5 rating, but as I said I think it's because the L1T is evolutionary rather than revolutionary like the L1/L1P. If they had a lower low mode I'd give it 4.5.

I got my Civictor's today. At first glance I like them a lot. Although they measure only 7mm shorter than the L1P, they have a slimmer body and feel considerably smaller. The color is pretty good on all 3 of mine. I always wanted a front twisty L1P and this pretty much is it.

I saw another thread where the Civictor was measured to have considerably worse run time on an E2 lithium than a L1P so I did my own quickie run time test. I put an AA nimh (previously measured at 1650 mah and hot off the charger) into my Civictor and took light measurements with an old analog light meter, so it's not as precise as an automated digital setup, but I got a curve very much like the 2300 mah nimh curve posted elsewhere for the L1P: 90% at 45 min, 80% at 65 min, 70% at 90 min, 67% from 100 to 120 min, 57% at 130 min, 43% at 136 min, and 33% at 140 min.

This suggests to me that the run time behavior of the Civictor is pretty close to that of the L1P, which pleases me. Hopefully my sample at least will also run close to the L1P with an E2 lithium. Time and other testers will tell. I'm too cheap to burn up a lithium on a test.

Also, using a single fresh battery switched from light to light, I measured very close to the same output among my 3 Civictors and my L1P (to within about 5%), so the Civictor may in fact be "like a L1P".

My curve is jumpy because I eyeballed the measurements off an analog meter (and I can't get an excel graph to post as an image) but I think there's a fair chance that later testers will find some Civictors to be a reasonably close match in output and performance to the L1P, so I'm happy so far (1/2 day).

Some details: the glass lens does not appear to be AR coated and it appears to be Type II anodizing as I put a tiny scratch in the tail getting a split ring through both holes. My version doesn't have the "slot" in the tail found by some which allows it to tail stand when using a larger split ring.

Civictor seems to be a good design with full L1P output - if a little less throw due to non-AR glass - and bulletproof twisty reliability.

nerdgineer said:

Given how the twisty closes the circuit (the outer edge of the body contacts a screw ring in the bezel), my only concern is that over time the anodizing on the Civictor's threads - which are insulators now - will wear down and allow current to flow between the threads even when the body is screwed out. Maybe Fenix has thought of a way to prevent that (could the contact ring be electrically isolated from the shell of the bezel?) but that shouldn't happen for a while - if ever - in any event.

Time will tell.

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Are you sure about the way that works? If so, even the tiniest scratch on the thread would cause current leakage. It's already been said that the thread is a bit 'rough' in which case the anodising would scratch off in no time. It's more likely that the ring that contacts the bottom half of the case is already isolated from the top half of the case ??

Jay R said:

Are you sure about the way that works? ...It's more likely that the ring that contacts the bottom half of the case is already isolated from the top half of the case ??

Click to expand...

I thought this about some more and I think you're right. The inside of the body is threaded and the thread is presumably anodized all the way up. The retaining ring in the bezel is threaded in so it should be electrically isolated from the body AND it looks epoxied in place so it's not going to move or wear through anytime soon. That's probably where the isolation would occur should the anodizing wear through on the body's threads.

Looking at a picture of the Civictors head on another thread I saw the answer. The bottom half of the body does not touch the retaining ring to make contact. It touches a bare metal part on the circuit board inside the head. There is no metal contact between the circuit board and the case so the anodising can wear through as much as it likes. Won't make any difference.

JayR's right. It looked like a retaining ring because of the little holes at the edges, but it is in fact part of the PCB and SHOULD be electrically isolated from the head. So there should be no anodizing wear issue.

I stand corrected (edited my first post) - and happier...

SKYWLKR said:

Any one else get one in?

The color and brightness is well off my regular L1P.
The L1P spanks it, even the Civictor has better lightput in color and brightness.
Did I get a couple bunked lights?

Click to expand...

Yeah, that about sums it up. I expected more brightness from a T bin not less. I didn't do the whole beamshot comparison thing between the L1P and L1T instead I simply asked my nine year what he thought. He concluded that the L1P was brighter. If a kid can see the difference then its RMA time.

I didn't care for the off white tint of the L1T a number of us have reported. I prefer the L1P as they seem more likely to be white.

LowBat said:

I didn't care for the off white tint of the L1T a number of us have reported. I prefer the L1P as they seem more likely to be white.

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I bet that is pure luxeon lottery. With Fenix producing so many lights they probably have to use whatever bin they can get. They only claim R or T lumen output, they make no claims for tint or Vf. It's not like somebody in the factory is going "Oh this ones blue, it must go in the T series"

My L1T tight was identical to my L1P tint. Very slight green but just fine. Brightness on high almost identical, too. . .

Love the L1T. Like others, wish the low were lower. . .

That is because the color tints show up more when you underdrive a LED, as it is the case with the L1T underdriving the 3 watt T-bin LED at around 1 watt.

LowBat said:

I didn't care for the off white tint of the L1T a number of us have reported. I prefer the L1P as they seem more likely to be white.

Click to expand...

flash said:

That is because the color tints show up more when you underdrive a LED, as it is the case with the L1T underdriving the 3 watt T-bin LED at around 1 watt.

Click to expand...

If that were true then the Peak Pacific would be really blue or green, since its a LuxIII driven at 100mA. But its not. They select better bins.

Please everybody do a search of the words "luxeon lottery". Its still true today. Fenix does not guarantee a specific tint bin. They use what they can get. If you bought 5 of the same flashlights you will see quite a bit of variation in tint.

My Civictor came in today. Must say I am pleased. Very sleek form factor, twisty action just smooth enough and beautiful white beam. Not a hint of green or blue! Very well centered LED and therefore good beam without artefacts.

I don't own any other Fenix lights, so I compared it with my QIII's. Just some white wall comparison. There's still daylight here.

The colour is exactly that of my whitest QIII; brightness of the Civictor on Lithium AA very much the same as QIII on fresh Lithium. Only the corona of the Civictor is slightly wider and less bright. Of course noticably less on NiMh.

I went for the Civictor primarily because of the reliability of the twisty action. You guys have reassured me (see previous posts) that it can stand its ground against the other Fenix lights. It will get a permanent place in my EDC next to my Arc AAA. This way I have a solution for really low light situations (maybe better than the low settings on the LT's), and an utterly failproof combo of two twisty LED lights.

Kees

Got my L1T, beam a little on the Green side,
typical of an underdriven LUX-111, if I swap the battery tube
from my L2T its fine

Took the Civictor out after dark.

Did have to get used to the combination of a center beam with quite a lot of throw for such a small light, and a relatively faint but very wide corona/sidespill.

I found it very useful for being able to see the ground directly in front of mewithout killing my darkness adaptation too much, and still get a good impression of the next 30-40 yards. The centered beam gives a good depth impression. It doesn't entirely smooth out the terrain it lights up, but gives more of a "incandescent" rendering; some sharper shadows. May even have some smoke piercing qualities.

Mind you, this was all on NiMh, so a bit less bright, but (guilt)free lumens.

Kees

Got my Civictor today.It is
Dimmer than my L1P,
Warmer white than my L1P with a slight green tint
Shorter than my L1P. Shorter than my Dorcy AAA!

Reason for getting the Civictor:
No worries about damaging rhe AR coating on the lens.
Smaller than the L1P.
Slightly longer runtime than the L1P. Double the runtime of the TM-310H.
Better tint than the TM-310H/Dorcy AAA (less blue/purple).

Playing with it now using NiMH. Will pop in a L91 lithium tomorrow to see if I can put up with the extra bulk and weight for pocket carry (compared to my TM-310H).

Edit - Swapped heads between the Civictor and L1P . Both modded lights still work. YMMV.

Got my L1T last week. Beam is pure white, no tint at all. Very happy with the output on high and low, though yeah, low could be lower, especially given it still has a fairly bright "hot spot" in the middle.

There's a direct side-by-side comparison in this review thread -

Fenix L1T (vs. L1 v2.5, L2T, Civictor, P1)

I am new here and just starting to get into flashlights. I like the idea of a hi/lo setting. Does anyone have any outside beamshots of the Fenix L1T on hi and lo?