Disappointing Q5 Lights

I have a number of Q5 lights with more on the way, and I am amazed at the variability in brightness and tint. Of course, the construction varies with the price, but many lights seem to be less bright than Q2 or P4 lights costing significantly less (e.g., Romisen RC-F4). If I grade the various lights in terms of brightness, tint, beam pattern, UI, and construction, my gold standard would be my DereeLight v.3 3SD with five stars in all categories. Here are some of my opinions of other lights based on three or more samples: Aurora WF-400 brightness=4, tint=4, beam pattern=4, UI=n/a (two mode), construction=3. Conqueror brightness=4, tint=3, beam pattern=4, UI=3, construction=3. Fenix T1 brightness=5, tint=4, beam pattern=5, UI=2, construction=5. MTE C3-70101 brightness=2, tint=4, beam pattern=3, UI=4, construction=3. Olight T20 brightness=4, tint=4, beam pattern=2-3 (varies), UI=4, construction=5. SmartFire V-68C brightness=4, tint=5, beam pattern=4, UI=3, construction=2. TrustFire T1 brightness=3, tint=5, beam pattern=4, UI=n/a (one mode), construction=3. UltraFire C2 brightness=4, tint=4, beam pattern=4, UI=n/a (one mode), construction=3. Please express your opinions about these and other lights.

Obviously the brightness has a lot to do with how the LED is driven. Tint of course is sometimes more of a lottery but I've been pleased with my Q5s. I have 5 of them now from Lumapower, Fenix, and BOG. No issues or problems..and all very close in tint.

Patriot36 said:

Obviously the brightness has a lot to do with how the LED is driven. Tint of course is sometimes more of a lottery but I've been pleased with my Q5s. I have 5 of them now from Lumapower, Fenix, and BOG. No issues or problems..and all very close in tint.

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My very point! Some manufacturers don't use appropriate circuits that drive the emitter reasonably hard. Some also select emitters with better tint/output and reject or sell the remainder. LumaPower advertises that it hand selects emitters, and I have found that they have more consistent and higher quality emitters. I am happy that they act as a filter to make sure that I am not a victim of the "bin lottery." I returned one Fenix Q5 P2D because it was horribly green, and I returned one Olight T20 because it seemed to have debris (thermal paste?) on the dome of the Q5 emitter causing a black defect.

I was sad after reading these posts, I always admired the Q5, but it shows that companies can make them look bad putting out bad lights.

Maybe all these flashlight problems(like buttons always failing), is one of the biggest reasons all this flashlight modding started to begin with, or maybe it's because we can make brighter flashlights for cheaper than what flashlight companies want for their highend models anyhow, it's both I'm sure.

Grate review by the way, I like how detailed your rating system was, and you made it seem very accurate with your "2-3 varies" talk lol.

The XLamp XR-E LED, in group Q5 (Cool White), is about as good as any current production emitter ... but the acceptable color temp, according to Cree literature, is anywhere between 5,000 K and 10,000 K. When the color temp hits around 6000 K, the tint starts to go bluish ... at 9000 K, it is bluer than blue:naughty:

http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/colortemp_chart2.jpg

The emitters in the Neutral White grouping (P4) are a much better color temp, between 3700 K and 5000 K ... but the P4, driven at 350 ma, produces just 80.6 lumens. Everybody wants the 107 lumen output of the Q5, color temp be damned:shakehead

WOw,precisionworks, thanks for that picture, finally i can visualise all the colour temps properly.:twothumbs

I too have been lucky with my Q5s

note should be taken that some manufacturors may not want to overdrive thier Q5s at the risk of shortening thier life.

Crenshaw

bspofford said:

My very point! Some manufacturers don't use appropriate circuits that drive the emitter reasonably hard.

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Sometimes runtime is more important than brightness. Just because an efficient LED can be brighter at a given drive current, sometimes it's more desirable to use a lower drive current to take advantaged of the better efficiency for better runtime.

Marduke said:

Sometimes runtime is more important than brightness. Just because an efficient LED can be brighter at a given drive current, sometimes it's more desirable to use a lower drive current to take advantaged of the better efficiency for better runtime.

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+1
Yup, it works both ways. That's why I carry my new DS Photon II with a single 2032 batt in place of the 2-2016's. Many torches these days are WAY brighter than they need to be for most tasks. Why not convert that into runtime?

I have an MTE Q5 5-mode coming from DX. I'm sort of holding my breath so to speak.

There are 4 of what I belive are called bond wires in my RC-F4, and 3 wires in my LumaPower Hunter. The Hunter is slightly brighter and both have quite decent tint.

My SAIK RC-A3 light has 4 wires, and the Rexlight 2.0 has 3 and the SAIK is slightly brighter than the Rex on high. Both again are quite similar and decent of tint.

I hope the MTE is brighter and well tinted. But I expect less.

I kind of want a nice single mode, forward clickie light that puts out just enough light and runs a hundred hours. :shrug:

divine said:

I kind of want a nice single mode, forward clickie light that puts out just enough light and runs a hundred hours. :shrug:

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Easy, 6D Mag with a NiteIze 10mm PR dropin

lol

How long does a 6D run with 10,000mAh NiMH's and a ROP LOLA?

Actually the VB16 Q5 light can run 70+ hours on the lowest setting. And it is a one mode forward clicky.

I'll check it out.

As with most things Led Centering is critical,
I had to return a Fenix L1D Q5 as the led was so badly aligned,
the hotspot was a Blury Blotch with multiple rings in the beam.
The replacement light was perfect

lightbug said:

Actually the VB16 Q5 light can run 70+ hours on the lowest setting. And it is a one mode forward clicky.

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... Hey lightbug ,

Where can a Hi quality,properly designed VB16 with a Q5 emitter be purchased at this time ?? One with forward clicky.

The ones at DX don't satisfy me .

Thanks ..:wave:

As I have posted before around here, what I have noticed are dark halos around the hotspot on my Q5s that are not on my P4s. The infamous "Cree dark halo", which I have only seen on Q5s. No deal breaker for normal use, but quite noticeable while white wall hunting. Let's see:

Hyperion CE-R - textured - P4? - perfect
Jetbeam C-LE -textured - P4? - perfect
Fenix P1CE - textured - ??? - perfect
Fenix L1DCE - smooth - P4 - ringy/halo
Fenix P1DQ5 - lightly textured - Q5 - halo
Lighthound drop-in - textured - P4 - perfect
SolarForce drop-in - textured - Q5 - halo

Seems like a pattern, does it?

precisionworks said:

The XLamp XR-E LED, in group Q5 (Cool White), is about as good as any current production emitter ... but the acceptable color temp, according to Cree literature, is anywhere between 5,000 K and 10,000 K. When the color temp hits around 6000 K, the tint starts to go bluish ... at 9000 K, it is bluer than blue:naughty:



The emitters in the Neutral White grouping (P4) are a much better color temp, between 3700 K and 5000 K ... but the P4, driven at 350 ma, produces just 80.6 lumens. Everybody wants the 107 lumen output of the Q5, color temp be damned:shakehead

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I think you're confused. P4, Q2, Q4, Q5, etc, is the bin for efficiency, or minimum lum. flux, etc. Such as 80.6 lumens at 350mA, or 107 lumens at 350mA.

The TINT BIN determines the color temp. The Q5 WC, WC being the tint bin, would be cool white. There is WF, WG, WD, WH, and so on.

There are some variations in individual tint bins, but generally it's close to what you'd expect if you are familiar with the tint bins. The WC bin has the least variation on the tint bin chart from what I've seen.

If you buy a light with a Q5, and no tint bin is given, then it could be anything, and it is a lottery. Some companies use emitters from multiple bins, so one light might be blueish, another purplish, another greenish, etc. Some manufacturers advertise the tint bin used, such as Q5 WC, so when you get the light it will be close to what you expect.

The TINT BIN determines the color temp. The Q5 WC, WC being the tint bin, would be cool white. There is WF, WG, WD, WH, and so on.

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The information I posted is directly from the Cree XLamp XR-E LED Data Sheet, "Flux Characteristics - White", located on Page 2 of this 13 page pdf doc:

http://www.cree.com/Products/pdf/XLamp7090XR-E.pdf

Cree states "The following tables describe the available colors and flux for XR-E LEDs by listing the correlated color temperature or dominant wavelength range for the entire family and by providing several base order codes."

Cree considers every color temp from 2,600 K to 10,000 K as white. Most people consider this a huge tint range, from very warm to ice cold. A 40-watt electric light bulb will have a color temperature close to 2600 K ... 10000 K is close to the far opposite end of the spectrum:

http://www.techmind.org/colour/blackbodyglowinfinity.png

precisionworks said:

The information I posted is directly from the Cree XLamp XR-E LED Data Sheet, "Flux Characteristics - White", located on Page 2 of this 13 page pdf doc:

http://www.cree.com/Products/pdf/XLamp7090XR-E.pdf

Cree states "The following tables describe the available colors and flux for XR-E LEDs by listing the correlated color temperature or dominant wavelength range for the entire family and by providing several base order codes."

Cree considers every color temp from 2,600 K to 10,000 K as white. Most people consider this a huge tint range, from very warm to ice cold. A 40-watt electric light bulb will have a color temperature close to 2600 K ... 10000 K is close to the far opposite end of the spectrum:

Click to expand...

But you're totally missing the point that all Cree LED's are binned by BOTH flux AND tint. Cree sells their LED's on a much more specific basis than just "white"