Got my E01

welp, march 28th for the order, rcv'd today. Love the finish, love the brightness, don't care about the oval. nice light. EXCEPT.

the LED looks decently centered, but the beam is NOT. Not even close, at 3 feet from the wall it's a good 4-5 inches off center. OUCH. Oh well, guess it's time to email fenix-store and wait forever some more :mecry:

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

That's fairly typical for 5mm's. In real world use I'd be willing to bet you'd never actually notice it.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

yeah, I've seen it before with my gerber infinity and to a smaller degree with my E0, it's pretty bad in the E01, but I'm gonna try it for a bit. If nothing else I'll keep it and give it to the 5 year old and order a couple more for me and the wife.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

To expect a perfectly centered beam in a $15 flashlight is a bit optimistic, especially when you consider that it is fitted with one of the best 5mm LED drivers, the most efficient 5mm LEDs and HA III anodizing.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

also agree, and never expect perfection we'll see tonight how far off it is, but it's the farthest offcenter of any 5mm light I've had is. like I said, it may not bother me, if it does, I'll just order another and hand this one off to the 5 year old

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

MikeSalt said:

To expect a perfectly centered beam in a $15 flashlight is a bit optimistic, especially when you consider that it is fitted with one of the best 5mm LED drivers, the most efficient 5mm LEDs and HA III anodizing.

Click to expand...

Right, and since 5mm LED's contain their own lens there isn't MUCH light left for the reflector anyway. I'm sure that you can tell it's a bit off pointing it at a wall but in actual use I doubt it'll be an issue. Given the price they got the important things right.................emitter, driver efficiency (the runtime is beautiful), HA III and overall quality. From the Arc website (I'm sure you can find deals elsewhere) the standard 5.5 lumen for 5 hours to 50% light is $29.99 and the "premium" 9 lumen for 5 hours to 50% is $44.95. The E01 costs $15.00, is rated at 10 lumens and has been tested and ran for 8.5 hours regulated. I'd say that the Fenix is pretty solid competition for this kind of light.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

I'm going to order several E01s as back up lights, since I'll carry a 1AA light or 2AA light as primary, so a few centimeter of variation won't be a big deal.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

That would drive me nuts... Fenix is an outstanding company and I'm sure they will make it right. If nothing else, call them and let them know, so they can implement countermeasures for future builds.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

5mm LEDs are almost never dead centered in their polymer bodies since the curvature of the dome exaggerate and refract the output. The new E01s [IIRC] uses GS LEDs that have been known for their "oval" output despite modifications on the reflector.

seriously, unless you buy lights to go white wall hunting your not going to notice a difference. and to echo the guys above, its a little too much to ask for a $15 light. David's made a lot of effort getting these out without error, great finish, decent output, loong runtime, lifetime warranty, whats not to like?

:grouphug:

To many unelightened folks, $15 is alot to ask for, and I can somewhat understand the desire for a perfect light. But the truth of the matter is, high-end lights don't usually come below the $40 range, let alone $15. the E01 is the cheapest and best made key chain light I've seen in years. I was not privileged to own an arc but by reviews on the forum I would say the two are close competitors...with the difference of price

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

I have 3 E01's and the led is off center in every one of them. But the hotspot is perfectly centered. The led is not "bent" to the side, it's more like it's "misplaced". So it's still pointing directly forward, even though it's not in the center of the hole. The spill on the other hand has some weird shapes(brighter on one side), because the led is closer to one side of the reflector. I had 2 E0's that i had to open up and correct the direction of the led. Any light with anything off center will get fixed or sold. I can't stand inperfections.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

MikeSalt said:

To expect a perfectly centered beam in a $15 flashlight is a bit optimistic, especially when you consider that it is fitted with one of the best 5mm LED drivers, the most efficient 5mm LEDs and HA III anodizing.

Click to expand...

I disagree. Getting a centered LED, to me, is an important thing. Does it have to centered to the micro-namometer? No, but it should be centered to the point where it doesn't disrupt ones vision while attempting to use the light, unlike the (2) I just received from my back-ordered order.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

Illum_the_nation said:

seriously, unless you buy lights to go white wall hunting your not going to notice a difference.

Click to expand...

Depending on the extent of the off center, this is simply not true. If you're holding/pointing a light in the direction of object in the 5'-10' range and the hotspot is not hitting the object, that's a problem as far as I'm concerned. If you have to point the light a foot off to the side of the object you're trying to illuminate in order to get the hotspot to light the object, that's an issue.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

Yes, centered led is the most important thing to me. It affects what the light is made to do, make a beam of light. If the beam looks bad the light is useless to me. It will annoy me to the end of time.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

this_is_nascar said:

Depending on the extent of the off center, this is simply not true. If you're holding/pointing a light in the direction of object in the 5'-10' range and the hotspot is not hitting the object, that's a problem as far as I'm concerned. If you have to point the light a foot off to the side of the object you're trying to illuminate in order to get the hotspot to light the object, that's an issue.

Click to expand...

gee...in a boxful of keychain lights I have I've never had one point THAT far off
I think your better off with something else for 10' illumination. I typically use keychain lighting for stuff less than 3'

mighty82 said:

Yes, centered led is the most important thing to me. It affects what the light is made to do, make a beam of light. If the beam looks bad the light is useless to me. It will annoy me to the end of time.

Click to expand...

My advise to you in buying future lights: stay away from cluster LED lights, those will drive you up the wall

Got my E01, and it's dim

I don't have the original E0 to compare it to, but there is no way that thing is putting out 10 lumens... Based on ceiling bounce test with lightmeter and comparison to other lights, I estimate its output as 3-4 lumens of angry blue goodness. For example, it's slightly dimmer than E1B on low (which is supposed to be 5 lumens). And no it's not the battery...

But hey, the ano is good and all that.

Re: YAY, and boo. Got my E01

I think they should have made the hole for the LED to be a perfect fit so it cant be off centered or put a small ring/sleeve near the base of the LED to make it only fit just in so it'll always be in the middle.

Re: Got my E01, and it's dim

Can't compare one brand to another when they don't use the same method for measuring brightness. It's a 5mm, it's not supposed to scorch retinas.

Re: Got my E01, and it's dim

oh the irony of surefire actually under-rating thier lumens sometimes...




Crenshaw

Re: Got my E01, and it's dim

Yeah well. I guess inflating lumens by like 150-200% is considered normal these days. I'll crawl back into my hole now.

Re: Got my E01, and it's dim

I tested both of my EO1's and they both tested out at roughly 8 lumens. I have measured A LOT of different lights, and my numbers are very close to exact, and they tend to be a little low.
I know the EO1 isn't bright by todays standards, but the performance can not be matched by any other 1xAAA light. It puts out 8 lumens for nearly 14 hours on a single AAA Energizer Lithium. Unreal!