Fenix Slowdown

Hi guys,

Have you checked out the Limited/Premium section of www.FenixStore.com recently?

FenixStore.com said:

The lighting industry, especially LED's have been improving at an incredible pace. Fenix has been the first and always will be the first to put the best and brightest into their flashlights.

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Last time I checked, the Cree Q5 was not the best, and certainly not the brightest LED on the market at the moment. Does it not seem odd that they were so fast to put Q5s in, but seem to be dragging their heels in putting R-bin Crees into their flashlights. What is going on?

I wish they would, although for the low modes I suppose they might have to change their driver. Maybe not. 9.9 lumens isn't much different than 9. A premium edition of the DXX lights with R2's would be nice and get me to order.

Look at all the buzz on the M20... How many are getting the Q5 version rather than the R2?

They are simply not enough R2's to go around. They are only available in limited quantities, not nearly enough for a large manufacturer. Most of the cheap R2 lights you see on the market are just Q5's with some "creative advertising". It gives a false impression of just how available they are.

Even with a real R2 sitting next to a Q5, you'd never really be able to see the difference. It's only a single bin improvement. Big whoop. Not like it's a whole new model or something.

I'm much more excited about the possibilities with what Fenix is cooking up for the XP-E and MC-E. After all, there is some reason their headlamp isn't done yet, and an updated LOD has been hinted at.

The move from Cree P4 to Q5 was bigger than going from Q5 to R2.

I have P4 and Q5 lights and the difference is noticeable.

I have seen beamshots of a Q5 and a real R2 side-by-side. The difference wasn't big enough to make me want to pay the extra $$$ for an R2.

Marduke said:

Even with a real R2 sitting next to a Q5, you'd never really be able to see the difference. It's only a single bin improvement. Big whoop. Not like it's a whole new model or something.

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Something a lot of people don't fully realize. Just because it's a higher bin doesn't mean you'll notice the increased brightness (or that you'll have better efficiency).

There is only 1 light that would just HAVE to have the brightest emitter in, a purpose built thrower like the DBS.
Since it is only made for 1 thing (for me anyway) I would want the top bin so the Lux numbers are as impressive as I could get them.

Past that the R2 is just gravy, now when it's R4/5 time I'll be in on somebody's group buy and stock up on arctic alumina. Nah on second thought I'll just sell my Q5's and buy new lights when it's time. Worked well enough for me so far.

what i wish, is that fenix would come up with a Super Thrower, using an MCE, thats why im not buying any of the new versions of lights now...

Crenshaw

Oooh
That does sound like good reason to hold off on new purchases, thanks!

When it comes to the future of Cree bins, you have to take into account the amount of difference/gain in lumens between each bin. Let's take a look at the Cree bin guide:



So we're currently at Q5 (and in a few rare instances, R2) and the chart shows what we can expect in the future all the way out to the R4 bins. What's the final net difference for the flashlight user? We know the Fenix L0D, for example, uses the Q4 emitter and is rated at 75 lumens, so what if we dropped a Q5 into it? According to the chart, the difference between the Q4 and Q5 bins is right around 7%, so extrapolating from that (7% over 75 lumens) the finshed L0D Q5 would put out 80 lumens, or five lumens more than the Q4.

"Is that good?" Well not really, and here's why - the human perception of light is logarithmic; meaning that as the pupils of your eyes adjust to a brighter light, it requires a greater leap in lumens for you to perceive a difference. Generally speaking, a light must be about 20% brighter than what you're comparing it to before you even notice a change. That means our new and improved L0D would have to put out at least 90 lumens to even marginally distinguish it from the current model.

What if we took it to the extreme and went into the future to acquire a prototype R4 emitter for our L0D? Again going by the chart numbers, the R4 is 30% brighter than the Q4, which would give you a grand total of 98 lumens - just barely enough of an output increase to note a difference. (By comparison, most people complain that the Medium and High output levels on the P1D are too close together - yet the High mode is nearly 90% brighter!)

Good explanation.
I feel content with my Q5 lights, and more willing to buy new lights that are still stuck in the Q5 era.

Some new lights with the Cree XPE or MCE would be nice!

ppl are complaining the low isnt low enough. they should go the other way

f22shift said:

ppl are complaining the low isnt low enough. they should go the other way

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Ha ha how true. I suppose if TEOTWAWAKI hits, I'm really gonna be cheap with my cell's stored energy.

Until that time, low is a seldom used mode for me. I've put my time in on many outings with solitaires and other old incandescent lights. I'm done with lights with crappy output.

I've been out in the woods a lot, and learned you can adjust pretty well to moonlight. This was out in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Unless you had a pretty bright light, you can easily get used to the moonlight and not bother with a flashlight. And by bright light at the time... Hell I'd probably think an L1D Q5 on low was bright.