jzmtl
Flashlight Enthusiast
Since many other reviews have done reviews for them with good beamshots etc, I'm not going to repeat that. Here are some of my impressions of the quark series.
LED minimag, Quark AA2, 123A2 (tac UI), 123A (clipless), AA body tube.
Note: production forward clicky will have black tail cap, not blue as photographed, 47 has stated there is no plan to have blue cap available
.
The overall construction is very high quality, I'm confident to say that it is on par with the few Surefire I've had. There is very little or no thread play from what I can see, perhaps this is the result of square thread 47 has chosen. The anodize is visually similar to what Fenix and Eagletac use, I scratched it with a knife (sorry 47), but there was no damage at all to the finish. I did not try to do this with the sapphire window as there appears to be AR coating on outside as well, and I did not want to damage it.
The overall physical structure is very similar to other Chinese made light, with two bumps around the + contact serve as physical reverse polarity protector, and tail cap constructed of rubber boot, metal washer, clicky switch, and retainer ring. The switches (both forward and reverse) look and feel quite sturdy. Activation of forward clicky feels very nice, no mushy and long travel that I hate. Body has lots of knurling, they provide decent traction but not too aggressive.
Clip is very nicely designed. It's attached to one end via screwed on collar, and the body tube can be reversed to choose either head up or down carry. However because of this design, there is no tail cap lockout available. This doesn't seem to be a problem on recessed reverse clicky, but may be one if you throw your forward clicky Quark into a bag full of stuff. Also single 123a version will have either permanently attached clip on head or no clip.
UI wise, I don't really like the regular UI. I'm not a big fan of low low, it's useful to have but I don't want to start on it every time and have to switch to next mode. The tactical UI however is excellent. Programming is very straight forward, I have it set to low and high and it fits my need perfectly. Just a note on AA version, high and max has barely noticeable difference, so essentially you are losing the max mode. Also the body tube is short enough that clip will scratch either head or tail cap when turning. Just keep that in mind if you want the single AA version.
The beam is nice with zero artifacts. Hotspot is distinct with smooth transition to spill.
I definitely see a tactical UI quark in my future, just haven't decided which one yet.
If I find anything else new I will modify this post.
Added 7-1-09: All 4 battery tubes fit their respective number of cells perfectly without rattle with supplied caps. Very nice design, although at $20 each it's IMO too expensive to use for that purpose only, if you decide to have multiple tubes for different battery options you can keep battey inside so they are ready to go.
LED minimag, Quark AA2, 123A2 (tac UI), 123A (clipless), AA body tube.
Note: production forward clicky will have black tail cap, not blue as photographed, 47 has stated there is no plan to have blue cap available
.
The overall construction is very high quality, I'm confident to say that it is on par with the few Surefire I've had. There is very little or no thread play from what I can see, perhaps this is the result of square thread 47 has chosen. The anodize is visually similar to what Fenix and Eagletac use, I scratched it with a knife (sorry 47
), but there was no damage at all to the finish. I did not try to do this with the sapphire window as there appears to be AR coating on outside as well, and I did not want to damage it. The overall physical structure is very similar to other Chinese made light, with two bumps around the + contact serve as physical reverse polarity protector, and tail cap constructed of rubber boot, metal washer, clicky switch, and retainer ring. The switches (both forward and reverse) look and feel quite sturdy. Activation of forward clicky feels very nice, no mushy and long travel that I hate. Body has lots of knurling, they provide decent traction but not too aggressive.
Clip is very nicely designed. It's attached to one end via screwed on collar, and the body tube can be reversed to choose either head up or down carry. However because of this design, there is no tail cap lockout available. This doesn't seem to be a problem on recessed reverse clicky, but may be one if you throw your forward clicky Quark into a bag full of stuff. Also single 123a version will have either permanently attached clip on head or no clip.
UI wise, I don't really like the regular UI. I'm not a big fan of low low, it's useful to have but I don't want to start on it every time and have to switch to next mode. The tactical UI however is excellent. Programming is very straight forward, I have it set to low and high and it fits my need perfectly. Just a note on AA version, high and max has barely noticeable difference, so essentially you are losing the max mode. Also the body tube is short enough that clip will scratch either head or tail cap when turning. Just keep that in mind if you want the single AA version.
The beam is nice with zero artifacts. Hotspot is distinct with smooth transition to spill.
I definitely see a tactical UI quark in my future, just haven't decided which one yet.
If I find anything else new I will modify this post.
Added 7-1-09: All 4 battery tubes fit their respective number of cells perfectly without rattle with supplied caps. Very nice design, although at $20 each it's IMO too expensive to use for that purpose only, if you decide to have multiple tubes for different battery options you can keep battey inside so they are ready to go.
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