ErickThakrar
Enlightened
(This product was supplied by the manufacturer for review.)
Fenix as a company has been around for a few years now. They're a Chinese manufacturer and one of the several now that have shown that not all products that come out of China are of poor quality.
With an almost bewildering array of products available, Fenix has attempted to fill the needs of almost anybody that is interested in flashlights that perform well for a quite reasonable price.
Today, for the first time ever here at Special Circumstances, we're going to take a look at one of their newest products, the TK45 flashlight.
The TK45 is the spiritual successor to the Fenix TK40, a large "searchlight"-type flashlight that came out a few years ago and one of the first of it's kind that allowed lumens outputs well over 600 lumens and doing so running only on readily-available AA batteries!
The TK45 differs radically from the TK40 however, by the virtue of using not one multi-core LED similar to the Seoul P7 we've seen previously in other reviews here, but instead using three smaller LEDs for a combined output of 760 lumens!
It achieves this by using the very latest LEDs developed by Cree, the XP-G R5.
Before I get into any more detail, I'll list the specs as they're written by Fenix.
• 3 x Cree XP-G LED (R5) with lifespan of 50,000 hours
• Four types of lighting mode:
Turbo (760 Lumens, 2Hrs) -> Low (8 Lumens, 232Hrs) ->
Mid (95 Lumens, 22Hrs) -> High (312 Lumens, 6.5 Hrs)
(Tested with 2500mAh Ni-MH battery)
• Three types of flashing mode: Strobe, SOS, Warning flash
• Max beam length: 200 meters
• Digitally regulated output - maintains constant brightness
• Intelligent memory function
• Outstanding heat sinking performance offers long working time in
Turbo mode
• Uses eight 1.5V AA (Ni-MH, Alkaline) batteries
• 202mm (Length) x 39.2mm (Diameter) x 56mm (Head)
• 324-gram weight (excluding batteries)
• Made of durable aircraft-grade aluminum
• Premium Type III hard-anodized anti-abrasive finish
• Waterproof to IPX-8 Standard
• Toughened ultra-clear glass lenses with anti-reflective coating
• Sidewinder dual switch system
• Capable of standing up securely on a flat surface to serve as a candle
• Included accessories: Lanyard
Design
The TK45 is quite unusual looking.
Unlike a lot of other multi-LED flashlights on the market, there is no single large head -with what is often a marginal reflector- instead the TK45 has three smaller, separate heads with individual reflectors for each LED.
This is where the marketing blurbs from Fenix likely got their idea for comparing the TK45 to a mini-gun, IE, it has multiple "barrels".
The three heads of the TK45. On the low output, these come on one at a time and the one that comes on, changes every time you turn it on in the low-mode.
The TK45 is surprisingly light for it's size. Once filled with the 8 AA batteries it requires, it does gain some heft, although it's still quite light.
The flashlight in general has excellent machining. I'd go so far as to call it flawless. I spotted no issues with the deep, black anodizing and the text that was on the light is clear and sharp.
The entire light is, with the exception of the "towers" that each bezel screws onto, hard-anodized in a very nice, even black. This includes the inside of the battery-tube and the inside of the tailcap.
The lanyard attachment point, opposite from the switches. Note how beefy it is. I would like to see Fenix just ever so slightly break the sharp edges here. It would make lanyard last much longer and provide less of a sharp corner for the hard anodizing to start flaking at.
The battery-tube. Note how surprisingly thin the walls are. This accounts largely for the lightness in weight.
The battery-tube eschews traditional knurling for an array of rectangular cuts, with each individual rectangle being further ridged longitudinally.
This provides a very nice amount of grip and feels very nice in the hand.
Note the excellent machining. This is a great way to provide grip in my opinion. I did not notice any reduction in grip while my hands were wet or dirty.
The heft and balance feels very nice as well, the substantial circumference of the light providing plenty of surface to grip.
The two switches located below the head are rubber-covered and while almost silent, provide a nice tactile feel.
The switches. Left handles levels and the right is on/off/strobe mode. This setup is very easy to use in the dark as well. Assuming you can remember what left and right is...
The tailcap is crenelated and provides a decent amount of grip with the various recesses machined into it, to make it easy to unscrew and screw back on, while also making it possible for the TK45 to stand on it's tail and function as a lantern.
At the business end of the light, each LED-head has a crenelated bezel, that allows you to see if you left the light on, when you set it on its head(s).
These are not particularly aggressive, so I wouldn't refer to them as an "impact bezel" or anything similar.
The TK45 comes apart in three main pieces, the head, the battery-tube and the tailcap, although you can also unscrew the LED-heads, which gives you immediate access to the LEDs themselves. Handy for future upgrades.
LED assembly. This particular light is a testing sample and was shipped with the XP-G R4, not the newer and brighter R5 that the production version will have. Expect the production version to be notably brighter!
LED pedestal or tower. The only non-anodized metal that I could find. These threads are also standard cut, not the square-cut you see elsewhere on the TK45.
Note the beefy O-ring!
LED pedestal with the bezel in place. Note the slight gap at the bottom. I'm not sure why that is there, but it offers little functional detriment, so... Erh. Meh.
The electronics inside the head-assembly, however, are thoroughly sealed in and do not appear to accessible.
Inside of the head. Note the large, gold-plated contact surfaces on the circuit board.
There are single O-rings installed at each end of the battery-tube, and while double O-rings would have been nice, they appear to be largely unnecessary as the TK45 is waterproof to the extent that it survived being submerged in my bath-tub without any issues!
This dread Tub Of Doom has previously caused other lights to leak, despite said lights being rated for several meters of submersion!
Ye Dread Tub O' Doom. All the light is provided by the TK45 here. This is in about 6 inches of water.
The threads on the battery-tube are square-cut and hard-anodized, which not only allows for lock-out by unscrewing the tailcap about a full turn, but provides for exceptional longevity!
The beefy threads and equally beefy O-ring. The threads arrived mostly dry from the factory but are still quite smooth. A quick application of grease eased my mind and the threads as well.
The reflectors used, appear to be machined from solid aluminum and have a smooth surface with a lightly ridged appearance. They're screwed into the heads themselves and seem to be pressing against the lens from the inside, securing the seal against the O-rings.
A quite solid setup.
Back of one of the reflectors. You can see how it's screwed into the bezel.
The lenses themselves are glass and appear to be of high-quality.
The battery-carrier that receives the 8 AA batteries, is made from clear plastic -likely a polycarbonate or acrylic compound- with the gold-plated contacts and circuitboards screwed into it at each end. It seems well-constructed, although there is some rattle when the whole thing is installed inside the light, but it's not annoying and appears to have no detrimental effect on functionality.
The battery-carrier. Takes 8 AA batteries, either Alkaline or NiMh. I used Energizer 2300mAh batteries for this test. Note gold-plated contacts.
Only real weakness seems to be that the batteries come out quite easily when the carrier isn't installed.
The contacts that go inside the head. There are no contacts at the other end.
Again, they're nicely gold-plated.
Seems like a very solid setup.
Granted, if I were to use the TK45 as a bike-light or something similar, I'd likely want to wrap the carrier in something to completely eliminate this rattle, as continuous or sharp vibration could potentially damage the batteries.
The switch system on the TK45, which Fenix refers to as the Sidewinder system, is pretty interesting.
The right button (while holding the light in an over-hand grip) turns the light on and off.
The left button controls the levels.
Double-clicking the right button while the light is on, switches to the strobe mode, of which there are three.
The warning flash is a medium-speed repetitive flash. The SOS is, of course, SOS, although I feel it could do with some improvement as far as the timing goes. There isn't much noticeable difference between the dots and the dashes in the signal.
The "tactical strobe" setting is a quite fast and annoying strobe, which, if I had to guess, seems to be around the 14-17 hertz rate, which is just about right for tactical uses.
The switches, as mentioned earlier, are almost entirely silent, but provide a nice tactile click when pressed.
There is a miniscule delay when turning the light off, which is a little odd. When turning the light on, it comes on only when you release the button. Turning off is the same way, except for the additional small delay.
This is a very short delay, and may not even be noticed by most people, but it's something that caught my eye, while using the TK45.
Somewhat annoyingly, you cannot turn the TK45 on directly in strobe mode. Instead, double-clicking the right button while the light is off, only manages to turn the light on and off.
I personally would like that functionality.
The light remembers the previous output, but only if you leave it on that setting for a few seconds before turning the light off.
Output
(I'm going to apologize in advance for the lack of beamshots. My camera has been acting up lately and while it already kinda sucked for low-light shots, now it's positively abysmal!)
The output on the TK45 is fairly impressive.
While not the brightest light I own, it comes close.
The tint of the light is a cool, pure white that -although not a neutral white- provides excellent color rendition.
The beam produced by the three reflectors is quite floody, with a large central hotspot, surrounded by a wide spillbeam.
The transition between hotspot and spillbeam is very smooth and gradual with very few artifacts in the beam in general.
I did notice that, while on the lowest output, there is a dark spot in the center of the hotspot.
This doesn't really bother me though, and is really only noticeable while shining the light on a white wall.
This is partially caused, I believe, by the lowest output only firing up a single LED at a time, which is likely how the TK45 achieves it's remarkable low setting of only 8 lumens. Most high-power lights don't get anywhere near that kind of setting, which for the TK45 is a great feature, especially for long-term use.
Interestingly, cycling the light on and off in the low mode, also cycles between the three LED-heads, each one lighting in turn.
All four levels are spaced very well apart, each one providing a significant difference in output, which makes it easy to pick the appropriate level for the situation at hand.
Thermal management in the TK45 appears to be handled alright, despite the exterior of the light only having a few, somewhat desultory efforts at heat-sinking.
The thought may be that there is enough mass in the light to disperse the heat generated and this does seem to work well enough; however, the three bezels do get quite hot after several minutes on the high output and I think it would only be of benefit for Fenix to add some more heat-sinking fins to the exterior of the head-assembly. Certainly, it could only prolong the lifespan of the LEDs!
Runtimes appear to be roughly congruous with the numbers listed by Fenix, as does the output.
My runtimes were slightly lower as my batteries were not quite the same capacity as the ones used by Fenix.
The TK45 on the far left, compared to-moving from left to right- the LumaPower MVP-P7 and the EagleTac M2.
Same order as previous picture. Note how small the reflectors for the TK45 looks compared to the beastly reflector in the MVP-P7!
Conclusions
Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the Fenix TK45.
This being my first Fenix light that I've really had a chance to use and abuse, I'm definitely a lot more open to purchasing a Fenix light in the future. Their quality really seems quite outstanding, which I'm always happy to see.
The user interface of the TK45 is excellent in its simplicity and the performance of the light is also very impressive. It is not the brightest light that I own, that crown is still held by the EagleTac M2, however, the widely spaced output levels means that the TK45 may find use in situations where the higher low outputs of my other big lights would be too bright. Well over 200 hours of use on the low setting is very impressive and makes the TK45 outstanding for emergency use, especially given that you can run it on alkaline AA batteries which you can find pretty much all over the planet!
Environmental resistance also seems quite high, the design of the TK45 being seemingly more conducive to providing good protection against water and dirt ingress, vs something like the EagleTac M2 for instance, which is rather vulnerable in comparison.
I also really enjoy the feel of the TK45 in my hands. The weight and balance makes for a pleasant grip, especially combined with the great knurling approach. You can use it almost equally easily in either an over-hand or an under-hand grip. Although, when using it in an under-hand grip, I often find myself reaching for an imaginary tailcap switch.
The machining quality that Fenix employs is obviously also of a quite high standard and something that many companies could learn something from.
I did notice one thing that was potentially troubling however.
After having used the TK45 on high for a while, I'd set it aside for the night.
The following morning I undid the battery cap only to be greeted with a hiss of escaping gasses. For a second I thought the batteries had leaked but there was no evidence of such an event.
My concern about this is that the TK45 may be sealed so well that if there was a serious outgassing/leak event with that many AA batteries, the light could potentially blow up.
Incorporating some kind of one-way pressure valve may be advisable. This shouldn't require any radical changes in design and could for that matter be incorporated into the tail cap.
This could also just be a fluke with my unit and batteries so it may just be a storm in a glass of water.
I am going to keep using the TK45 and I'll report back if there are any repeat occurrences of this.
As it stands, the only quibbles I have with the TK45 are relatively minor and I really can't find any seriously good reason to NOT recommend the TK45.
It's a great light. Plain and simple. Go get one!
Fenix as a company has been around for a few years now. They're a Chinese manufacturer and one of the several now that have shown that not all products that come out of China are of poor quality.
With an almost bewildering array of products available, Fenix has attempted to fill the needs of almost anybody that is interested in flashlights that perform well for a quite reasonable price.
Today, for the first time ever here at Special Circumstances, we're going to take a look at one of their newest products, the TK45 flashlight.
The TK45 is the spiritual successor to the Fenix TK40, a large "searchlight"-type flashlight that came out a few years ago and one of the first of it's kind that allowed lumens outputs well over 600 lumens and doing so running only on readily-available AA batteries!
The TK45 differs radically from the TK40 however, by the virtue of using not one multi-core LED similar to the Seoul P7 we've seen previously in other reviews here, but instead using three smaller LEDs for a combined output of 760 lumens!
It achieves this by using the very latest LEDs developed by Cree, the XP-G R5.
Before I get into any more detail, I'll list the specs as they're written by Fenix.
• 3 x Cree XP-G LED (R5) with lifespan of 50,000 hours
• Four types of lighting mode:
Turbo (760 Lumens, 2Hrs) -> Low (8 Lumens, 232Hrs) ->
Mid (95 Lumens, 22Hrs) -> High (312 Lumens, 6.5 Hrs)
(Tested with 2500mAh Ni-MH battery)
• Three types of flashing mode: Strobe, SOS, Warning flash
• Max beam length: 200 meters
• Digitally regulated output - maintains constant brightness
• Intelligent memory function
• Outstanding heat sinking performance offers long working time in
Turbo mode
• Uses eight 1.5V AA (Ni-MH, Alkaline) batteries
• 202mm (Length) x 39.2mm (Diameter) x 56mm (Head)
• 324-gram weight (excluding batteries)
• Made of durable aircraft-grade aluminum
• Premium Type III hard-anodized anti-abrasive finish
• Waterproof to IPX-8 Standard
• Toughened ultra-clear glass lenses with anti-reflective coating
• Sidewinder dual switch system
• Capable of standing up securely on a flat surface to serve as a candle
• Included accessories: Lanyard
Design
The TK45 is quite unusual looking.
Unlike a lot of other multi-LED flashlights on the market, there is no single large head -with what is often a marginal reflector- instead the TK45 has three smaller, separate heads with individual reflectors for each LED.
This is where the marketing blurbs from Fenix likely got their idea for comparing the TK45 to a mini-gun, IE, it has multiple "barrels".
The three heads of the TK45. On the low output, these come on one at a time and the one that comes on, changes every time you turn it on in the low-mode.
The TK45 is surprisingly light for it's size. Once filled with the 8 AA batteries it requires, it does gain some heft, although it's still quite light.
The flashlight in general has excellent machining. I'd go so far as to call it flawless. I spotted no issues with the deep, black anodizing and the text that was on the light is clear and sharp.
The entire light is, with the exception of the "towers" that each bezel screws onto, hard-anodized in a very nice, even black. This includes the inside of the battery-tube and the inside of the tailcap.
The lanyard attachment point, opposite from the switches. Note how beefy it is. I would like to see Fenix just ever so slightly break the sharp edges here. It would make lanyard last much longer and provide less of a sharp corner for the hard anodizing to start flaking at.
The battery-tube. Note how surprisingly thin the walls are. This accounts largely for the lightness in weight.
This provides a very nice amount of grip and feels very nice in the hand.
Note the excellent machining. This is a great way to provide grip in my opinion. I did not notice any reduction in grip while my hands were wet or dirty.
The heft and balance feels very nice as well, the substantial circumference of the light providing plenty of surface to grip.
The two switches located below the head are rubber-covered and while almost silent, provide a nice tactile feel.
The switches. Left handles levels and the right is on/off/strobe mode. This setup is very easy to use in the dark as well. Assuming you can remember what left and right is...
At the business end of the light, each LED-head has a crenelated bezel, that allows you to see if you left the light on, when you set it on its head(s).
These are not particularly aggressive, so I wouldn't refer to them as an "impact bezel" or anything similar.
The TK45 comes apart in three main pieces, the head, the battery-tube and the tailcap, although you can also unscrew the LED-heads, which gives you immediate access to the LEDs themselves. Handy for future upgrades.
LED assembly. This particular light is a testing sample and was shipped with the XP-G R4, not the newer and brighter R5 that the production version will have. Expect the production version to be notably brighter!
LED pedestal or tower. The only non-anodized metal that I could find. These threads are also standard cut, not the square-cut you see elsewhere on the TK45.
Note the beefy O-ring!
LED pedestal with the bezel in place. Note the slight gap at the bottom. I'm not sure why that is there, but it offers little functional detriment, so... Erh. Meh.
Inside of the head. Note the large, gold-plated contact surfaces on the circuit board.
There are single O-rings installed at each end of the battery-tube, and while double O-rings would have been nice, they appear to be largely unnecessary as the TK45 is waterproof to the extent that it survived being submerged in my bath-tub without any issues!
This dread Tub Of Doom has previously caused other lights to leak, despite said lights being rated for several meters of submersion!
Ye Dread Tub O' Doom. All the light is provided by the TK45 here. This is in about 6 inches of water.
The beefy threads and equally beefy O-ring. The threads arrived mostly dry from the factory but are still quite smooth. A quick application of grease eased my mind and the threads as well.
A quite solid setup.
Back of one of the reflectors. You can see how it's screwed into the bezel.
The lenses themselves are glass and appear to be of high-quality.
The battery-carrier that receives the 8 AA batteries, is made from clear plastic -likely a polycarbonate or acrylic compound- with the gold-plated contacts and circuitboards screwed into it at each end. It seems well-constructed, although there is some rattle when the whole thing is installed inside the light, but it's not annoying and appears to have no detrimental effect on functionality.
The battery-carrier. Takes 8 AA batteries, either Alkaline or NiMh. I used Energizer 2300mAh batteries for this test. Note gold-plated contacts.
Only real weakness seems to be that the batteries come out quite easily when the carrier isn't installed.
The contacts that go inside the head. There are no contacts at the other end.
Again, they're nicely gold-plated.
Seems like a very solid setup.
Granted, if I were to use the TK45 as a bike-light or something similar, I'd likely want to wrap the carrier in something to completely eliminate this rattle, as continuous or sharp vibration could potentially damage the batteries.
The switch system on the TK45, which Fenix refers to as the Sidewinder system, is pretty interesting.
The right button (while holding the light in an over-hand grip) turns the light on and off.
The left button controls the levels.
Double-clicking the right button while the light is on, switches to the strobe mode, of which there are three.
The warning flash is a medium-speed repetitive flash. The SOS is, of course, SOS, although I feel it could do with some improvement as far as the timing goes. There isn't much noticeable difference between the dots and the dashes in the signal.
The "tactical strobe" setting is a quite fast and annoying strobe, which, if I had to guess, seems to be around the 14-17 hertz rate, which is just about right for tactical uses.
The switches, as mentioned earlier, are almost entirely silent, but provide a nice tactile click when pressed.
There is a miniscule delay when turning the light off, which is a little odd. When turning the light on, it comes on only when you release the button. Turning off is the same way, except for the additional small delay.
This is a very short delay, and may not even be noticed by most people, but it's something that caught my eye, while using the TK45.
Somewhat annoyingly, you cannot turn the TK45 on directly in strobe mode. Instead, double-clicking the right button while the light is off, only manages to turn the light on and off.
I personally would like that functionality.
The light remembers the previous output, but only if you leave it on that setting for a few seconds before turning the light off.
Output
(I'm going to apologize in advance for the lack of beamshots. My camera has been acting up lately and while it already kinda sucked for low-light shots, now it's positively abysmal!)
The output on the TK45 is fairly impressive.
While not the brightest light I own, it comes close.
The tint of the light is a cool, pure white that -although not a neutral white- provides excellent color rendition.
The beam produced by the three reflectors is quite floody, with a large central hotspot, surrounded by a wide spillbeam.
The transition between hotspot and spillbeam is very smooth and gradual with very few artifacts in the beam in general.
I did notice that, while on the lowest output, there is a dark spot in the center of the hotspot.
This doesn't really bother me though, and is really only noticeable while shining the light on a white wall.
This is partially caused, I believe, by the lowest output only firing up a single LED at a time, which is likely how the TK45 achieves it's remarkable low setting of only 8 lumens. Most high-power lights don't get anywhere near that kind of setting, which for the TK45 is a great feature, especially for long-term use.
Interestingly, cycling the light on and off in the low mode, also cycles between the three LED-heads, each one lighting in turn.
All four levels are spaced very well apart, each one providing a significant difference in output, which makes it easy to pick the appropriate level for the situation at hand.
Thermal management in the TK45 appears to be handled alright, despite the exterior of the light only having a few, somewhat desultory efforts at heat-sinking.
The thought may be that there is enough mass in the light to disperse the heat generated and this does seem to work well enough; however, the three bezels do get quite hot after several minutes on the high output and I think it would only be of benefit for Fenix to add some more heat-sinking fins to the exterior of the head-assembly. Certainly, it could only prolong the lifespan of the LEDs!
Runtimes appear to be roughly congruous with the numbers listed by Fenix, as does the output.
My runtimes were slightly lower as my batteries were not quite the same capacity as the ones used by Fenix.
The TK45 on the far left, compared to-moving from left to right- the LumaPower MVP-P7 and the EagleTac M2.
Same order as previous picture. Note how small the reflectors for the TK45 looks compared to the beastly reflector in the MVP-P7!
Conclusions
Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the Fenix TK45.
This being my first Fenix light that I've really had a chance to use and abuse, I'm definitely a lot more open to purchasing a Fenix light in the future. Their quality really seems quite outstanding, which I'm always happy to see.
The user interface of the TK45 is excellent in its simplicity and the performance of the light is also very impressive. It is not the brightest light that I own, that crown is still held by the EagleTac M2, however, the widely spaced output levels means that the TK45 may find use in situations where the higher low outputs of my other big lights would be too bright. Well over 200 hours of use on the low setting is very impressive and makes the TK45 outstanding for emergency use, especially given that you can run it on alkaline AA batteries which you can find pretty much all over the planet!
Environmental resistance also seems quite high, the design of the TK45 being seemingly more conducive to providing good protection against water and dirt ingress, vs something like the EagleTac M2 for instance, which is rather vulnerable in comparison.
I also really enjoy the feel of the TK45 in my hands. The weight and balance makes for a pleasant grip, especially combined with the great knurling approach. You can use it almost equally easily in either an over-hand or an under-hand grip. Although, when using it in an under-hand grip, I often find myself reaching for an imaginary tailcap switch.
The machining quality that Fenix employs is obviously also of a quite high standard and something that many companies could learn something from.
I did notice one thing that was potentially troubling however.
After having used the TK45 on high for a while, I'd set it aside for the night.
The following morning I undid the battery cap only to be greeted with a hiss of escaping gasses. For a second I thought the batteries had leaked but there was no evidence of such an event.
My concern about this is that the TK45 may be sealed so well that if there was a serious outgassing/leak event with that many AA batteries, the light could potentially blow up.
Incorporating some kind of one-way pressure valve may be advisable. This shouldn't require any radical changes in design and could for that matter be incorporated into the tail cap.
This could also just be a fluke with my unit and batteries so it may just be a storm in a glass of water.
I am going to keep using the TK45 and I'll report back if there are any repeat occurrences of this.
As it stands, the only quibbles I have with the TK45 are relatively minor and I really can't find any seriously good reason to NOT recommend the TK45.
It's a great light. Plain and simple. Go get one!
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