I love my Quark AA and have ran it on a 14500 since the day I got it. That said, I sometimes get frustrated at skipping past the brightest setting to the silly blinking modes and have to go clear around again. The Quark's moonlight mode is a lot dimmer than my old Fenix, which I also have liked. The Quark does have a very brief "full-brightness" flash when you first turn it on but if you are used to it you can either close your eyes/look away, or cover the lens, etc, when turning it on. 4Sevens even sent me a free replacement spacer to better fit my 14500 a few months after I got my light because it was acting strange if I screwed everything down all the way; either I had to leave the clip a bit loose and jiggly, or screw it down and the clicky wouldn't work right. The new spacer just screwed right in in place of the old one in the tailcap (where the battery spring is).
I recently pulled the trigger on the Sunwayman V10A, so now I can directly compare the 2. I considered the V10R but I really prefer 14500 over CR123 cells and so I figured getting the Titanium plus the optional AA spacer would practically double the cost just to get Titanium and be able to use CR123 which I'd probably never do anyway, so I just got the V10A and have ran nothing but 14500 in it since day 1. I REALLY like knowing that if I am out camping or whatever and my 14500 dies, I can just toss in a regular AA, a lithium AA, whatever I can find, and be right back in business although with less max lumens. There really isn't any substitute for CR123's :-(
The head is a little longer on the V10A, making the reflector visibly deeper. The orange peel texture is a lot deeper on the V10A, whereas the peel texture on the Quark is very subtle.
Side-by-side, the V10A is about 5.5mm longer and about 1mm larger diameter. The white diffuser cap (think 3" long light-saber
that fits my Quark will NOT go onto the V10A.
The color on the Quark is IMO perfect, not cool but not really warm either, just a natural light. The V10A is definitely a cooler tint, but it doesn't make anything look "blue".
The Throw is better on the Quark AA. , the spot is actually narrower on the Quark and so the V10A is better for spill such as walking at night and gives a wider path. The spot on the Quark tapers off suddenly where the V10A is a lot smoother transition from spot to spill. So despite the higher lumens on the V10A, when running both lights at 3.7 volts off freshly charged 14500s, the Quark throws better; neighbor's trees a few houses away can still be spotlighted up with the Quark much farther away than Sunwayman. If throw is important to you, do not buy the V10A based on lumens for comparison between lights! I don't know if replacing the V10A reflector with a smooth/smoother texture would help or if it's even possible in this light.
The clickie on the Quark does NOT momentary-on; the light doesn't turn on until you fully depress AND release the clickie, and it turns off as soon as you first depress to "click" it off.
The clickie on the V10A is tactical, you CAN momentary-on with it without pressing it clear in to where it "clicks" on. Doing morse code with it could be a little tricky as the light doesn't instant-on to the dialed-in brightness at lower levels, it sort of dims quickly up to it which you only notice if you are attempting morse code. Dialing the brightness up all the way eliminates the issue; it is instant-on to full brightness when dialed all the way up. So if your thumb and your morse code is really fast, you'll have to use full brightness.
The moonlight on the Quark is really low, I've always liked it but sometimes I still cup my fist around it just to keep it really dim.
The moonlight on the V10A is REALLY REALLY LOW! It makes the Quark look downright bright in comparison. I really like a low low, and I have no trouble dialing up the V10A just a bit and making it the exact same as the Quark. The infinitely variable levels on the V10A are far more versatile than the preset levels on the Quark.
The Quark operates as follows;
with head tightened all the way, you turn it on and it's in "turbo" or max brightness, and a quick half-press (or off and on if you over-press) switches to an annoying strobe that is supposed to disorient your attackers in a blazing gun battle or something.
with head loosened a little (even a 1/16th turn is enough), your turn it on and it starts in Moonlight, then quick half-press (or off and on) goes through the following sequence; Low, Medium, High (not as bright as Turbo), SOS, Beacon, and then back to Moonlight again.
The V10A operates as follows; dial the brightness you want, and either tactical/momentary half-press or fully-press the clickie to turn the light off or on. The brightness doesn't change unless you touch the dial (or the batteries run out I suppose
... No silly SOS, strobing, blinking, etc. I say, if you want a beacon, buy a frickin' beacon! I might miss my Quark the next time I'm facing attackers in a blazing gun battle, however. Ah well.
I really like being able to dial the brightness level wherever I want it, especially before turning on the light, and being able to turn the light off and back on again without any risk of the brightness level ramping up because I only had the light off for a few seconds. The Quark is just a pain that way sometimes.
The Quark's clip is removable, but it is NOT coming off accidentally unless you actually snap it. The clip that came with the Sunwayman seems very sturdy but I would never ever want to have the light get caught on something and lose my light because the clip managed to pull away. I Koppo wrapped both lights with black 3mm paracord (search YouTube for Koppo Lanyard Wrap) so I don't care about the clip anyway.
The Quark came with a nice nylon velcro belt pouch, the V10A did not. The V10A doesn't fit into the Quark's pouch, being 5.5mm longer it won't close so the velcro stays open and can snag your shirt.
BTW If anyone knows where to get a velcro belt pouch and/or diffuser caps that are a perfect fit for the V10A, send me a PM please
