4Sevens Quark TurboX Neutral: General Impressions, with Beam Temp. Photo vs. TK11-R2

A quick look at the 4Sevens Quark "TurboX" neutral white.

I haven't seen much about the TurboX line here on CPF, so I thought I'd post a little info and a couple of photos.

"As received", the light is in perfect condition with no cosmetic issues. Both head and tailcap threads feel good. There was a bit of lube on the o-rings, but the light must have been sitting a while because things felt a little sticky or tacky when I first unscrewed the head and tail. I added a little extra lube for good measure.

The emitter is well centered and has no apparent flaws in the dome or die. The reflector is nice and clean, and the lens is perfect. I'm especially glad about the lens; it's nice and clear with no flaws. I kind of have a pet peeve about lenses, because I've gotten some brand-new lights out of the box that had cloudy lenses (a Fenix TK11 R5, and two Quark Minis).

The forward-click (momentary style) tail switch has a long travel before the "click" engages. This is nice in a way because you can almost use it like a momentary-only SureFire 6P/G2/C2... tail switch, if you lay your thumb on it right.

Also, the body tube was wide enough to accept an AW 17670 Li-Ion cell, even with the silver label still on there. It's a slightly snug fit, but it goes in easily enough to not worry about rubbing the plastic wrapper off. The cell I had handy was reading about 4 volts, and a current measurement at the tail, on maximum output, gave a reading of about 1.4 amps. Based on this, I'd be leery about running it off a single RCR123a unless it was an IMR that could handle the current. A RCR123a is rated at 750mAh capacity, which would put it pretty close to a 2C discharge rate on the light's maximum mode.

The beam is nice and symmetrical, with 4 faint "lobes" around the center hotspot, which I believe is a result of the XM-L shape and it's location in the reflector. If the lobes bother you, just remind yourself that this means the emitter is at the optimum focal point for best throw

The beam color temperature seems to be towards the high end of the neutral white scale. In fact, I'd venture a guess that these may be the "outdoor white" emitters from Cree. Compared to the old Fenix TK20, the TurboX neutral is much cooler. If you consider the TK20, or neutral lights in general to be too yellow or gold for your taste, the TurboX neutral may be more to your liking. Note that the XM-Ls in general seem to have some yellow tint to them, but this isn't the same thing as color temp.

So far I'm really pleased with it, and I haven't even had the chance to try it out in the dark yet. I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen more about these lights on CPF, but it maybe the new 4sevens neutral lights got a bad rep here early on and that's been holding back sales. If so that's a shame, because tint and color temperature are highly subjective things, and a color that one person hates may be perfect to another person. Really I've found that you won't really know until you take the plunge and try the light out in person. Yeah, sometimes you'll end up with something you don't like, but you can always sell it or gift it to someone. The flip side is that every now and then you get a real gem of a light.
I think I've got one here. :thumbsup:



TurboX with Fenix TK11-R2 and SureFire C2








If you thought the head on the TK10 was too big when that light first came out, then you'll really be surprised by the TurboX head! It's a big sucker!







TurboX in the hand. I'm about 6'4" and have large, but not huge, hands.









SureFire C2 in the hand for size reference










Beamshot of the TurboX neutral (left) and Fenix TK11-R2 (right). The X is on medium, and the TK11 is on low mode (about 65 lumens). This was taken in the afternoon, with the room blinds closed. The camera was set on "daylight" white balance.






By the way, if you have your own TurboX photos, please feel free to post 'em up in this thread, especially beamshots because that's what people usually want to see when looking for light review info, and there's just not that much out there in general on the TurboX. Thanks!

I actually just got a Turbo X today with cool tint with the early bird special discount, it's a great light and if 4sevens throws one of the neutral versions up on their Black Friday Blitz then I will get it. The head is large but the payoff is really good throw and since the lumen count is so high the spill is nice and bright, it's a great light to EDC in a coat pocket and it will be in mine this winter.

Very nice write up on that light in NW. I couldn't wait any longer to see if 4sevens would come out with a NW or WW version so I went ahead and modded both mine to an almost perfect T5 5D emitter, which is much warmer than the NW they have out now. Then they came out with it almost a month afterward. I tested the NW version out at Going Gear and I estimate it to be around 5000K temp, while both mine comes in at 4000K. I really like the color rendering of the 5D. Also one of mine has a perfectly centered LED also and that reveals the 4 faint lobes around the hotspot that you talk about. In my experiences, a perfectly centered LED tend to reveal something similar to the lobes around the hotspot AND a doughnut hole that everyone keeps complaining about when white wall hunting. It doesn't bother because I don't usually look for white walls when I need to use my lights.

I've got one on the way as well... I'm excited to see how it throws.

Is there a way to purchase the turbo x head but with the single 123 body, or would you have to buy two lights and swap the parts?

Regarding throw, I posted the question on the 4sevens marketplace page, and a member came up with the answer. Looks like it's around 10,000 lux.

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?258627-What-is-the-lux-(at-1-meter)-for-the-Turbo-X


On the 123a body question, you'd have to buy the light and then buy the single 123a body separately for another $20. You'd probably want to run it on an IMR though due to the current draw on max (or program it to something besides max). On a primary (3V) 123a cell, you may not get very much output.

I tried the TurboX head on a 2AA body, and it would only put out about 20 or 30 lumens; it looked about like a regular Quark on medium. That's good for backup or emergency purposes, but normally you wouldn't want to run that setup.



By the way, I forgot to mention before: The programming mode has been modified a bit as compared to the original tactical lights. It seems to take more tight/loose cycles with the head to enter programming mode (which is good - prevents accidentally going to program mode). Also, the indicator flashes are at much reduced power instead of the maxiumum bright flash signals that the previous program mode had.

One update regarding single Li-Ion use -


I ran a 17670 cell down until the light dropped out of regulation. It dropped to about 20 lumens or so I think (it had been running in medium mode).

I pulled the cell out and checked the voltage and it read about 2.7 volts, just fyi.

Well I just ordered the NW Turbo X, after using the regular Turbo X the past few days it has really proven itself with it's excellent beam that's great with the throw and it has a fairly wide bright spill for such a thrower.

So after seeing the beamshots here the curiosity got the better of me and I can't wait to see that nice beam in neutral tint.

last week i had a chance to use mine when we were replacing the shocks on a friends truck and it started to get dark. I ran it for about an hour and a half on turbo with a 1800Mah ultrafire 17670 on turbo and it didnt drop out of reg till the hour and 15-20 minute mark. its a great floody light but doesnt throw much more then 75 yards.

Lopezepol75 said:

last week i had a chance to use mine when we were replacing the shocks on a friends truck and it started to get dark. I ran it for about an hour and a half on turbo with a 1800Mah ultrafire 17670 on turbo and it didnt drop out of reg till the hour and 15-20 minute mark. its a great floody light but doesnt throw much more then 75 yards.

Click to expand...

How much output do you think your loosing using 17670, was thinking of ordering a couple but don't want to sacrifice output.

jhc37013 said:

How much output do you think your loosing using 17670, was thinking of ordering a couple but don't want to sacrifice output.

Click to expand...

I didnt measure the outputs between a 17670 and two CR123As but it didnt seem like i lost that much output. I also tried it with a AA body with one 14450( trying to make the greatest pocket rocket ever) but that jumped down to less than 100 lumens or so immediately.

I'm running mine on a imr 16340. There's no drop in output from 2xcr123. In the single 16340 its a phenomenal pocket size thrower. According to selfbuilt, my jetbeam bc10 has 7000 lux... so 10,000-12,000 is probably about right. Hopefully my xml d mini will be here tomorrow to compare.