What emitter does the Zebralight SC51w have? (and other questions)

I'm about to get a Zebralight SC51w (neutral-white/warm version), and I was wondering what kind of XP-G emitter it had in it (R4, R5, S2). I'm guessing R4?

If so, I have 2 questions:

1) Would it be possible that Zebralight would ever update the R4 to a R5 or S2, or heaven forbid, an XM-L? Would there be any benefit in doing so? I'm all about the latest and greatest technology, and I kind of feel uneasy about getting a light with R4, when there are similar lights with more "powerful" bins out there (R5, S2).

2) If the SC51w did come in a R5 or S2, would there be a neutral-white version at all? Is that even physically possible with a R5 or S2 emitter? Or is the neutral-white unique to the R4 emitter?

I'm not too flashlight-savvy, so hopefully somebody can clear all of this up.

good question as I have been wondering this myself

The neutral leds are not as bright as the cool ones. They put a extra thick layer of phosphore on the led, and it will filter out some light. So it's prob a R4 or less. If you always buy the newest and brightest, you prob will get some % of the lights with angry, ugly tint's. For me tint matters more than output. I can't see the difference in output between the newest and greatest bins, even side by side. But a bad tint will ruin any light for me.

The xm-l is a bigger led than the xp-g and it will be floddy in a small reflector. And the xm-l will prob only be running under 1/2 of it's potential in this small light. All my ledlights have the best tints when it's driven pretty hard. In my mind, its like taking a truck engine and put it in a car. Then tune it down to 160 hp and 200 Nm, because it's not safe to unleash it's power in the poor sedan. It's better to use the xp-g. It's driven harder, and will make a brighter (but smaller) hotspot than the xm-l. I actually prefer a small xp-e in a small light, because it will throw the light a good distance. That is like taking a motorbike engine and put it in a motorbike It wont have as mutch power as the car engine (xp-g) or truck engine (xm-l), but it has the right size/power to shine in a mc.

I have a H51 and a H51w (which are the headlight version of the SC51 & SC51w.) The LED's in both look to be the same size which leads me to believe the LED in the H51w is a R5. I also have a SC30 which has a R4 LED in it which is smaller than both the H51 & H51w. I also have a Quark with a S2 LED in it, and to my untrained eye it appears bigger than the LED in the H51w. I'm pretty sure ZL used a R5 in the SC51w and simply coated the LED with Phosphor to get the desired color of light.

Also, zebralight is already releasing XM-L versions of their lights. So far they've released a SC600, SC600w, and H600. The next to be released this month will be the H502 & the H502w soon after (both pure flood & running on a single AA.) Here's a link to their soon to be released lights - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Fc0FfUDFVSHVNS1E&hl=en&authkey=CNqP6KIC#gid=0

There is no size differene between a xp-g r4/r5/s2

jorn said:

The xm-l is a bigger led than the xp-g and it will be floddy in a small reflector. And the xm-l will prob only be running under 1/2 of it's potential in this small light. All my ledlights have the best tints when it's driven pretty hard. In my mind, its like taking a truck engine and put it in a car. Then tune it down to 160 hp and 200 Nm, because it's not safe to unleash it's power in the poor sedan. It's better to use the xp-g. It's driven harder, and will make a brighter (but smaller) hotspot than the xm-l.

Click to expand...

They are releasing a newer XML version, see threads about H502. It wont be driven to its full potential with 1 aa obviously but they are claiming 50% more output as compared to the current XP-G SC/H51. No idea on runtime comparison yet though. I'm waiting patiently for its release. It will also be a floody light versus the spot+spill of the SC/H51.