Could my Fenix PD22 be miscalibrated?

Just picked up a Fenix PD22 today. (Not the s2 model)

The low setting is suppose to be 8 lumens, with a medium of 46, High of 95 and turbo of 190.

The 8 lumen does NOT look like 8 lumen. It is many times brighter that my Sunwayman R01A (10L) or my iTP C8 when it is set on 6L. It looks much closer to my JetBeam BA20 when it's set on 30L, or my Colemen XL50 set on 25L.

Also, while I can see SOME difference between the low and medium settings, it isn't very noticeable. Seems like the diff between low and medium is ~25% to the visible eye, Since 46/8 = 5.75, I would expect the difference between these two setting to be ~double (or maybe a tad more) in perceived brightness.

Is it possible that my PD22 is miscalibrated, or is that normal for Fenix? The primary reason I bought the PD22 was the 98 hour run time on low, and would be bummed out if the low setting was sucking up amps faster than it was suppose to.

Ideas?

Comments?

Thanks!

Sounds unusual. What battery did you use with the flashlight?

Came with a plain old Tenergy CR123

Now that the battery has had a half hour or so of use, it seems like the low setting has gotten a bit dimmer. I'm also seeing a bigger difference now between low and medium. Wonder if the initial voltage on the battery was in the high range and was over driving the LED?

I guess time will tell. Maybe I'll hook up my multi-meter and see how much current it's drawing on each setting.

My LD20 also does this when used with alkalizes. It loses the low mode so I have 2 medium modes. That might be the case with the PD22...

Fenix's modes are very voltage sensitive. I lose low mode in my LD20 with fresh alkalines (used only for testing) and low and medium with L91's until the voltage drops. Same with the E21. The low mode is noticeably brighter on fresh alkalines and much brighter on L91's. My PD20 suffers no such fault. I only use CR123 primaries in it, as RCR123 is a no go to my understanding.

Thanks for the info!
Guess I'll keep this one and not send it in for repairs since the brighter than normal low seems to be a Fenix "feature"

Sent from my GT-P6210 using Tapatalk 2

Actually, I think your Sunwayman is also part of your worries, LOL. Sunwayman tends to underrate the high and overrate the lows. My V11R is supposed to have a 4 lumens minimum, but it's much closer to 0.4 lumens, even with an RCR (which is really what I want to start with.) The Fenix lows seem a little underrated too, so I wouldn't worry one bit. You can always leave your PD22 on low and do a complete runtime test if you want to feel 100% confident about it, but I assure you there is no cause for concern. Yes, the low tends to be a little higher than rated when you use a fresh battery. I believe the PD22 and LD22 heads are the same, so the circuit is designed for 3.0 volts. It can take higher voltages, but lacks the buck regulator to bring the voltage down.