New Zebralight?

Since my Quark AA broke down and warranty repairs take a long time, I need a replacement AA light with moonlight mode and no PWM. After looking around at various models I decided I wanted an SC52w, but nobody has them in stock. I emailed Zebralight and they responded that it's discontinued and a new light is coming out soon. Does anybody know anything about this new light? There are no AA lights upcoming on the Zebralight spreadsheet and I'm a little worried that they're going to jump on the "abandoning the AA format" fad.

Thanks for any info anybody has.

the new light maybe they call it SC52 L2

shelm said:

the new light maybe they call it SC52 L2

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I don't care what they call it, but I hope it's a single-AA light with run time and lumens as good or better than the SC52. I wonder why it's not on the spreadsheet? Did ZL discover a design flaw in the SC52? That light hasn't even been on the market for a year.

It figures that you can't buy a Zebralight AA flashlight right now, right when I need one to replace another broken AA light. I'm sure Murphy's Law will cause the new light to become available right when I'd be getting my Quark back, maybe sometime in March.

EDIT - I don't understand the business sense in Zebralight halting sales of the SC52 while there is no replacement. Wouldn't it make more business sense to keep selling the SC52 until the replacement is shipping?

I don't get it. Seems like the SC52(w) had a lot more life to go yet. And as mentioned, no replacement in line as of now. Maybe they got tired of me complaining about the green tint and gave up altogether

shelm said:

the new light maybe they call it SC52 L2

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The SC52w already came with an XM-L2 emitter.

I suspect all they're doing is preparing an updated revision of the SC52w that uses the latest UI. I don't think there will be any noticeable changes to the exterior case or LED.

Just get a regular SC52 from somewhere like Illumination Supply, that still has them in stock. The XM-L2 is only about 11% brighter than an XM-L. If 11% is important to you, then you can wait several months until ZL has them in stock (if they can ever keep them in stock).

The old SC52 has 3 moonlight modes to play with. All quite efficient. All low and medium modes have good run-times. Once you get to the high modes, the run-times don't last long, but it's only a single AA so you can't expect much. Note that ZL's claimed outputs are higher than what you really get, but it's still the brightest single-AA on the market.

This is good news, I gave my wife my sc52w after seeing the tint. I went back to my sc51w, waiting for the next model.

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Chris

Chrisdm said:

This is good news, I gave my wife my sc52w after seeing the tint. I went back to my sc51w, waiting for the next model.

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Not green enough for you? ;-)

Fireclaw18 said:

The SC52w already came with an XM-L2 emitter.

I suspect all they're doing is preparing an updated revision of the SC52w that uses the latest UI. I don't think there will be any noticeable changes to the exterior case or LED.

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I think so too. The SC600 Mk II (XML) was released March 2013 and discontinued later that year, replaced by the XM-L2 version with the updated user interface.

beamis said:

I don't understand the business sense in Zebralight halting sales of the SC52 while there is no replacement. Wouldn't it make more business sense to keep selling the SC52 until the replacement is shipping?

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Perhaps they ran out of parts? I noticed the only model on their spreadsheet still using the XML (not counting SC32 or S5310 that never were released) that hasn't been relegated to the "discontinued Products"-section is the H502, which is currently on back order. Another possible explanation could be that maintaining production of the SC52 XML would slow down production of the new SC62 (and other models with the new UI).

Interesting. Just before Christmas, there was a few days where they started selling the SC52w again. Bought one as soon as I saw them in stock. Then a day or two after purchasing it, out of stock again.

Admittedly though, I do prefer the SC51w over the SC52w. Unfortunately, I left said light back in Cambodia. IMHO, a light this size, an XP-G2 is more than enough.

One theory is that the person making the decisions at ZebraLight really likes bright, reasonably long runtime, torches, and the AA/14500 size battery does not have very much capacity (and amperage(?) Not withstanding the upcoming 14500 Nuke from MBI), especially compared to an 18650. So the SC62 and SC32 models will be offered. But I can't believe ZL will abandon the AA format.

KITROBASKIN said:

One theory is that the person making the decisions at ZebraLight really likes bright, reasonably long runtime, torches, and the AA/14500 size battery does not have very much capacity (and amperage(?) Not withstanding the upcoming 14500 Nuke from MBI), especially compared to an 18650. So the SC62 and SC32 models will be offered. But I can't believe ZL will abandon the AA format.

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Really bright with a long run time doesn't mean anything when you can't get the batteries. How many 18650 primaries with a 20-year shelf life are there? Plus, some people like to be able to charge their batteries without fear of burning their house down.

KITROBASKIN said:

One theory is that the person making the decisions at ZebraLight really likes bright, reasonably long runtime, torches, and the AA/14500 size battery does not have very much capacity (and amperage(?) Not withstanding the upcoming 14500 Nuke from MBI), especially compared to an 18650. So the SC62 and SC32 models will be offered. But I can't believe ZL will abandon the AA format.

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Almost all the claimed mAh values of 16340 cells are fake and actual values will be sometimes much lower than decent quality 14500 cells so I doubt the SC32 will ever be released if that is their reasoning!

Either that or they are simply updating the UI which may possibly be slightly more efficient...I'd put my money on this one

beamis said:

Really bright with a long run time doesn't mean anything when you can't get the batteries. How many 18650 primaries with a 20-year shelf life are there? Plus, some people like to be able to charge their batteries without fear of burning their house down.

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Put a 123a spacer and one 123a battery in it.........there you go
never leave anything charging unattended in your house, not even a laptop, but how many laptops do you hear about smoking? some yes but there are MILLIONS of them.
next time you watch a football game or movie charge 4 batteries close by and those will last over a month.

Got an email from E2 Field Gear saying that the SC52 line may be updated with a PID (like the new SC600).

RIX TUX said:

Put a 123a spacer and one 123a battery in it.........there you go...

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Probably won't work well on ZLs due to its internal batt meter and auto-step-downs. The SC52 doesn't fully support 3v CRAAs (50 lm max).

reppans said:

Probably won't work well on ZLs due to its internal batt meter and auto-step-downs. The SC52 doesn't fully support 3v CRAAs (50 lm max).

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Did you try it?

RIX TUX said:

Did you try it?

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I don't think there's much need to check. The light will read the voltage as 3.0 volts and take that to mean it's a nearly depleted lithium ion battery and run accordingly.

I have tried using CR123s in place of 18650s on H600s

It's true that it will not operate on the highest outputs. But it does fine on the lower outputs, which in the H600 are still over 100 lumens.

ETA--sorry to be vague, but it was some months ago that I tried this, and I don't remember whether it would only support the M1 & M2 levels (like 65 tops), or whether it also supported some of the lower H2 levels (e.g. 150 or 330). I do remember that it would not support H1, but then that's over 1000 lumens.

What I remember about it was thinking, 'If I need to feed this thing on 123s in an emergency, I will still have an excellent functional headlamp, better than anything I could get 5 or 10 years ago." The details I have forgotten.

RIX TUX said:

Put a 123a spacer and one 123a battery in it.........there you go

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Then there's the problem of compatibility. I don't want separate chargers and batteries for every device I have. Right now every battery-powered device I own that doesn't charge its own internal battery takes AA batteries (some need spacers to fit 'C' sized slots). I don't buy lithium-powered flashlights for the same reason I don't buy point and shoot cameras that take non-standard batteries.

RIX TUX said:

never leave anything charging unattended in your house, not even a laptop, but how many laptops do you hear about smoking? some yes but there are MILLIONS of them.
next time you watch a football game or movie charge 4 batteries close by and those will last over a month.

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How many NiMH batteries have your heard of smoking or catching fire?