rookiedaddy
Enlightened
Thanks to XTAR, received a unit of D36 5800 from them ~3 weeks ago for testing. This is a diving light, but as I'm not a diver, this review will based on my usage experience. Unlike my other review, there will be no runtime test for any of the High nor Turbo mode due to the fact that I do not have the proper water submerge setup to measure the output vs runtime... other reason includes the heat generated is higher than usual compare to other lights in my possession.
The one sentence short review for this XTAR D36 5800 is:
This is an All-in-One wannabe Floodlight and Spotlight selectable High Output diving light with OLED status display, very good LED tint, stiff switch buttons, inconvenience battery charging method that require very special care during battery insertion/installation after charging with confusing UI.
First, let look at the specification table:
The package comes in a budget plastic storage case, the case is not waterproof nor splash-resistant.
At a glance...
Included are XTAR D36 5800 Diving light, charger, user manual, 2 x spare O-ring, and a locking wrist-lanyard.
The battery pack was pre-installed in the light itself with no insulation, and... it's fully charged when I received it.
Double o-ring for better water-proofness. :thumbsup:
Inside the body, towards the head, there are battery terminal contacts. Notice the small notch at the top of the picture, that's the guide for the battery pack to be inserted properly. So you cannot install the battery with incorrectly positioned contacts. That's a good design consideration. However, as I found out in many battery recharging occasions, this does not prevent the D36 from acting up.
The battery pack contacts...
Label and charging port at the other side of the battery pack...
D36 tailcap. No tailstand.
BP36-3500 battery pack charging in progress, an LED light up in RED color.
when charging completed, the LED changed to green color.
The 2 CREE LEDs for D36 5800. On the left is CREE XHP35-HI D4 LED sitting beneath a light orange peel reflector for Spotlight, the tint is pure white, my guess is 6000K, whereas on the right is the CREE XHP70.2 P2 LED sitting "with" what appears to be a shallow disc to project a mule-like full flood output, the tint is very nice neutral-cool with a touch of rosy hint mixed-in, my guess is ~5300K. Everyone that I shown this floodlight to has positively pointed out that the tint is nice.
So far, lights that I received from XTAR for testing and review has surpassed other manufacturers like Fenix, Olight, SureFire, NiteCore in LED tint selection. They just seems to hit the nicest tint for their lights. I wonder what's their secrets...
The D36 5800 flashlight...
... is heavy... :nana:
Let's spend some time with the OLED display... it's the biggest feature of this XTAR flashlight release. Upon insertion of the battery pack, you are greeted with the XTAR logo...
and then with a slogan... "Power in your hands"...
When D36 5800 is Off, if you pressed and hold down the left button, it will display the battery status in percentage and whether the flashlight is locked or unlocked for use... below picture shows that the D36 5800 is locked.
D36 can be electronically locked by holding the right button for more than 3 seconds when the flashlight is Off. It can be unlocked the same way or by loosening out the battery pack and reinstall.
the following picture shows that the light is unlocked... that 0% is one of the issue I experienced when inserting the battery pack it somehow confuses the internal circuitry.
another issue I experienced is the OLED always shows 100% and 999 minutes runtime, even when using the Turbo or High mode.
the only reliable way I found with my review unit to not have any battery related hiccup when inserting the battery, is to lay the D36 5800 on a flat surface upside-down (bezel down), drop the battery pack slowly into the D36 body tube, wait for the XTAR logo and slogan to come on and screw back the tailcap while D36 5800 is still on the flat surface.
following are pictures of the OLED displaying different modes and remaining runtime in minutes... clicking the right button to turn the flashlight on, we get Floodlight (as indicated at the top left icon) of 4200 lumens
clicking the right button again, we will then switch to Spotlight (as indicated by the top middle icon) of 1600 lumens
clicking the right button again, and both Floodlight and Spotlight will turn-On at the same time, giving the theoretical max output of 5800 lumens.
at this point, another click of the right button will turn-Off the D36 5800 flashlight.
Now, let's try the left button... first, turn the flashlight On by clicking the right button... you get the Floodlight of 4200 high lumens...
now when you click on the left button, the floodlight will cycle down to the lower 2100 lumens mid mode...
and when you click the left button again, the floodlight will continue to cycle down to the 1200 lumens low mode
at this point, if you continue to click on the left button, it will again cycle back to the high mode of 4200 lumens.
clicking the right-button will bring you to Spotlight mode, regardless of which Floodlight mode you're at...
here we were switched to the highest Spotlight mode of 1600 lumens...
clicking the left button will cycle the Spotlight to mid mode of 750 lumens...
and clicking the left button again will bring us to the lowest 400 lumens
like Floodlight, the mode switch (left button) will cycle from High-Mid-Low and back to High again if you continue to click on the left button.
now, clicking the right button again will bring D36 5800 to Max Floodlight + Spotlight mode of 5800 lumens...
I'm guessing by now you might have suspected that there are no way to turn the D36 5800 flashlight Off unless we cycle through Floodlight >>> Spotlight >>> Floodlight + Spotlight >>> Off!
See the following for a UI diagram...
Yes, we can't turn off this thing unless we cycle through both the LED. XTAR, come-on!
Following are output I measured with my lightbox...
as usual, my disclaimer: I do not claim the above measured lumens as authoritative nor an indication of over/under-stating the number given by manufacturer. It's calibrated against some known light output (e.g. SureFire, Elzetta, etc.) so take it with a grain of salt and just as a relative reading.
Following is a whiteboard shot of the beam profile, first, the Floodlight...
then, the Spotlight
that's not a special effect on the left side of the picture above, it does seems like a light is leak from the centre... it creates a science-fiction kind of feeling when white-walling...
and here we have the full glory of Floodlight + Spotlight together...
In conclusion, I have the following to suggest to XTAR:
Thanks for reading.
The one sentence short review for this XTAR D36 5800 is:
This is an All-in-One wannabe Floodlight and Spotlight selectable High Output diving light with OLED status display, very good LED tint, stiff switch buttons, inconvenience battery charging method that require very special care during battery insertion/installation after charging with confusing UI.
First, let look at the specification table:
The package comes in a budget plastic storage case, the case is not waterproof nor splash-resistant.
At a glance...
Included are XTAR D36 5800 Diving light, charger, user manual, 2 x spare O-ring, and a locking wrist-lanyard.
The battery pack was pre-installed in the light itself with no insulation, and... it's fully charged when I received it.
Double o-ring for better water-proofness. :thumbsup:
Inside the body, towards the head, there are battery terminal contacts. Notice the small notch at the top of the picture, that's the guide for the battery pack to be inserted properly. So you cannot install the battery with incorrectly positioned contacts. That's a good design consideration. However, as I found out in many battery recharging occasions, this does not prevent the D36 from acting up.
The battery pack contacts...
Label and charging port at the other side of the battery pack...
D36 tailcap. No tailstand.
BP36-3500 battery pack charging in progress, an LED light up in RED color.
when charging completed, the LED changed to green color.
The 2 CREE LEDs for D36 5800. On the left is CREE XHP35-HI D4 LED sitting beneath a light orange peel reflector for Spotlight, the tint is pure white, my guess is 6000K, whereas on the right is the CREE XHP70.2 P2 LED sitting "with" what appears to be a shallow disc to project a mule-like full flood output, the tint is very nice neutral-cool with a touch of rosy hint mixed-in, my guess is ~5300K. Everyone that I shown this floodlight to has positively pointed out that the tint is nice.
So far, lights that I received from XTAR for testing and review has surpassed other manufacturers like Fenix, Olight, SureFire, NiteCore in LED tint selection. They just seems to hit the nicest tint for their lights. I wonder what's their secrets...
The D36 5800 flashlight...
... is heavy... :nana:
Let's spend some time with the OLED display... it's the biggest feature of this XTAR flashlight release. Upon insertion of the battery pack, you are greeted with the XTAR logo...
and then with a slogan... "Power in your hands"...
When D36 5800 is Off, if you pressed and hold down the left button, it will display the battery status in percentage and whether the flashlight is locked or unlocked for use... below picture shows that the D36 5800 is locked.
D36 can be electronically locked by holding the right button for more than 3 seconds when the flashlight is Off. It can be unlocked the same way or by loosening out the battery pack and reinstall.
the following picture shows that the light is unlocked... that 0% is one of the issue I experienced when inserting the battery pack it somehow confuses the internal circuitry.
another issue I experienced is the OLED always shows 100% and 999 minutes runtime, even when using the Turbo or High mode.
the only reliable way I found with my review unit to not have any battery related hiccup when inserting the battery, is to lay the D36 5800 on a flat surface upside-down (bezel down), drop the battery pack slowly into the D36 body tube, wait for the XTAR logo and slogan to come on and screw back the tailcap while D36 5800 is still on the flat surface.
following are pictures of the OLED displaying different modes and remaining runtime in minutes... clicking the right button to turn the flashlight on, we get Floodlight (as indicated at the top left icon) of 4200 lumens
clicking the right button again, we will then switch to Spotlight (as indicated by the top middle icon) of 1600 lumens
clicking the right button again, and both Floodlight and Spotlight will turn-On at the same time, giving the theoretical max output of 5800 lumens.
at this point, another click of the right button will turn-Off the D36 5800 flashlight.
Now, let's try the left button... first, turn the flashlight On by clicking the right button... you get the Floodlight of 4200 high lumens...
now when you click on the left button, the floodlight will cycle down to the lower 2100 lumens mid mode...
and when you click the left button again, the floodlight will continue to cycle down to the 1200 lumens low mode
at this point, if you continue to click on the left button, it will again cycle back to the high mode of 4200 lumens.
clicking the right-button will bring you to Spotlight mode, regardless of which Floodlight mode you're at...
here we were switched to the highest Spotlight mode of 1600 lumens...
clicking the left button will cycle the Spotlight to mid mode of 750 lumens...
and clicking the left button again will bring us to the lowest 400 lumens
like Floodlight, the mode switch (left button) will cycle from High-Mid-Low and back to High again if you continue to click on the left button.
now, clicking the right button again will bring D36 5800 to Max Floodlight + Spotlight mode of 5800 lumens...
I'm guessing by now you might have suspected that there are no way to turn the D36 5800 flashlight Off unless we cycle through Floodlight >>> Spotlight >>> Floodlight + Spotlight >>> Off!
See the following for a UI diagram...
Yes, we can't turn off this thing unless we cycle through both the LED. XTAR, come-on!
Following are output I measured with my lightbox...
as usual, my disclaimer: I do not claim the above measured lumens as authoritative nor an indication of over/under-stating the number given by manufacturer. It's calibrated against some known light output (e.g. SureFire, Elzetta, etc.) so take it with a grain of salt and just as a relative reading.
Following is a whiteboard shot of the beam profile, first, the Floodlight...
then, the Spotlight
that's not a special effect on the left side of the picture above, it does seems like a light is leak from the centre... it creates a science-fiction kind of feeling when white-walling...
and here we have the full glory of Floodlight + Spotlight together...
In conclusion, I have the following to suggest to XTAR:
- Please make the button easier to click on.
- Please redesign your UI flow, it is really cumbersome to use.
- Drill a hole through the tailcap for the charger to charge the battery pack without taking the battery pack out and make the port waterproof. seriously, if there is one and only one improvement you consider making, please consider this.
- Better yet, make D36 5800 wireless charging capable.
Thanks for reading.
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