Bad maratac?

So I just picked up the AA Titanium Nichia Flashlight by Maratac REV 2 from County Comm. Pretty excited, as I'm rapidly becoming a sucker for well made, compact ti lights. Anyways the beam output is just about ideal for my taste riding the line between neutral and warm with the nice high CRI 219 emitter. Problem is that its advertised as 5lm/50lm/235lm output and by my eyes thats dead wrong. Low mode looks to be about 10-15 lumens, which isn't ideal but I can be ok with it. Medium is probably about 30-50 lumens but high mode is seriously lacking. I can just barely notice an increased brightness above medium. I mean, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt as medium and high are pretty much identical. This is tested with a fresh Amaloop nimh as well as a fresh duracell alkaline. Threads and contacts are clean, spring appears to be fine. Is this typical for the Maratac lights? Based on the reputation I was expecting the rated lumens to offer a wider mode spread than this...

Do you have other lights with measured / confirmed / calibrated outputs near 50lm and 200lm (such as, say, an HDS) with which to compare ?

"By eye" these can look pretty similar, especially in a floody beam.

I usually prefer ~ "10x" mode spacing, which is a decent step up (or down) in output.

Well, thats a good point archimedes. I'm basically just saying that the brightness going from lo-med-hi doesn't seem consistent with the rated output differences.

Buck91 said:

Well, thats a good point archimedes. I'm basically just saying that the brightness going from lo-med-hi doesn't seem consistent with the rated output differences.

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Yes, visual perception is not linear, it is logarithmic.

Typically it may take ~ 4x to 10x lumens to "look twice as bright" (depending on numerous other factors)

EDIT - have you tried the "ceiling bounce" method, by the way ?

Buck91 said:

I'm basically just saying that the brightness going from lo-med-hi doesn't seem consistent with the rated output differences.

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I think you are right!


In my experience with half a dozen or so Maratacs, the claimed lumens, especially on High, are wildly optimistic, inconsistent or innacurate. They might be using LED lumens instead of OTF?

My guess is the AA Maratac has similar modes as the AA Tool. Your Maratac head probably fits the Tool body if you want a clicky lego.

AA Tool specs are 8-25-120 lumens for cool white
for a Nichia, they go down by 25%, but you gain 29% better CRI..

The Maratac website also has had a lot of cut and paste errors over the years. I dont put a lot of faith in their ad copy, for more than one reason. I do very much like the knurly form factor.

here is a thread, that had a link to a claim the Low mode on the AA was 12 lumens, and the High was 205 lumens.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...1-Maratac-AA&p=4938785&viewfull=1#post4938785
iow, same light you have, but different lumen specs in the online description...
and still not necessarily real world

countycomm also changes the ad copy for different "Revisions"... it can get very confusing between changes in version, and copy paste errors, and using "alternate facts" about lumens..

If you can get access to a light meter, you may enjoy being able to measure and compare your lights. My guess is your light is doing about 5 lm, 20 lm, 90 lm

I suggest you enjoy the light as is and ignore the ad copy. I do not believe you are experiencing a "bad" Maratac AA.

BTW its normal for Ti to be gritty, if it starts to bother you,
consider some Krytox 50/50...
it comes highly recommend by a respected member that owns several Titanium Gizmos


How do you like the feel and ergos of the AA Ti body?

jon_slider said:

...My guess is your light is doing about 5 lm, 20 lm, 90 lm

I suggest you enjoy the light as is and ignore the ad copy. I do not believe you are experiencing a "bad" Maratac AA.

BTW its normal for Ti to be gritty, if it starts to bother you,
consider some Krytox 50/50...
it comes highly recommend by a respected member that owns several Titanium Gizmos


How do you like the feel and ergos of the AA Ti body?

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Your numbers sound about right to me. High is only slightly brighter than my Lumintop Ti Tool AAA with the 219BT. The threads are quite gritty, though. Not much smoother with superlube and definitely grittier than the Ti Tool. Maybe they will break in with use.

The ergos are perfect, the knurling is plenty aggressive with no lack of grip but doesn't feel rough enough to cause exaggerated wear in pockets/etc.

I have found that on my AAA Martac's, as the battery gets low, the M/L/H becomes pretty much M/M/M (very little to no difference between the settings).

-Bill

Buck91 said:

... Not much smoother with superlube.... Maybe they will break in with use.

Click to expand...

thanks for your impressions

according to this
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?126645-Comprehensive-Grease-and-Lube-Thread
superlube is very good. Have not tried it.

to break in threads
I like to remove the O ring and watch TV,
while pushing and pulling, on the head, to polish both sides of the threads
I have also had good results using things intended as metal polish, like sunshine cloth and jewelers rouge

when all else fails, Ive had better results with thicker, stickier lubes, such Munky Spunk, and Ive read that Krytox 205 is especially good for Ti threads
I was not impressed with thinner oils, such as Nano Oil, on Ti threads, though it works fine on O rings.

good luck with the grit smoothing, congrats on your High CRI Ti Twisty. I also like the Ti Tool for many reasons, though its body is not legoable to a Maratac head.

Just got almost the same light 205 /45/5. And ya it's deceiving.its probably 200 on high but the difference between medium and high is definitely not huge. Nice light got it cheap on eBay. But geared towards flood not throw and that does make a difference when you compare output.

And I have other Ti lights and the threads on this are the worst I have ever had. Thinking about putting some sand in it smooth them out😁

trying to describe how bright the modes are on a light, without a meter, is like trying to describe beam tints without a photo

nobody knows what you mean, and there is no common ground for reference

send me your lights if you want to know what their output is, I have a meter calibrated to an HDS, and I have nichias I can photograph to compare to the XP-G3 LEDs in the Ti Maratacs

I can also put some Ti specific lube on the ti threads, that will solve the gritty feeling for you