Nuwai Q3?

Saw one this weekend and wondered what everyone thought about it.

Any other suggestions on an inexspensive LED flashlight.

Thanks

If you look here:
http://http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/nuwai_q-3.htm you will see it is a TOP PICK!

I've been EDCing mine for nearly five months now. A very nice, bright, little light. You might want to check out the review on www.flashlightreviews.com.

Jeff

**EDIT** I got beat to the punch

It's nice and small, and pretty easy to hold in the hand. It also has a very good spill and decent throw, due to the way they've taken some care with the reflector's design. If you want another similar light which uses more common batteries (aka: 123's are a bit expensive for you to order, even online), the Fenix L1P looks promising with its similar runtime on a single AA battery.

It will take R123 batteries.

The Nuwai Q3 has been one of CPF's favorites for a while now -
please see these CPF threads:

Nuwai Q3

Nuwai Q3 with RCR123 + Nano Charger

Nuwai Q3 has changed driver boards!
.

aceo07 said:

It will take R123 batteries.

Click to expand...

It may take them, but I wouldn't use them for too long with the stock circuit due to the heat problems that can result from overdriving the LED just a bit. I'd rather just replace the LED and circuit with a heatsink so direct-driving it was a tad safer.

Still, it's good for the size and the batteries are probably the only thing I'd add a caution to - they can be expensive if you don't know where to look, and the runtime on the rechargeables is about 30 minutes on the outside, IIRC.

Fenix (1AA, 46 lumen, 2 hr peek run time) group buy are still going on until Wednesday. IMHO it's way better than stock QIII. Also LRI may come out with Proton is September.

I doubt that the fenix will be as bright as announced. I will get one of these nevertheless. I have a Kino Bay and i presume the fenix will be around that brightness-level. The Kino Bay is around 70% of the brightness of the Q3 i would say.
The Q3 is my EDC for one year now. Great light at a great price. RCR123 are recommended by many people for the Q3.

46 lumen is the actual measument of the britest in the batch, according to Fenix. This is for v2.5. For v2.0, it's 36-40 lumens. One reviewer measuered peak run time at 80% peak brightness for 130 min for v2.0, and he thinks the peak brightness should be at least 30-36 lumen, which is consistent with Fenix's claim. We don't have info on the low end output for v2.5, but I guess it should be at leas 40 lumens. QIII's peak output is about 30 lumen. I have been carring Q3 for severa months, it works well with high quality cells but not with the cheap ones bought from batterystation. And it doesn't have enough side spill form me. If Fenix can live up to it's claim then it'll be a near perfect EDC fo me.

redduck wrote: "QIII's peak output is about 30 lumen. I have been carring Q3 for severa months, it works well with high quality cells but not with the cheap ones bought from batterystation. "

Is the Q3 30 lumens measurement with standard (non-rechargeable) CR123?

The Q3 with rechargeable RCR123 - I believe the circuit is effectively by-passed, and the light is in effect direct drive. My current draw measurements were about 740mA at 3.97V (open circuit) - which is pretty close to ~3watts, and the Q3 on the rechargeable RCR123 was noticably brighter than on the non-rechargeable CR123.

Please see comparisons at:

Nuwai Q3 with RCR123 + Nano Charger

Yes and no. I go this from http://www.flashlightreviews.com/features/output_vs_throw.htm


LUMENS FROM OVERALL OUTPUT?:

One of the CandlePowerForums.com members - (Thanks, Beakman) - has been comparing my numbers to LUMENS from several actual tests done with an integrating sphere and has found that if you multiply the Overall Output number times a specific multiplier you get a very rough estimate of the LUMENS produced by the light. I have done further research and found that the multiplier for the numbers in the chart is 1.43. This number appears to be subject to + or - 17%. Fairly accurate for what the apparatus is, really!

EXAMPLE: The Chart says the Nuwai Q3 produces 19.00 Overall Output. Multiply this times 1.43 and you get about 27 Lumens. An Integrating Sphere test (measures Lumens very accurately) recently measured a Nuwai Q3 at 25.4 Lumens, so you can see we are within our 17% margin of error (7% in this case).

I make no promises as to the accuracy of this data - this is the best I have been able to calculate based upon comparisons between the Overall Output numbers and Lumen measurements from actual Integrating Sphere tests. Your results may vary. These numbers should NOT be used for commercial, scientific, or marketing comparisons due to the inherently large potential degree of inaccuracy involved. Use only for personal reference.

A definate NO that a Q3 is only rated at 30lumens, why? because most Q3's use S bins and the stock convertor runs the luxeon at about 500mA(700mA current draw) it will definately be brighter(more lumens) than a R bin driven at 350mA, and fenix are claimed to be 46lumens.

R= 39.8-51.7 lumens
S= 60-67.2 lumens

But there is the luxeon lottery, you may have got a S**N which will be underdriven in a Q3.

I don't have other lights to compare it to, and don't have any other means to measure it, so i just took the word of flashlightreviews. I believe he's measurement is accurate (17% ). I believe he used regular 123s.

redduck said:

I don't have other lights to compare it to, and don't have any other means to measure it, so i just took the word of flashlightreviews. I believe he's measurement is accurate (17% ). I believe he used regular 123s.

Click to expand...

New here, but do have plenty of lights.

I have both the QIII and fenixL1+ ; ; Both light are great for EDC (carrying the QIII currently cause L1+ are for keep)
In terms of output the QIII produce a more warm tint compare to fenix WHITER tint. The fenix being a 1 watt is only just slightly dimmer in output than QIII! (from my naked eye point of view; no light meter)
The QIII is an excellent room lighter with great amount of spill for such a tiny single batt. EVEN MORE SPILL THAN MY Sure Fire L1!

Many flasholic have QIII because it's very resonable cost with their efficiency. It can use R123a and 123a. Somebody mod with 1AA and 2AA body and go on with NiMH battery.
Plenty light from cheap recharge r123 battery is very interisting.

GhostReaction said:

New here, but do have plenty of lights.

I have both the QIII and fenixL1+ ; ; Both light are great for EDC (carrying the QIII currently cause L1+ are for keep)
In terms of output the QIII produce a more warm tint compare to fenix WHITER tint. The fenix being a 1 watt is only just slightly dimmer in output than QIII! (from my naked eye point of view; no light meter)
The QIII is an excellent room lighter with great amount of spill for such a tiny single batt. EVEN MORE SPILL THAN MY Sure Fire L1!

Click to expand...

This confirmed the oputput of QIII given in flashlightsreview to be around 30 lumen. Fenix L1 V2.0 is rated 28 lumen, L1P v2.0 40 lumen, L1 v2.5 38 lumen and L1P v2.5 46 lumen. I am not saying QIII is not a good light, but something better has came along, if Fenix can live up to it's claim that is.

GhostReaction wrote: "I have both the QIII and fenixL1+ ;
The fenix being a 1 watt is only just slightly dimmer in output than QIII! (from my naked eye point of view; no light meter)"

redduck wrote: "This confirmed the oputput of QIII given in flashlightsreview to be around 30 lumen. Fenix L1 V2.0 is rated 28 lumen, L1P v2.0 40 lumen, L1 v2.5 38 lumen and L1P v2.5 46 lumen. "

I think GhostReaction was comparing the Q3 to a fenixL1+ (which = Fenix L1P?)

In which case he's saying the Q3 is slightly brighter than either L1P v2.0 40 lumen or L1P v2.5 46 lumen -

doesn't that make the Q3 quite a bit brighter than 30 lumens?

The L1+ is the stainless steel version, Fenix claims it as 38Lumens so yes if the Q3 is brighter than the L1+ then its more than 38 lumens!

L1+ is the stainless version of L1 2.0, it's not L1P, it ha been discontinued. L1 2.0 is rated at 28 lumen. L1 2.5 is 38 lumen and L1P 2.5 is 46 lumen.

Read the review in flashligtsreview, it's measured at 27 lumen. He didn't use IS but with his own home made device of which he claims is within 17% of error margin. He also mentioned a QIII was actually measued with an IS at 25 lumen.

Get a L1P 2.5 while you still can. The group buy ends midnight tonight!