Fenix L1P, over expectation?

Afetr reading a lot about Fenix L1P, ordered one and received yesterday, compared with both my QIII and E1L, it is really dim and weak, am I expecting too much or is this a faulty one....?
Please let me know if anyone had tried to compare with those and have the same feeling?

Sorry, just realised this should be in LED section, how do I delete this?

Are you using a CR123 or a rechargeable battery in your QIII?

I don't have a Fenix yet, but it should be close to your QIII with a standard CR123. Remember, it only uses a single AA. Try a rechargeable AA if you have one.

It is possible you got a bad one.

I'll move it to LED ...
bernie

fenix puts out a nice amount of light for general purpose use. but it's not what most consider bright. Don's unoffical reading was 26 lumens or what an unmodded Arc LS would put out.

currently max bright from a 3watt luxeon would require Ubin driven at 700+ milliamp with 17mm+ reflector.

5watt luxeons have exceed this for sometime.

huge differance between lumens out front end VS lumens produced.

huge differance between high $$ lights VS low $$ lights. but the gap is closing...

The Fenix is a nice little light that is good but has been hyped to way beyond any realistic expectations.

Its a nice light for the money, but that is all it is. If you remove price as a factor, It can't compete with the good stuff, but it shouldn't have to.

What Jon said.
In case of the Fenix ... good means "as good as it gets on 1xAA and for that price" ... and that is in fact pretty ok ... BUT ... of couorse the really great lights will smoke any Fenix just as easily as Zeus will crush a fly.

And honestly ... if it puts out 26lm for 4 hours on 1xAA I am more than satisfied, even if I won't be blind after using it.

Maybe the "hype" comes from the fact that a lot of people who buy the Fenix also have the Q3 (unmodded) - the other great CPF super-seller - and no other more expensive LED lights in this class, so that their perception of what can be done is not as broad as it could have been, thus resulting in the perception of a better Fenix than in reality.

bernie

The Fenix IS fairly bright, even in comparison to some of the other lights. I think you might have one of the faulty ones with the cranky tailcap or cranky connection in the head. (Like my previous one, which was really dim)

Or maybe your QIII and E1L are really over-performers

Try squeezing the head of the Fenix with 2 fingers at different points and see if that makes the light dimmer/brighter. If there is any fluctuation of the beam, then it's most probably a connection problem.

Sure, the Fenix isn't in the same class as the Surefires or the HDS or the Jill or the Aleph or ... But it's for what it's supposed to be an excellent little light, and for some purposes it seems me to be almost ideal. Put in a 2-stage switch and it's even more useful.

The Fenix is (along with some of the Peak 1AA lights) one of the very few lights with decent output that run on 1 AA. In an emergency situation or when travelling in one of the less-developed parts of the world that may well make the difference between having a light that works and one that doesn't, so that's a huge advantage over any of the lights running on lithium batteries or Li-ion rechargeables. On a trip to one of these places a Fenix may well be a much better choice than a Surefire for that reason alone.

It's small, fits into a pocket very easily and it's pretty well made. Not Surefire or HDS quality, but quite a bit better than most other lights in that category. The only real contender are the Peaks as far as I can see. There's a decent lanyard attachment point, something the HDS for instance doesn't have. It can tailstand, that's another big plus in my book. The E1L can't do that, unless you use it with one of Don's tailcaps.

So, all in all I think the Fenix is one of the most interesting lights to come onto the market for quite some time. It's no Surefire, HDS or Aleph, but it's pretty good. I think of it as the light the MiniMag should have been but never was, due to its dismal light output.

Hans

get a small peice of metal (keys will work) and touch it to the end of the batter, and the battery tube. If it is brighter now, then you have resistance.

-David

Hans ... Exactly
bernie

P.S.: this shows one more time how important it is to avoid blind hype and always try to provide exact info as close to the truth as one can achieve ... so that members reading our statements know exactly what a light will be and what they should and could expect.

Some of the hype is warranted I think. I think that a lot of us who actually had only modest expectations for an inexpensive 1xAA light like the Fenix in fact had them exceeded after receiving one. For the low price it's very nicely built, performs very well, and has deservedly found a place as an EDC for many - not everyone on CPF wants/needs/can afford the 3 figure supertorches which no-one doubts beat the fenix on brightness, features, build quality, finish, reliability, manufacturing consistency etc etc.

Rabbit, another comparison might help you work out if your torch is a dud: mine is brighter than my UK 4AA eLED and slightly less bright than my Longbow Micra.

gadgetnerd ... hype is never good, information is. And yepp, agreed, the Fenix is a fantastic light! I really like mine for all the aspects already mentioned. It has lots of advantages and a great price.

rabbit .. to check if yours is a dud you might wanna post comparison beamshots against some standard lights and / or take a lux measurement so that those who have a Fenix can judge yours correctly.

bernie

The Fenix L1P v2.5 is very bright for what it is. Compared against my Arc AA and Peak AA 5mm LED lights it is blinding. I run mine in 2500mAH NiMH rechargables and it really has serious punch considering it is running on a single 1.2V cell. It will also run on alkaline and lithium AA cells AND get decent runtime. What good is a tiny light that is blinding if it only runs for 30 minutes and requires lithium batteries? It would appeal to some but for the most part, runtime becomes a factor once the newness/brightness wears off.

I put it in perspective, is it brighter than my LuxeonV WX1S 8AA Mag? No... brighter than my 2AA Mediterranean? No... brighter than my BB500 R2H minimag? No... brighter than my Lambda MicroIlluminator single AAA R3J? Yes!... it is also larger.

Making a bright light with 3V CR123A lithiums is easier to do than to make one run on a 1.2V NiMH rechargable... that is the goodness of the Fenix. I can run off batteries used in your remote when needed and gives a decent runtime.

I have two of them and one is brighter than the other...the dimmer one is slightly bluish also. I attribute it to the Luxeon Lottery so I don't dwell on it. The bright one is my bicycle helmet light so it sees daily use now that it is dark. The other one I EDC on the weekends as the Mediterranean 2AA is my work EDC.

When kept in perspective, the Fenix is a great light as long as you remember runtime and what it uses for power.

Sorry Bernie I should perhaps have used "enthusiasm" instead of "hype"

Ah yes .. enthusiasm ... the fire that keeps us doing all this ... :devil: ... :wave:
No need to be sorry though

Here's a 450kb 3gp video file of my previous Fenix with the dimming problem.
You'll need a recent version of QT player to view it.

http://venus.walagata.com/w/photostore/fenix.3gp

rabbit said: "...Fenix L1P...compared with both my QIII...it is really dim and weak, am I expecting too much or is this a faulty one..."

I've had three L1Ps and compared to a Q3 they were all roughly equal, assuming the Q3 is stock and using a CR123A primary cell.

The L1P beam hotspot is a little tighter. Except for this, L1P performance visually appears similar to the Q3 -- roughly similar output. Even my $100 Peak Caribbean doesn't visually appear hugely brighter than the Fenix.

Flashlightreviews.com will soon be testing the Fenix L1P and we'll then have some objective performance numbers relative to other tested lights.

If your L1P is noticeably dimmer than a stock Q3 there's probably something wrong with it. I'd suggest contacting your supplier and getting a replacement.

The Fenix L1P is BY FAR the highest output, longest throwing 1x AA LED light available in production. But no it doesn't compete with a Maxabeam or Megaray, no matter what the hype says.

I have read most thread about Fenix on this forum, I don't really feel it has been hyped that much, let alone "beyond any realistic expectations." Most things said about it are pretty true IMHO.

Fenix is a miracle light, to show us what can be done with in the AA battery domain, things we never thought possible. It is an amazing light with this in mind.

Maybe I came across wrong. I do think it is probably the best there is at its price point. As in the title of expectations, I have a couple of e-mails from people that were under the impression that this was top drawer stuff at a discount price. This is not the case, its a nice product at a nice price. It is what it is. A very nice light for the price.