(This is a consolidation of a review I did over on British Blades and Candlepower Forums that was put together over 3 or 4 posts in one thread, condensed into one long post. Hope you guys find it interesting).
Well, it's arrived. So here goes with a review.
The box when it arrived from Heinnies was smaller than I was expecting and contained my order of two MaxP Volta battery cases, a set of MaxP Sliplocks and the TK40:
Sliding the cardboard outer off revealed an inner, translucent hardcase:
With fold up handles (nice touch)
Opening that revealed the torch and it's accessories all in handly compartments (downside - the metal clip of the shoulder strap has very slightly marked the tailcap of my torch - just visible as a white spec in the photo. In reality, the scratch is about 1mm long.)
The downside of the case (apart from that mentioned above) is that the moulded hinges seem quite thin to me, and I'm not sure how long they'll last for if you use the case as a storage/carry option for the torch regularly. Still, the fact that the torch comes with a custom hard case is a nice touch.
Unpacking the case reveals:
Clockwise from the bottom:
Now, a lot of the quick reviews I've seen so far of this torch seem to have failed to figure out what the mystery lanyard is for, and it had me stumped for a while as it's too damn short to work as a wrist strap. But I finally figured it out!
Moving on, I decided to compare the size of the torch to my Solarforce L2 (which is about the same size as a Surefire 6P). You can see in this pic how the shoulder strap attaches. Oops! I've given away the surprise I was saving for later in the review!).
What strikes me is that the torch isn't HUGE or too heavy, even with 8 AAs in the battery holder. You can carry it in your hand without getting tired.
Speaking of the battery holder... To get it out of the torch, you can unscrew the head or the tailcap. The gotcha being that the bit of the tailcap you expect to unscrew doesn't - it's the very tailmost ring that unscrews.
Here's a closeup of the battery holder loaded with eneloops. It looks exceedingly well made and does the job nicely. Batteries go in the holder with the negative side towards the spring.
Thinking of batteries, the manual tells you to unscrew the head 2.5 turns when not using the light for a while to avoid slow discharge of the batteries. Not sure why this should be so?
Meanwhile, back to the mystery lanyard thing...
You attach the split ring through one of the two holes in the tailcap and clip one end of the shoulder strap onto that....
Then you loop the mystery lanyard around the head of the torch and clip the other end of the shoulder strap onto that....
et voila!
You can then carry the torch slung over your shoulder. Nice
Operating the torch is pretty simple and is ALL through the tailcap clicky switch.
The flashing modes are as follows:
If you have it flashing and turn the light off then on again it comes back on in the PRIMARY (non-flashing) mode.
Turbo is DAMN BRIGHT, but they warn you not to use it for more than 15 minutes at a time.
By way of experiment, the Mrs zapped me with it on Turbo from about 7 feet away. (I.e. literally just flashed it up so the hotspot was on my eyes and then dropped it back down again)
Turbo alone made me shut my eyes and flinch away.
We then repeated the test on Strobe.
! !! !!!
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!
I now have a persistent purple "donut" in my vision which is slowly fading away.
I was prepared for it, and the test was done in a fairly bright room.
God knows what it would be like with dark adapted eyes in a dark room / alleyway (i.e. if someone jumped out on you and you had this beast on turbo).
It will fit in a Maxpedition Universal Flashlight sheath. But only just.
The fold-over velcro main body flap is only just gripping onto the other body strap and is therefore reliant on the black velcro securing strap for grip. And you have to detach the lid, move it up and re-attach it in order for the lid to fit over the torch head. Thank heavens MaxP made that sheath so adjustable!
Now for some beamshots...
OK. Distance to target (House across the street side wall) = 13.75 metres
All photos taken at ISO 80, f2.0 for 0.5 second exposure time and have NOT been edited in any way other than to resize them down.
In each case, the torch was held approximately 6 inches above and to the right of the camera.
CONTROL SHOT - street lighting ONLY
TK40 on LOW power
You can just see the hotspot on the wall under the window frame and lighting up part of the frame.
TK40 on MEDIUM power
TK40 on HIGH power
TK40 on TURBO power
And for comparison - Solarforce L2 with Cree R2 emitter. Single mode Solarforce dropin
This torch ROCKS!
Right. Here's some more outdoor beamshots.
Each photo HAS been edited, but ONLY to erase the street name (the red mark on each pic) so as to respect my neighbour's privacy. There has been no editing of light levels.
In each pic I am standing 3.6 meters away from the gates, and trying to aim the centre of the hotspot on the road about 35m away (as if I was walking down the street)
Again, same camera settings (ISO 80, f2.0 for 0.5 second exposure)
CONTROL SHOT - street lighting ONLY
TK40 on LOW power
Is there any light visible from it? However, when I was standing outside this would be perfectly adequate to shine on a path right in front of you to avoid tripping over roots etc.
TK40 on MEDIUM power
TK40 on HIGH power
TK40 on TURBO power
I got asked by the guys on CPF to provide some shots of the torch tailstanding and lighting up a room. So here goes - please excuse the clean laundry hanging up to dry over the bath!
Room is 7' wide by 8' long and has approx 8.5' high celing.
The torch is tailstanding next to the sink, and the camera is on the windowsill.
Exposures are all identical, camera set on fully manual.
ISO 80, f2.0 for 1 second exposure time.
CONTROL SHOT - only light in the room is from streetlight outside
TK40 on LOW
TK40 on MEDIUM
TK40 on HIGH
TK40 on TURBO
Note how the image ends up totally over-exposed with the light on Turbo?
Heck, in a powercut I reckon you could comfortably run the light on Medium and have plenty of light to see by combined with good runtime!
After doing those shots, I noticed something odd about the beam of my TK40.
It has a SECOND darker ring of spill around the main area of spill.
This ring has a bluey/purpley tone, and forms a ring around the white spill area with a darker zone seperating the two.
It's very odd! Not bad, just odd... Never seen it before on one of my lights. It's visible at all power settings, but is most noticeable on High and Turbo
First photo was taken with the torch on Medium. You can see the hotspot, the spill and then make out the "corona" or "secondary spill" around the outside of the spill. (It's more noticeable in this photo near the torch head)
And this was it on Turbo
You can't see the difference between the hotspot or spill anymore because they've whited out that bit of the image, but you can see the corona really clearly.
(the black splodge at roughly 1 o'clock in this photo is a mark on the wall)
My verdict? WOW. What a top torch for the money. Well pleased with it.
Well, it's arrived. So here goes with a review.
The box when it arrived from Heinnies was smaller than I was expecting and contained my order of two MaxP Volta battery cases, a set of MaxP Sliplocks and the TK40:
Sliding the cardboard outer off revealed an inner, translucent hardcase:
With fold up handles (nice touch)
Opening that revealed the torch and it's accessories all in handly compartments (downside - the metal clip of the shoulder strap has very slightly marked the tailcap of my torch - just visible as a white spec in the photo. In reality, the scratch is about 1mm long.)
The downside of the case (apart from that mentioned above) is that the moulded hinges seem quite thin to me, and I'm not sure how long they'll last for if you use the case as a storage/carry option for the torch regularly. Still, the fact that the torch comes with a custom hard case is a nice touch.
Unpacking the case reveals:
Clockwise from the bottom:
- TK40 torch
- Shoulder strap
- Instruction manual
- Warranty form
- Small advertising brochure
- Ziplock bag containing spare tailcap, 2 spare O-rings and a split ring
- Mystery woven lanyard thing
Now, a lot of the quick reviews I've seen so far of this torch seem to have failed to figure out what the mystery lanyard is for, and it had me stumped for a while as it's too damn short to work as a wrist strap. But I finally figured it out!
Moving on, I decided to compare the size of the torch to my Solarforce L2 (which is about the same size as a Surefire 6P). You can see in this pic how the shoulder strap attaches. Oops! I've given away the surprise I was saving for later in the review!).
What strikes me is that the torch isn't HUGE or too heavy, even with 8 AAs in the battery holder. You can carry it in your hand without getting tired.
Speaking of the battery holder... To get it out of the torch, you can unscrew the head or the tailcap. The gotcha being that the bit of the tailcap you expect to unscrew doesn't - it's the very tailmost ring that unscrews.
Here's a closeup of the battery holder loaded with eneloops. It looks exceedingly well made and does the job nicely. Batteries go in the holder with the negative side towards the spring.
Thinking of batteries, the manual tells you to unscrew the head 2.5 turns when not using the light for a while to avoid slow discharge of the batteries. Not sure why this should be so?
Meanwhile, back to the mystery lanyard thing...
You attach the split ring through one of the two holes in the tailcap and clip one end of the shoulder strap onto that....
Then you loop the mystery lanyard around the head of the torch and clip the other end of the shoulder strap onto that....
et voila!
You can then carry the torch slung over your shoulder. Nice
Operating the torch is pretty simple and is ALL through the tailcap clicky switch.
- Pressing the tailcap switch turns the light on and off, and it remembers the last PRIMARY mode (low, medium, high, turbo) you used.
- With the torch on, hold down the tailcap button for 1 second to go to the next mode. (You have to release and press again for 1 second to go through the modes. Keeping the buton held down does NOT cycle through modes)
- Double-click the tailcap switch to activate the flashing mode that goes with the power mode you are currently on.
The flashing modes are as follows:
- Low power = Slow flash (About 2 seconds between flashes. Would make a good locator beacon?)
- Medium power = SOS (This is a SLOW SOS flash)
- High power = Fast flash (probably around 1/2 second between flashes?)
- Turbo power = Strobe (Holy That's disorientating!)
If you have it flashing and turn the light off then on again it comes back on in the PRIMARY (non-flashing) mode.
Turbo is DAMN BRIGHT, but they warn you not to use it for more than 15 minutes at a time.
By way of experiment, the Mrs zapped me with it on Turbo from about 7 feet away. (I.e. literally just flashed it up so the hotspot was on my eyes and then dropped it back down again)
Turbo alone made me shut my eyes and flinch away.
We then repeated the test on Strobe.
! !! !!! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!
I now have a persistent purple "donut" in my vision which is slowly fading away.
I was prepared for it, and the test was done in a fairly bright room.
God knows what it would be like with dark adapted eyes in a dark room / alleyway (i.e. if someone jumped out on you and you had this beast on turbo).
It will fit in a Maxpedition Universal Flashlight sheath. But only just.
The fold-over velcro main body flap is only just gripping onto the other body strap and is therefore reliant on the black velcro securing strap for grip. And you have to detach the lid, move it up and re-attach it in order for the lid to fit over the torch head. Thank heavens MaxP made that sheath so adjustable!
Now for some beamshots...
OK. Distance to target (House across the street side wall) = 13.75 metres
All photos taken at ISO 80, f2.0 for 0.5 second exposure time and have NOT been edited in any way other than to resize them down.
In each case, the torch was held approximately 6 inches above and to the right of the camera.
CONTROL SHOT - street lighting ONLY
TK40 on LOW power
You can just see the hotspot on the wall under the window frame and lighting up part of the frame.
TK40 on MEDIUM power
TK40 on HIGH power
TK40 on TURBO power
And for comparison - Solarforce L2 with Cree R2 emitter. Single mode Solarforce dropin
This torch ROCKS!
Right. Here's some more outdoor beamshots.
Each photo HAS been edited, but ONLY to erase the street name (the red mark on each pic) so as to respect my neighbour's privacy. There has been no editing of light levels.
In each pic I am standing 3.6 meters away from the gates, and trying to aim the centre of the hotspot on the road about 35m away (as if I was walking down the street)
Again, same camera settings (ISO 80, f2.0 for 0.5 second exposure)
CONTROL SHOT - street lighting ONLY
TK40 on LOW power
Is there any light visible from it? However, when I was standing outside this would be perfectly adequate to shine on a path right in front of you to avoid tripping over roots etc.
TK40 on MEDIUM power
TK40 on HIGH power
TK40 on TURBO power
I got asked by the guys on CPF to provide some shots of the torch tailstanding and lighting up a room. So here goes - please excuse the clean laundry hanging up to dry over the bath!
Room is 7' wide by 8' long and has approx 8.5' high celing.
The torch is tailstanding next to the sink, and the camera is on the windowsill.
Exposures are all identical, camera set on fully manual.
ISO 80, f2.0 for 1 second exposure time.
CONTROL SHOT - only light in the room is from streetlight outside
TK40 on LOW
TK40 on MEDIUM
TK40 on HIGH
TK40 on TURBO
Note how the image ends up totally over-exposed with the light on Turbo?
Heck, in a powercut I reckon you could comfortably run the light on Medium and have plenty of light to see by combined with good runtime!
After doing those shots, I noticed something odd about the beam of my TK40.
It has a SECOND darker ring of spill around the main area of spill.
This ring has a bluey/purpley tone, and forms a ring around the white spill area with a darker zone seperating the two.
It's very odd! Not bad, just odd... Never seen it before on one of my lights. It's visible at all power settings, but is most noticeable on High and Turbo
First photo was taken with the torch on Medium. You can see the hotspot, the spill and then make out the "corona" or "secondary spill" around the outside of the spill. (It's more noticeable in this photo near the torch head)
And this was it on Turbo
You can't see the difference between the hotspot or spill anymore because they've whited out that bit of the image, but you can see the corona really clearly.
(the black splodge at roughly 1 o'clock in this photo is a mark on the wall)
My verdict? WOW. What a top torch for the money. Well pleased with it.
