01 CAt Man Do

I know I already addressed this issue with you but I wanted to give you some more feedback since I just bought one of the Zebralights with XPH35 emitter. Zebralight is recommending that these lamps be used with the so call, "High Drain" batteries. My LG-MJ1's actually do pretty well as they are rated for 10A continuous. ZL however is recommending more. With that in mind I bought a set of Sony VTC6 3120mAh 18650 cells from Orbtonic. These are rated for 30A continuous. I did compare the output using both and the Sony's are a little brighter when on start up although I'm sure that won't make too much of a difference once the lamp heats up and the thermal control throttles back the output.

Actually I'm not really impressed with the Zebralight I have. Since the beam pattern is so wide I feel it is really only useful on the higher modes ( H1 and H2 ) when mountain biking. I have yet to do any rides using mine simply because of the bad weather in my area. I'm sure when I get the chance to use on a ride, the batteries are going to drain much more faster than the typical torches and cells I generally use. That's because I'm sure that any lamp using an XHP35, 50 or 70 emitter is going to have to include a voltage step up converter in order to power the emitter with just one 18650. Because of that I'm not really too worried about run time as I'm sure the lamp will throttle the output once the lamp heats up. Almost sorry I bought the Sony's because they really won't make that much of a difference in output and will likely drain faster than the LG's.

I will say that the 90° ( angled version, Mark IV with XHP35 ) is the smallest, lightest 18650 torch I own. I just wish the beam pattern wasn't as wide. I also wish it had included a 650 lumen mode. It has a 500 lumen mode but so far that mode is not bright enough to be real useful ( except on turns ). Works well on the high modes but if I'm running high all the time it is really going to drain the battery really fast.