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国内有些地方访问不了
Inova X1.
New from Inova is the long-awaited X1. Styled to match its bigger brother the X5, the body is machined from a high grade aluminum and overall protected in satin-finish anodising with a choice of silver or black colours. A single AA cell provides power for up to 10 hours, and a single 5mm LED provides a surprising amount of light that is focussed into a perfectly round spot by the precision glass lens. With a dual-mode tail cap switch providing momentary or constant light, the X1 is easy to operate and can be locked out to prevent unwanted activation while being transported.
Manufacturer`s Web site- inovalight.com
Buy yours from- Oolights.com.
Cost- GB£26.95 (from Oolights)
Specifications.
Size- 100mm long (3-15/16 inch) x 18mm diameter (~11/16 inch).
No of LEDs- 1.
LED colours avaliable- White, probably blue, green and red too.
Body colours/finishes- Silver or black anodize.
Batteries- 1x AA alkaline reccomended.
Switch type- Tail-cap, push for momentary or twist for constant.
Waterproof?- Yes?
Approximate beam half-angle- 10 degrees.
Peak Beam Intensity- not yet measured.
Model tested- White LED, silver body.
Notes- At the current time avaliability of the X1 is limited, indeed it has not been released for sale in some countries.
Packaging.
The X1 comes in Inova`s usual attractive, shiny packaging with irridescent silvery bits that stand out among all the other flashlight packages hung next to each other at your local supermarket. Well, providing your local supermarket sells high quality flashlights that is - ours doesn`t :( . A hole in the front under the switch invites you to "try it" and a Duracell AA battery is already installed, otherwise that particular feature wouldn`t be a lot of good now would it? The package is easy to open requiring no sharp pointed instruments, since the two halves just press-fit closed. Also supplied with the light is an elasticated belt holster.
Batteries.
As mentioned, a Duracell AA alkaline battery is already installed so your X1 will be ready to use the moment you remove it from the packaging. Eventually of course it will need replacing, and to do so is very simple. Just unscrew the tail-cap, tip out the used-up battery, pop a new one in with its positive end first (facing the LED) and screw the tail cap back on. Done! The battery goes in the opposite way round compared to the bigger X5 so if you have one of those too, remember that the little one has its battery the other way up. Mouldings around the positive contact inside prevent any damage from a backwards battery so if you forget what way up it goes, don`t worry cos you won`t hurt it.
Battery life is quoted as up to 10 hours. An informal test (with a pretty inaccurate bench power supply acting as the battery) shows that the electronics that step up the voltage from the battery to the level required by the LED do offer a degree of flat regulation too. From fresh down to about 1.3 volts it stays at a constant brightness, dropping off at a fairly steady rate below that. Due to this regulation the battery life will be lower than if it dropped in brightness right from the beginning, but at this time I can`t say whether or not the 10 hour run figure is accurate. A battery run test will be performed as soon as time and resources allow to see just what actually happens.
Bulbs
Just one 5mm LED provides the light in the X1, as its name might suggest. From what I can tell it`s a Nichia LED, but whatever it is, it`s rather bright if a little blue-tinted compared to daylight. It`s also completely sealed into the aluminum body - as with many LED torches, it isn`t intended to be replaced. This isn`t much to worry about though as the LED has a rated life of something like 11 years of constant use if it is indeed a Nichia type, which isn`t anything you`ll ever get near during a lifetime of normal flashlight use.
Unlike many LED torches however, this one features a lens to focus the light into a beam that reaches further than the bare LED alone. This idea is not new of course, there are a few lights avaliable right now that use a similar technique, but at least in the X1 it is done in a rather elegent way. The glass lens is apparently specially designed, and has an anti-reflective coating like you would see on expensive binoculars and camera lenses. This is there to ensure that the maximum amount of light gets through. Despite being small, it does a very good job of harnessing the power of the little LED and I was pleasently surprised at how bright it was. But more on that later...
Operation.
A dual-action tail cap switch operates the light in the same way as those used on SureFire lights. Normally it can be pressed to provide momentary bursts of illumination, switching off when released. For constant or hands-free light, give it a clockwise turn. Turn back anti-clockwise to switch off. It can be "locked out" by rotating it further anticlockwise. This will render the momentary button inoperative and prevent unwanted activation during storage or transportation. The cap doesn`t need to be turned too far to change between these modes - from the locked off position it takes less than one full turn to go to constant-on.
The momentary button does not require excessive force to activate provided the tail-cap has been set to the position where it is *just* turned off, however it does not need to be pushed in very far to light up and I find that sustained pressure to keep it lit gets tiring fairly quickly. Thankfully it is easy to turn with one hand so engaging constant-on mode for longer periods of light is straightforward.
Ergonomics.
The X1 has been machined from a solid, high grade aluminum tube and finished in what they describe as "hard coat anodize" which is probably the "Type 3" anodize used on other high-end flashlights such as those made by SureFire and Arc. It shares many design characteristics with the bigger 5-LED X5 and what really surprised me was the fact that it isn`t all that much smaller either - as you can see to the right. Note that my X5 is an earlier generation - the current ones look just like the X1. The body is mainly cylindrical but with eight flats machined in the sides which appear to be primarilly decorative. The tail itsself has a band of knurling and a generously sized Lanyard attachment point drilled through it that is also big enough to fit a split-ring, and the momentary button on the very end has a sleek, low profile appearence. It is covered by a smooth rubber membrane to keep dust and dirt out. The edge around the lens is made from stainless steel which not only looks good but also protects it from damage during drops and bumps. Stainless steel is a little stronger than aluminum so this is a nice design feature.
As mentioned above, the momentary button does not travel very far when pressed. It doesn`t require an excessive force to operate but only a slight reduction in pressure can cause it to flicker and go out. The knurled band round the tail and the flat sides machined into the body aid grip when turning the tail cap to the constant-on setting and I find I can accomplish this easilly with just one hand. It turns quite smoothly with just a hint of grittiness caused by the hard-anodized surfaces. Unfortunately there is little in the way of longditudinal grip so when using the momentary button it does have a tendency to slide forwards. It isn`t too bad with bare hands, but I expect it might slight right out of the material some gloves are made from.
Put your X1 down on a sloping surface and unfortunately it won`t stay there for long. This is because the machined flats on the body are recessed inwards - the cylindrical shape of the head and tail section mean it`ll roll away quite easilly. With a Lanyard or split-ring through the attachment point in the tail however, it won`t roll away so easilly. Additionally it won`t free-stand on its tail either if you wanted to use it "candle style". This does not appear to be its primary intended use though, and if absolutely necessary it can be accomplished by standing it inside something like the center of a toliet roll.
Performance.
Because of the (almost) unique way the Inova X1 is constructed, it emits a beam that is very unlike most traditional flashlights. Instead of a tightly focussed spot or a diffuse wash of light, it projects an almost perfect circle of fairly even light that is reminiscent of the Moon. The "image" is a projection of the end of the LED and is not quite perfect because the LED is not quite perfect either. To the left is a closer view of the beamshot at the top of the page showing the pattern in more detail. The overall colour is a cold, slightly blueish light with faint swirls and slight shadows visible especially when shone onto a smooth surface from a distance. The very edge of the beam is a bright blue, this results from a prismatic effect due to the shape of the lens, something that is perfectly normal in this sort of setup. If you have projector headlamps on your car you may notice something similar. To the top of the beam profile over there you might notice that the edge of the circle is dimmer than the rest. This comes from an apparent misalignment in the LED. It doesn`t appear to be Inova`s fault either - looking into the end (when off of course!) it all appears correct. Instead it is probably a manufacturing variation meaning the die inside the LED is not perfectly centered within the body. During use this shadow is evident but isn`t a big problem.
The brightness is something that I was really quite pleased at. For a single LED it puts out a surprising amount of light and has a very impressive throw too. The packaging states its effective range is up to 65 feet and I would agree with that. It lights the back of my garden (more than 65 feet) showing enough detail to tell if that noise was next door`s cat or someone trying to steal the lawnmower, but only when my eyes are partially adapted to the dark. At that sort of distance it is not extremely bright, but is enough to be useful. It owes the brightness and long throw to that glass lens which focusses the light from the single LED into a tight 10 degree circle. Unfortunately this is done at the expense of side spill - it nas none to speak of. What you see up there in that beamshot is what you get. Using this light to navigate round the house at night is strange to say the least. Whatever I shine it at gets lit brightly and in detail, but everywhere else is almost completely dark save for the light reflected back from whatever I`m illuminating. In a place I`m not familiar with, it doesn`t really give a beam that I`d find very useful. With no peripheral vision, moving round in a strange place full of hazards would be slow and possibly un-nerving. But it is designed as a spotlight for medium to long range (for an LED) tasks, and it does that rather well.
Durability.
This is a torch that has been built to withstand some pretty rough usage. Although it is one of the largest single-AA lights I have tested to date, it owes that size partially to its beefy construction so it`s not something I`m complaining about. Most of it is machined from a high grade aluminum - you know, the usual "aircraft aluminum". The walls of the body are thick and very crush resistant and although the tail cap has some fairly thin metal right at the open edge, the rest of it is still very solid and even the thin section resists my efforts to deform it. Not all of the construction is aluminum however. As mentioned previously, a ring of stainless steel surrounds the lens end and I do believe the ring surrounding the membrane covering the tail switch is stainless steel too. This makes it highly dent resistant, moreso than the aluminum body. I can`t tell what sort of protection there is between the glass lens and the body/ring but there`s certainly an o-ring there because it`s waterproof. That o-ring would also cushion the glass a little making it less likely to crack if seriously abused.
All the aluminum surfaces both inside and out are coated in hard-anodizing. I havn`t been able to scratch it with a knife blade so it could be "Type 3" but is a little light in colour compared to other lights finished in "natural" hard anodizing so I can`t say for sure. Whatever it is, it will protect the body from most scratches and make it highly corrosion resisting too, though if used in a saltwater environment it would be beneficial to rinse it off in fresh water when it gets wet. Even stainless steel will tarnish when exposed to enough saltwater. The only parts of the body not anodized are those required for electrical continuity. The back edge of the body connects to the negative battery connection and over time it may build up a layer of oxidization leading to flickering. Keeping this surface clean and periodically re-lubing the threads and o-ring with silicone grease should keep your light working reliably whenever you need it.
One final thing worth mentioning is something not obviously visible - that is the positive battery contact. It is a patent-pending "piston" design featuring an internal spring that provides good pressure to keep a reliable contact and cushions the battery during drops. Additionally the electrical contact itsself is recessed meaning that should you get your X1 and X5 confused and insert the battery negative-end first, no damage could ever occur from the reversed polarity. The flat backside of the battery will not make contact with the recessed positive terminal and all you`ll get is no light. Re-install the battery the right way round and it`ll spring back to life again.
Long Term Testing.
Any updates worth mentioning will be posted here. A graphed battery life test will be performed as soon as time and resources allow.
Summary and Conclusion.
Still to come
Acknowledgements.
Many thanks to Margaret Sanderson of Nectarine Limited (who are the folks behind adventurekit.com and oolights.com among other stores) for providing this light for review.
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楼主: s2k
IP卡
狗仔卡
发表于 2003-10-9 03:25
显身卡
发表于 2003-10-9 06:41
