The folks over at Xtar were nice enough to send me a light to test and share my thoughts. I received an Xtar D26 1600 the other day. The first thing I do with any new light is go through everything it comes with and read through the manual to see if it is straightforward to follow.
With this light the package includes:
⦁ The light
⦁ 2 spare O rings
⦁ manual
⦁ lanyard
⦁ 18650 battery sleeve
This light does not ship with any battery. It will take a 26650 or 18650 lithium ion battery with the included sleeve. I am happy to state the the manual is easy to follow and covers all the specs of the light.
The light has 4 output modes turbo, high, med, low which correspond to 1600, 650, 200, 60 lumens. Runtimes are stated as 2.48, 3.73, 9.9, 32.5 hours respectively. I will tested the high power to see how it would compare. I used a 5200 Mah 26650 battery and got 2 hrs 10 mins, since they stated a longer runtime I ran the test again after recharging and got 2 hrs 8 mins. So it appears that the published times were done under ideal conditions as I am not achieving them with a known good battery which I have verified the capacity and internal resistance on. Depth rating on the light is 100meters and it weighs 263 grams. There is a battery level indicator which is nice to know how much juice you have left. It is green between 100% and 25%, 25-5% is red, and less than 5% is flashing red. This light does not have any strobe function, which I found to be odd.
I have a bit of a love hate relation with the power button on this light. It is a magnetic button that is spring actuated. Its travel feels comfortable and easy to activate in comparison to other lights I have which have a tighter feel and require a harder push. However the downside is the button is not recessed in any way and because of this it can be accidentally activated. You can see that here:
To prevent this Xtar implemented a lock feature to prevent accidental activation. If you press and hold the button for three seconds the indicator light will flash green and turn the light off indicating that it is locked. You can't bump the button and turn on the light. To release the lock and turn on the light you have to press and hold the button for three seconds again. I thought this sounded like a great way to stop accidentally draining your battery or heating up the light head, however on my very first jump to get it wet it inadvertently turned on while headed there. Before we left I activated the lock and put it in my dive bag. I threw everything in my trunk and headed out. When I pulled my bag out and unloaded the light was on. So the act of my gear shifting in the bag easily enough deactivated the lock on my first trip out with it. It is an good feature but the light needs more button protection or removal of the battery when traveling to ensure the lock does not get disengaged accidentally.
The construction and finish on the light are nice. There are textured ridges on the grip which I like. The bottom has a 1/4" female screw adapter if you need to mount the light. The anodized finish is very good with no blemishes. There is a lanyard attachment point at the rear of the light.
As stated above the button is easier to move than other lights. It does have some side to side play and twists around which tells me it is just a spring in a sleeve and probably allows water intrusion around the spring. Xtar has a good reputation with their dive lights so I am betting that the spring is stainless steel, but time will tell how well the button hold up in salt water. The thickness of the machined aluminum body is thicker than other lights I have, so that and the lights larger size give this some heft and solid feel. For me this light is about as big as I would want as a handheld. I actually prefer a smaller light but I would have no issue using this one. To compare size to another of my favorite lights:
The Xtar is 6 inches, and the other is 5 inches. The Xtar barrel ins about 1.4 inches with the light head being 1.75 inches where the other is about 1.25 inches
Other than the button getting turned on I only found two other small issues with this light. The manual states the battery installation direction, but how often to you carry the manual while diving? The light is printed with which direction to turn the threads and a hot surface warning, It could also have an indicator on the light about the installation direction, which is + toward the lighthead. This is how most lights are, but I do have one that is the other way. The other thing I found puzzling was that this light is hard to get started threading. I looked at it repeatedly and see no issues with the threads or threaded head. You have to push to depress the battery springs and push past the fist O ring engagement to seat the barrel. This construction allows the barrel to move slightly side to side when trying to twist and if you are not exactly aligned it wont engage. I think the issue here is the first O ring engaging before the threads do. Most other lights I have seen begin threading and the threads then pull each O ring into the head unit side.
To sum it up:
Pros:
Cons:
Well really room for improvements. None of these would stop me from using this light but these would make the light a much better light than it already is.
With this light the package includes:
⦁ The light
⦁ 2 spare O rings
⦁ manual
⦁ lanyard
⦁ 18650 battery sleeve
This light does not ship with any battery. It will take a 26650 or 18650 lithium ion battery with the included sleeve. I am happy to state the the manual is easy to follow and covers all the specs of the light.
The light has 4 output modes turbo, high, med, low which correspond to 1600, 650, 200, 60 lumens. Runtimes are stated as 2.48, 3.73, 9.9, 32.5 hours respectively. I will tested the high power to see how it would compare. I used a 5200 Mah 26650 battery and got 2 hrs 10 mins, since they stated a longer runtime I ran the test again after recharging and got 2 hrs 8 mins. So it appears that the published times were done under ideal conditions as I am not achieving them with a known good battery which I have verified the capacity and internal resistance on. Depth rating on the light is 100meters and it weighs 263 grams. There is a battery level indicator which is nice to know how much juice you have left. It is green between 100% and 25%, 25-5% is red, and less than 5% is flashing red. This light does not have any strobe function, which I found to be odd.
I have a bit of a love hate relation with the power button on this light. It is a magnetic button that is spring actuated. Its travel feels comfortable and easy to activate in comparison to other lights I have which have a tighter feel and require a harder push. However the downside is the button is not recessed in any way and because of this it can be accidentally activated. You can see that here:
To prevent this Xtar implemented a lock feature to prevent accidental activation. If you press and hold the button for three seconds the indicator light will flash green and turn the light off indicating that it is locked. You can't bump the button and turn on the light. To release the lock and turn on the light you have to press and hold the button for three seconds again. I thought this sounded like a great way to stop accidentally draining your battery or heating up the light head, however on my very first jump to get it wet it inadvertently turned on while headed there. Before we left I activated the lock and put it in my dive bag. I threw everything in my trunk and headed out. When I pulled my bag out and unloaded the light was on. So the act of my gear shifting in the bag easily enough deactivated the lock on my first trip out with it. It is an good feature but the light needs more button protection or removal of the battery when traveling to ensure the lock does not get disengaged accidentally.
The construction and finish on the light are nice. There are textured ridges on the grip which I like. The bottom has a 1/4" female screw adapter if you need to mount the light. The anodized finish is very good with no blemishes. There is a lanyard attachment point at the rear of the light.
As stated above the button is easier to move than other lights. It does have some side to side play and twists around which tells me it is just a spring in a sleeve and probably allows water intrusion around the spring. Xtar has a good reputation with their dive lights so I am betting that the spring is stainless steel, but time will tell how well the button hold up in salt water. The thickness of the machined aluminum body is thicker than other lights I have, so that and the lights larger size give this some heft and solid feel. For me this light is about as big as I would want as a handheld. I actually prefer a smaller light but I would have no issue using this one. To compare size to another of my favorite lights:
The Xtar is 6 inches, and the other is 5 inches. The Xtar barrel ins about 1.4 inches with the light head being 1.75 inches where the other is about 1.25 inches
Other than the button getting turned on I only found two other small issues with this light. The manual states the battery installation direction, but how often to you carry the manual while diving? The light is printed with which direction to turn the threads and a hot surface warning, It could also have an indicator on the light about the installation direction, which is + toward the lighthead. This is how most lights are, but I do have one that is the other way. The other thing I found puzzling was that this light is hard to get started threading. I looked at it repeatedly and see no issues with the threads or threaded head. You have to push to depress the battery springs and push past the fist O ring engagement to seat the barrel. This construction allows the barrel to move slightly side to side when trying to twist and if you are not exactly aligned it wont engage. I think the issue here is the first O ring engaging before the threads do. Most other lights I have seen begin threading and the threads then pull each O ring into the head unit side.
To sum it up:
Pros:
- Solid construction
- Nice output power and good runtimes
- Easy to operate
- Multiple attachment methods, 1/4 screw or lanyard
Cons:
Well really room for improvements. None of these would stop me from using this light but these would make the light a much better light than it already is.
- The button lock is nice, and needed since the button is not recessed, but a physical lock such as turn the button to engage a lock verses a circuit lock might be better.
- Battery installation direction should be indicated on the light itself
- A change to the barrel length to have the threads engage before the O ring would make screwing on easier
- Most dive lights have a strobe safety feature which is not difficult to implement in the circuitry.