cheap chinese video light review

[Barmaglot]

Has anyone run into this issue? XTAR D26 2500, works for about half an hour, then brightness drops, the switch starts flashing red, and a few minutes later, it dies. The batteries are original XTAR-branded 26650s that shipped with the light, and testing them in a smart charger shows approximately 4950mAh capacity. In fact, removing them from the light and popping them in the charger after it has died shows that they've barely been discharged at all.

 

[davecampbell]

Has anyone run into this issue? XTAR D26 2500, works for about half an hour, then brightness drops, the switch starts flashing red, and a few minutes later, it dies. The batteries are original XTAR-branded 26650s that shipped with the light, and testing them in a smart charger shows approximately 4950mAh capacity. In fact, removing them from the light and popping them in the charger after it has died shows that they've barely been discharged at all.

any updates on this? I've got 5 of the lights, and have experienced this occasionally. I'm not sure if it's a combination of what head, with what cell, and what tail cap I happen to be using together. They get mixed up from time to time... I've found very slightly unscrewing the tail cap, breaking the battery connection, can sometimes fix the issue... but do so at your own risk underwater. I'm going to try some different cells if I can find something good.

 

[Barmaglot]

I wrote to XTAR, they offered to sell me a replacement at 50% off. This coincided with a sale on Aliexpress (where I originally bought my light), so I ended up paying $37.

 

[lermontov]

there doesnt seem to be a consistent correlation between price and reliability - ive had cheap chinese lights survive below 100m and more expensive ones fail at 20m