Review OrcaTorch D530 - Is it for real???

[Eric802]

Alrighty, here are the 550 and 530 side-by-side, both with freshly charged Orcatorch batteries, both on high. The 550 specs say 1000 lumens for 2 hours, 5 minutes. The 530 is 1300 lumens for 1:25.

 

[Eric802]

 

[lexvil]

you can see the fade but pretty amazing runtime from 18650’s

 

[Ukmc]

Ok. Repeated experiment. Made sure all the lights are on the brightest setting. All batteries charged equally and scrambled. S12 appears to be the brightest from the start, but dies by 2 hr mark. D550 went somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hrs. D530 while visibly dimmer at the end went 17+ hrs runtime. Pretty amazing.

 

[lexvil]

Ok. Repeated experiment. Made sure all the lights are on the brightest setting. All batteries charged equally and scrambled. S12 appears to be the brightest from the start, but dies by 2 hr mark. D550 went somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hrs. D530 while visibly dimmer at the end went 17+ hrs runtime. Pretty amazing.

Wow, so random battery switching with the same incredible run time, wow

 

[Eric802]

I called my experiment at the 3 hour mark because, while both lights were still putting out light, it wasn't anything close to what I'd call "useful" light. My last pic above makes them both look brighter than they really were. So, maybe the 530 will stay illuminated for as long as Ukmc is seeing, but is it putting out useful light at that point?

 

[tursiops]

I called my experiment at the 3 hour mark because, while both lights were still putting out light, it wasn't anything close to what I'd call "useful" light. My last pic above makes them both look brighter than they really were. So, maybe the 530 will stay illuminated for as long as Ukmc is seeing, but is it putting out useful light at that point?

The right way to take pictures like this to suggest relative illumination is to set the camera's ISO, shutter speed, and f/stop the same for all pictures, and not put the camera on automatic.

 

[Eric802]

I have much to learn about photography, both above and below the surface.

 

[Ukmc]

T

The right way to take pictures like this to suggest relative illumination is to set the camera's ISO, shutter speed, and f/stop the same for all pictures, and not put the camera on automatic.

That is absolutely correct, except you would have to control for ambient light as well. In this case, as the light intensity was decreasing, ambient light was decreasing as it was getting later at night, and the light itself seemed to be as bright. As such it brings up an interesting point, about how you would want your light to behave as the battery charge decreasing. would you want the light to cut iout all of a sudden or decrease in intensity and keep on going?

 

[Germie]

A lot of output depends on the driver.
Some lights have a driver that guarantees the maximum mentioned output. And then, 'poof', out, gone.
Others, the most do, just have the maximum output at the beginning and already after a few minutes the lights are not burning anymore on the maximum output. This is also the same with the Orcatorch lights. You see that they are fading away.
You can calculate if the manufacturers descriptions are true. A 18650 has 3500 mah I believe as maximum. (there are no 6000 or so as some try to sell). Then you know the voltage of the light. And you can calculate the maximum duration of the light at full power.

I like my orcatorch lights. Most times I use half power and then they last long enough. I use some of Orcatorch lights for technical diving.