So, it arrived! I took some photos for the sake of gadget fever



Fancy packaging makes one wonder if the plan is to stock these in bricks-and-mortar retail stores someday.



The torch came with all the usual Quark accessories: nice lanyard, holster, batteries, spare o-rings, and that funny rubber hand grip thingy.





It looks pretty much like the other quarks - nice knurling, solid clip. The clip, of course, is removable and reversible.



Okay, so it's certainly a bit different when one looks at the emitter...



Green!



Blue!



Red!

Oh, I mustn't have uploaded that one. Ah well, you know what red looks like, right?

White!



So, here it is next to my other Quark, which currently sports a 2xAA body. It's shorter, obviously. My existing Quark is the tactical model, hence the different tailcap.



I have the neutral white, rather than cool white, in both of these lights, and while they look very similar in this shot, they looked pretty much exactly the same to my eye. Note how the regular quark has a hotspot, while the RGB is pure flood. I don't expect there will be much throw from the RGB.



So, there you have it - I look forward to actually using this thing

Great pictures! Looks like you are enjoying it so far. Its always fun having a new light to play with. Ive always wondered why people like 2AA lights so much, theyre HUGE (Length wise) do you carry it every day?

Posted by gsxrac Great pictures! Looks like you are enjoying it so far. Its always fun having a new light to play with. Ive always wondered why people like 2AA lights so much, theyre HUGE (Length wise) do you carry it every day?

The 2AA form is too long for my liking, and had the 18650 body been available sooner I'd have picked that up instead. I have a Fenix LD20 as well, which I only acquired inadvertently - I don't think I've deliberately bought a 2AA light for myself

If I'm EDC-ing that thing, I'll pop the 1x123 body on instead, for sure. For exploring/photo trips though, that just doesn't have enough runtime. 2x123, though, I have to admit that sits in my hand just about right.

Anyway, yeah, that RGB is great just for its floody beam, ignoring all the colour stuff. I stuck it in the Fenix headband, and now I suddenly have a headlamp with the smooth output of my Zebra H50, but much brighter (if somewhat heavier, I guess). I'm going camping tonight, and I'll be using this to set up the tent in the dark!

One observation: It seems the RGB will only take regular sized cells, so no trustfires and the like. My AW 16340s work fine, but longer cells prevent me from turning the head to change modes. Primaries work fine, of course.

Sweet. Yea I think 2x123 and 1x18650 is probably my favorite form factor and almost all my lights fit in those categories.

My fiancee was sporting my Zebralight H60 tonight for our short bike ride and I thought about using the RGB taped to the handlebars but opted to use a Surefire 6P with a Malkoff M30, 17670, and FM34 beam diffuser. That way I have a decent thrower and a super bright flood light all in one package.

I wish I were going camping! I havent been in almost a year now =( I used to go almost every weekend but I cant afford it now and I lost my favorite camping spot when the owner of the property gave it to his daughters. You live in Australia right?

Posted by gsxrac Sweet. Yea I think 2x123 and 1x18650 is probably my favorite form factor and almost all my lights fit in those categories.

Just because the people flocking to this thread will be clamouring for a comparison of body tube sizes

Posted by gsxrac I wish I were going camping! I havent been in almost a year now =( I used to go almost every weekend but I cant afford it now and I lost my favorite camping spot when the owner of the property gave it to his daughters. You live in Australia right?

Yeah, in Brisbane, and despite being a city pushing towards two million residents, it's quite dense, and an hour's drive will get you well clear of civilisation. I'm probably going to drive about three hours, to a spectacular region full of granite mountains and boulders:





I'm taking the kids (2 and 4 years old) with me, though, so whether we'll scale any mountains is another matter

I just tried my AW ICR123's and they work fine but I don't have any "off brand" li-ions to try. I've seen a few lights that were picky about batteries but didnt expect the RGB to be. I need to get me a 1x123 tube and an 18650 tube.

Posted by gsxrac I just tried my AW ICR123's and they work fine but I don't have any "off brand" li-ions to try. I've seen a few lights that were picky about batteries but didnt expect the RGB to be. I need to get me a 1x123 tube and an 18650 tube.

The only other lights I've encountered that insisted on primary-sized cells were the Fenix P3D, and the Solarforce T7 (modelled after the P3D anyway).

Though, unlike those two lights, the RGB will still turn on - it just won't allow the colour to change. I do wonder if the long batteries would squash the spring in the tailcap a bit too much, though.

The worst Ive seen was my H60. it is VERY picky about which 18650's you feed it. So far the only ones that work are AW 18650's and the Grey Ultrafires.

I would love to take a trip over to Australia. We actually have a friend who lives there and her husband is an editor/photographer for a camper trailer magazine and from what I understand they literally camp for a living. Sounds like my dream job! Well if you see any scorpions be sure to blind em with blue and see if they light up.

Not to derail, but I did end up getting the Browning prohunter LED light (seems its newer version) which is red, green and white. Seems to put out a measly 26 lumens, so I'm gonna take it out and see if I will end up keeping the sucker. Was $27 w/taxes.

Posted by Air 33 Not to derail, but I did end up getting the Browning prohunter LED light (seems its newer version) which is red, green and white. Seems to put out a measly 26 lumens, so I'm gonna take it out and see if I will end up keeping the sucker. Was $27 w/taxes.

Can't really complain, I guess, at a quarter of the price of the Quark RGB

Posted by metawaffle Can't really complain, I guess, at a quarter of the price of the Quark RGB

Its not to shabby in complete darkness which is where I will probably use it. The green of course isn't nearly as intense as the red, but I assume the quark is the same, with the blue being even dimmer..?..

The savings of course will go into another light I suspect

Posted by Air 33 Its not to shabby in complete darkness which is where I will probably use it. The green of course isn't nearly as intense as the red, but I assume the quark is the same, with the blue being even dimmer..?.. The savings of course will go into another light I suspect

Actually, amazingly enough, the colours are really bright and intense - presumably something to do with those colours being generated by the emitter, rather than being filtered out of white light?

The blue, though, does strange things to one's eyes, and feels a bit like it's pushing the boundaries of what's visible to humans

So, I took the thing camping last night, slotted into the Fenix headband, and it was great! Nicer than using the regular Quark or a Fenix for close-range stuff, thanks to the glorious spill. I switched it to dim red when I was carrying the sleeping kids from the car to the tent, too, just because I could

Some rudimentary light painting with the RGB from this evening. These weren't particularly considered efforts - just a bit of a play around with the thing.



These are a bit underexposed, at 10 seconds, f/8, and ISO 200, but it gives some idea of how bright they are. That's f/8, after all! These are straight from the camera, unmodified, and the camera seemed to apply a fluorescent white balance to the images. Using a daylight WB instead makes the colours much more saturated and bright.



Note how smooth the painting is - this was just waving it around carelessly a bit. With no hotspot at all, getting things even is a no-brainer.

I've always been a fan of long exposures to eliminate hot-spots. I can't do that with my current digi set up but I think I will go back to film again for underground stuff.

Meta those are some sweet pics! Looks like it is just about perfect for light painting ;) And I will second the fact that the red, green, and blue are all REALLY bright and the green and blue aren't much dimmer than red if they are even dimmer at all.

Posted by gsxrac Meta those are some sweet pics! Looks like it is just about perfect for light painting ;) And I will second the fact that the red, green, and blue are all REALLY bright and the green and blue aren't much dimmer than red if they are even dimmer at all.

This alone makes me want to buy this, more now than ever! >.> darn money.

Posted by AnAppleSnail This alone makes me want to buy this, more now than ever! >.> darn money.

Darn money indeed...