Contents

• Pricing & Availability
• What comes in the box?
• Design & Construction
• Size & Measurements
• User Interface
• Emitter & Beam
• Mode Chart
• Runtime
• Driver & Regulation
• Switch
• Carry & Ergonomics
• Batteries & Charging
• Competition
• Conclusion

Pricing & Availability

Hank Wang of intl-outdoor.com, Emisar, and Noctigon sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the official product page where you can see current pricing. It’s also available at a small markup from jlhawaii808.com if you want faster shipping in the US.

What comes in the box?

The box is the same simple cardboard box that Emisar/Noctigon lights have been coming in for years. There’s a sticker on the front indicating what’s inside and a foam insert to hold everything in place. The following items are included in the box:

• The light itself
• Two spare o-rings (I had to use one before taking the below photos)
• Any selected accessories (pocket clip, extra tailcap, etc)

Design & Construction

The design is vaguely similar to other Emisar models. I’m glad the body tube is ribbed instead of knurled, so it snaps into a headband clamp a lot easier than the larger Emisar models do.

Build quality is good, about what I expect for the asking price. The anodizing is smooth and feels nicely applied. The threads are smooth and lubricated, but they are fine so be careful threading on the tailcap. There are no sharp edges and the machining seems to be of good quality. It doesn’t have a “wow that feels premium!” quality though.

I will note that the o-rings may be a little flimsy. I had one break within the first couple days of owning the light. The replacement has been fine since though.

Size & Measurements

Lumintop FW3A | Emisar DW4 | Cyansky HS6R | Emisar D2 | Acebeam Pokelit AA Grey

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Head Diameter (mode)	19.2
Head Diameter (max)	21.6
Length	92.7
Switch Diameter	11
Switch Proudness	-0.3
Lens Diameter	11.9
Lens Thickness	1.5
Body Tube Diameter (internal)	15.1
Body Tube Diameter (maximum)	18.7
Body Tube Diameter (mode)	18.7
Body Tube Length	52.9
Ride Height (sticking out of pocket, button-down)	2.3
Ride Height (sticking out of pocket, button-up)	24.0
Pocket Clip Space (for pants material)	2.1
Pocket Clip Space (at mouth)	5.1
Pocket Clip Width	7.0
Pocket Clip Thickness	0.9
Pocket Clip Slot Width	3.1
Pocket Clip Slot Diameter	17.4
Tailcap Diameter	18.7
Tailcap Length	17.0
Driver Diameter	16.7

Weight without battery and pocket clip: 34g

User Interface

D2 comes with a firmware called Anduril 2. It’s a highly-configurable and feature-rich UI that’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s a joy to use if you know it well. It’s too much to include a full UI breakdown here, so I’ll just direct you to the official Anduril 2 Manual which has a UI table at the bottom. Below are a few of my favorite features. Most of these are highly configurable or optional, so if you don’t like one, you can probably disable or change it!

• Momentary Turbo
• Adjustable Stepped Modes
• Manual Mode Memory option
• Shortcuts to & from Moonlight, Turbo, and High
• Battery voltage readout
• The best LVP behavior in the industry
• Support for RGB auxiliary LED’s

With all that said, I’m starting to love it a little bit less on dual channel lights like this. After testing a Cyansky HS6R with a dedicated switch for each channel, I’m finding it tedious to control two different channels with a single switch on this D2. I don’t think I’d want any UI other than Anduril on D2, but having dual channels feels unnecessary and cumbersome on a small light with a single switch.

Emitter & Beam

D2 is available with a wide variety of emitter options. Check the product page to see them all. There are also two optics to choose from; clear/spot or frosted/flood. I chose Nichia 519A 4000K with dome and SST20 Deep Red, both with clear optics.

Unfortunately, those clear optics don’t seem to play well with some LED’s and they can produce a square-ish hotspot. It’s particularly bad with SST20 Deep Red, which produces a hotspot that’s quite square and has some vertical lines in it. 519A with dome also produces a somewhat square hotspot but it’s not nearly as bad and you can only tell when white-wall-hunting. I chose to add some d-c-fix diffusion film to my D2 over both LED’s to smooth out the beams and it made a drastic improvement. If you’re in doubt about what optic to choose, I recommend getting frosted.

If you want the most throw possible, there’s also a reflector available for use with a UV LED. It may be possible to special-order that reflector with a white LED if you want to avoid beam artifacts and still get some throw. I haven’t seen anyone try that though, so do it at your own risk.

The product page says it’s very difficult to disassemble and reassemble this light so be careful what options you choose when ordering. It’s not like Hank’s other lights where it’s pretty easy for the user to swap the optics (or even the LED’s in some cases).

With some d-c-fix or frosted optics, the beams are nice and floody and soft with no distinct hotspot nor any artifacts. Great for general purpose or close up work, but not great for seeing far away.

In the beamshots below, the basketball goal to the right of the hotspot is 39M away and the power pole in the center is 185M away. These beamshots were taken with clear optics before d-c-fix was installed.

Aux LED’s: D2 comes with eight auxiliary LED’s. There are two RGB LED’s under each optic and four singe-color LED’s under the switch. They look very cool but they are a little too bright on high mode and draw too much current. I wish they came with a resistor installed from the factory to cut down their brightness and parasitic drain on high mode.

Mode Chart

Disclaimer: All of my measurements are taken at turn-on. Lumen measurements were taken on a Texas Ace 3.5″ Lumen Tube. A candela measurement was taken at 10 meters with an Opple Light Master III on the highest brightness, and other candela figures were calculated relative to that. CRI, CCT, & DUV data was taken for each mode from a few feet away at the center of the hotspot with the Opple Light Master and Waveform DUV Calculator. Runtime tests were performed with the Ceilingbounce app on my smartphone. All of these tests were performed with a fully charged Acebeam 920mah USB-C 14500 battery unless otherwise specified. I cannot measure moonlight directly, so moonlight readings are calculated based on the brightness relative to the next-lowest mode. None of this is professional equipment, so take all of these measurements with a grain of salt.

Above are the official specs, actually, this is a dual-channel Hanklight so there aren’t really official specs. The product page has a few lumen measurements for a few of the LED’s if you get the same LED on both channels, but that’s it. There aren’t any official specs listed for my configuration.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)	Lumens (Red)
Turbo	620	1400	75	96	3850	-0.0020	350
High	250	565	48	97	3870	0.0001	140
Medium	71	160	25	98	3830	-0.0001	37
Low	9	20	9	98	3830	0.0002	4
Moonlight	0.4	N/M	N/M	N/M	N/M	N/M	0.2

Why those modes? Anduril 2 has 150 levels, so doing measurements and tests for each mode is virtually impossible. I’ve got this light set up how I like it with 5 levels. Bottom of ramp is level 1 and top of ramp is level 130 (the highest for a single channel before the other channel kicks in to boost brightness). I’ve set up the stepped ramp with 5 steps so I get the 5 modes I like.

Moonlight: I find that 0.25-0.5lm is just right for moonlight for me. Less is a little too dim for some situations and more is a little too bright. I’ve seen some complaining on r/flashlight about Hank’s dual-channel lights having an “unacceptable” bright moonlight mode, but mine is perfect for me and it’s dimmer than the moonlight on most name-brand lights.

Mode Spacing / Ramp Speed: is good. There are no weirdly small or large jumps.

Runtime

Performance: is about what I expected from such a small light with an inefficient linear driver. Turbo lasts a respectable 1 minute before stepdown but sustained output with a 519A is a meager 150 lumens. That’s good enough for indoors but may be lacking outdoors.

Thermal regulation: Anduril is known to have some of the best thermal regulation on the market. It will continuously adjust output based on temperature and you can even adjust the temperature limit to your liking. I didn’t do a separate cooled runtime test on this light though. Before doing any testing I calibrated the thermal sensor. All tests were run with the thermal ceiling at the default 45C.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection): When the battery reaches 3 volts, the light will step down dramatically and instantly so you’ll notice. That acts as a warning. Then when the battery reaches 2.8V the aux LED’s will turn off (if the main LED’s are turned off). Finally, when the battery reaches 2.7V the light will turn off completely. You can re-activate the light in an emergency but it will keep stepping down and shutting off again.

Driver & Regulation

According to the product page, this is a “2.5A Linear constant current per channel” driver. These linear drivers from Hank are usually decently regulated but not particularly efficient. I would have gladly traded the second channel for a more efficient buck and/or boost driver here.

Regulation is average. Turbo is affected by battery voltage but the other modes mostly aren’t

Note: All regulation measurements are taken at turn-on so they do not reflect any thermal or low voltage stepdowns that may occur. A value of 0 indicates low voltage shutoff immediately upon activation.

PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes, nor audible to my ears. My phone camera was able to pick up some flickering on white low mode.

Parasitic Drain: 3.9 milliamps with the aux LED’s on high. That will take just 11 days to drain a typical 1000mah 14500 battery. That’s really high and I wish Hank included a resistor with the aux LED’s to reduce their brightness and power consumption. I was unable to measure drain with the aux LED’s on low or turned off, because the light would turn on the secondary channel when I connected my multimeter for some reason. Historically, Hank’s lights have had negligible parasitic drain when the aux LED’s are set to low or off, so I would only worry about it if you like them set to high.

Switch

D2 has an electronic switch that sits on the end of the head of the light. It’s backlit with a white rubber boot and is held in by a threaded retaining ring. It’s the same switch that Hank has been using on almost all his lights for years, and it works well. It’s not particularly tactile but it is clicky. It’s recessed below the retaining ring a bit so I doubt accidental activation will be a problem. It works just fine but controlling two separate channels with one switch is a bit cumbersome.

Carry & Ergonomics

Handheld ergonomics are serviceable. This is a very small light and the switch is in a bit of an awkward position. It’s not comfortable to use but it’s doable. There aren’t any sharp edges. I use one of the two grips below when holding it in my hand.

D2 carries well with the clip in a head-down orientation. It slides into the pocket easily and carries deep. The clip may be a little narrow for thicker pants material though. If you carry it with the clip in a head-up orientation, a large portion of the light sticks out of your pocket. The upside to that is you can use the light while its in your pocket because it’s at a right angle. You can stick it in your shirt pocket or in your collar for hands-free forward-facing light.

If you want to use D2 as a headlamp, you’ll have to locate a headband separately. The option I’ve chosen is a Skilhunt HB3 (because I already had one) with a 3D-printed Spicy3D adapter to hold D2. Spicy3D also sells that headband and adapter on their website if you want to buy both.

Tailstand: is reasonably stable but the light can still be knocked over easily just because it’s so small and light

Magnet: is super strong. Stronger than necessary to hold the light up on a vertical surface. It’s great.

Batteries & Charging

D2 requires a single unprotected flat top 14500 battery, and I think that was a mistake. This is one of just three 14500 lighs I know of that requires an unprotected flat top, and many other lights require a button top. That means you may have to buy dedicated batteries just for this light, which is a shame. I wish Hank had just made the body tube a little bit longer to accommodate button tops. Perhaps he will make that change in the next production run.

AA’s will not work in this light. Not alkaline, not NiMH, not Lithium primaries. You must use lithium-ion rechargeable 14500 cells.

I didn’t have any unprotected flat top 14500’s so I decided to put a piece of copper wire inside the tailcap as a spacer so I could use an Acebeam button top cell that I had on hand. That’s been working well for me and it’s a little janky but it’s functional. The tail o-ring is visible now so this may reduce water resistance. If you do the same thing, thicker wire would be better to make sure it’s creating enough space and not damaging the driver.

No battery nor charging solution are included.

Competition

Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.

Manker E03H II: smaller, cheaper, includes headband, includes color filters, ultra-low moonlight, supports AA’s, only two emitter options, good UI (just not as advanced)

Acebeam H16: smaller, similar price but includes battery and headband, only one LED, weird double-click-for-on UI, only two emitter options, supports AA’s, no moonlight

Emisar DW4: includes all the same Hank features (Anduril, aux LED’s, lots of emitter options) but is significantly larger and holds an 18650 battery.

This section is not comprehensive. If I didn’t include a particular light here, it doesn’t mean it’s bad or doesn’t deserve to be here. I simply cannot list every possible competitor.

Conclusion

When Hank announced he was making a 14500 light I don’t think anyone expected it to be a dual-channel right-angle like this. It’s a little quirky but it’s got all the features that make Emisar/Noctigon lights cool: a fancy UI, auxiliary LED’s, dual channels, and tons of emitter options. If you want a super compact enthusiast flashlight with dual channels, this is a solid option.

Thanks to Hank for sending me this light for review!