FiTorch CP100 Review – Inexpensive Knockoff

1. Pricing & Availability
2. What comes in the box?
3. Design & Construction
4. Tripod
5. Size & Measurements
6. User Interface
7. Emitter & Beam
8. Mode Chart
9. Runtime & Regulation
10. Batteries & Charging
11. Switch
12. Handheld Ergonomics
13. Competition
14. Conclusion

Pricing & Availability

FlashlightGo.com sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the product page on their site where you can see current pricing. At the time of writing it’s $70 USD. It’s a knockoff of the somewhat popular OuTask camping lantern. I have one of those on hand too, so this review will include plenty of comparison between them.

What comes in the box?

This lantern comes in a retail ready box. Inside is:

• The lantern itself
• Tripod
• Carrying case
• User manual
• USB A-to-C charging cable
• Tent stakes (3)

The case is a cool inclusion that you don’t get with the name-brand OuTask lantern. It appears to be a generic case because the little pouch on the side is too small for the USB cable and too short for the stakes. The insert for the lantern isn’t attached at all, so it comes out when you try and pull the lantern out. It does the job.

Design & Construction

CP100 is not your typical lantern. It’s a cylinder with a light head that telescopes out and pivots around. It’s a knockoff of the OuTask camping lantern, but FiTorch shrunk it and made some other changes, including separating the tripod into a separate piece. I’m not a fan of the beige paint, and wish it were molded in a nicer color instead.

Build quality is significantly worse than I expected. I assumed the head to be metal for cooling the LEDs, but its plastic. I’m surprised it’s painted instead of molded, and the paint doesn’t always match across different parts. The tripod has some significant quality issues I’ll cover below too.

Tripod

I’m disappointed with this tripod. It’s fiddly & cumbersome to open because you must pop each leg out individually before you can push them all down. When its time to close it, you have to push the center ring up with significant force to get past the detent. Then you have to stop it before it pinches your fingers and shift your grip to close it the rest of the way. Additionally, the telescoping mechanism is below the heavy body of the light. That puts the heaviest part up in the air, making it easier to knock over. The OuTask’s tripod deploys with the push of a button, closes easily too, and is less top-heavy because the telescoping mechanism is above the body of the light.

The OuTask’s tripod has some vertical play when its deployed that I dislike, and the FiTorch’s tripod doesn’t have that issue. It screws into the standard tripod thread on the bottom of the lantern, so you can use this tripod with other devices and you can use the lantern with other tripods. Overall it does its job and holds the lantern pretty securely, but it’s not particularly quick or easy to use.

The base contains a strong magnet to stick the lantern to metal objects, and also a bail for hanging it upside-down.

Size & Measurements

Mini Maglite | Olantern Stretch | OuTask | FiTorch CP100| Maglite 2D

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Diameter (lantern & tripod)	50
Length (lantern, collapsed)	140
Length (lantern, extended)	262
Length (tripod, collapsed)	151
Total Length (everything extended)	890
Weight (lantern)	287
Weight (tripod)	170
Weight (case & other accessories)	232

User Interface

This user interface isn’t bad (for the most part), but it’s very different than a typical e-switch UI that I’m used to.

How it works:

• On/Off: Hold the power button
• Color temperature: Click the power button to cycle warm > mix > cool
• Brightness adjustment: Hold “+” or “-” buttons
• Red SOS: Double-click “M” button to turn on, click once to turn off

Comments:

• Multiple buttons is nice. Three channels (warm, cool, red) is too much to fit into one button.
• Hold for on/off is not great. Perhaps they chose this to keep it from turning on by accident in a bag. There is no electronic or mechanical lockout after all.
• Stepped ramping is nice sometimes, but I would have preferred stepped modes too. Perhaps clicking +/- for stepped and holding +/- for smooth ramping could work.
• Red SOS is neat, but there’s no constant red mode. That seems like a big oversight. Double click for on and single click for off is super confusing, especially because the white light uses hold for on/off.
• Brightness adjustment speed. When you hold the +/- buttons, it takes a full second before anything happens. The ramp speed is inconsistent too, like on many cheap lights with smooth ramping. It ramps really quickly on the low end and really slowly on the high end.

Emitter & Beam

CP100 has three banks of LEDs: cool white and warm white on one side of the head, and red on the other side. I don’t know which exact LED models are being used. The warm LEDs are super warm and low CRI like a sodium-vapor lamp. The cool LEDs are higher CRI (mid 80s), which is better than I expected. The mix of the two is a nice rosy color with good CRI that I find really pleasant to use. I really like this LED setup, and I like that it’s 3 distinct steps instead of smooth color adjustment. The head swivels around 180 degrees so you can point it down (as a lantern), sideways (as a warning/marker light), or up/forward (as a flashlight). You can even point it down and collapse it to get some light shining through the hexagonal holes in the body.

The light it produces is extremely diffused and floody, just what you want from a lantern. In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed.

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 were 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. These tests were performed with a fully charged included 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 these measurements with a grain of salt.

The official spec is 650 lumens. That’s almost 3x the peak brightness that I measured. For comparison, the OuTask lantern is “500lm” (I measured 380lm) and it looks brighter than this FiTorch. The FiTorch is still plenty bright for most situations and I never found it lacking, but I’m disappointed they lie so blatantly about the brightness.

Color	Lumens	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Warm	160	64	1920	0.0098
Mix	240	83	3050	-0.0057
Cool	170	84	5900	0.0049

Runtime & Regulation

Overall Performance: The brightness is a lot lower than advertised but still plenty for most situations. Runtime is excellent.

Brightness Regulation: Based on the graph above, this light is unregulated. The brightness drops gradually as the battery drains. It won’t be noticeable until the battery is near-empty.

Thermal regulation: I did not test for active thermal regulation. It looks like there may be some kind of thermal protection stepdown in the first ~5 minutes, but it has such a minor effect on the brightness you’ll never notice.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection): When the battery is effectively empty, the light will shut itself off, but it can be temporarily re-activated in an emergency.

PWM: I can’t detect any PWM with my eyes, ears, or camera. There’s some kind of flickering mid-ramp but it’s not proper PWM and I could only detect it with my Opple Light Master, so it shouldn’t cause any issues.

Parasitic drain: I can’t measure parasitic drain because the battery is built in.

Batteries & Charging

The battery included is 8000mAh and it’s built in, so you can’t swap or replace the batteries. I don’t see an obvious way to non-destructively disassemble the light. That’s unfortunate, but also pretty normal. Telescoping lanterns like this aren’t typically user-serviceable.

Charging is facilitated by a USB-C port on the side of the lantern. There’s a large, red, fiddly, and cheap cover to protect it. It can act as a powerbank (5V 3A max) through the USB-C and/or the USB-A port. It can do both simultaneously, and it can also do power pass-through (in through USB-C and out through USB-A). I’m really happy to see those powerbank & pass-through features.

The battery indicator is 4 separate LEDs that light up one after the other to indicate capacity when you plug it in or press the power button. I normally love this system because it’s intuitive and glanceable. Unfortunately, FiTorch put it under the port cover. It took me awhile to realize it even has a battery indicator, and it’s obviously not glanceable if you have to pull the port cover open to check the battery status.

Switch

The switches are fine. There are four of them, all covered by individual silicone boots. They require a fair bit of force to press, so this light won’t come on in your bag by accident.

Handheld Ergonomics

Ergonomics as flashlight aren’t bad. It’s comfortable to hold and accessing the buttons doesn’t require too much of a grip change, especially if you have the tripod attached.

Competition

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

OuTask Lantern: the original

• this is the name-brand product that CP100 is a knockoff of
• more than double the price
• tripod is integrated, not removable
• tripod is spring loaded and easy to deploy
• light head is aluminum for better cooling
• larger diameter but shorter (unless you split the FiTorch in half)
• noticeably brighter
• similarly mediocre UI
• no red light (sos is white on this model)

Olight Olantern Stretch: traditional-looking alternative

• my personal favorite lantern
• about twice the price
• classic lantern aesthetic
• higher-CRI LEDs
• best-in-class UI (rotary knob switch)
• larger battery and more runtime
• does not telescope as high
• much bulkier and heavier
• no red light or SOS mode
• no tripod

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

This lantern is fine. I dislike the aesthetics, build quality, tripod, battery indicator, and inaccurate brightness spec. The UI, switches , and case are fine. I like the LEDs, charging solution, runtime, and price point. The name-brand OuTask lantern feels higher quality, but this FiTorch does a couple of things better and it’s a lot less expensive. If you want to try a telescoping lantern on a budget, this may be a good option for you. Personally, I’ll be sticking with my Olantern Stretch.

Thanks to FlashlightGo for sending me this light for review. They have a huge selection including most of my favorite lights like Olantern Stretch!