Mr.Lite I4S (MC-E)





Mr.Lite is a manufacturer with a broad selection of lights, here I am taking a look on a compact MC-E light. The light is has a solid construction and a type III (HA) anodized surface treatment. The user interface on this light is a surprise, see below.
As can be seen from the pictures, I have the black version but the light also exist in gray and yellow versions.



The light arrives in a thin cardboard box, with no other contents than the light. Due to the shipping the box does not exactly look new anymore, but the light has no problem with this kind of treatment.



The front of the light. The led is a quad die led, this means that the light can be very bright. The reflector has a light OP (Orange Peel) structure, but it is not enough to prevent the beam from showing a doughnut.



The led is protected by the most solid bezel I have seen on any light, it is stainless steel and a thick construction.



The head is rather large and it is not only the bezel that is solid in construction, the rest of the head is also very solid. The design does not incorporate anything to prevent the light from rolling (Neither does the rest of the flashlight body).



The body has some knurling on it, not very aggressive, but then the shape of the light will prevent it from slipping out of a hand. The threads has a good size for the lights, I have seen no cross threading or other problems with them, they are anodized and can be used to lock out the light.



The tailcap uses a reverse switch and has holes for a lanyard. The rubber cover for the switch is sticking a little bit out, this means that the light is unstable when tail standing.



The light can easily be dismantled in the above parts, without using any tools.


This light is delivered with a user interface with many settings, but if you do not like it, you can just write what your want in your order: low-medium-high or a high-medium-low-strobe or something else and Mr.Lite will program the light with the requested mode sequence (It is not possible to get a mode memory).
The standard user interface contains two groups of levels, one called "Normal Mode", that always starts in low, then half presses on the switch will step #2, #4, Strobe, Stand-by, #3 and back to #2 again.
When the light is turned off in #2 mode and then turned on again, it will start in "Professional Mode", that means that the sequence will include all the settings, starting with Low, then #2, #3, #4, High, Strobe, low sos, high SOS, Stand-by and back to low (See table below for more information about the different modes).
Next time the light is turned off/on, it will be back to normal again.



This graphic illustrates the two modes and sequences.



I like the solid construction of the light and it has a good brightness, but would have preferred more stabilized light output. I like multi mode lights, but the standard user interface together with the selection of levels on this light makes is too complicated, luckily it is very easy to get another interface.



Technical specification and measurements



The light uses one 18650 battery. It must be an unprotected cell, the battery compartment is not long enough for a normal protected cell, the exception is Tenergy protected cells that can fit in the light.

Measured size and weight:
Length: 144 mm
Diameter: 25 mm (body) to 39 mm (head).
Weight: 244 gram with AW IMR 18650 battery

The light uses a Cree MC-E led.

The light has 5 brightness settings, controlled with pwm and 4 flashing modes



I have collected all modes in a table, the values with gray background is from the specifications for the I4S. For the brightness I used a luxmeter and then scaled the values, the pwm is measured with my oscilloscope and a light sensor, the current with my DMM on peak/average (Fluke 289). For the estimated runtime I have take the current measurements and divided into 2.2 (i.e. a 2200 mAh battery), this is a very rough estimate.
PS: The , in the table is a decimal point.



The first curve shows #3 brightness setting, measured with both light sensor (blue) and current probe (red), when on it draws around 1.6 A. The pwm frequency is around 280 Hz.



Doing a voltage sweep, shows that the brightness is very depend on the voltage and that the maximum current with a fresh battery is around 2A. It also shows that the current draw drops to nearly nothing at 2.5 volt.



I have measured runtime at brightness setting #3 and #4. With #3 I get 85 minutes to 50% and with #4 it is 55 minutes, both measured with a 1600 mAh battery.



The strobe mode is using high power and flashing at 5.4 Hz with 50 % duty cycle.



Low light SOS is using the #2 power settings. The coding of the SOS is very nicely done, the dot and space is 0.56 second, a dash or letter space is 3 times that. it takes 14.6 second to send one sos and there is 54 seconds between them.



High light SOS is using #4 power setting and the timing is the same as low light sos.



Stand-by is a slow beacon, with a 0.11 second low power flash each 9 seconds.



Comparison to other Flashlights



I have selected some 1x18650 lights for comparison, both MC-E, SST-50 and some smaller leds, the lights are (Same sequence as picture): Mr.Lite I4S, Lumapower D-mini VX ultra, Fenix TA21, Fenix TK30, JetBeam RRT-2 Raptor, OLight M20 R2, DereeLight CL1H V4 XP-G R5



The maximum output is measured with a ceiling bounce and the I4S is doing very well here, matching (or rather surpassing) both the SST-50 (DVX ultra) and the other MC-E light (TX30), no single die led cannot keep up here.



Combining all the brightness settings in a single graph, using "Normal mode" I4S has two high levels and one medium level, which is fine. But changing to "Professional mode" the extra two levels does not really add a wider selection range, the difference is too small.
Note: Not all levels for TA21 and TK30 are included.



Measuring lux at two meters, confirms that I4S is not a thrower (OP reflector and MC-E was the first hints). It is more designed for shorter distances.



Beamprofile

In these pictures it can be seen that I4S has a large hotspot and some bright spill outside the hotspot. The RRT-2 that is optimized for throw has a very small hotspot.

Mr.Lite I4S, Lumapower D-mini VX ultra, Fenix TA21


Fenix TK30, JetBeam RRT-2 Raptor, OLight M20 R2


DereeLight CL1H V4 XP-G R5




Beamprofile, reduced exposure

Reducing the exposure makes it easy to see that the hotspot of I4S is less bright than many of the other hotspots, but the spill just around the hotspot is brighter.

Mr.Lite I4S, Lumapower D-mini VX ultra, Fenix TA21


Fenix TK30, JetBeam RRT-2 Raptor, OLight M20 R2


DereeLight CL1H V4 XP-G R5




Lowest brightness

Mr.Lite I4S, Lumapower D-mini VX ultra, Fenix TA21


Fenix TK30, JetBeam RRT-2 Raptor, OLight M20 R2


DereeLight CL1H V4 XP-G R5




Tree top

In these pictures the difference between a big not so bright beam and a intense hotspot can be seen. I4S is lightning most of the tree, but not as bright as the other lights that only lights part of the tree.

Mr.Lite I4S, Lumapower D-mini VX ultra, Fenix TA21


Fenix TK30, JetBeam RRT-2 Raptor, OLight M20 R2


DereeLight CL1H V4 XP-G R5


Dark reference:




Mr.Lite I4S



Low, #2, #3:


#4, High:


Tree:


Low:


#2:


#3:


#4:


High:


Tree:




Lumapower D-mini VX ultra



This light uses a SST-50 led and includes both a 1x18650 and a 1x16340 battery tube, making it possible to build a small very bright light (with short runtime). It has a forward tail switch that is used to turn on/off and select level with.

Low, medium, High:


Tree:


Low:


Medium:


High:


Tree:




Fenix TA21


This light uses a forward tail switch to turn on/off and a ring to select between 9 brightness settings and 3 flashing modes. It can run on either 1x18650 or 2xCR123 batteries.
For more information about the light, see my Danish review.

Low, #3, #5:


#7, High:


Tree:


Low:


#3:


#5:


#7:


High:


Tree:




Fenix TK30


This light has 4 brightness settings and strobe, but only two settings are accessible at a time. A forward tail switch is used to turn on/off, the modes is selected with loose/tight head. The light can run on many different battery configurations.
For more information about the light, see my Danish review.
In this review I have used it in 1x18650 configuration.


Camping low, camping high, hunting high:


Tree:


Camping low:


Camping high:


Hunting high:


Tree:




JetBeam RRT-2 Raptor


This light uses a forward tail switch to turn on/off and a ring to select between 3 brightness and one strobe setting. It can run on either 1x18650 or 2xCR123 batteries.
For more information about the light, see my Danish review.

Low, medium, High:


Tree:


Low:


Medium:


High:


Tree:




OLight M20 R2


The M20 uses a forward tail switch to turn on/off and doing a loose/tighten of the head will change level between 3 brightness settings and a strobe. The light can use either 1x18650 or 2xCR123 batteries.

Low, medium, High:


Low:


Medium:


High:




DereeLight CL1H V4 XP-G R5


The CL1H is a bit of "build you own light", it is possible to use a broad selection of leds and different batteri configurations (It is possible to get extenders for the body). The switch is always a forward tail switch and is also used to select levels. I am using a 1x18650 configuration with 3 levels.

Low, medium, High:


Tree:


Low:


Medium:


High:


Tree:




Notes

The light was supplied by Mr.Lite for a review.