Fenix LD20 180 Lumen LED Flashlight Review

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I'm an enthusiast about flashlights and coolers. There are several things that I look for when considering a flashlight. 1) Only flashlights that use AA or AAA batteries are considered. Those two batteries are the cheapest and most readily available batteries. Plus, in an emergency, I do not want to be scrambling for different types of batteries (C, D, 9V, CR123, or any other type of specialized battery). 2) The design has to be shock resistant and waterproof. 3) The longest battery life in proportion to the output as I would like an efficient flashlight. The Fenix LD20 meets all of those standards. This is a review of the Fenix LD20 flashlight with a CREE LED and a maximum 180-lumen rating. If you want more details about this light, please read on. If you want the short of it, skip to the conclusion.

Brightness: The low setting of 9 lumens is similar to the Nichia LED flashlights. Plus the battery lasts an exceptional 70 hours at this level. The better Nichia LED lights would last about half that time for the same level of brightness. The medium setting of 47 lumens is about the same brightness as my Luxeon 1-watt flashlight with over double the battery life. The high of 94 lumens is as bright as any flashlight I have seen. The turbo mode with 180 lumens was just amazing. I could shine the flashlight up at the ceiling and it lit the living room like a bright table lamp.

Color of the light: Many LEDs have a cool "bluish" color. Others have a warm "yellowish" color. The Fenix LD20 appears to put out a neutral white color temperature.

Beam: The beam was bright in the middle with a smooth and bright spill beam surrounding the core. This is a characteristic of higher quality flashlights that use textured "orange peel" type of reflectors. What you will notice with lower quality flashlights are dark rings present in the field of light, making the output inconsistent. The LD20 tested had an output that contained no inconsistencies.

Throw: The throw of the light, or how far the light will project is considerable. I often test lights by shining them down my street. The intersection is approximately 100 meters, the trees across the street are about 50 meters, and the neighbor's house is about 20 meters away. When testing the throw, the LD20 was able to reflect street signs at the intersection well, far greater than any of my Nichia, Luxeon, and Incandescent flashlights, and even Xenon flashlights using similar power.

Efficiency: The CREE LED technology appears to be the most efficient lighting. The early Nichia type LEDs had fairly good battery life, but output was limited. The next generation of Luxeon LEDs, were more powerful, but lacked efficiency. CREE LEDs appear to be the most powerful and most efficient light sources in flashlights today. The Fenix LD20 readings had the most efficient battery life to lumen ratios of flashlights using 2-AA batteries. In addition the Fenix LD20 has circuitry that regulates current to the light, so the output remains consistent until the battery is fully drained.

Build: The Fenix LD20 was smallest and lightest of its 2-AA Olight and NiteCore counterparts, which is a plus considering that they all have the industry standard aircraft grade aluminum construction, level III anodized protection, o-rings for waterproofing, and anti-roll features. The LD20 has a user-friendly operating system with a full depression of the rear rubberized-button for on or off and half-depressions changing the output. One thing to note is that there is no beam adjustment, which does not appear to be necessary as the output is bright, smooth, and even.

The only picky thing that someone might complain about is the instability when the flashlight is stood like a candle. This is understandable considering Fenix designed the flashlight to be the size of a thick pen. Bottom line is that the flashlight can stand on its end on a flat surface, but I am more appreciative of its small size and portability.

Conclusion: Overall, the Fenix LD20 is a top quality flashlight with excellent build quality and exceptional light output, with all the features desired and found in the best 2-AA flashlights. I would rate this flashlight a 5.0 out of 5.0. With other makers such as Olight and NiteCore also having similar top quality flashlights, it becomes a matter of personal preference. I now have difficulty appreciating my other flashlights (Energizer, MagLite, Inova, Coast, Princeton Tec, Serengeti, Surefire, etc.) now that I have the Fenix LD20.

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Why?

He is obviously a Surefire homer or something of that nature, anybody who knows about lights know that the cost of this light is very reasonably price as compared to SF lights.

For a SF light that only puts out 60lumens you will pay either the same or more. Some surefire lights cost over $100 and then some and still don't have the output of the LD20 and they usually all take 123 batteries.

This light is worth every penny, it is well built, can take abuse and still light up.

It has 2 modes with 6 types of output.

Lower mode: 9 lumens, 47 lumens, 94 lumens, then goes to S.O.S mode which can be used to save your life.

The 9 lumen level is ideal for looking around in your closet, behind a desk, reading a book if you don't need that much light, looking in a glove department, etc.

47 lumens provides more light and is perfect for under the hood of a car, an attic for close up work, looking for things outside like a toy or whatever, etc.

94 lumens is plenty bright for many uses you can light up a room with this mode and wow people. At this level you can temporarily blind a person or even clear a house. Under this mode you can really work on a car or look outsidse in the darkness.

S.O.SNeeds no explanation it can very well save your life or flag down a airplane, helicopter, or far off motorist.

The high setting

180lumensUnder this setting you're more than lighting a room, blinding a person, locating things etc. The spill is great and you can really see what you need to see. Make use of the modes how you see fit.

StrobeDepends on what you need to use it for, Me personally im using it to clear a house or disorient a assailant or inmate. It can also be used to signal for help.

The runtimes are great and this light is tough and can be used if need be as an impact weapon.

It uses AA batteries which are common so you'll be fine in a disaster, etc. Use rechargeable batteries which are best but like I said in a disaster situation it can and will operate on regular AA batteries.

GREAT LIGHT WELL WORTH EVER PENNY!

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This version of the Fenix LD20 uses the new Cree XP-G LED (R4), which produces more light for the same amount of energy. Thus, it's essentially the same as the standard LD20, but brighter at all light levels. The flashlight comes with a belt clip, lanyard, and a really nice tactical belt pouch.

The design of the flashlight body has a very "industrial" feel, and is slimmer than the pictures suggest. The narrowest part of the body is only slightly wider than the AA batteries it uses, and flares out at the cap and tail. Personally I find the design unique and attractive, and it fits very nicely in the hand. The machining is top-notch and highly detailed, and has a very high-quality feel to it. The coating is an attractive satin black, and seems very durable (my Fenix daily-carry light (a single-AAA L0D) has been in my pocket for nearly two years and still has no scratches). The lens material is very hard and is seated very securely. The lens bezel has a five notch scallop, so the flashlight stands securely on the bezel, but the rear cap has a two notch configuration surrounding the button for lanyard attachment. This means that although you can stand the light on its base for "candle" type operation, it's not very stable in that position. I personally never use my flashlights like that, but if you do, you'll have to be very careful to get it to stand by itself.

The basic operation of the flashlight involves two controls, the button on the rear cap, and the screw bezel. The light turns on and off using a full click of the button, with "soft clicks" of the button cycling through the light modes. To switch between the "normal" and "turbo" mode sets, you twist the top bezel slightly. The rotation between the turbo and normal modes is only ~1/8 turn, which was much less than I expected. Although you'll probably leave it on the normal modes most of the time, the cap is only slightly unseated from the fully screwed-on position, and I feel confident it won't compromise the watertight integrity of the light. The controls are intuitive once you've used it for a few minutes, and frankly I prefer using buttons rather than twist controls. Interestingly, if you unscrew the top bezel, it opens into the top end of the battery compartment, so I suppose you could load batteries from either end. This means that the entire top bezel, containing the LED and all of the electronics, is a single, sealed module, which really seems like a great design.

The light output of this flashlight is quite impressive. The Low setting (9 lumens) is more than sufficient for a lot of personal use and all indoors use, and has a ridiculous 71 hour runtime. Another reviewer mentioned that they thought the Low and Medium settings looked the same, and when used indoors, the 50-lumen Medium setting does look about as bright as the Low setting. However, when used outdoors, the Medium setting is clearly brighter and has a much longer throw than Low. The 105-lumen High setting is quite bright for a handheld light. I found it illuminated objects a good hundred meters away, and is really more light than I need in most situations. The 205-lumen Turbo mode is like having a small star in your hands. The illumination and throw is just amazing; it fully lit the ~3 acre area I was using to test the light, and the reflection was somewhat painful when aimed at nearby objects. The light does warm up on Turbo, but that's not surprising, given the amount of power it's using. Overall I found it highly satisfying to be able to choose between a high level of battery conservation or a high level of light, with the four primary modes nicely covering all possible situations I could think of. Personally, I'm not sold on the two flashing modes (SOS and Strobe); I don't really have a use for the flashing modes and I found it slightly annoying to have to switch past them, but I'm sure that if I ever got lost in the woods I'd appreciate them.

The beam pattern is unique to the lights I have, and I really like it. The center "spot" is larger than my other lights, and has a very uniform distribution. There's a slightly dimmer spot in the very center, but it's only visible on a white wall. The larger center spot makes the light much more useful than a narrow-beam spot, while still having a long throw.

Overall, this is a phenomenal flashlight and I'd highly recommend it. The sheer quality of the light is visible in every detail, and it's a pleasure to use. The decision between the standard LD20 and this 205-lumen model is up to you, but I feel it's worth the small premium for the additional light efficiency.

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This is an improved model of the L2D and is an outstanding light. I see three improvements and there may be more. First the L2D had a 10 minute run time limit in the turbo mode this new model has no running limit. Then the lanyard connects to the end cap in an improved manor then it has a hex head which keeps it from rolling. I'm a flashlight nut so I have many, the best so far was the Streamlight 4AA which has a longer run time and a very nice spot. The LD20 is a bit brighter and a flood rather than a spot. So at the target the light level with the LD20 is brighter and much wider without a loss of light. I walk two miles in the woods every morning and in the dark, in one area there is a large field and the LD20 is amazing the way it floods the field. I use it in the turbo mode and clicking on the end switch works well, no problem having it slipping into the strobe mode. The regular mode would be useful in an extended power loss because it can be run at a lower brightness and run for hours longer. For the regular mode you twist the head and then click the base switch on. It cycles thru different lighting levels if you just lightly press the base switch. Overall it is very small and fits nicely in ones hand. The only change I would make would be to put the on-off switch on the barrel just under ones thumb.

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I want to "shed some light" on the reason why the lowest mode does not work on some of the LD20 R4's.

If you received a unit where the lowest mode does not seem to work, chances are you received a unit that is more efficient than the others and not broken !

SKIP TO "BOTTOM LINE" SECTION IF YOU ARE NOT TECHNICAL MINDED.

Fenix does not use PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), but true current control to control the brightness of the different modes.

PWM is the process whereby the output is regulated by switching the LED on and off at a reasonably high rate. For instance lets look at an interval of 1 second. If the LED is on for 0.1 seconds out of the 1 second, then it give you 10% brightness. If on for 0.8s out of the 1s, then the brightness would be 80% of max and so on. The LED's are typically switched at a rate of a few thousand times per second, but the principle stays the same. This sometimes causes people to notice some flicker while operating at the lowest modes.

The current control in the LD20 does not produce any flicker (apart from strobe and SOS :-) ). Fenix also does not use resistors to control the current, because resistors would waste energy in the form of heat. The active current control is achieved by using a boost circuit to boost the voltage and therefore the current.

Other manufactures uses a buck-and-boost circuit to achieve their modes. A buck circuit is a step down DC-to-DC converter that would give you a lower output voltage than the batteries supplied.

The LD20 uses a boost-only circuit which is more efficient than a buck-boost combo. This is why Fenix lights are the run time kings.

The problem now is that some of the Cree XP-G (R4) LED's are very efficient and the voltage does not drop low enough because of the small current being drawn. If this happens the LD20 goes to second lowest setting, because it cant reach the lowest.

This is also the reason why you loose lower modes if you use Lithium or NiZn batteries in the LD20. The lower currents can not be reached without resistors(less efficiency) or PWM(flicker) or a buck-circuit(boost only is more efficient than buck-boost combo) with this higher voltage batteries. The voltage drop in low mode on good alkaline batteries now seems to be just above the reach of the current-control circuit for low mode on some units (They draw too little current/Are too efficient).

Those with the "broken" low mode are actually superior to those that work correctly ;-)

BOTTOM LINE:

Use rechargeable NiMH cells. Their nominal voltage are lower than that of alkaline cells. If you use rechargeable NiMH cells and lowest mode still does not work, then send back your unit.

While good quality alkaline cells might give better run times on the lower modes than rechargeable cells, it will definitely not be the case at the higher modes. Alkaline cells can not sustain the larger current being drawn as well as NiMH or NiCD cells on high/max and will be depleted a lot faster.

With Lithium or NiZn cells you WILL lose the lower modes and you now know why.

As the alkaline batteries lose their charge, the lowest mode will start to work.

On rechargeable cells:

1) The charger makes the biggest difference on the run time of the flashlight. Those cheap chargers would leave you frustrated and probable unhappy with your LD20. Not to forget that they WILL cause damage and reduce the life expectancy of the rechargeable cells.

A good charger has an individual circuit for each cell to ensure that the cell is charged to maximum. Cheap chargers use one circuit to charge all the cells at once, leaving only one with 100% charge and the others at varying states of charge.

If you can't get nowhere near the runtime claims of the manufacturer, it is most likely your charger that is letting you down.

2) Buy Sanyo Eneloop 8 Pack AA NiMH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries Eneloop batteries (or any other low self discharge batteries). They keep their charge a lot longer than regular rechargeables. The quality control on these also seems to be better.

I can recommend the AccuPower AP2020-1 Accu-Manager 20 Battery Charger for AAA/AA/C/D or 9-Volt NiMH, NiCD, or RAM Batteries and the Maha Powerex MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger-Analyzer as VERY good chargers. I own both for a year now and they are excellent in their own right. The Accumanger for people who just want to put the batteries in and forget about it, until they are ready. The MAHA for people who want to have ultimate control over the charging of the batteries. (Those interested in the MAHA should not be deterred by the review of NLee_the_Engineer. It is not nearly as difficult as he made it out to be. I almost did not buy the MAHA because of his review and that would have been a HUGE mistake). I did not consider a LaCrosse because of the bad build quality at the time.

BTW.

I am a very happy Fenix LD20 owner and share my experience here in the hope that it will be useful.