I received the Astrolux MF02 NW for the review from BangGood.com. Here’s a couple of purchase links:
CW: https://goo.gl/zgvVcH
NW: https://goo.gl/oxx9yP
and get it for only 81.87$ with this coupon: YMF02
The Astrolux MF02 is a thrower flashlight, with a big smooth reflector that focuses an XHP35 Hi, powered by 4 18650 cells. The MF02 comes in a CW and a NW version. I got the NW one.
Here’s an unboxing video
The MF02 comes in this box
In the box: The light, the sheath, lanyard, shoulder strap, lanyard attachment for the shoulder strap, spare o-rings, manual.
The MF02
Not the biggest light around, but surely not a pocketable EDC (820 grams, 190x85x84 mm)
The single stage electronic switch is not the biggest one, but it is very easy to locate because it is placed in a large and user friendly shaped milling
It has a LED underneath it that doubles as battery indicator and locator
The tailcap is flat and allows tailstand, has several placements for lanyards.
The glass has a purplish glare to it, suggesting an AR coating. At the center, a well centered (thanks to a spacer) XHP35 Hi NW.
Around the glass there’s a polish finished bezel.
Some lights on a table
Thanks to: AntoLed for the camera help and the luxmeter.
Separating the head from the body
The battery carrier hosts 4×18650, and can be inserted in the light in both orientations. It has golden contact points. Since the positive contact points inside the battery carrier are nested thanks to the white plastic spacers, only button top cells will work in this light.
The tripod screw/anti-roll device/shoulder strap attachment is composed by 2 parts
Here with the strap in place. The hole in the screw-in insert for attaching the carabiner has a hole too tight to fit more than one carabiner, even with just one it has very little movement.
The strap has a plastic insert for better comfort
The cordura sheath with Velcro securing the flap has a plastic D ring and a fixed (and quite tight) belt loop.
Beamshot.
Tree at 100 meters
This light has one of the most warm tint I have seen on a stock light. I’m very happy about this.
Output and runtime
Tested with 4 18650 3100mAh protected (10A Max) batteries
My thoughts
The light is well built and more than decently finished (on mine there are some light signs on the smooth bezel, most of what you see on the light are marks from use and from the dusty setup).
I like the UI with direct access to turbo, highest and lowest mode.
The levels are well spaced and the tested ones are well regulated. The measured outputs are lower than the specs, although if I had to make an educate guess, I would say that those value refer to the CW version, and that my NW version, being a more WW (warm white) is subject to a further decline in overall brightness.
The tint on my NW sample is very warm. I like that. Especially on thrower lights, the warm tint allows the light to pierce more effectively fog, rain and moisture (plus the other advantages like better special definition, less eye fatiguing). This comes at a cost of lumens, but I am always happy to cut down in lumen for better tints.
I like that the light is designed to be used effectively with a shoulder strap: if you have ever used for a long period of time a heavy light, you know after a while of pointing and looking and orienting around your heavy light, your arm gets tired quickly. The shoulder strap allows you to do that while all the weight of the light is carried by your shoulder.
I like that the tripod screw is near the center of the body of the light, making it easy to balance it on a tripod wile inclined.
Without the screw-in shoulder strap attachment the light is prone to rolling.
The beam is the one of a thrower light but doesn’t lack in spill (both in brightness and width). The secondary spill allows you to see where your foot are stepping on when pointed horizontally.
I would like the sheath to be MOLLE compatible and with a metal D-Ring.
Thanks to AntoLed for the camera help and the luxmeter
