Received this from CPF member Unforgiven who has very kindly taken over and completed the group buy I started in January. Item arrived in a padded envelope, which was also donated by a fellow CPF member. It's very light weight, I initially thought it was a holster I ordered and was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package.

The first thing I noticed when looking straight into the head is a very pronounced silver reflection at the bottom of the reflector. It is very even all around and shows the practically perfectly aligned emitter and reflector. Also, the reflector sits on top of the XR-E's silver ring instead of around it on the PCB. The aluminum reflector has a medium orange peel texture, consistent and well done finishing. The lens is advertised as AR coated glass. From the exterior side, I was unable to find any evidence of AR coating. As far as flashlights go, the inner side is more important in terms of AR coating which will result in more light out the lens. Perhaps the inner side of the C-LE's lens is coated but I couldn't check this as the two segments of the head module are sealed together, probably with epoxy or similar substance.

The entire C-LE body is noticeably smaller than most other single AA lights, probably because it's a twisty. It's a good 1.5cm shorter than the LumaPower LM301. Coating on the body is very well done, smooth and evenly coated throughout. As an added bonus, the coating is done in Type 3 anodizing for better durability. The anodizing color is a very dark gray, almost black. Majority of the head and battery tube is finished with knurling, a good design idea since this is a twist activated light. Everything looks good on the exterior, no machining flaws, sharp edges or marks. At the tail end you will find two small holes for lanyard or key rings. Now, on to the one really bad flaw of this light. The threads, they are very rough and will initially cross thread quite often. They also tend to make lots of squeaky and grinding noises. I had to repeatedly screw/unscrew the head on mine about 50 times before they started to smoothen out a little. Keep doing this while occasionally cleaning out the metal dust produced between the threads with a stiff brush till no more rubs off. The threads should be pretty smooth now, apply some lubricant on the rubber o-ring and it's done. Which leads to another point, the rubber o-rings did not come lubricated. This is actually a good thing, because it doesn't cause the metal dust to stick on the threads making it easier to clean out after breaking it in.

The C-LE has 5 advertised modes, plus an additional "beacon/locator" mode. Cycling between modes is done by switching the light on and off within 2 seconds.

The operating modes are as follows;
"Off" > "Middle" > "Low" > "High" > "Strobe" > "S.O.S."
The extra mode is activated by turning the light off for more than 2 seconds after "S.O.S." mode, then turning it on again.

The presence of the extra mode suggests the ability to use 3.7V 14500 Li-Ion cells, the circuit can handle the higher input voltage but the emitter might burn out. Try at your own risk.

The output is good for a single AA light, overall it's very balanced. The intensity is slightly less than the XR-E's potential on an AA cell but this is made up by better runtime. The output stays nice and white through all the output levels and doesn't turn a warm yellow tint on "Medium" or "Low". This is partly due to the use of PWM for the lower levels instead of lowering the drive current to the emitter, also I'm sure the emitters used in the C-LE are of good tint selection as well. As the battery runs down out of regulation, the PWM kicks in and the output level decreases accordingly. When the battery gets critically low and about to die out, the light warns you by strobing twice in quick succession each time it's turned on.

There is one aspect of the output performance which bothers me, that is the PWM used for the "Medium" and "Low" levels. To me it is noticeable when I occasionally glance at the bezel, or use it to pan across an area. It's even more noticeable when the light shines on reflective surfaces. This is my personal observation, you may not notice the PWM as different people have different sensitivity to it.

Lastly, I did not take control shots for the "Medium" and "Low" mode because the PWM screws up my camera and results in an inaccurate representation of its intensity. This is because the each pulse of the PWM in these modes is basically the same intensity as the non-PWM "High" mode.

Runtime 1x AA 2000mAh Eneloop Medium 04:21 to 50% HIgh 01:54 to 50% Low 20+ hours

The Good - Great quality exterior finish with Type 3 anodizing. Nice white tint on all output levels. Lots of modes for in a small form factor running on common AA cells.

The Bad - PWM used for "Medium" and "Low" levels are quite noticeable to me. Very badly finished threads, although it can be fixed by breaking it in.

The Relative - Uses twist action for on instead of a push button switch. PWM results in a consistent white tint on all levels, the trade-off being a noticeable modulation effect.

Here's a video of all the modes and the effect this light's PWM has on my camera.

Head module (front view).

Head module (side view).

Head module (rear view, foam ring applied).

Battery tube (front view).

Battery tube (side view).

Battery tube (rear view).