Opto-electronics manufacturer Armytek has released a new light.
Armytek has not only cornered the market on
high-tech tough lights but also on cool names like
the Grisly, the Wizard, the Barracuda
and the Viking. Continuing in that tradition of naming lights after badass
things
they have named their new headlamp the... Tiara?
Alright so you're going to ask "if all those things are capable of casting
sick spells, ripping human flesh to shreds,
or pillaging new and beautiful lands, how can a tiny crown with jewels sound
intimidating?
Maybe someone at Armytek had just watched,
Carrie? What if we pair it with some tough looking things like a pair of Norwegian
welted hiking boots or a big Kukri machete? Alright, that's better.
Anyway, Armytek has quite a few choices in the Tiara line-
under 2 main classifications. You know, just to make things confusing.
This review pertains to the Armytek
Tiara A1 Pro Warm, only.
And explaining all the differences between the other lights wouldn't
be worth doing without having the other models on hand.
So just visit Armytek's website for all the details.
Plus I'm sure there's someone on YouTube who has bought them all
so just watch that instead. Okay so what are the basic light specifications?
The A1 Pro Warm white uses a warm tinted Cree
XML2 emitter behind a light-scattering glass TIR optic.
The TIR optic minimizes the ringing and throw associated with a standard flashlight
beam pattern.
And is best suited for campsite duties, hiking,
electronics repair, or organizing your
record collection at 3:00 AM because you are still drunk. The Tiara is covered in a
tactile hard anodization which has a matte finish.
And provides you grip even when the light is wet or when you have extra gross
sweaty palms. The Tiara A1 Pro also has an easily removable tail cap magnet
that adds to its appeal for people who like sticking lights to ferrous
surfaces. Or an even more specific group of people who like walking around
bragging about the fact that their head lamp has a magnet in it.
Removing the magnet in the tail cap is a snap. Take off the plastic cover with a
flat head screwdriver
or a coin and then replace it. Since this magnet chamber is isolated from main light
there is no chance of any water leaking into the light
this way, at all whatsoever.
Alright so what comes in the sexy brown plain rectangular cardboard box?
The light, a headband,
a clip, some spare o-rings,
and a manual. Fans of a lot of extra plastics, and full-colored words and pictures
on their packaging
that they immediately throw away, are going to be disappointed.
Anyway the Armytek Tiara is a lot like its bigger
more magical counterpart, the wizard. In looks
and in operation. It too employs an electronic switch which requires a little more
force
than the average electronic switch to press. Which is fine because
electronic switches can inadvertently be turned on if carried in your pocket or
placed in your bag.
Since electronic switches require a minuscule amount of power
to operate even when off, Armytek reminds you to
lockout the light by giving the tail cap a slight turn,
if you plan on not using it for for long periods. Like, you know, months or weeks.
But since it is such a small amount of power it literally takes
months and months- and even years to drain- even if you don't lock it out. You
know, just in case you are a bone head or hate following instructions.
The Tiara can accept a few kinds of batteries including AA rechargeables,
lithium primaries, alkalines, or even a 3.7 volt
14500 lithium ion battery. The 14500 will give you longer runtimes
brighter modes, and better regulation, over alkaline batteries.
But if you don't want to invest in a new battery charger or think lithium ions are just
not for you,
then a AA Eneloop rechargeable is also an excellent way to power the light.
Armytek also says to achieve optimum results with a AA battery
to use an Eneloop. OK so how about the User Interface?
Armytek packs it's lights with a lot of niche features like voltage indicators,
tons of modes, and a few different strobes.
I'll go over the basics here, but it's definitely recommended you read the
manual to learn how to activate
extra features because I'm gonna forget something.
Armytek recommends you tell the Tiara what basic type of battery you're
using before you use it. They mainly recommend this if you plan on taking
advantage
the voltage indicator. So to do this you'll need to put in the battery.
Press and hold the button, let it go through all the modes
and as soon as it turns off, release the button.
And again click it rapidly this makes light blink
at this point you can give it a single click for a AA battery
or double click for 14500 battery. That's it.
The only time you should have to do this again is when you have to switch between
the two main types of batteries. The only problem is; that I could not accurately get
it to display the remaining voltage,
so this was a big waste of my time. I'll go in to the way to activate the voltage
indicator later on in the video.
Okay so how does the user interface
work? The Tiara has six modes broken into three groups.
You have the Firefly group, the main
mode group, and maximum- which has only one mode so I guess it's not really a
group?
To access the Firefly modes, just press and hold the button from off.
It starts out Firefly 1 and then goes to Firefly 2.
Continue to hold and release the button when you get to the mode you want.
If you were to continue to hold the button it would enter the main mode grouping
after firefly 2.
Which contains the 3 main modes. you can release the button at any time
once you get to the mode you like. You don't have to stop at firefly
or main or maximum. It will remember
the last mode you were in, no matter what the grouping- when you turn it back on.
In order to access the maximum, there are two ways to do it.
First you can press and hold the button from off and count the modes until you get
to 6. Or the second way to do it is just a double click while in any of the main
modes, while the light is on, to access it directly.
If you were to double click the switch while in any of the Firefly modes,
you would only enter the lowest main mode grouping. Maximum mode is remembered
in mode memory if you were to turn the light off while in maximum. You
will definitely need to play around with a bit to understand exactly how to get
to each mode depending on what mode you are currently in
or what grouping you are currently in. Or you can just press and hold it from off
and then wait till you get to the mode you want, and just call it a day.
Which is what I normally do. Okay
So let's see if we can make this video a bit more boring by explaining how to use
the strobe mode and battery indicator modes.
Still here? Good.
Okay so turn the light on, and from any mode click the switch rapidly 4 times
This enters the strobe battery indicator mode
grouping. Within this grouping you will get slow strobe,
freak out strobe, and battery indicator. To switch between these 3 modes
press and hold the button
Battery indicator is a little confusing because at first looks like it's just
on. But then it blinks 3 or 4 times depending on the voltage of the
battery or one, I guess, if
you are using an alkaline. Then it stops for half a second and then it blinks
the rest after the point. So, 3.7 volts would be
3 blinks, then a pause, then 7 blinks.
And it just keeps doing that until you turn if off. To get out of the strobe groupings at any
time just click the button to turn it off.
When you turn it back on, you'll be out of strobe grouping. Also
anytime you access strobe grouping again, the last strobe or battery indicator mode
used will be saved.
But only if you intentionally enter strobe grouping.
Got it? Jesus (whisper).
Anyway how does Armytek rate the output figures for the Tiara Pro Warm A1?
For AA batteries Armytek requires you to use
Eneloop rechargeables to achieve the respective runtimes and brightness levels.
Just like I said earlier. Armytek only specifies the light output is different
for the maximum mode if you use a different kind of battery.
So for this test I'll group each mode by battery type and set the camera to
manual, to see if there's any
differences between the 2 battery types,
when in each mode. Remember the lumen outputs are manufacturer specifications.
Firefly 1 outputs
.1 lumen for a whopping 90 days. It's the lowest moonlight mode i've
seen
in a standard flashlight other than a Jetbeam RRT01.
Firefly 2 outputs 2 lumens for 200 hours.
Main 1 is 11 lumens for 25 hours
Main 2 is 80 lumens for 3 hours
Main 3 is 230 lumens for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
And maximum is 515 lumens for 30 minutes on an Eneloop.
Or 890 lumens while using a 14500 battery.
Since my camera had a hard time keeping up with the extreme brightness range
of the Tiara.
When including the firefly modes. Here the main modes and maximum mode
group by battery type and then by mode.
I changed up the camera settings a little bit this time, so you can
appreciate the differences better.
Lastly here's an underexposed comparison of the maximum mode by
battery type, so you can better appreciate the brightness difference.
This test proves that the Tiara is quite a bit brighter when using 14500
batteries. While I don't have an integrating sphere
to measure the light output, I can compare it to other similar sized lights
to give you a good idea of how it outputs compared to those other lights.
And I'll just make this simple and set the Tiara to main 3 and maximum
and compare the highest output levels of those other lights.
Now while I can't verify the
lumen output levels, I can verify some of the run times.
I'm only gonna do a few tests because it would literally take over six months to
test and verify
the modes and by that time Armytek will have released a new and better Tiara
and no one will care about this review anymore. I made my runtime test
split screen so you can see how each battery behaves in relation to one another.
The Maximum and Main 3 tests were shot on a borrowed camera I can't afford.
with manual settings. Which can record the entire on time without stopping.
First up is maximum with a 14500
battery, an Eneloop,
and an alkaline battery.
In this test alkaline won the overall runtime
but isn't as bright as the 14500 and tapers off in brightness much quicker
than both the 14500
and the Eneloop. next up is main 3 with a 14500 battery,
An Eneloop, and alkaline battery.
The 14500 is the clear winner this time.
With the Eneloop in second and the alkaline in a distant third. You can see
the behavior of the alkaline again is to taper off in brightness
more dramatically throughout the run time the other two batteries.
Next up is main 2 with 1 14500.
This test was a time-lapse
unlike the video run time tests earlier because it took too long to
record
14500 is the clear winner. So the lesson throughout all this is just to
use 14500
if you want the best performance out the light. Eneloops are OK too.
But I'd stay away from alkalines unless you're in a pinch. Okay how about a few final thoughts?
So the Tiara is a pretty advanced headlamp with a somewhat,
umm, technical user interface.
It's probably best suited for someone without anger issues. Who is
willing to sit down for a few minutes, read the manual, and play with the modes.
Build quality is second to none, you won't find a much tougher headlamp.
All the modes are well-regulated and can't detect PWM or
pulse width modulation on any of them, so the beam is nice and
flicker-free.
Firefly 1 mode is about as low as any other light except for
The Jetbeam RRT01. The warm tint is very nice. And is similar
incandescent flashlights without being overly warm.
It's waterproof to IPX8 standards, so it survives
falling into the stream or pond, but probably not a vat of acid. It has
double
O-rings to keep the water out has and has anodized tail threads
which not only allows voltage lockout, but reduces the wear on threads
when you change a battery.
Out of my 5 headlamps, it's tied with the Wizard as my favorite.
But the
wizard offers longer run times an higher levels because it uses a much larger
battery.
Well the anyway thanks for watching, and subscribe to my channel.