Folomov EDC C1 Flashlight Review

Folomov has released the EDC C1, a flashlight that runs on a single 10440 cell and has an unusual tail e-switch. Read on for testing!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Folomov EDC C1 Flashlight product page at Illumn.   The light isn’t up on the official Folomov site yet.

Versions

There is only one version of the EDC C1.

Price

The price is $34.90, and this is available on preorder from Illumn.com.

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Short Review

Even though the Folomov EDC C1 doesn’t hit the claimed numbers, I like it a lot.  It’s a complete package light (including the cell) and it is sufficiently bright for the tasks I’ll use it for.  I don’t think the low mode is quite low enough, and the stepdowns on Turbo and High happen too quickly.  But overall I am still very happy with the light.

Long Review

The Big Table

Folomov EDC C1
Emitter:	Nichia E21A (3000K 95+ CRI )
Price in USD at publication time:	$34.90
Cell:	10440 (Included)
Turbo Runtime	High Runtime
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (A):	?
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Chargetime (on-board cell)
Power off Charge Port with no Cell?	–
Claimed Lumens (lm)	335
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	100 (29.9% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	62
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	65lux @ 2.819m = 517cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	45.5 (73.4% of claim)^
All my Folomov reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer:  Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What’s Included

• Folomov EDC C1 Brass flashlight
• Unbranded 10440 with charge circuit
• Spare o-rings (2)
• Manual

Package and Manual

The EDC C1 ships in a tin, approximately the size of an Altoids tin.  Inside the light is held in place by some foam.

The manual is quite nice and includes all the specs and other information about the light.  It’s a quite good manual.

Build Quality and Disassembly

There are a couple of things you’ll notice right away when handling this light.  The first, is that it is indeed brass.  Second, it’s actually some sort of coated brass.  So there’s a brass smell, and the brass weight, but the light is unlikely to patina very quickly (if at all).

Then you’ll notice that the EDC C1 is an e-switch tailswitch light!  Unusual!

Build quality is good.

Only the tail of the light has a spring.  The head end has only a brass button.

The threads are very short, and square-cut (a huge surprise in a light like this!).  The body is highly decorated, which might be seen as good or bad.

The single spring provides adequate protection for the cell, though.

Only the tailcap is removable.  The cell goes into the light in the normal orientation (positive toward emitter).

Size and Comps

Officially: Body Diameter: 13.5mm
Length: 66.8mm
Weight: 34.5g with battery

This is a very small light!  As a 10440 light should be….  Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+.  Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple.  A very nice 18650 light.

It’s not the smallest AAA-sized light – in my collection that award goes to the Olight i3E EOS.  Of course, that light is a single mode, and the Folomov is quite a bit more feature-rich!

Here’s the light in hand.

Retention and Carry

A pocket clip is included and ships attached to the light.  One of the polarizing features of this light is that the clip attaches only on the head, which means bezel-up carry.

It’s a friction clip and can be removed.  The clip itself is quite nice.  It has a big mouth and ample shoulder, so it’s easy to get on pockets, and roomy enough to sit easily.  I would probably prefer bezel down carrying (my favorite AAA light does use that setup) but bezel up isn’t a deal breaker, nor something I can’t get used to.

Power and Runtime

A single 10440 cell powers this light.  Only li-ion will work; other types of AAA-sized cells will not.  NiMH, primary alkaline, etc.  Those won’t work.

I performed runtimes with the included cell.  The light never reaches the claimed output of 335 lumens by my testing (corroborated by other more sophisticated testing measures, too).  The initial output on turbo is around 240 lumens by my testing – still quite a respectable number.  I test this to be drawing around 1.5A, too, so there’s not actually too much improvement to be made – this emitter tops out on output at around 2A.

Surprisingly the light doesn’t get all that hot during these tests.

Interestingly the 30-second output is the same for Turbo and High – at a measured 100 lumens.

I tested (but didn’t graph) the light with an Efest 10440, and the output max is the same.  No difference at all.  So while the Folomov 10440 might be smaller because of the charge circuit, it’s just as capable as the Efest 10440’s I have.

Charging

See below the charge circuit on the top of this cell.  It’s a micro-USB port – just insert the plug and charging will commence.  While the cell is charging, a red indicator will light on the positive end of the cell.  When charging is complete, there will be a green indicator there.

It’s easy to see in the photo below how much of the cell length is actually charge circuit.  Maybe 1/4 of the cell size?  Probably a decent trade off though, because the average charger will not be all that fit for a 10440 cell.  These cells need a slow charge rate!

And this built-in circuit provides that slow rate; the max charge rate is around 0.35A.  That’s probably around 1C (though I don’t see the capacity for the cell reported anywhere).  My test (which records from the USB source) shows around 210mAh went into the cell.  (And that’s 210mAh at 5V, so you could math it out to see the actual capacity – something like 250mAh).  The charge circuit looks great, too.

Pulse Width Modulation

Surprisingly there appears to be PWM on all modes except Turbo.  I say “surprisingly”, because I can’t see a single bit of PWM at all.  And I’m super sensitive to PWM.  I call this a win, and if I were you I wouldn’t worry about this at all.

Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.

Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.

User Interface and Operation

There’s a single switch on the EDC C1.  It’s a tail e-switch.  There’s a nice flat rubber cover, and with little effort the light will tailstand on this switch.  The switch isn’t loud at all, but does make an audible “click” when …. clicked.

An e-switch in the tail of a light is unusual!

Here’s a user interface table!  It’s a fairly feature-rich UI. There are even two groups! The default is the “Illumination Group”, which is described in the table below.

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (Mode Memory excluding Turbo/Moon)
Off	Hold	Moonlight
Any	Double click	Turbo
On	Click	Mode Advance (LMHML)
Turbo	Double Click	Special Modes (And then special mode advance) (Strobe>SOS>Beacon>Turbo)
On	Hold	Off
Off	Click 3x	Lockout
Lockout	Click 3x	Unlock (to “Off”)
Any	Click 7x	Switch to Tactical Group

Below is the table for the Tactical Group.

State	Action	Result
Off	Hold	Turbo
Off	Click	Turbo
Any	Double Click	Strobe
On	Click	Off
Any	Click 7x	Switch to Illumination Group

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	335	0.5h	100^	1.48
High	150	0.8h	100^	0.53
Medium	40	1.2h	37	0.12
Low	8	4.8h	11	0.04
Moonlight	0.5	30h	~	~

^ Measurement at 30s, per runtimes above.

LED and Beam

One of the very unusual things about this light is that it’s one of the first production lights with a Nichia E21a emitter.  This is a 3000K temperature, and >95 CRI.  (To be honest, this light had me right there – it’s great to try new emitters, and this one’s interesting in its own right – and for ~$35 in a brass light – yes please.)

The reflector is smooth, and coupled with the domeless nature of the E21a, provides a surprising amount of throw for such a tiny package.  It also means that as a keychain light, there’s probably more of a spot than is needed.  But for walking around the house at night and checking on kids or whatever, this light is fantastic!!

These beamshots always have the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

This is the same shot as above, but exposed differently, for easier beam comparison.

I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive, has the best tint, and [probably] still available!

Conclusion

What I like

• Brass
• Nichia E21a in a production light!
• Complete package light
• Multi-group UI
• Main Illumination Group has a good selection of modes
• Good clip
• E-switch in the tail, an unusual feature

What I don’t like

• Doesn’t work with AAA cells of any nature except Li-ion
• Bezel up carry only
• Doesn’t hit the manufacturer’s claim
• Moonlight is too bright
• LMHML order doesn’t really work for me
• Mode memory

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Notes

• This light was provided by Illumn.com for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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