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Sigma Mono taillamp (battery)

Specifications:


StVZO approval no: Not approved.
Mass: ? g (with battery and O-ring).
Size: ? mm width, ? mm height, ? mm thickness.
Light source: 1 red LED.
Mounting method: On the seatpost.
Battery: fixed internal, Lion, exact type?
Construction: Aluminium + plastic lens.

Price: ca. € ??,-

Power: ?

Pictures:

I like how it looks, but the lens could have been bigger...

Beam shots

See the camera settings page for more on the setup and settings to make pictures of the beams of taillamps.

Out of a corner (showing how much light is cast upwards, forwards and to the sides) [ F3.9 & F1.8 ]:


Wallshot (showing the beam pattern):


Visibility from various angles (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°) [ 0.5m, zoom x3, F3.5, ISO80, 1/250s & 1/60s ]:





Comparing taillamps

Experiences

The optics are pretty good, but it's too bright. I went on a dark road beside a road for only cars (only roads up to 60 km/h are shared in NL, roads where cars may ride 80km/h and more are always forbidden for cycling. I looked at how it shone into my eye and it was quite blinding.

The mounting method is by rubber band which is not too bad.

The battery, not sure what type, I've not opened it up.

Conclusion

The Exposure Blaze is very well made, but is just too bright which is counterproductive in almost any situation. The lens distributes the light which is nice, but still the brightness in cd/m^2 is far too ghigh, i.e. any trailing traffic will get blinded. Perhaps this is useful on long straight roads in Australia, but not anywhere with somewhat ordered traffic. So I don't really recommend it simply because it is overkill. That goes for the UK too, I haven't seen anything there in person nor in youtube videos that was worse than what I experienced in NL, and thus I saw not situations where I might feel that so much light is needed. Too much light is esp. counterproductivve on bicycle paths, but on shared roads too this is just not needed. I'd like to see a bigger lit up area and lower light output and possibly a bit more light to the sides.

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