# New Hope Vision 4 LED first impressions



## bonesetter2004 (May 27, 2007)

Had delivery of the new 4 LED from Hope today. The feel of it oozes quality, robustness and lightweight design.

The top LED of the 4 looks smaller than the rest and the front lens optic cover is dished over each light. You can feel this if you run your finger over each one.










Functions and power setting are accessed from a nice rubber covered button on the rear.










The bar fixing bracket is made out of lightweight, but strong feeling plastic. You attach a pair of rubber spacer blocks, the thickness according to what size bars you are using.










The helmet mounting bracket looks good (alot better than Nightlightning have done with the iBlaast!). Looks as if there would be no problems getting the fixing rock solid and easily adjustable










The mounting also has a thick wedge of foam underneath which goes between the mounting and the helmet










Here it is mounted on my oversize bars










I still have the L&M ARC and the iBlaast! to compare the new Hope with which I plan to do tonight.

I will also take some beam shots


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## The Sage (Dec 1, 2004)

*ooohhh!*

Sexy! Sexy! Thanks for sharing....


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## eldiablo (Feb 23, 2005)

looks good, am waiting to get mine - hopefully next week  

Cant wait to see your beamshots and ride report!


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## crisillo (Jul 3, 2004)

sweet! looks very nice!


bonesetter2004 said:


> The top LED of the 4 looks smaller than the rest and the front lens optic cover is dished over each light.


It think it is only the optics on top of the top LED that it is smaller... the LED is probably the same


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## bonesetter2004 (May 27, 2007)

crisillo said:


> It think it is only the optics on top of the top LED that it is smaller... the LED is probably the same


Yes, it does indeed look the same, now I look more carefully. Could that be for more of a tighter 'top beam' to punch ahead while the lower three give spread and spill?


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## crisillo (Jul 3, 2004)

bonesetter2004 said:


> Could that be for more of a tighter 'top beam' to punch ahead while the lower three give spread and spill?


yeah.. that would make sense...


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## radirpok (Feb 1, 2006)

bonesetter2004 said:


> Yes, it does indeed look the same, now I look more carefully. Could that be for more of a tighter 'top beam' to punch ahead while the lower three give spread and spill?




__
https://flic.kr/p/2226049219
"The new hope led uses four Seoul P4 emitters. The top one has a focused beam +/-5 degrees while the other three have a broad beam+/-15 degrees. The lens on the front is dimpled to give a very even light with no dark spots."


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## bonesetter2004 (May 27, 2007)

Apologies but left out of the original post about the charger versitility of the charger. The plug 'slides out' to enable different country's plug types to be used, or indeed accept a standard ''figure of 8' type flex lead. It is an international 100v - 242v charger too.

Working on beamshots


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## eldiablo (Feb 23, 2005)

so come on then, how did they perform on your ride last night??????!!!


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## bonesetter2004 (May 27, 2007)

eldiablo said:


> so come on then, how did they perform on your ride last night??????!!!


Wont be able to use it (them) on a ride 'till Thursday earliest :sad:

A friend came around last night and we spent some time looking at the Hope's beam and the iBlaast!'s

The Hope gives a very even light coverage from nearfield right into the distance - no hot spots, gaps etc. Very bright, I would imagine very confidence inspiring on the trail.

I guess it would ideally work better bar mounted. I say this because of its quite wide coverage, especially when compared to the iBlaast! which has a little more of a focused beam (with good near coverage too)

The iBlaast! is also a quite brilliant light. The construction, design and feel is easily on par with the Hope (helmet mount only letting it down slightly). It is super bright, and punches well into the distance - ideal as a helmet light, combined with you've guessed it - a good bar light, which when seen is quite eyebrow raising... pics to follow

The iBlaast! also wins easily on burn time - 4 hours on full bore compared to approx 2.5 hours on the Hope

I would say there is no clear 'winner' between these two lights. It would depend on your intended use. The iBlaast! is cheaper, here in the UK at any rate, working out to being £45 less. While the iBlaast! does have upgradeability...


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## radirpok (Feb 1, 2006)

bonesetter2004 said:


> Wont be able to use it (them) on a ride 'till Thursday earliest :sad:


'till you get those beamshots... how does it compare to the ARC then? The ARC's genuity is that it has a really wide but controlled beam with a punch in the middle. Can the Hope do the same trick?


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## msxtr (Dec 10, 2006)

Wowwwwww, nice light, now to wait the beamshots.... 

Greetings - Saludos

msxtr


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## fozzybear (Apr 12, 2007)

radirpok said:


> 'till you get those beamshots... how does it compare to the ARC then? The ARC's genuity is that it has a really wide but controlled beam with a punch in the middle. Can the Hope do the same trick?


you MAY be a little disappointed then, as you rightly said the L&M has a "nice" spread with a punchy main beam.

no doubt the Hope flood is FAR FAR better than the L&M with no central hot spot, for some people this is a huge plus have a fixed light level all across the beam of light it means your eye has less to adjust to brightness levels.
this is less of a problem for me i like the tunnel effect of the L&M of a nice flood and strong centre weighted beam. 
the hope is a GREAT light no doubt (having played with bonesetters) with a lovely spread and coverage of light but it lacks a little of the punch into the distance the iBlast however has a lot stronger centre weight and a nice spread of coverage (i would say the iBlast is more like the L&M in LED form from the beam shape)

neither is Bad they are just different.. for my money i WILL be getting the iBlast for next seasons night riding due to upgrade options, longer run time, adjustability of the optics i will figure out a nicer helmet mount though..

(just my 50 pence worth after bonesetter was nice enough to let me play with his light porn!)


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## radirpok (Feb 1, 2006)

Thanks fozzybear, that is fair enough.
So I will need to look elsewhere... I can only hope that L&M will soon get bored by selling their 1000 lumens 2500$ diving light and concentrate on the much skinnier bike market...


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## bonesetter2004 (May 27, 2007)

*Beamshots*

Here's one of the iBlaast! - brighter in the focused part of the beam than the Hope










The Hope - couldn't get the colours looking better, but you can see the wide, even spread. No hot spots, gaps etc










And the two together. Don't think much needs to said


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## [email protected] (Jan 4, 2004)

Nice beam shots. Thanks.


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## crisillo (Jul 3, 2004)

nice beamshots...they look awesome together!


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## Pete N (Jan 22, 2008)

Both lights beamshots look great and as has been said, it comes down to personal preference. To be honest I don't know which beam pattern I prefer, but it has to be said the shot with both lights is unbelievable, the perfect combination. 
I wonder if there is a light out there that does that all by itself, the Lupine Betty maybe?. I would love to see some beamshots side by side of the the Lupine lights, Wilma and Betty compared to the Hope 4 and the I Blast. I am doubtful that even the Betty could compare to the Hope and I Blast combo, and the two of them would come in at well under £500 the pair at a good LBS(with discount). I'm sure a magazine will do the comparison at some time but we may well have to wait for next season. Enjoy the night rides.


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## troutie-mtb (Sep 20, 2007)

Pete N said:


> Both lights beamshots look great and as has been said, it comes down to personal preference. To be honest I don't know which beam pattern I prefer, but it has to be said the shot with both lights is unbelievable, the perfect combination.
> I wonder if there is a light out there that does that all by itself, the Lupine Betty maybe?. I would love to see some beamshots side by side of the the Lupine lights, Wilma and Betty compared to the Hope 4 and the I Blast. I am doubtful that even the Betty could compare to the Hope and I Blast combo, and the two of them would come in at well under £500 the pair at a good LBS(with discount). I'm sure a magazine will do the comparison at some time but we may well have to wait for next season. Enjoy the night rides.


next season who knows what outputs there will be after the speed of improvement over this last 12 months.
having done the beamshots for the cutter quads I think if you put them together you would have a similar spread and power as the hope and Iblast . and for a lot less than £500.OK you would have to build them yourself .


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## smudge (Jan 12, 2004)

Thanks for posting that up. I've been wondering about how that light would mount and I'm happy to see that they've got a tapped hole in the light itself.

A question though, how does it mount to the helmet bracket? The helmet strap seems to have the old mounting design. Do they include an attachment that can be bolted to the lamp head?


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## bonesetter2004 (May 27, 2007)

smudge said:


> A question though, how does it mount to the helmet bracket? The helmet strap seems to have the old mounting design. Do they include an attachment that can be bolted to the lamp head?


Here you go.

Not to sure if I would use it on a helmet though due to the wide pattern


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## smudge (Jan 12, 2004)

Thanks! 

I wouldn't use it on a helmet either. I'm trying to decide which track I'm going to take... I've been using Hopes HID with the nifty faceplate for Thomson stems. A tab broke off one of the batteries on my HID system and I can't seem to solder it back on. :madman: 

I'm building up a commuter bike for myself and for my wife. Lighting is what I've been thinking about most recently and I'm torn between a Schmidt dyno hub or Hope LED system. If I go with the LED, I'm going to make a mounting bracket to mount it on top of the fender and the Hope single bolt bracket is a very simple and secure way of sticking a light on and would be an easy part to fabricate. If I can manage it, it would be nice to have an LED system powered by the Schmidt.


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