Imalent BL50

1lumen selects and reviews products personally. We may earn affiliate commissions through our links, which help support our testing.

Imalent BL50 specifications

Brand/model	Imalent BL50
Flashlight category	EDC flashlight / UV flashlight
LED	1*CREE XHP50.3 Hi + UV
Max. output	3,600 Lumens
Max. beam distance	428 meters
Max. beam intensity	45,780 cd
Battery config.	battery pack (1*18650)
Onboard charging	USB-C
Modes	6
Blinkies	Strobe
Waterproof	IPX8
Review date	February 2024

It has been 10 years since Imalent released their Imalent SA04 flashlight, which had a 4AA battery and featured an LCD touch-screen and the ability to mix beams. However, Imalent has since decided to take a different direction by removing the touch screen and tint mixing capabilities from their newer models.

For anyone new to the flashlight world, Imalent was one of the first companies to include 2 types of emitters (warm white and cold white) and a touch screen to mix them.

Currently, we are examining the Imalent BL50. It comes with a display but lacks touch capability and LED mixing features. Instead, the BL50 has two kinds of emitters: one for white light and the other for UV.

So let’s see how it works and performs.

Oh, you need to unlock the flashlight first. Triple-click the switch for unlocking.

What’s in the package

The packaging is adequate, with the following inside:

• Imalent BL50
• USB-C to USB-C charging cable
• Lanyard
• O-rings
• Manual

The BL50 has a shape similar to that of a gun-mounted light. One of its sides is flat, while the other is rounded. It comes with two electronic switches that have unique features. The rear switch is used for the main modes, and the side switch is used for accessing two special modes, including the UV light.

For carrying, you have a couple of options. Since it lacks traditional knurling, it can feel slippery when used normally, so pocket carry is recommended. The package also included a lanyard so that you can hang the flashlight off your wrist.

If you will pocket carry it, use the lockout feature because the e-switches are very sensitive. The light won’t roll off the table, which could be seen as another useful feature.

While using the light, I noticed that you can always access the special modes (5lm output and UV light), even if you use the rear switch to turn the light on. But it does not work the other way around. If you use any of the two special modes, you can not use the rear switch to get a normal mode.

If you ask me about the use cases for this light, it is definitely for EDC use, but it can also come in handy while camping. You can use the UV light to find strange stuff hidden from our eyesight. BTW. I would not recommend using that UV light in your kitchen. If you are sensitive to dirt (Mysophobia, germophobia) I would not recommend using UV light. You can also use the UV light for other useful stuff like finding scorpions, painting anomalies, etc.

Warranty:

1. Free Repair/Replacement within 15 Days after Receipt

Within 15 days after receipt and under normal use, any quality problem with your IMALENT flashlight, you can either send the light to repair or a new one of the same type with same specifications will be replaced; if the same model has been discontinued or not able to be replaced timely due to other reasons, another model with same or better performance will replaced instead;

2. 24 Months’Free Repair

Within 24 months after receipt and under normal use, any quality problem with your IMALENT flashlight, you can send it to repair for free;

Torch with built-in battery and battery stick, 12 months warranty.

3. Lifetime Limited Maintenance

IMALENT provides you with lifetime limited maintenance for your flashlight, after the 24 months’ free repair period ,any problems with your flashlight, IMALENT can repair and maintain it ,repairing fee will be charged on an actual cost basis, no labor cost charged;

Imalent BL50 uses two emitters; a normal white LED, CREE XHP50.3 Hi, and a UV LED. The CREE XHP50.3 Hi is a domeless LED and produces a cold white but throwy beam. It is centered very well in a smooth, not-too-shallow reflector. A purple AR-coated lens protects the reflector, and a black bezel finishes it. The bezel can be removed by removing two small hex screws.

On the other hand, the UV LED sits in a very shallow reflector, and makes a pretty wide ‘beam’. To activate the UV light, double-click the side switch at any time, including all normal white light modes.

The beam has a clear hotspot, and if you look carefully, you’ll notice some tint shifts, which are pretty common with XHP emitters. Right in the center of the beam, the tint is slightly greenish, while the rest of the hotspot is more ‘purplish.’ There is a pretty quick transition from hotspot to spill, with a few slight visible rings.

Spectral measurements:  

I used a Sekonic C800 spectrometer to measure the flashlight at a distance of 5 meters. 

Mode:	CCT:	CRI Ra:	duv	Tm30-Rf	Tm30-Rg
Turbo	6783K	70.4	0.0012	70	95
Mid 1	6019K	69.3	0.0079	72	92

This means that the beam gets colder the higher the output mode. The CRI is average, and the tint is greenish in the center of the beam.

Dimensions: 

Imalent BL50	Millimeters	Inches
Length	94 mm	3.7 in
Widest diameter	35 mm	1.4 in
Body diameter	28 mm	1.1 in

Dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimeter and the nearest tenth of an Inch.

Weight: 

Imalent BL50	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Imalent BL50	154 g	5.5 oz

Weight is rounded to the nearest gram and tenth of an Oz.

Imalent BL50 Flashlight comparison

Size compared to other EDC flashlights

Group 1, from left to right: Nitecore EDC27, Olight Arkfeld, Imalent BL50, Wuben X2, Nitecore TUP

There are two user interfaces, each with a dedicated switch. The rear switch is for the main modes, and the side switch is for the 2 (actually 3) special modes.

Before diving into the User Interface, I want to complain a bit about the mode naming in their manuals and website. Oftentimes, Imalent uses different names for different countries or sometimes different names between the manual and the website. The English manual starts with a Moon mode, but in the German manual, it starts with Low. And on top of that, I think Imalent uses too many modes, which sometimes makes their naming so strange. They go from Moon to Mid Low.. why not Low? I think a Moon mode, Low, Mid, High, and Turbo would have been enough.

Something else confusing is the lack of added Strobe mode to the specifications overview. It’s usually hidden somewhere in the manual.

Interestingly, the Special modes can always be accessed from Off and On. Meanwhile, the normal modes can only be accessed from Off.

This means you can turn on the UV mode while using High mode at 2,000 lumens. The benefits? None that I know of. But perhaps I am missing something.

The available main modes:

• Moon, Mid Low, Mid 1, Mid 2, High, Turbo (strobe is hidden)

The available special modes:

• 5 Lm white light
• UV light

How the UI works when the flashlight is still turned OFF:

• Side switch: single click: 5lm white light
• Side switch: double click: UV light
• Side switch: 3-clicks: lockout mode
• Side switch: long press: nothing
• Rear switch: single click: to last used mode, mode memory
• Rear switch: double click: Turbo mode (another double click for Strobe)
• Rear switch: triple click: Lockout mode
• Rear switch: long press: nothing

How the UI works when the flashlight is turned ON in NORMAL mode:

• Side switch: single click: 5lm white light (if you double click the side switch you get White + UV)
• Side switch: double click: UV light activates besides the Normal mode
• Side switch: 3-clicks: nothing
• Side switch: long press: nothing
• Rear switch: single click: flashlight turns OFF
• Rear switch: double click: Turbo mode
• Rear switch: triple click: strobe
• Rear switch: long press: nothing

Shortcuts within the UI:

• To Turbo: double click rear switch from Off and On
• To Moon: single click side switch
• To Strobe: not directly, but you can access it from Turbo mode by a double click
• UV light: double click side switch

Mode memory:

• Yes

Blinky modes:

• Strobe. Can only be reached from Turbo mode.. (double click for Turbo, and another double click for Strobe)

Low battery warning:

• OLED display shows low battery

Lock-out mode:

• Yes. A triple click will activate Lockout mode

PWM:

• Not noticed by eye.

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

• I like the fact that there is a Moon mode accessible from the side switch and the UV mode as well. I don’t see the benefit of activating UV using Mid2, High, or Turbo mode, though.
• Single-clicking the side switch will activate Moon mode at all times. This can be pretty handy, but I’m not sure what the real benefit is if you could just use a Long press to activate it.

If you prefer flashlights with replaceable batteries, you are out of luck. The BL50 uses a built-in battery pack with a single 18650 battery and a capacity of 3,000mAh.

Upon arrival, the OLED display showed a voltage of 4.03V, which is pretty high for shipping and long-term storage. But on the positive side, you can use the flashlight straight out of the box.

Since you can’t remove the battery, the flashlight needs built-in charging, and that’s with USB-C. They even included a USB-C to USB-C charging cable. The port is covered by a rubber flap, that stays in place, but that’s all. After quite a bit of use, it doesn’t fully close off the port.

Charging is pretty quick, at 9V and 2.9 Amps, with a total of 27 watts.

This means that the specified 1.5-2.5 hours is easily met. I tested the charge time three times in a row, and they were 49, 45, and 45 minutes respectively. That’s twice as fast as specified.

Charge type	Fits	No fit	Charge time
Flashlight with onboard USB-C	–	–	45-49 minutes at 9V

This is the gear I use for testing:

Gear	Purpose	Link to buy
Hagner E4-X	Measuring beam intensity (throw)	Inquire at Hagner.se
2* Extech SDL400	Lumens and logging runtimes	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Leica Disto D2	Distance for throw measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Sekonic C-800	Spectrometer for LED measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
Uni-T UTi260B	Thermal Image camera	Amazon.com,

Lumen measurements:

How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards: The ANSI FL1 standards specify that output in lumens should be measured 30 seconds after turning on, as this is the standardized time for measuring brightness according to the industry standard. This is why we focus on this part in our measurements. The ANSI FL1 standards require an ambient temperature of 22 ± 3°C. We record the ambient the ambient temperature to identify potential reasons for any observed discrepancies.

The output measurements in this review are based on my homemade integrating spheres, each equipped with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter. For consistency and accuracy, a calibration light (Convoy S2+ with 249lm and a Convoy S2+ with 261lm) is measured before each set of lumen measurements.
One of the lux meters uses an ND camera filter for high-output lights to prevent the lux meter from maxing out. This is either the Kenko PRO1D ND16 for up to about 80,000 lumens or the Gobe ND32 for anything above.

All of my readings were taken from a fully charged battery

The measurements were taken manually at turn on and 30 seconds. The 10-minute numbers are taken from the runtime graph.

Mode	Specified	At turn on	30sec	10 min
Fireflylite	5 lm	1 lm	1 lm	–
Mid Low	200 lm	152 lm	152 lm	152 lm
Mid 1	600 lm	479 lm	478 lm	475 lm
Mid 2	1,200 lm	897 lm	897 lm	879 lm
High	2,000 lm	1,920 lm	1,876 lm	861 lm
Turbo	3,600 lm	3,112 lm	2,848 lm	886 lm

Unfortunately, my measurements were a bit lower than specified, which is pretty common with Imalent flashlights.

Ambient temperature during testing:

• 18.9 degrees Celsius

Imalent BL50 Battery life and runtime

How Runtimes are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards About ANSI FL1 runtime standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turning on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

Runtime tests were conducted in my 50cm homemade integrating sphere, paired with the Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter. Temperatures from the moment the runtime test started.

Mode	Specified	Runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
Moon –	208h	–	–
Mid Low (18.0°C)	6h 28min	9h 54min	9h 54min
Mid 1 (19.7°C)	3h 10min	3h 00min	3h 00min
Mid 2 (20.5°C)	1h 16min	1h 27min	1h 27min
High (19.5°C)	1h 13min	1h 19min	1h 19min
Turbo* (18.6°C)	1h 9min	1h 15min	1h 15min

Imalent BL50 Peak beam intensity and beam distance measurements

About Peak beam intensity: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards About peak beam intensity The calculated value of distance in meters at which the flashlight produces a light intensity of 0.25 lux. (0.25 lux is about the brightness of a full moon shining on an object). This means that the intensity has decreased so much, it becomes difficult to see darker objects, or objects that don’t reflect light. The columns ‘Meters’ and ‘Yards’ use rounded numbers.

Measurements were taken indoors at 5 meters with a Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. The measurements were taken 30 seconds after turn on.

Mode	Specified	I measured	meters	yards
Moon	–	–	–	–
Mid Low	–	1,175 cd	69 m	75 yd
Mid 1	–	3,700 cd	122 m	133 yd
Mid 2	–	6,950 cd	167 m	182 yd
High	–	14,550 cd	241 m	264 yd
Turbo	45,780 cd	22,275 cd	298 m	326 yd

You see my measurements don’t even come close to the specified intensity.

Ambient temperature during testing:

• 21.3 degrees Celsius

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 with a 50mm lens. Manual settings: ISO1600, 1/4sec, F4, 5000K

The shed is about 65 meters / 71 yards away, and the reflective fence is about 200 meters.

Explore and compare the beamshots from the following flashlights:

• Imalent BL50.
• Nitecore EDC27
• Wuben X2

Please note that the following beamshots are mainly intended to showcase the beam pattern and beam quality, rather than overall performance. These images are typically taken directly after activation, and in different seasons or weather conditions, and therefore do not fully represent its overall performance. For accurate performance metrics, such as output, beam distance, and runtimes, you need to look at the performance section of this review.

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to us for review at no cost by Imalent. We have not been paid to review, nor have we been holding back on problems or defects.