Got my C8.2 Cree XHP35 HI Warm White today. It has a perfect warm tint at CRI80+ in all modes. I measured 51kcd on high.
There’s visible PWM on the lowest mode and the mode spacing between mid and high is too narrow. When switching between modes it does a short strobe unless you keep the tail switch pressed for a while longer, then it cycles the modes without anomalies. Staying on one mode longer than 3 seconds and half pressing makes the light stay on the same mode. Going from high to very low makes the driver emit a quiet whine for a while.
If you memorize the lowest mode and turn the light on, there’s an annoying preflash. This doesn’t happen on other modes, or at least isn’t visible to the eye.
Construction is excellent, but the clear Convoy C8 with an XP-L HI has more throw (62kcd) and a better UI.
Do you happen to have any way to estimate the output? That intensity seems disappointing for the XHP35. Maybe it’s just down to the particular design of the C8.2, though. Wonder what it gets with the XP-L Hi.
On other lights, it seems like the peak intensity is usually similar between the XHP35 HI and XP-L HI, with the extra 300-400 lumens of the XHP35 resulting in a larger hotspot.
A max driven xhp35 generally gets slightly more throw then a max driven XP-L HI. So seeing as this xhp35 is not driven to the max, I would say it is not that surprising. It should be putting out close to 2000 lumens if I had to guess though.