Maybe the zoom thing just needs breaking in? Can the o rings be lubed? Grab a Convoy S2+ on sale when you see one . For around $10, you will like it .
I have the LD15, LD20, TK35, TK50, and a second gen TK75 Fenix flashlight. None of them have given me any problems. That said, my TK75 is still one of my favorite flashlights out of the 50 or so I have. Very high quality flashlights IMO.
Which Sofirn do you have? I am loving my C8F but you have to hold the switch down to get to moonlight. With a quick click you go to a perfectly usable low and you can have a really bright light on turbo if you want it. Perhaps you just have to change modes, if you can, on your Sofirn so you don’t get the moonlight mode?
I haven’t seen one that cheap, but they’re close. When I first started the hunt, that one was at the top of my list. I like that you can choose 3 or 5 mode, and that, if you buy from Aliexpress or Banggood, you can choose the brightness and number of chips. At 4 1/2” it’s a bit bigger than I want for my bag, but it would do. However, it has a tail switch, and the one on Amazon has the brightest LED (U2-1a) and no mention of the number of chips. I’m wary of buying from Banggood now. Aliexpress gives options for number of 7135s and for brightness; I’ll have to see what their return policy is.
Here’s another beginner’s question. I’ve heard that you should be careful in handling li-ion batteries. In the list of cautions on my 14500s it says, “Do not knock the battery.” There’s a good chance that a flashlight in a front pocket of my old Fossil may get “knocked.” How fragile are they?
Wellp, just some generalisations as far as reliability…
Lights that I get to be reliable are as simple as possible. As I mentioned a few brazillion times, my still-to-this-day EDC is a holstered 1-mode ’502. Nothing fancy, 5000K XP-L, simple driver consisting of just a few 7135s, not even a µC to get in the way (and no, no UVLO, ’though the 7135s stop working if the voltage is too low), OP reflector, simple on/off. Does like 99% of what I’d need a light for “in the field”. Something falls under the car seat, it works great. Critter making noise in an alley, lights ’im right up. Take a reading from the gas/electric meters, it’s perfect for the job. Etc. Nothing to go wrong. Only 1.5A draw, so it’s pretty bright and has assloads of runtime (can’t even recall when was the last time I had to charge the cell, ’though I usually just top it off every few months anyway).
Simple, stoopit, works.
All my other lights are “specialty” lights. Jet-II in my bag just in case, SP10B in my pocket or bag also just in case. Glaree E03 AAA light as a zipper-pull. SF32W warm-white for nighttime. C8F/C8A for lighting up the backyard. Q8 when I want to scare the $#!+ out of someone. Etc.
My L2 is at this point just a shelf-queen, or box-queen, actually, as I keep it in its box. Haven’t “needed” it in a… well, ever. (And of course, like an idiot I go and get another one when it’s on sale. :confounded: ).
Point is, all of those with the fancy modes, e-switches, etc., are just that much more crap that can break. Something I haven’t yet gotten around to doing is to slap together an S2+ with wider-angle TIR lens, and again, a simple 1.4A or 2.1A 1-mode driver, regular come-with tube or maybe a shorty tube for an 18350, as another simple stoopit It Just Works™ light. Solder the damned thing in, so there’s no retaining ring to come loose.
If you’re interested in throwing together your own light, you can make your own bespoke light to your spex, vs trying to find The Light™ which does what you want. Any light that takes P60/P90/D26 drop-ins is hella easy to make, then you just screw the parts together and you’re done. You pick the CT/tint of the emitter, the driver you want, OP or SMO reflector, and just go. Ain’t rocket surgery, just need a soldering iron and 10min of your time.
Something to consider…
Oh, trust me, you don’t want that.
I always keep multimode lights set to their lowest setting to keep from getting blinded at night, and I retired my S2+ because of the damned blink-on-low idiocy.
It sounds kewl, even useful, but in practice, it’s so grating after a while that it’ll make you despise the light just by association.
The pre Christmas sales seem to have been more generous than the post. I got a XPL HI ,8x7135 ,sand color , 3/5 mode for $10 . A pretty good thrower for a tube light . For that kind of money , hold the light with one hand and press the switch with your index finger of the other hand. Might not be the most “tactical” but I’m not a Ninja . 
Thanks. Might be fun. But I don’t even know what P60/P90/D26 are. I’ll keep looking for an off-the-shelf model.
I think I’d rather have one I can use with one hand. I’m trying to remember what I read about having more chips on the driver. Doesn’t the 8 get really hot?
Like one of these
https://www.gearbest.com/diy-parts-and-tools/pp_172621.html
a drop-in module.
The reflector unscrews, on the brass pill the LED’s on one side and the driver’s on the other.
I’ve got a Sofirn C8T that you have to triple click the side switch at just the precise rate to change groups. Now that annoys me . The flash on low probably pisses off the turn on at lowest setting crew more than the turn on at high crew.(me)
i almost think that even if you spend big money, they are not necessarily reliable
switches seem to be almost random in quality, and the method of use in the light.
side switches are the least reliable.
then twisties.
reverse clicky tail buttons seem to be most reliable.
I’ve ‘fixed’ a couple failed switches by shorting the bad switch - making it always on- then using twisty action to do the actual switching
(which i hate too, but less than throwing a light away…)
My C8A has the same thing, but it’s pretty easy to change modegroups. Played with it at length, think I selected the 3-mode group, as the modes weren’t all bunched up towards the high end like the 4- and 5-mode groups.
And it depends on the light. You’re not gonna use a Q8 on its lowest setting. At least I’m not going to. So why carry a brick if a simple AAA light would do the job? Big lights, yeah, I keep them on daylight mode. But I don’t carry them with me.
And anything I’m going to be carrying with me, or on me, I’m not going to have set on high and have it burn holes in my bag or pants or anything if it accidentally turns on.
Point being, it’s a deliberate act to change groups on the C8A/C8F/C8T. On the S2+, or anything that uses the off-the-rack 105D driver, will have that annoying blink-on-low every damned time you turn it on. It’s infuriating. And when I just need a light for a few seconds to light up something, and turn it off just as it blinks, there’s that “Damnit!!! It did it again!!” moment when you know you switched into the annoying with-blinkies modegroup.
That’s why I retired the S2+ that I was carrying until I’d either reflash the µC or just swap drivers altogether. And I had plenty of other alternative lights that I put into rotation instead, while the poor little S2+ languishes in Blink-On-Low Hell.
Why would twisty be unreliable ? Isn’t it just a make or break , you being the mechanism?
i didn;t actually say they were unreliable, just that i hate them
but i have had switch fails in twisty lights too, then you have to look at every single threaded connection and figure out how the current is supposed to be flowing across it,
if it it is oxidized, are the 2 parts touching, is there enough pressure, etc
and you can;t test it with a meter because the light has to be assembled, and you can;t reach any of the connections to test anything
if it is also a light without contact springs (DQG tiny 18650), then you also have to analyze dimensions and infer whether the battery is making contact at both ends, too.
wle
This might be a country vs city thing. Do you use your lights mainly inside? I know mine are mainly back 40 lights. And the EDC is for helping my old eyes as I need bright light to see small things. My left eye is about worthless . So I tend to start on high . Conserving runtime would make me tone it down though. Then I would appreciate a low that I could walk home with or something like that . Maybe fell down the well and waiting for Lassie .
That’s odd. I’ve never had a side switch go bad (all mine are electronic switches). Those buttons should be good for a hundred thousand clicks. The mechanical tail switches are usually only good for ten thousand clicks.
Twisties generally never fail, but they can easily get dirty and be problematic until you clean them. Except for maglites, which never have worked properly for me.
DQG tiny 18650 - broke due to poor mechanical design plus poor manufacture[cold solder joints]
XTAR WK42 - the light broke, but actually now that i recall, it was the driver that failed, inductor fell off due to dropping plus lack of good gluing/potting, then the side switch didn;t do anything due to being a soft switch, i shorted the driver and used twisty as the on off
manker u11, TERRIBLE switch choice, a little steel disk that shorted some contacts, came apart completely, driver also glued in so no mod/fix/reflow/replace possible
i seem to have a special talent for destruction
one i have not been able to kill is astrolux s1
wle
Most of when I use a light is when it’s just too dark to see. Yeah, yeah, Captain Obvious, I know, but if there’s a dark cabinet, closet, etc., that’s when I pull out the ’502. At night, when it nice’n’dark inside, any light with moonlight/firefly is what I use. Yard’s small, so don’t need a Q8 to see (C8x is enough). Poking around in a dark hallway, my RJ02 headlamp is what I use.
So yeah, maybe it’s not for hiking or long-distance sniping or anything, but if I needed it for that, a C8x or Q8 would be my light of choice, depending whether I needed something floodier or throwier.
But still, a general-purpose light when I don’t need it going full-tilt, I keep it on its lowest setting unless I need more light, then I’ll dial it up, and dial it back down when I’m done so I don’t blind myself next time I use it.
Those lights that I drag out because I need 4-digit lumens, I won’t waste my time keeping them on low, so they start on their highest setting. And I don’t normally carry those lights on me or in my bag, either. I drag ’em out only when I need ’em.
In a car, in my pocket, in my bag, they stay on low.
Agree on all of this. Had to lube orings on most zoomies and it fixes the issue.
Here’s another vote from me on the S2+. You really can’t go wrong with that.
Regarding the moonlight complaint in your OP, different manufacturers implement that at different levels. There is no standard and folks are divided on how bright or dim they like their moonlight mode to be. I like mine probably brighter than most, but when you consider what it is called, if you can hold it in front of a book and read by it, it is proper.