What budget light currently available that can out-throw the old, 72Kcd Jacob A60 ?

Oldtimers in the forum are familiar with the Jacob A60….reputedly the King of the Long throw, budget light during its time.

Does anyone know its current successor?

For those who are not familiar with this light.

Thanks for the photo, freeme.

Pound-for-pound, this light was hard to beat. My cousin has a rooster game farm and his farm helps use this light every night to patrol the area.

Now he needs some more of this type of light.

It’s ‘only’ 310 lumen in high, but throws tremendously far at only about $12 to $14 during its run.

Very minimal spill.

Does anyone know the cd of the new C8+ ?

I see 50-70 kcd for stock A60…

Emisar D1S - great light, smaller, 120 kcd, $35
Amutorch JM70 - some are good, some have quality issues, larger, 230 kcd, $40
Astrolux C8 - good, smaller, 100 kcd, $1x

I thnk the Astrolux C8 could be your choice around or below $20, it will also have brighter spill.

Thanks for the replies gentlemen…so far very nice suggestions. :+1:

Regular Convoy C8 host with X5/X6 driver and SST-40 led. With 30Q: at least 75-80kcd after trimming centerring ring to +/- 0.5mm. Bypasses and leads 20GA. Be careful not to shorten the leads and the reflector.

Which will throw farther, the Astro C8 or the new Convoy C8+ ?

Astrolux C8.
These lights are very similar…
Main differences:

  • Astrolux uses FET+1 driver which gives it higher (but unregulated) output
  • Convoy C8+ has more fins and therefore should feature better cooling

Thanks again guys, Astrolux C8 ordered!

Actually, the lesser and weaker spill is more desirable in its intended use, but perhaps the small die of the XR-E used in the A60 is now really hard to come by.

Brinyte B158 / B158B (same thing just without the knobs of the B158)

It appears to have similar dimensions of the A60. The stock XP-L HI version should easily best the A60 (note: most stock cd numbers refer to the XM-L2 version). And if you feel like modding, it can reach 300kcd+. Link1 Link2

The B158B is currently $27 at GB. I’ve bought them as low as $22 on sale. Coupons may be available, too.

If you want a budget thrower with some modding, the ‘’Mitko’’ thrower.

Anyone ever play with the HS-802 as a host?

<20bux, interchangeable pills (well, between lights; Hell if I know where to get them separately), nice deeeeeep reflector, could probably stuff a shaved XP-Gwhatever into it to make it a throw-king.

Or does it have to be a max-thrower out of the box? Even with a colored XP-E, it throws quite nicely.

Under 15$ makes this worth looking at …IDK it may be pure garbage but I’m guessing someone here will soon grab one and tear it down and give us all the lowdown.

Have you tried using one of the modern LED’s in it, maybe an SST-40 or XP-L HI?

You could just do emitter and driver swap in his current lights. Pop in some xpl hi if you don’t know how to dedome. Or you could build him some c8s with a dedomed xpg2. Smaller and a tight beam like that but 3x the lumens on target

People flog the Astrolux C8, but the Sofirn C8T is quite similar: XP-L HI, FET driver. Plus it has spring bypasses installed at the factory, and a longer turbo timer, which is better matched to a C8 host.