Review: Ultrafire C3 Stainless Steel XR-E Q5 1xAA 3-mode

I want one of these with an R5 in it. Heat issues won't bother me as I'd only be using it on full power with a 14500 for seconds at a time.

Come on Ultrafire, make one for me!

Given how bright it is on a Q5, I really want one with an R5. And am prepared to pay premium prices for it.

If it does better than the Q5 version with an NiMH that would be nice, but what I really want is a crazy bright nice light.

And if Ultrafire is reading this, please recess the tailswitch a bit more so that it can tailstand.

Here's hoping!

Don is the emitter in this light an EZ1000 die or the EZ900?

I'm with you on the xp-g r5 it sure would be nice!!!

I got mine a couple of years ago - not sure the EZ900 die was generally available then - it appears to be an EZ1000 but it appears to have a low Vf so is very bright.

Just to report how different two specimens of the same light can turn out. I got my second ex. of C3_R5 stainless

from Lightake and compared it to the old one (also the 93mm from Lightake):

order date Lumens* Amp on 1xAA col.temp Bin off-neutral

Old: oct.16, 50-22-3, 1.2-0.62-0.30, 5710K, WD, -1

New: nov.11, 85-38-5, 1.62-0.82-0.38, 5820K, WG, 11

The drivers look the same (red with a red stribe).

* perhaps my Lumens numbers are a little conservative - I repeatedly measure less than Don.

The difference in tint is clearly seen with the two spots together. The old one looks purple and the new one green. They look off-white to the same degree.

When looking at one at a time the old one looks neutral and the new one slightly greenish.

I really can't tell the difference in intensity at any level. Perhaps Lumens-hunting doesn't pay.

Or mine are too high.

You calibrated yours against a Zebralight H50? Mine was calibrated against a Preon 2. I have an H50 so can calibrate against that instead to see what it does to the numbers.

I think that H50 is difficult to use as reference due to its atypical spread, almost 180 degr. but it is the only non-budget light (read: thrustworthy claim of output =66LM) that I own.

The future will bring clarification -as always.

If only this were true....

:(

I wish I knew some of the people in the physics department at the university here. I've no doubt that they'd have something I could calibrate against.

Thinking at the keyboard - something we were strongly discouraged from doing when I was a chemistry student 30 years ago...

A small incandescent light bulb might serve - it is easy to measure the energy going in, and building some sort of calorimeter to measure the heat going out shouldn't be too hard (Basically it is a tank of a known quantity of water (Specific heat capacity 4184kJ/kilogram centigrade degree) and some good thermometers). The difference between the two is the light going out - in joules. Then all we need is a formula to convert those joules to lumens. This goes part of the way there but seems to imply this is harder than it seems.

There is some fun looking stuff on that site though.

In fact it looks like this idea won't work. Metrology is hard...

Next thought, domestic light bulbs are tightly specified, and are probably very consistent from batch to batch, and it may be that the manufacturers specify lumens - do you have any contacts in the bit of Philips that makes light bulbs? They used to make a large percentage of the things for Europe.

Unfortunately, I newer had any contact to the Lighting department of Philips, that business was far from ours in every aspect, massproduction vs. small 10-pc. batches, mass consumer related vs. professional, sometimes institutional customers, thousands and thousands of emploies vs. 200.

I visited Eindhoven a couple of times, though and saw the massive group of buildings in Philips-land (of course I also visited a local pub with portraits of the Philips team (PSV)) . My purpose was participation in seminars or vibration and fall test of some of our prototypes. We did'nt have equipment for that at first. It was fun to see vibration tests on what in fact was a huge loudspeaker with a solid steel board instead of the baffle to which the apparatus, often weighing 8-10 kg was clamped. At resonance the printplates and the large capacitors was moving in waves sometimes more than an inch.

The power to drive this was measured in kiloWatts and I can remember after we got one ourselves, the whole building would vibrate at a test so we always new when a test was going on.

Calibration-wise, I also seek normals and have ordered a star with Cree XP-G 4B Neutral White R4 LED in the hope that sometimes you get what was announced. If I can measure it to be in bin 4B (which is rather narrow specified) all is well, but if I cannot then either my equipment is not calibrated well or I did not got what I paid for.

Edited: Got the R5 tint 4B and measured it to be in the middle of bin 4B. Satisfied

Hi, I'm new to this forum and while I'm not really a collector of flashlights I'm really just looking for one particular light (at this stage). The light reviewed here seems like exactly what I'm looking for after having spent weeks researching hundreds of lights on forums such as this, as well as browsing through DX etc.

But there is something that bothers me. The review made it clear that "This flashlight was kindly sent to me by Manafont.com expressly for review purposes". Call me cynical but how do the rest of us know that this wasn't a special 'beefed up' version for the review purpose which may reach an audience of hundreds, even thousands of people? Manafont are going to make absolutely sure they send as good a light as possible, and if anything, could enhance it to make it look better than it is. I'm NOT saying they do this, I'm just wondering if normal everyday people such as myself would recieve such a (almost) perfect light too. I had never heard of Manafont until I read this review, so please understand my skepticism. Also, I find it odd that the review was over three months ago and I can't find a single other independant review of this light since (the closest I could find was tethering's post #9 in this thread). I know there are many reviews of the other Ultrafire C3 versions available but I am only interested in this particular one.

Hi vnv

Welcome to BLF. Hope you have a good time here.

Chinese made lights do vary in quality from unit to unit. While it is possible Manafont picked out the best one they had, I doubt that they did. I've not had a dud from them is all I can say.

The first batch of any Chinese light tends to be better quality than the following ones. This light seems to be exclusive to Manafont so it depends how many of them they have in stock but I imagine they had to buy quite a few of them.

Hi there vnv889, welcome to BLF, hope you find the forum useful! Thanks for joining.

I agree with Don's comment, nobody will be able to guarantee that you'll receive a "good one", since quality varies considerably between manufacturing batches and different sellers. I'm not sure if others here have bought the C3 SS from Manafont, if you want you're welcome to create a new post along the lines of "Who owns the C3 SS from Manafont and is it any good?".

I do recommend Manafont as a seller, even though I don't receive any monetary compensation from them for my opinion. (I have requested and reviewed three flashlights from them. They also used to advertise here on BLF.) Manafont is polite, responsible, fast, and caring toward its customers. I'm fairly confident that at least for the most recent review I did of a UF-H2 headlamp that they did not send me a carefully selected sample, because when I requested one for review the manager said "Sure, but do me a favor to save me a headache please order it through the regular online system and then I'll refund the PayPal charge as soon as you make it." In other words, she wanted the light to be processed through the regular system like any other order because she didn't have time to personally go pull a sample and mail it to me.

I bought one after reading this review and it has become one of my favorite edc's. It's built like a tank but looks very cool. The 3 modes make it even better. No stupid strobe or sos.

Ah good, I didn't know you bought one Fishinfool. Glad you like it.

I picked up a single mode version of this light after reading the review. Had it about a week now.... A nice built like a tank little light that has found its new home in a case with my 380.

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll just bite the bullet and purchase one. Will have to wait until my Paypal account beefs up a bit as I'm a few dollars short atm. Any idea how long postage would take to Melbourne, Australia from Manafont? Anyway, once I receive it I'll be sure to return here to this thread for better or worse

Hmm, we have quite a few Australians here, and several of them buy from Manafont. I think it's on the order of a few weeks.

3 weeks is about right, +/- 2 weeks lol!

Im wondering, can the tailcap button be removed? Might be able to chuck it on the lathe (somehow) and face the surface smooth. The central nipple if present is a result of the quality of the machining. Its caused by having the cutting tool height lower/higher than the axis of rotation, so it misses the center. Its difficult to get it perfectly right on my lathe (lots of shims) but so far i have the right combination.

I have a couple questions myself.

1) How far off is it from tailstanding in its current iteration.

2) Does the switch exhibit a sticky operation when pressed off-center

3) does it come with lanyard - Yes.

4) How well is it waterproofed, talking about the metal switch cover here,

5) Can the switch be changed to rubber (and tailstand) if need be.

Im thinking of carrying this as an outdoor torch that I can go out with in salt water. As a waterproof light for when catching crabs (wading in water with scoop nets), it will definitely get wet. I Have taken the Trustfire R5 A3 out, (low not low enough, mines a first gen), and have taken my D10 ramping out, but mechanically the early piston o-ring design is waterproof, but water (and salt) still makes it inside the torch around the end of the piston, within the moving parts of the piston = crunchy salt crystals

Metal switch covers are always difficult, but the 3 mode, mechanically simpler body design and SS are attractive features.

Hi there okwchin!

1. I can make mine delicately balance on the rim of the tail, and it stands precariously at about 20 degrees.

2. If I deliberately press it way off center, it simply doesn't depress. Apart from that, it's a fairly forgiving switch, with nice action.

3. Yes, it's a cheap, common variety lanyard. The good part is that the two lanyard holes are in the side of the body and therefore wouldn't interfere with tailstanding- if it could tailstand.

4. Good question, I haven't submitted it to any rigourous tests. They were serious enough to put an O-ring between the lens and the body, which is often left out. Hopefully they waterproofed the switch well.

5. I wouldn't know. ;-) I'll refer this one to the experts around here.

Cheers, hope you can find a good budget light for your sea water tasks.