For several days I've been trying to choose a suitable flashlight, and I think I am stuck. If kind BLF gentlemen and ladies could advise me an appropriate model I would be very happy. :)
What I am looking for is a compact thrower that meets the following requirements:
1) Compact size. Something that can more or less fit inside a jean's pocket.
2) Efficient driver.
3) Can sustain ~1000 lm or higher output for prolonged periods of time.
4) HICRI diode is preferable. Or ordinary Cree's XPx diode and easy to mod design in order to swap it to LH351D in the future. I guess, even Cree's XHP are fine, but HICRI XHP diodes are expensive and PITA to find.
Some examples, I like the beam profile of my old Fenix PD32(300lm version), for my applications it is a perfect mix of throw and spill, but this flashlight lacks power.
A 150mm x 45мм flashlight would fit, probably. But If I could choose I would prefer something more compact. C8 and M8 both look nice, but I am not sure about their driver efficiency, afaik both of them are using linear driver.
Sounds like you want a Zebralight SC600 MK4 HI. Efficient driver, good thermal regulation, small size, good enough CRI.
Sustaining 1000 lumens for a thrower LED in that size is impossible though. I doubt even something as efficient as a low CRI XHP70.2 (which is extremely floody) could run cool enough in a host small enough to put in your jean’s pocket.
Emisar D1s seems to be able to maintain >1000 lm though I am not sure.
Thanks. At first I thought about Zebralights too. But most of their Hi CRi 18650 lamps are floody, except SC64c which has OP reflector and 4000K diode which is not the best option for a good thrower. SC700d looks interesting, but it is pricey and it is powered by 21700 battery.
Do you mean Catapult V6?
Thanks for the suggestion. This Convoy might be an option, but I would like something with good buck driver instead of linear one.
Sorry I don’t understand if a buck driver is more efficient then why am I going to get less stable output? Or do you mean that a buck driver will go out of regulation quicker than a linear driver due to higher resistance?
A buck driver is more efficient yes, but unless you get a very good buck driver(from someone like Lexel), the dropout voltage of a buck driver is higher than most linear drivers.
It wouldn’t be too much of a problem with high CRI LEDs, since they have lower VFs.
How about a D4S with 4 SST20 4000k? D4S could be put in a jeans pocket, if you really want to. 4 SST20s each driven at 250 lumens should be fairly sustainable, but will probably thermal throttle eventually. 700 lumens should be constant.
Thank you. D4s overall is a great flashlight and I actually considered it but it has something like FET+3 driver in other words everything above ~400 lm is unregulated, and afaik quads without a reflector are in general not the best option for a thrower.
