Fire-Foxes FF4 HID Flashlight Review (As usual, picture heavy)

the light is just: wow!

thanks for the review

Thanks for the great review. Look at that gorgeous tint when compared to SRK!

Congrats on that awesome light and thank you for a great review. I've wanted one of those lights since I first laid eyes on one. You just made me want one even more.

HID's don't get much love here. Nice to see there are a few HID fans still around.

The ebay HID looks to have just slightly more throw, but that FF4 really shines with the massive flood and very respectable throw.

I imagine it has something to do with the reflector. My [generic 75w HID] has a pretty cheap reflector, but that ff4 reflector looks dang near perfect.

I like that it uses 18650's instead of cheap chinese priority crap . This may be my next major flashlight purchase...

Whoa! 8^°
droooll….
…but costly…

Not in any way possible to adjust the focus, by moving the bulb more in or out somehow?
I like the big flood of light though!

PS:
Advantage of dry threads is you can drop parts in sand or what not, won’t stick in the threads when dry.

For sheer power, with plenty of throw, currently nothing beats this light, relative to size.

Theoretically, if one were mechanically inclined, one could make a reflector extension to screw into the light... reduce the spill, and probably gain quite a bit more throw.

I know a lot of people that had purchased this light or any other HID have gotten rid of them because of the 10-15 sec warm up time. But even while warming up the lights will still output more light than many high-output LED lights. The FF4 is around 7000 Lumens on turbo and I measured 428K lux.

Even though I probably haven’t used my lights nearly as much as they deserve, I’m still keeping them. The ability to switch between modes on the FF4 is a huge advantage over the FF3, but, I actually prefer the simple single on/off operation of the FF3 and it has much better balanced feel. FF4 has a SMO reflector and FF3 has LOP.

Anyone considering one of these should first check this out:

More output, smaller, LED, but much less throw I’m guessing.
Even more expensive though…

The difference in the throw will be huge. The MM15vn will be a flood monster, with ok throw dedomed, probably around 40kcd, but that pales vs the FF4 throw with 400kcd+.

This, and the VN costs more. I imagine it wont handle the heat those emitters produce as well as the HID handles the minimal amount of heat generated.

It really depends on the batteries used and the mode.
With Panasonic 3400Ah NCR18650B, runtime should be 60+ minutes on 40W before it shuts down, and probably 75+ minutes on 24W.

60W shuts off within 5 minutes no matter what batteries you use, due to the thermal switch being tripped.

Although the thermal switch would probably trip before any of the aforementioned runtimes are reached

True, the MM15 will be a ridiculous wall of light, like a SRK on steroids. I imagine the FFIV would be like a TK75 on steroids (alot of throw and spill)

On the early ones there were some focus issues, mine was around the 350 kcd mark after burn in. It is possible to adjust the focus but it is not a couple of minutes work. A friend worked with mine and got to over 460 kcd but we knocked it back to 400 kcd as I preferred the beam pattern.

Bulbs are readily available as are carriers, the last time I asked the ballasts as well, though whether if you lived in the States the lipslockin still applied I don’t know. AFAIK the only problems in the wild concerned a few carriers. There is a five year warranty on them anyway, applies with the lipslockin I presume?

Couple of things, Turbo is limited by a timer to 3 minutes not by a thermal switch.

If Turbo is not used, my standard FF4 has never thermally switched down to low from high, but then I live in the UK.

Concerning batteries, although the panny Bs & Gs work fine as do the Sanyo blue tops, the PD/PFs are better. I have used the 30a 2200 Sony and they also work very well the Sony 30a 2600s should also be fine and would have the runtime of the blue tops. The HD cells runs cooler and are better suited to the light and a necessity for a modded 4.

As for run-times I have never managed to get anywhere near an hour on high (standard FF4), in low yes. (on Bs) But now only use pd/pfs so obviously slightly less runtime.

Edit: Sorry should have said congrats chriszhou on getting the FF4 and the review!

It's amazing that LED flashlights are only just starting to catch up. Vinh's Supbeam X60 comes very close, but at nearly double the price and no longer for sale. There are a couple other lights that can match output, but I don't think any of those also have anywhere near the same throw. I'm eager to see what the BTU Shocker v2 is going to be like.

No way would I ever say ‘minimal amount of heat generated’ with regard to a FF4… it’s small…it gets Hot, but as you said it does handle it well.

Also If you are stuck without a lighter it can ignite newspaper. Great party trick LOL :bigsmile:

Minimal compared to 2x MTG2. :stuck_out_tongue:

I think I had the giant ebay HID in mind when I typed that. The ebay hid handles the heat ridiculously well for the sheer amount of output. I can definitely see a lot more heat generated in the tiny (by comparison) FF4 package. I did happen to see a few of those burn videos with HID lights. Pretty entertaining watching someone scorch cardboard with a flashlight. :slight_smile:

Ah mt-g2s at 10A = heat = yup fun :zipper_mouth_face: I have found MT-G2s have zero chance of survival in my presence. I am zero for 6 at the moment :ghost:

Oh yes those ebay hid’s do have some beef to them, doubles up as weights for ones morning exercise :bigsmile:

I wish. On turbo the FF4 generates an absurd amount of heat. Personally after I run it for a while, 10-20 minutes max, I take it apart, take batteries out, separate out the tube and head.

The head actually gets hotter, 2-3 minutes after the light is off. You could cook on it...

No need to imagine... http://laserpointerforums.com/f66/fire-foxes-4-vs-fenix-tk75-battle-big-lights-83918.html :D

Yep, I saw that thread of yours ages ago, it’s a really nice post with good information and really great photos