Well, to be fair, they only said "Save Up to" in really misleading english capitalization and put it on the front page; it's us who got excited and wished it was something it wasn't. But, they don't actually list the price of the lights, so it's pretty worthless all around, especially the poor publicity it provides them. I mean, shit, at least cut more than $1 off the xenon light or the pointless green and blue lights.
This is why Walmart makes BILLIONS a year even with regular sales, and DX is still some podunk HK business.
Tanks brted and Nil Einne for doing these lists. That took more patience than I had today. The lights that i didn't already have and actually interested me didn't seem that good a deal. I sort of fancied a WF-502D but not at those prices. Had they genuinely offered anything like 30% I'd probably have spent quite a bit.
The new C3s are actually quite good - I got one just a couple of days ago and it is much better than the old ones.
I uploaded my spreadsheet to Google Docs as it may be more convenient to view https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0As3RCFSpBNgrdC1IY0gyQU14eTBiS0NtdjdDRTNocmc
Thanks for that excellent report Nil Einne. Also thanks to brted!
I think this has left egg on the faces of those that manage DX by creating lots of animosity from potential customers. It should come as no surprise though. We've seen this type before with another Chinese vendor that visits us here frequently and produces next to nothing. I just love wasting my time on false expectations and unanswered questions. To date, his company hasn’t received a single American penny from me because of his extremely poor customer service.
For those looking for deals in general, there are many forums that list them. My favorite is www.slickdeals,net Speaking of that forum, here's what users (representative of a good cross section of regular - i.e.: "non-flashaholic" people think about this 33% off deal and the cheap Chinese manufacturers/dealers in general.
Was that a stainless version? It looks like these might be shipping with xr-e's this time around. Can you please confirm this? How do you like the tint and brightness? Also, can you please get a tailcap reading with a full nimh? Just high mode would be fine. Im waiting on an xp-g to replace the current xr-c in the one I have now. The SMO reflector works well with the xr-c and is said to work well with the xp-g beam pattern. Not so sure how it would be with a xr-e. Probably ringy beam pattern.
Someone actually bothered to post this to CPF? I didn't see any point. I also have to admit the moment I read the coupon which said "up to 33%" I sorta guessed most would be much less so I wasn't exactly that surprised although I was hoping they'd mostly be at least 5% .
No, it's the normal aluminium version. Mine is a single mode. The multimode C3s and clones I have had have not been very good. I didn't want to tempt fate that much.
It is definitely an XR-E and an EZ900 die - here's a pic.
Ignore the white dots, they are the LEDs used to illuminate the shot.
The beam colour is a little cooler than the creamy vanilla colour of my favourite AA/14500 beam the Trustfire F22. The C3 is on the left running on 2 Eneloops, the Trustfire on the right on a 14500. Ignore the blue patches, my eyes certainly couldn't see them.
There is a visible darker ring round the hotspot at 60cm but it is gone by 2m. Output is pretty good - 244 lumens at switch-on with a 14500 down to 206 at 2 minutes. The (short, early batch, good performing and hideously hot) stainless steel C3 manages 250 at turn-on down to 201 at 2 minutes with a 14500. Or it is about 2.5% down on the good stainless steel C3. But it doesn't set fire to your hands unlike the stainless one. At 2 minutes it is only 50 lumens down on the crazy bright R5-A3.
Here are the numbers:
Light
Battery
Ultrafire C3 Grey Q5
AA NiMH
Ultrafire C3 Grey Q5
2AA NiMH
Ultrafire C3 Grey Q5
Li primary
Ultrafire C3 Grey Q5
14500
Currents are:
AA NiMH 2.34A
2AA NiMH 1.58A
14500 1.2A
When I pulled the pill out for a look at the LED, it seems that the reflector is very tightly fitted to the LED. Not wanting to break stuff, I didn't try very hard to get the reflector off. It is an orange-peel finish - moderately heavy. Will get pics some time when there is daylight and it is not raining.
Wow! Thanks for the great review. You've gotten quite good at photography. It looks like the C3's have come a long way, especially the aluminum version. I guess I should pick one up. The C3 SS reflector just drops out after unscrewing the pill, but your AL version sounds like it must be different.
When I was in my local outrageously expensive emporium of electronics (Maplin), they had a pile of stuff on clearance. So I bought a USB "microscope" (Read webcam optimised for short distances) only cost about $5 more than the same thing from DX would have. But any problems and I can go back and moan at them.
Quite handy for looking at LEDs with. Not, to be honest much use for anything. A spot of Googling and I got Mac drivers that sorta kinda work. Can't get the full resolution yet, just 640x480 but working at getting the 1280x960 it is supposed to be capable of.