Review: Ultrafire C8 XM-L U2 (Warning - Very Picture Heavy)

MY RATING - 5 STARS!

I ordered the Ultrafire C8 XM-L U2 off lightmalls.com. Overall I am quite happy with the quality of this product, and shipping did not take too long (10 days from China to Australia). This cost me $17 and also I had to pay $2.50 for shipping.

Click here for the product page.

BUILD QUALITY
First off, I would like to say that I am pretty impressed by the build quality of this flashlight, since there were no machining errors or bumps on the surface. The threads were not that smooth out of the box, but a bit of cleaning and silicon spray helped with that. I was pleased when I saw that the o-rings had indeed been lubed, which also made me wonder why they did not use a bit more grease to lube up the threads while they were at it. I personally cleaned and re-lubed the threads with synthetic engine oil, which is just a habit. The engine oil helps a lot.
The o-rings themselves were all in the right places all over the flashlight, and they are all substantially large which actually proves that they are waterproof. I immersed this flashlight in my bathtub for about 10 minutes, and I also tested out the switch underwater. No problems


You can see the o-rings

The switch itself is a bit springy. It is a large, reverse-clicky type switch (12mm), which makes a little springy sound when you press it, and the protruding tailcap that covers it does not allow the torch to tailstand un-modded. The tailcap is also black, but it is something that I may change, probably to a GITD one or a fluro orange one, so I can get it to tailstand (plus orange looks so much cooler!)

This also seems to be a lego flashlight, with a tailcap that looks like it can be taken apart.

The reflector is made out of aluminium, and it is polished beyond my wildest dreams. This reflector is one of the best reflectors I have ever seen on a flashlight. To top that off (literally), is the glass lens. This lens is not coated with anything, but it still does its job well enough.


Reflector


Photo of all the parts

On the side of the flashlight there is the engraved “Ultrafire” logo, with “C8” in small on the bottom right hand part of the panel. On the other sides, there are the large letters of “Cree”, and then “XM-L U2.


The overall feel to the flashlight is remarkable. It feels solid and sturdy, and it feels like something that will not break if you dropped it a few times (the glass might shatter; so I would not recommend doing so).


The aluminium around the pill! There is about a good 5mm of aluminium around the threads!

The pill is not a drop-in, it is a screw in pill. There is good thermal paste under the star, and you can tell that there is.

If you leave the torch on for about 5 minutes, you can feel the heat really starting to set in. That is the heat transfer working well.


Pill screwed in

And that wraps up the build quality review.

Current and Brightness
So since I do not have a decent camera at this moment, I cannot do any beamshots or ceiling bounce shots at all. I measured these current draws at the tail with my cheap “Digitech” multimeter. I used Ultrafire LC 18650 batteries, which may limit the power capacity.
High: 2.5A 3.01A with Ultrafire LC 18650
Med: 642mA 1A
Low: 150mA

This flashlight has 5 modes; High, Medium, Low, Strobe, SOS. There is mode memory, and the type that I like. You can cycle through the modes by slightly depressing the reverse clicky switch, and then when you have a mode that you like, you can turn the flashlight off. The next time you turn it on, it will be on the same mode, even if you take out the battery. That way you do not have to keep cycling through the modes every time.

Since the batteries that I was using were probably not that good, these results may be a bit off. At the time being I cannot be bothered ordering AW’s or even Trustfire “Flames”, so these will have to do.
Ceiling bounce is remarkable. It lit up my whole room better than the actual ceiling light. It was like my roof was cut off and the sun was pouring in. My room is naturally dark since I only have one window facing the back fence.


Ceiling Bounce Test. This thing is very bright!

The throw on this thing is awesome! This threw better than my Ultrafire Sipik sk98 clone.

I also tried shining this flashlight on trees that are more than 400m away from my house, and it was still able to reach them. This is one powerful flashlight.

ISO800 for all of these photos, trees about 50m away


These trees are about 100m away


Wall is 4m away


Fence is 15m away

The Cree XM-L U2 is the newer XM-L led, and it is said to be more powerful than its predecessor, which was the XM-L T6. I own a T6 torch, and although one is a zoomie and the other is a thrower, I can still easily say that when both are running off the same batteries, at the same current level (high for Sipik Clone, med for C8), the C8 is definitely noticeably brighter. The Cree XM-L U2 is a great led.

Website review
I was a little wary of the website at first, but after buying the flashlight, I decided to put my worries behind me. It is pretty well designed, with easy navigation. I give the site 9 out of 10, it is not as good as Dealextreme, but it is pretty good. Their customer support is extremely good, and they responded to all of my emails within a day and with great helpfulness and kindness. I was very happy when I got my flashlight, and saw the condition that it was in, and I knew that I could trust that site and buy from them again and again.
Shipping took about 10 days, which is rather good if you think about it, but of course, that may have been because I live in Australia, which is closer to China than the US (although Australian Customs pretty much open EVERY package they get).

Website Spec Sheet
Brand: UltraFire
Model: C8
LED Emitter Type: 1xCREE XM-L U2
Luminous Flux: 1300-Lumen
Lamp Life: 100,000 Hours
Power Source: 1 x 18650 (Not Included)
Modes: 5(High>Mid>Low>Strobe>SOS)
Input Voltage: 4.2V
Operate temperature: –20 ~ +50 degrees Celsius
Switch: Tactic Click Construction:
Shockproof and waterproof
Lens: Glass
Reflector: SMO
Current: Digital Regulated 3000mA Current Output (manufacturer rated)
Dimensions: 15.4cm(Length) x 4.5cm(Diameter)
Weight: 0.23 kg
Material of Product: Aluminium Alloy
Flashlight processing technology: Aerospace Grade Aluminium Body with Anti Scratching Type III Hard Anodisation

The Verdict
This torch is a great torch, and is very bright. The solid, sturdy feel, the good looking exterior and the internal parts all come together to make an amazing budget flashlight. And for $17, there is hardly any reason not to buy this.
This is a great budget flashlight.

UPDATE (4-9-2012)
This flashlight actually does have digitally regulated current. When you have a battery that is running at lower than 3.5v it disables High mode. When you try to cycle to high mode, it just skips to the next mode. If you run your batteries all the way down to 3.4v, it also disables Strobe and SOS and medium modes. So that is also another thing to keep in mind if you are considering getting this flashlight. But with normal running above 3.6v, you may see only a slight difference between a fully charged cell and a cell at 3.7v running on high. Just a slight difference.

UPDATE (14-9-2012)
I just realized that my multimeter’s leads were limiting the current reading, so I bought some thick ultra heavy duty wire to do the tailcap test with instead. I got a totally different reading:
3.01A on high
1A on medium
150mA on low

And assuming that this torch is at room temperature at the time of operation, that would mean that this flashlight should put out around 1000 lumens on high! Although it does not reach the claimed “1300-luminous output”, this is still very impressive for a light under $20. Definitely a great first budget light or something to add to your collection.

Welcome to this nice place, chriszhou!

What a way to enter BLF! Welcome and appreciate the extensive review!

Btw beamshots do not have to be superior quality, a smartphone with manual controls (iso and exposure) would be enough.

Tomorrow after I pick up my 7g5V2 + collimator head from the post office I’ll be heading down to the park to take some distance shots, and then when my DMM and lux meter come i can add more details.

Ok cool, I might do a few beamshots later tonight if it stops raining!

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to the beamshots :slight_smile:

Beamshots and other photos are up as of now

Now that’s what I call “picture heavy” review :bigsmile: Darn, 65 MB review!! :open_mouth: :bigsmile: Thanks and welcome to BLF :smiley:

Welcome and thanks for the review. The most important part of reviews of more common lights like this is the vendor information. There are so many C8s out there, I know I can get a decent one from this vendor, for a while anyhow. Good job on the review.

Nice review. Nice to see somebody else is trying out this nice little light. I too have one of these new U2 c8’s. I am very confident your battery is holding your light back. I didn’t try an ultrafire in my U2 version, but in my brothers T6 version, he lost about 200 lumens vs a good Eagletac 18650. With those good batteries both our lights are putting out right at 3.5 amps. His T6 ended up putting out 742 otf and my U2 actually put 871 otf.

Nice Review! Got one on order since 8/23 with a holster. Probably a couple more weeks - good to hear another recent, good review. I read "rdrfronty"'s earlier write-up on it, and ordered it. I'll be using an EagleTac 3100 with it. I agree with Langcjl -- these things seem to change over time, so hoping it's still the same good batch. There has been some criticism of this vendor but looks like they got this C8 right. A U2 at 3.0 amps, good reflector and good heat management -- a great combo.

I also bought this light because of “rdrfronty”s review. I have seen so many good reviews about the KD C8, and some Trustfire lights, but since the U2 came out a while ago I decided to give it a spin, to try my luck with something different.

Thanks for the comments, guys, your support has been greatly appreciated.

Nice review. Thanks to you I just ordered one of these. I have a C8 with a T6 in it from KD and am keen to get one with a U2 so I can do some beam shot comparisons. My C8-T6 has been a reliable performer for a year+ now, and if this new one is anywhere near as good I will be a happy camper. Thanks for the review!

Got mine yesterday, running a EagleTac 3100 - wow! Love it! Bright, near brightness to the 7G9 I got yesterday as well, but obviously not as tight or bright hot spot. Think it's real in the 900 lumens. Cleaned and lubed the threads, that was about it. LightMalls dropped the price a little bit - hope that's not a sign it's been cloned/faked already...

Thanks so much for all your hard work on this review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

I did something really stupid -

Noticed my U2 LED had a decent scratch/cut right across the top, so, decided to try a de-doming. knowing I had a spare U2 star. Well, tried the exacto knife thing, but it came out rough, then used a buffer attachment on a Dremel to smooth it out. Well, it turned out the buffering takes the dome down, and when I stopped, it actually got it down close, but not to exposing the LED. So, took a look - and really got the results people have talked about: tighter, brighter spot, less brightness in the spill. I figured I nailed it! But, when testing with the light on (this C8 U2 on a fresh pana unprotected runs 5.1A), noticed the head was not tightened, so I tightened it -- then the light goes out. Flipped the switch, still out -- loosened the head still out. Then, noticed that burning smell... Looking at the emitter, it got turned in the clock-wise direction, probably messing up +/-. so I figured tightening the head with the light on means the solder holding the emitter down was softened, and the plastic protected ring that is glued to the reflector axtually rotated the emitter. Got the driver out and noticed an IC blown apart, near the neg wire -- ouch.

Ok, so I removed the star, which was glued down (think a thermal glue), cleaned up the pill top by buffering and then alcohol, so it's all set for a U3 20mm LED and new driver which I'm planning on using a KD V2 or Nanji 105c and adding 7135's. I want the final regulated amps to be 3.5a to 3.8A - this light can take it and with a U3, should do well with it. Need the parts though - I got 16mm U3's, not 20mm, and didn't get my KD V2 drivers yet, but I do have the 380mAh 380's.

Not sure if the high amps (>4) or the de-doming had the effect to soften the solder, or maybe it just wasn't soldered well to begin with. But lesson learned - Do Not tighten or loosen the head with power on - maybe just for high powered lights.

I just get my Ultrafire C8 XM-L U2 from lightmalls.com.
In the low-light conditions, it is able to reach around 100metres but it is not too bright.
I think 30-50metres is the best range for me! Do u agree what I am saying??? :slight_smile:

Mine blazes, should easily do 200-300 meters, estimating from distance tests I did. We are talking 3.6A min, up to 5A depending on the battery - very dependent on the battery. If you get KumaBear's unprotected Panasonics (2900, 3100, or 3400): 4A plus. I get more light, and more distance from a HD 2010 or a Crelant 7G9 but those are the only lights that can beat it for what I have - when mine was working stock of course... . Probably better to use a quality protected battery like an EagleTac or KumaBear's because you get the amps in the 3-4A range which is safer, still very bright though. The UF's and TF's are unpredictable - I got some good, some bad ones... My flames wound up being fakes - trick in finding identifying marks in the labeling, as posted here on BLF somewhere.

Also, the charge level of the battery makes a big difference. Everyting I've seen means these lights are unregulated, not as described on the website as regulated to 3000mA.

nice review. can you get the inside diameter of the tailcap?
also anyone can recommend a more floody type head/reflector that would fit the c8 body?
so i can have a light with options for throw and flood.

I do not own calipers, so I cannot say for sure, but I think the diameter is close to 23mm.

And also, the C2’s reflector looks like it would fit the C8, and it is OP and shorter than the C8’s SMO reflector, a combination for good spill.

Personally, what I did was use baking paper to diffuse the light. Although it does block a bit of light, you can barely tell since it is so bright, and there is still is a hotspot in the middle, though it is quite faint.