If and only if you have both, which do you like better, Roche or Convoy?

You can see the archived poll results on the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221220093741/https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/72656

Please, if you don’t have both, don’t vote. Convoy get a lot of praise around here but Roche not so much. In my opinion the Roche is a nicer light. Much better anodizing, better machining/threads, equivalent output, same price.

not having any roche, can they all take protected cells?

Of the Roches I have, F8 and F6, they will take protected cells but they have to be premium batteries like Keeppower or Xtar. The generic Panasonic, Sanyo, and Samsung from Fasttech/Banggood/Wallbuys are too long. The driver has built in protection so you can use unprotected batteries or the premium one’s.

I have Roche F12 and Convoy S2 and S5 (and C8 of course but it can’t compare).
Roche is nice, AR lens (at least the one from FT), good anodization, short reflector (some like it floody).
But the big difference is the amount of aluminium. Convoy S2 or S5 are thicker.

And the Roche F12 have a press fit retaining ring to the driver that I still haven’t defeated.
But as the pill is not screwed and make one with the head, better heat transfer (but less mass mean also it will get hot rather fast).
I am considering getting a Convoy S6 next.

I also have a Roche M170, very fine 3*xm-l2 with a very good driver with no pwm. But it’s twice the price of a srk. Still on one 18650 format, convoy is the best.

Convoy fan’s unite!

Of the ones I have the Roche F6 tube is thicker than the Convoy S6 tube. Both Convoy L4 and C8 have thicker tubes than the Roche F8 but the Roche F8 has a chunk of a tailcap and huge chunk the head screws into.

an FYI……I ordered a Roche f12 from banggood three weeks ago, they didn’t use tracking # for my free shipping order.
I went back and forth for a week on these 2 brands but went with a tan r12.
Anyone used banggood? and how long did it take?

Yeah that press fit brass retaining ring is a royal pain.

When I modded my F12 I ended up using a drill to smash the stock driver to bits to allow me to get a grip on the ring with long nose pliers. Even that didn’t do the trick and I had to use a drill to carve a slot in the ring. Only then was I actually able to remove it.

I didn’t want to try to lever the ring out with a screwdriver. The bottom edge of the head below the threads is extremely thin and I didn’t want to risk denting the body.

Thanks for your information Firelight2, I think I will let the stock driver.
Yesterday I manager to desolder the driver from a Convoy S5 and I don’t know why they put solder as the driver can stay in place without solder (it’s snug fit in the pill) and it even works without resoldering it (I don’t know if it’s the rest of solder that make contact or the if it’s the outer ring on the non spring side that make contact with the pill).

I placed four seperate orders with them just before christmas. To Canada some took 2 weeks and some took 4 weeks. The more expensive ones took 2 weeks and I had to sign for them at the post office. The less than $20 ones where delivered to my mailbox.

I have a Convoy M1 and a Roche F8. the F8 is an over-engineered piece of garbage. Looks really nice but the tailcap switch pill structure is horrible. That, and the one I got from IS had a faulty driver.

I own several F12’s and also several convoys. I think the convoys have better build quality.

thx……I will keep looking out the window for postman

Rix tux, don’t wait for the package. I don’t say it will never come but I buy from Chinese website for many years and the last thing to do is to wait for what you ordered. When it comes in 2 weeks, you can consider that’s fast shipping and when it’s 1 month, then it’s normal. Before Lunar New Year I was lucky with banggood it took 2 weeks.
The best thing to do, is forget it and one day it will come in the mailbox and you will be happy. In exchange of Chinese price, you get long shipping. Now banggood is my source for convoy flashlight, they are a little cheaper than fasttech and give option for xm-l2.
Strangely enough, I ordered the Roche F12 from fasttech first, I ordered many other light or other things and the Roche was the last to arrive, even after order that I passed later on fasttech, maybe it’s a doomed flashlight.

Once with dealextreme, I received a package 7 weeks after ordering and there is a package that I never received in 3 month, I forgot about it and 4 month later if filled a rma and got my money back.

I don’t know fasttech and the other for long enough but didn’t have anything to complain now.

Based on reviews (I don’t have both to compare) I think that Roche has better anodization, AR lens, maybe slightly better machining but Convoys have better internals, in may stores they’re available in many different configurations (emitters, drivers), most of them fit protected 18650s (Roches have problems with protected cells) while still being well made. I think that’s why Convoys are more popular.

The upside is once I managed to finally remove the brass retaining ring, swapping in a new Nangj 105c was easy. I cut the remains of the retaining ring so about 1/2 to 2/3 of it is left and used that to hold the new driver in. It works great and there’s no need to solder the driver to the pill.

I have a couple Roche F12s and a Convoy M1.

It’s a little hard to compare the 2 brands since the M1 is much larger than the F12.

I modded one of my F12s as follows:

  1. removed star and reflector. Replaced with triple XPG2 on Noctigon. Replaced reflector with Carclo triple TIR optic.
  2. Built a copper heatsink to fill the cavity below the star. The F12 has no pill. The head is a single piece and isn’t hollow. It fits a 16mm star, but there’s a ledge partway up the reflector compartment that fits a 20mm star. This ledge is at just the right height for a 20mm triple with TIR optic.
  3. Replaced stock 105c driver with Nangj 105c modded with Qlite firmware and 13x7135. Driver tested at 4.76 amps.
  4. Cut one of the battery tubes down and stuck the 2 halves together. This makes for a much more compact light that runs on 1x18350. I also have an unmodded battery tube for 18650 use.
  5. Removed the anodizing and polished it up. Black anodizing should emit heat better, but I polished aluminum makes the cut in the battery tube much less visible.

My Convoy came premodded by RMM with a 12x7135 Nangj 105c with Zener diode mod and and MTG2 emitter on Noctigon.

My observations:

  1. The Roche is much lighter weight and feels better in the hand. Anodizing was excellent and the head design has excellent thermal transfer. My F12s came from CNQG and both had very greenish beams, due to the choice of coating on the lens. I fixed this by replacing the lenses. Reportedly F12s sold by some other vendors do not have this lens issue.

2. The Convoy is very large and heavy and also has perfect anodizing. The knurling is much shallower than on the Roche and the grip doesn’t feel secure for one-handed operation, especially since the light is so top-heavy but the switch is in the tail. The light also seems larger than it needs to be. For example, the tailcap is the longest I’ve seen. It may be well built, but looks like they could have shaved one to two centimeters off the cap without affecting operation. I think the convoy would feel more secure with a sideswitch.

Once I picked up a black roche f8 from fasttech, I never cared to play with my Convoy M2 again.

There a few threads here about the fact that Roche F8 has poor thermal design, M2 is better in that matter. You may enjoy your Roche because it has better anodization and feels expensive but it’s cooking the emitter and most protected batteries doesn’t fit.

Yes, the tail cap adds much more bulk than it ought to - if anyone knows of a tail cap off another light that will fit the M1 and make it shorter, please share that information.

I haven’t had much experience with Roche, but I was not hugely impressed. I would