Convoy L6 Review
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Hey folks today we will be looking at the already heavily critiqued beast. The Convoy L6 I received the L6 from Gearbes they sent me the clear edition with a neutral white emitter so you can start drooling now! I am guessing that this is a BLF special edition in its own way. Well we did all input what we wanted from this flashlight so we will call it an unofficial BLF edition.
They do currently have the L6 really cheap for a limited time. I will leave that link here. 53.99 USD for the N4 1C they had both edition for the same price but it took me to long to make this review. Sorry!
Convoy L6
Where to start? Maybe its looks? When you first hear about the L6 and see it in the pictures its a bit meh the pics really do not do all the clear convoy editions justice. Once you receive the L6 its amazing the color of the L6 itself is really good it doesn’t look tacky or cheap it looks perfect. I was kind of expecting the same finish as what I got on the BLF A6 clear edition. This is a much much better finished flashlight and it appears to have some clear coating on it. The coating will some what help to stop the L6 from becoming tarnished and scratched but also when you scratch the coating it will appear show the scratches more because the coating will wear same as with a standard anodized flashlight.
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Honestly who really cares? As long as it is protected which it is! Also if your actually going to use the L6 and you get it dirty you will see the dirt marks so you will have to keep the L6 clean. Dust is your enemy lol. The clear edition of the L6 comes with clear switch covers all around which is a nice touch you do get extra dark switch covers in the box if the clears are not to your liking. There is no lights under the switches on the L6. You get a clear tactical ring already on the L6 it acts more as an anti roll on the L6 because the it has no flat spots so the flashlight loves to roll. The Convoy L6 is big and beefy you could do some serious damage with this flashlight if you beat some one with it! Even by shinning the L6 in some ones eyes they would be blind for a serious amount of time with one hit from the turbo mode. So the L6 makes a great weapon if you need that feature in a flashlight it brings new meaning to tactical flashlight. I love the crenelated bezel that comes on the L6 its like a bigger version of the crenelated bezel on the L2. It gives the L6 a more tactical look and it comes in handy in case you leave the L6 on by accident when not using the light.
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The knurling looks awesome on the L6 I prefer this style over the L2. The threads on the L6 are cut so good they are so smooth usually you wouldn’t expect threads this good from a none anodized flashlight. My last C8 had a few issues with the threads and I am happy to say looks like Simon fixed all the issues.
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Size and weight wise the L6 weights a nifty 550 grams without the batteries which is good for a flashlight this size. It isn’t over all to heavy and can still be carried when you are out hunting and fishing. My thorfire regularly gets used on fishing trips generally I do not need this much power but some times its fun just play with your flashlights.
Its probably more fun to play with a fleshlight but we will keep that story for another day and this one is probably not so good to do in public.
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The L6 is 255mm (25.5cm) long so as you can imagine its a little weapon. I personally prefer this style flashlight compared to the soda-can style flashlights I feels this style is easier to use and handle. The L6 has a head diameter of 75mm (7.5cm) and a battery tube diameter of 35mm (3.5cm) seeing as the L6 is made to fit 26650 the inner battery tube diameter is 27mm (2.7mm). I am currently using 18650 with an adapter in my L6. If the L6 can run 26650 might as well use them it will give you a much longer run time. Even the high drain 26650 should give you about 4000-4500mah which is a lot more compared to my 3000mah batteries I have in the L6.
Either way even if we do the maths. The L6 draws about 5000mah on turbo mode so even 3000mah batteries will give us about 40 minutes of run time on turbo. Which is great for such a huge output of light. You will not be able to run the L6 on turbo for that long or else it will melt. Or you will melt from all that heat.
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The L6 has a good mix of throw and flood these style beam pattern are better for real world use .Its great to have 10000 lumens in a flood light but how useful is that light really? Yes its 10000 lumens which is great but in a open field if you use the L6 against a high output flood light you can hardly tell the difference. If you prefer more throw then flood there is a SMO reflector you can get for the L6 the stock reflector is great for me it throws like no tomorrow. Seriously I have had the L6s beam reach 500 meters to where I can still clearly see it.
The stock reflectors dimensions are 67.8mm in width and 48.2mm in height it has a similar beam profile to the Thorfire S70. Actually many of the aspects of the L6 match the S70 which is good because the S70 is one of my favorite flashlights. Before the S70 came out to get that type of performance would have cost you about double the price of these flashlights. These lights are budget hero flashlights in a sense they opened up a new market for BLF now we can have the best of both worlds cheap price and super high performance.
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The Convoy L6 is available in a range of different tints. All the L6s use a Cree XHP70 but you can Chose two tints either a 5000k tint or a 6000k tint . So even the cold white tint isn’t actually that cold. My L6 is the N2 3A 5000k tint Gearbest also stock the N4 1C 6000k tint. As you can see both tints are pretty close to each other. With the emitter tints being so close to each other I am not sure if there will be a big difference in output but I think the colder tint will appears brighter just because it will produce more glare. I believe the black edition of the L6 is available in more tint options. Stock the L6 produces 3800 lumen which is a huge amount of light I put the L6 and S70 against each other in my ceiling bounce test. Both lights do really well they are actually closer then what I thought. I kind of thought the S70 would smoke the L6 but they are side by side I will say the S70 does have a higher current well at least my one does. Both got 300 Lux which is about 4000 lumens.
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I have not modified either of these lights but stock my S70 is getting about 5.6 amps at the tail cap where is the L6 was getting about 4.8 amps. Not a huge difference of course. The L6 uses a FX30 driver that is easily modded for extra power by stacking a resistor on top of the other sense resistors. Or you could go crazy and just bridge the resistors with solder to get mega output and a super hot L6 with a short run time. The S70 can also be easily modded the same way. The L6 is one of the most mod friendly flashlight on the market think of it as an oversized C8 its all that easy to take apart and have a play with. Like the new C8 the L6 also has an integrated head which we all know is better for cooling I prefer this head style my self you just need to use tweezers while working inside the head. Its actually got enough room that you stick fingers in easily enough. Yes that is what she said!
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Seeing as I own the clear version of the L6 I am not sure the anodized version of the L6 does with heat. The L6 does get hot which is to be expected I would imagine the none anodized version will get hotter faster then the anodized version. Keep that in mind while choosing what version you buy. If your sucker for a pretty light no one you will pass the clear edition of L6 up. They are that cheap that you could afford to buy an anodized and a none anodized version one for work and one for play!
The L6 comes with the other goodies which we have come to expect now like Anti reflective coated glass. Its made out of the usual Aircraft grade alloy. The L6 has a few addition I did not expect to see. The springs on both ends of the L6 have already been bypassed from the factory this gives us better performance and saves us time and money. Well i am lazy even though i was going to Bypass the springs my self its easier this way. Also work out good for flashlight newbs that do not mod.
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Another addition you may not expect from a Convoy flashlight that comes with the L6 is an IPX8 rating this is awesome its always great to know my flashlights will not fry when they get wet. I think the C8 will be some what water resistant stock I just wouldn’t submerge it. Also the L6 uses a Direct thermal Path MCPCB this will help to dissipate heat and keep the L6 cooler for longer this will also give us a longer lasting LED.
The L6 also has duel switches the rear switch is a mechanical lockout the actual switch its self is rated for a 125V and 10amps so it will be able to handle modding very easy. The L6 also has an electronic side switch which is used to change modes. Also I will add the L6 comes with a tactical ring which doubles as a anti roll device but I have seen this on other Convoy flashlights in the past.
Buying the L6 is like clicking the add all topping while buying a pizza you get a bit of every thing. Yes because we all order pizza from an online menu! I like making my own pizzas.
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The mode spacing on the L6 is good and so is the UI. The UI is simple and easy to use the back switch acts as a mechanical lockout. The L6 has no standby mode so the only way to turn the L6 off is to use the back switch. The FX30 driver has memory mode even if you lock the L6 out it will turn back on what ever mode you left it on. The L6 does have a hidden strobe mode it appears to work in high mode. You simply double click the side switch to activate the strobe.
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Run times and outputs are not specified I can do my guess work using my 3000mah batteries and some maths and the stock output on every setting. I will do a ceiling bounce test and see what I get. This maths just hurt my brain lol.
- Turbo mode: 3800 lumen @ 40 minutes (5000ma)
- High mode: 1290 lumen @ 1 hour and 40 minutes (1700ma)
- Medium mode: 152 lumens @ 15 hours (200ma)
- Low mode: 38 lumens @ 60 hours (50ma)
What is included with the L6?
- Convoy L6
- Lanyard
- Spare O-rings
- Spare switch
- Tactical ring
- Spare switch covers
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Now if you ask me to chose between the L6 and S70 I can not its way to close they both have pros and both offer very few cons. The L6 is built so well it feels like a much more expensive flashlight I can not fault the L6 it does its job very well and should have a place in very ones collection. Now a few may disagree but you can buy this light and be 100% happy with L6 without ever modding the light 3800 lumens is amazing output performance. It has more then enough power for any task you may come across. If your a keen outdoors enthusiast I would buy a SMO reflector and store it safe and switch between reflectors when you need a bit of extra distance just change it out. Hunters may find the extra distance useful but for me 500+ meters is enough. I would like 18650 adapters included but they are cheap to buy.
I am scratching my head to find faults but I can not its a great buy overall.
These pics where taken at ISO 800.
Convoy L6 low mode 38 lumens
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Convoy L6 medium mode 152 lumens
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Convoy L6 High mode 1290 lumens
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Convoy L6 turbo mode 3800 lumens
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Tree line is 120 meters on turbo mode
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Tree is 130 meters away on turbo mode
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Turbo mode lighting up the whole field
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Same ISO setting as above but its a wet night and i am on the coast edge.
High mode L6 the beam profile makes it a very usable light on high.
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Turbo mode L6
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Turbo mode L6
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Left L6 and right is S70
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L6 left and S70 right
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L6 left and Niwalker MM25MB Right
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Its a bit hard to see but the poles are at 200 meters. The video shows it clearer.
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Video added a week later. I live by better late then never lol!
I was trying to make a video the same time as these pics so i had the L6 on for a long time and it stayed cool. It was a 21 degree night but i had a southerly blowing on me at about 50kmh so that may of helped lol It was raining also but nothing to major.
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Regards Chris
