Imalent DT70 or...???

I’m sloooowly building my working flashlight collection…a newbie!
My philosophy to date is to try and find the strongest performer in each of the major categories. I have a great little 14500 light, really tiny and almost 800lumens,the nitecore MH20GT, a great EDC light, and the imalent DN70, which I am really enjoying as a mid-level light that will run quite a while at 2500lm, with a strong turbo of 3700.

I’m now looking for that “over the top” soda can light that will scorch the earth in turbo. I’m leaning towards the DT70, as it lists at 16,000 lumens and has a great deal $$ here on the forum…but is there a better buy out there?
I’ve looked at the developmental Astrolux 12000lm light, the olight Marauder,the Noctigon Meteor…all the major players in the ultra compact 10,000 lumen+ category.
Any advice? I won’t be purchasing multiple lights, I think. I’d love to find the “state of the art” in this category and pick it up, and hopefully at a good price :slight_smile:
Thanks for any wisdom you can share.

As a follow up…I realize “state of the art” last about a month in the technology field, lol.
But, of the ones currently out there (or just about to be out there), is there a consensus “top dog” among the 10,000+ lumen compact lights?

And sorry for the newbie-ness. This topic may have been discussed to death at some point, but I couldn’t find a ton of threads with comparison information or discussion.

Hey TSO I hope all is fine!

The DT70 is indeed a monster of a light. The biggest flaw in my opinion is that Imalent has suffered from serious reliability issues in the past, not only with their new DN/DT series, but also the HR20 headlight and other previous lights. Last couple of months I honestly don’t read about people with a failed Imalent so hopefully Imalent has sorted that out. The only problem seems to be the voltage readout, which is often offset by 0.15V, which is a lot. All this contributes for me to believe the DT70 currently is really a great light with close to 16000 lumens, but it’s definitely not premium.

Quality wise the Olight X7 seems to be top notch, but soon there will be the X7R with 12000 lumens instead of 9000 and some other nice features. I’d certainly wait for the X7R if you want to get the X7.

The Noctigon M43 is the only light that I own from this list, and it certainly is my personal all time favourite light. It’s 2+ years old, and its specs shows: it’s only rated at around 7000 lumens depending on the led you’re choosing. To me this light is definitely the most premium. Not everyone likes the sophisticated UI, but at least it is very sophisticated, resulting in a premium experience. I have the Nichia 219C leds, and it’s definitely a must have for me in a floodlight. The tint is just really really nice. Price is reduced to $130, which is a real steal in my opinion.

You mention the Astrolux MF-01. This light certainly caught my attention too, as it’s available with the same 219C leds, but 18 pieces instead of 12 for the M43. If you check out Lexel’s review of the test version of this light you can see the beautiful tint of this led with no nasty tint shift (nevertheless be careful judging tints and colour temperature from pictures). Biggest problem with this light is that Astrolux doesn’t have a good reputation; they just made too many lights with problems, the last one being the S42. So a light can be nice on paper, it’s not going to bring you a smile if there are structural problems. I certainly will wait a couple of months and check out some reviews first.

If you’re looking for the “state of the art” light instead of the most powerful light, then I certainly get the M43. It’s a proven design, and will definitely outlast all the others in terms of being a classic. It’s also the most compact, which will certainly give you an additional wow factor.

Cheers!

Regarding lights you have not mentioned you can look into the following:

Acebeam X80. This light will be for sale within two weeks. This is definitely king in terms of output: 25000 lumens. And it does come with a $300 price tag (batteries included). This light also has red, green, blue and UV output, so it’s very unique. Acebeam is pushing the envelope to the max, and their last two big guns, the X45 and X65 have shown no technical issues that I know of. Only complaint I’ve read is the poor tint on the X45. But lumens wise Acebeam pretty much delivers.

You can check out the Utorch UT03. It’s not out yet, so you have to be patient. It’s about 9000 lumens, and one of the most attractive feature of this light is its price. You should contact one of the guys, Freeme or MadMax for the actual price: it’s pretty low. But remember, the light does not exist, so we don’t know how well it’s going to perform.

Manker MK34. This light is definitely derived from the Noctigon M43. Also at $130 I think it’s a good price, and it’s available with Nichia leds as well. Light uses only three instead of four 18650, so it’s significantly slimmer for a more ergonomic grip. A member here prefers the Manker over the Noctigon simply because of the UI. It’s a really nice, but also sophisticated UI where you can program the output of the moonlight mode. I have not read about a single failure so far. I think this light is also a classic.

Other good sodacan flood lights are the Niwalker MM25MB, Thrunite TN36 2017 (good but expensive) and Thrunite TN30 mini (good performance for nice price).

Hey TSO. It sounds like you are off to a nice start!

It looks like you are after a flooder next, when mentioning the DT70.

I would suggest taking a close look at the Acebeam X45. In my opinion, a perfect flashlight.

Hey, thanks for all the great info!
And the recommendations are welcomed as well.
I like the idea of the X45 - looks like a solid light. I was hoping to find something a little bit smaller in form factor though. I love the idea of the in-production Astrolux MF-01, but the quality control issues have me hesitating to jump on that bandwagon. The utorch light that is in production looks very similar - maybe better QC?

Also, a thought - does the engineering show that a smaller number of LARGE emitters is more efficient than a large number of smaller emitters? Or Vice versa? And do the smaller emitters generate less heat?
I love my DN70, but on turbo that single HXP 70 gets freakin’ hot. I can’t imagine four of them in a light that’s not that much larger.
The M20Gt I have has a single Cree XP-L, and on turbo at over 1000 lumens it gets much less warm.

Lastly…has anyone done a video shootout with some of the bigger lights? A bit of an expensive proposition, but surely someone out there owns multiples of these models and a vidoe camera… :slight_smile:

One nice video can be found here
Plus few beamshots

:smiley:

If you want something that ages well, go with MK34 or M43 (with Nichias of course).

I think you need to watch this video then decide which is best for your need!

Hey tm07 how are you doing? Welcome to BLF! I was just about to link that video here: you are fast! :partying_face:

Hey how are you doing man? Yeah I know you like your MK34! The MK34 and M43 are in a way like Ducati bikes; they’re fast but they don’t play the more power race to compete with bikes like the Hayabusa. You just want to enjoy riding these bikes all day…

I’m just fine, hope you are too.
There is something about the design and UI of the MK34 that makes it just right. It is my favorite, but I do like my M43 too.

I got both, too; the MK34 (XP-G3) and the M43 (dedomed XP-L) - both little neat bastards :smiling_imp: with the right size/ lumen ratio! :+1:

Excellent info, thanks a lot! That comparison video was exactly what I was looking for, and well done.
The X45 throws out an amazing wall of light, but I love the cleaner longer throw of the DT70. Both of those seem to stand in different category than the other lights in the video.
I love the Olights “refined” throw, and the form factor and reliability/quality seem to be great.

Really torn! They have a great deal on the DT70 at gearbest right now. If I could get the x45 at a similar price, though…

Sometimes more knowledge and information does NOT help the decision making process.