Hi! Am new to this impressive forum. Need some guidance.
Are there any easy to hold led flashlights that provide constant output at high lumens without step down?
Most of the flashlights advertise impressive turbo modes which step down in seconds or minutes.
I am looking for a decent sized not-too-large flashlight that offers the brightest output without any major step down in its HIGH MODE (higher than 1800 lumens) but yet doesn’t get uncomfortably hot to handhold without gloves.
I have decided to focus only on the ones with really bright HIGH MODES that don’t get too hot to handhold after a minute or two.
I have a preference for floody output as I intend to use it for walking about at night or light up the foreground smoothly as much as possible.
Convoy l6 comes to mind, it has no automatic stepdown and it can run for quite some time on highest without getting that hot, thats how i feel mine is.
Thanks for your reply. It has a nice useful combo of flood & throw. Just that its a bit too long and not as portable. But will consider it in the absence of smaller alternatives. It’s definitely an impressive flashlight alright.
How about the Haikelite SC02? Is it true that it runs only mildly warm on its 2000 lumens output without any step down?
I am also considering Haikelite MT03. It claims 2700 lumens on HIGH MODE. Need to confirm if it is without any step down & is easy to handhold for about 10 to 20 minutes without gloves.
Constant 1800+ floody lumens means you want multiple emitters with shallow reflectors. The bigger (= more surface) the light, the more cooling, therefore lower operational temperature. Most soda can lights can sustain about 3000 to 4000 lumens at a max temperature of around 55C or so.
If you look at a small soda can light like the Manker MK34, it can also sustain ~2000 lumens for a couple of minutes without getting too hot. But after like 10 minutes or so it will reach a higher temperature than other normal sized soda can lights.
You can look at the following lights:
Thrunite TN30 mini 2016
Thrunite TN36 Ultimate
Olight X7®
Acebeam X80
Haikelite MT03 II
Astrolux MF01
High lumens without need for stepdown equals big flashlight which conflicts with portability.
So there we have a compromise, as usual
Without having one myself, I can just see the Haikelite SC02 is too small to run at 2000 lumen continuously, after 4 or at most 8 minutes it is too hot to hold. For that you need at least BLF-Q8 size, which of course is less portable.
The MT03 because of its size and many fins will handle its 2700 lumen well for longer periods.
^ Exactly. Haikelite SC02 and Manker MK34 are just a tad too small for a continuous 2000 lumens. So you need something larger and end up with a Q8 or MT03. Of course, unless you want 2000 lumens for just two minutes or so, then it is possible.
Although the diet-coke-size Acebeam X80 can get much higher (25,000 lumens), it can sustain near 2,500 lumens and stay cool enough to hand-hold. Any higher (like the 5,000lm setting), and it gets too hot to hold. The output is very floody with twelve emitters. Run-time graph I did on my X80.
Coincidentally, I'm about to receive a 5,000 lumens Maglite tomorrow - if you want to go the custom-build route. I'll do some tests this week to see what level it can sustain without getting too hot. Matt's custom creation includes the DrJones Guppy2drv firmware.
How high (roughly) can the Q8 sustain without stepping down. Say, outside on a 10C/50F day? The reviews don’t address this. According to this thread it seems continuous output of 2,000 lumens is feasible.
X80, I have two now and use them just because they can sustain around 2500 lumens for than 2 1/2 hours. If you can get it for $190.00 it's a good deal.
