Sipik SK68 vs Citipower G7

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

Here is a little comparison between Sipik SK68 and Citipower G7.

Both usually run either AA or 14500. Both are small inexpensive pocket zoomies that will thrill any non flashaholic, even on AAs.

At prices about $8 each, they make a perfect gift.

Let's see the differences between these two.

G7 is about 110mm, SK68 is about 99mm when extended and 93mm when shortened.

Beamshots

Citipower G7 on the left vs Sipik SK68 on the right.

G7 at 1m distance is about 8-9cm width, SK68 at 1m distance is about 13-14cm width.

Both were running 14500s on similar charge. G7 beam is a bit smaller and brighter.

On flood, they have equal size beams.

I'm sorry about the reflection visible in the corner of the beamshots, the door I pointed the beamshots at are somewhat shiny and I didn't notice the reflection until I uploaded the pic.

Citipower G7:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/120852777962?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

It looks a lot like Saik SA-9, but on a single AA/14500.

I have no idea why it's not more talked about. Personally, I consider it a Sipik SK68 killer. It's 3 mode, much more robust, prettier.

I can take pictures if you'd like comparisons. All in all I'd recommend it instead of the so popular Sipik any day. G7 actually replaced the SK68 as my EDC pocket light.

It's beam fully zoomed is roughly half way between SK68 and Small Sun ZY-C10-S.

Draws 1.13A from a 14500 at the tailcap on high mode. About 0.29A on low, but take that with a grain of salt, I have a cheap DMM.

Downsides:

- size (it's slightly longer than SK68).

- slow PWM flicker on low mode. It's visible when you zoom it in and move its beam fast across a white wall.

- cooling. Pill almost has no real contact with the flashlight body. Running it on high for long periods of time will reduce LED lifetime.

Another potential G7's downfall is the pill that is moving while adjusting zoom. It's conceivable that it might cause problems after a few months of usage (if the contacts break or weaken).

Update May 17th 2012:

As suspected, G7 develops an intermittent flicker related to the zoom ring. Most of the time it's not present.

The flicker is not critical, though. Usually it works ok. If it flickers, a few twists of the ring, or a shake, or a mild slap fixes the flicker.

I find it irritating, it's more of a mental than a practical problem. If this potential behavior doesn't upset you, it's still a nice flashlight.

Sipik SK68:

http://www.dinodirect.com/led-flashlight-3w-led-focus-cree-sk68.html

Mine came branded, as you can see from the pics, but don't rely on that fact, if you order one it may or may not be branded.

There has been a lot of talk about SK68 on this forum so I won't talk much about it. If you need more information, try the search top left, you'll easily find plenty of info.

Mine draws 1.09A from a 14500 on it's single mode (high).

Zoomie group shot.

In order of appearance, left to right:

  • Small Sun ZY-C10-S
  • Saik SA-9
  • Citipower G7
  • Sipik SK68 (flood mode, shortened)

Bottom line:

I'd order G7 instead of SK68 almost anytime.

Update May 17th 2012:

As a gift for any non-flashaholic, I'd choose SK68. Flicker that G7 can potentially develop makes it a rather bad choice as a gift.

Viktor

2

Thanks for the comparison, Viktor. This being BLF, no reason I can think of not to have both. I ordered my Citipower for $8.54 from ebay seller bestsupply888. I have enjoyed the little Sipik clone and I'm sure I will enjoy this one too.

I also noticed while perusing other lights on ebay last night that there are a ton of clones of the Saik SA-9 too.

3

Nice comparison. Thanks

4

Beamshots sses do not work :(

5

Do you have a lux meter? I’m just wondering if the Citipower is actually brighter rather than just smaller. The Sipik I had was driven pretty hard and was pretty bright.
The Citipower may just have a longer focal length. If you don’t have a lux meter do you have a DMM and can you take tail cap readings for both on high?
Is the Citipower a twist zoom?
I agree it’s better looking. Now if they would just leave out the crenelated bezel.

6

I must be the minority! I think the G7 is kind of ugly. It's that middle segment. I just do not like flashlights that have a tapered middle segment, like it's some sort of insect.

But all this zoomie talk has inspired me to continue my search. I think I might just go with a Saik SA-9 because of the 3xAAA operation. That's always a plus :)

7

Thanks for the comparison. Stuff like this is great. One point that strikes me right off the bat though is the clips. The Sipik has it in the perfect spot. A counterpoint though is the G7 clip appears reversible.

8

Not sure about the minority. IMHO G7 is so ugly that I have skipped it totally. And, being a flashaholic, only very few lights fall into that category..

OTOH, I like the Sipik design very much. Not sure why, but I do.

9

I'm not a Sipik fan, but I think the SK68 is the best design for a zoomie so far. It has simple straight lines and no excess features. The heat fins are even integrated well.

10

Actually, I think they are both ugly. Each in their own way :slight_smile:
The Sipik just has way too much going on with all of the fins and the tail cap is a real pain. It is bright however and throws quite well for such a small light.
The only zoom that attracts my attention at all is the Smallsun ZY-C10-S. That would be much nicer without strobe and the crenelated bezel.
The one thing the Sipik has going for it is no strobe.
I feel like we are having a beauty contest among bulldogs however :slight_smile:

11

The G7 looks identical to the NF-X8455 (AA/14500, modes H-L-S with memory that takes 10-15 seconds to set) I bought from DX, right down to the orange switch cover.

I'm sure the clip can be moved to the other end of the battery tube, but I haven't bothered because a) it's held in place by the o-ring and I didn't feel like removing and replacing both rings, and b) the entire battery tube can be reversed, which also reverses the clip.

Yes, it's a twist zoom.

12

The G7 is barely "OK" if you do nothing to it. I would not recommend running it for a long time on High using 14500 cells. The focused beam is smaller on the G7 because the lens is slightly larger.

If you've taken apart your G7 you will find that the mechanism that controls the LED position allows for NO heat-sinking. The emitter basically floats on a small disk and moved up and down by the internal mechanism. Extremely inefficient design for any high output and is fine for alkaline or NiMH (even that is questionable) but I would never run it for more than a few minutes on 14500. Forget about ever upgrading it to a hotter emitter or driver as there is ZERO heatsinking with this design.

The Sipik has outstanding heatsinking, can run in High mode with a 14500 until it is drained. It can be upgraded to a hotter emitter and/or driver and can also be converted to "mule" mode with a few twists of the bezel. It's also smaller and, IMO, much better looking as I prefer function and engineering over style. It's way more sexy!

Frankly, I would NEVER recommend the G7 or any others with it's design (there are a bunch) to anyone, especially over the Sipik, and if you were to disassemble yours and see how it works on the inside I don't think you would either. I can think of better ways to spend my $8.

Johnny

13

thanks Victori for the side by side photos you posted in the other thread. I too have the SA-9 and G7 on order for over 2 weeks now and counting, and it's good to see their size difference, which by just looking at the ebay pics I thought they were the same size (battery aside).

So far, of the handful of flashlights I ordered half a month ago, i've got a couple of sk68 clones from a US seller. I'd have to agree the sk68's industrial design looks better than the boring G7 on paper, besides it being a solid chunk of aluminum heatsink. Another thing, I tried the "Police" extension tube on both my sk68 clones, and the brightness was the same on both 1AA and 2AA nimh, on both clones, really well regulated booster circuit indeed. So my question to all is, why would you use a 14500 with its 20minute runtime if the boosted 1AA nimh can achieve roughly the same brightness visually for over a hour?

still waiting for my sa-9 and g7, thanks for the pics.

14

I don't know about your sipik but mine has substantial difference in brightness between using a 14500 and a nihm. And you should know better than asking in a flashlight forum that question. =)

15

hey, my bad... I'm here to learn, and my 18650s are still on the way, and don't have any 14500 yet. :) From what I've read here, doesn't the boost driver boost the 1.2v nimh voltage to 3-3.6v of the lithiums? Whilst the nimh can run till it's dry, the direct drive 14500's protection circuit kicks in at 3volts/20minutes; the booster circuit negates the added benefit of the lithium in these little zoomies? (Maybe I secretly just want somebody to talk me out of getting 14500s.) When I was browsing on fleabay, I see most Citipower G7 are 3-mode, (except for seller Madison Computing which never lists the modes.) So perhaps the 14500 has the added benefit of the Low mode in the stock G7 for longer brighter runtime, that's the only Pro I see for G7. I'm just a noob talking, but so far, my sipik is just as bright on a nimh as my 3AAA XP-C, and I don't yet have enough lights to know any better. :) But from what I've seen so far, i'd definitely order more 3-mode sipiks before I get any more G7s.

16

+1

My clone is noticeably brighter with 14500 vs Eneloop, primary AA or Nimh. If anyone is worried about getting 14500 cells, buy some good ones - AW IMR batteries are a safer chemistry than standard Li-ion.

17

Hum, Im having second thoughts on getting the G7....Should just buy another sipk68 I guess?

18

Sorry for not replying sooner, was quite busy.

I love SK68, but I prefer the G7. SK68 looks great until you extend it, then it both feels and looks strange. G7 just feels great to me. And the middle part looks much worse on the pics than in real life. I don't even see the middle part so strange while it's in front of me.

@MountainKing:

Try opening the image directly:

It works for me, and no one else complained.

@gcbryan:

No luxmeter, sorry. They both have XR-E.

However my samples are like this:

- SK68 has EZ1000 (no orange frame around the dye) and G7 has EZ900 (with orange frame around the dye)

- SK68 is driven at 1.08A at tailcap and G7 is driven at 1.13A at tailcap, both on freshly charged 14500s

I think that G7 is just better focused, or to put it better, has better focal length, I don't think the zoomed in beam is so smaller because of the dye size. It could be both facts contributing, though. Same amount of light squeezed on a smaller surface makes ir brighter. Visible difference with the naked eye, but not much difference if they aren't side by side.

In my opinion ZY-C10-S is the best thrower zoomie I've seen so far, I agree completely. But it's limits on flood and the size are a big minus in my eyes. It's great size for a thrower, but awfully too big for a pocket light. Flood is too small and not so bright after you've tried a few XM-L flashlights.

Still the best zoomie I have, though. ;)

@weiser701:

I have had both Saik SA9 and SA22, and they are very much alike, the only difference I saw was the bezel. Both same size beams, both take 1x18650 and 3xAAA, both have that horrible cooling. Almost no cooling, actually. I prefer SA22, though because of the flat bezel. Much easier on the pocket. SA9 bezel actually doesn't have that fine a finish on the bezel, it's rather sharp.

@ralf:

My G7 cannot reverse the tube, different size of the threads.

@Tecmo:

G7 does have the clip that can exchange sides. My pictures have the clip in reverse from the default. It felt imbalanced to me with the default position.

@JohnnyMac:

True about heatsinking. It's horrible for that design. But how long do you intend to run such a small light on high? :)

I've ran it for about 10-15 minutes and it does get hot. Not as hot as SK68, though. Sipik definitely has better heatsinking, will add pictures.

Good thing G7 has low mode. I really miss that on my SK68. Most of the time I use the low mode on G7 because it's usually bright enough for walking around in real darkness. High mode on this one is mostly for showing off a nice beam to the non-flashaholics. ;)

@AAx3:

1x14500 blows 1xNiMh, plain and simple. Also 1x18650 in SA9 and SA22 blows 3xAAA, just not by such a large margin.

If you are interested I can try to get a beamshot of two sipiks with AA vs 14500.

BTW, my 14500s are the cheapest you can get. Others have reported runtimes of 35+ minutes on single mode SK68s, on decent 14500s. For me these cheap 14500s are actually quite enough, I mostly never need to run them that long. I carry a decent XM-L EDC in my bag as well, for more important tasks. ;)

I'll modify my original post with updates and more pics later tonight.

Viktor

19

Updated first post with more pics.

20

that's NOT what she said...

who said the sipik was short and ugly?

So I finally received the G7 today, along with some extension tubes. Looks nice, not much bigger than the sipik. On nimh, G7's High mode seems a bit dimmer than both my working 1-mode sipiks, is this normal for the 3-mode drivers? The poor heatsink design is not such an issue when using low mode, the emitter half-pill does have direct contact with the zoom bezel, and the lens holder has direct contact with the crown and zoom ring, so there is heatsinking. Third mode should be called Seizure mode, LOL! My G7's tailcap looks like it was pressed-in with a rusty monkey wrench, see picture1 below... besides the initial WTF reaction, it does seem to be in working order. G7's body is not compatible with the extension tubes, group shot below: AAx3, AAx2, AAx1... BTW, I'm not knocking on the G7, all you sipik owners owe it to yourselves to get at least one G7 if only for the 3-mode driver, and the reversible clip is perfect for the baseball cap's rim. Last picture is just for fun, seeing how sipik was kind enough to pre-drill the pipe for the nuts and bolts.

Now I can see why the sipik sk68 is the flashaholic's bathtub vodka...

Still waiting for a couple of 18650 torches and batteries. Next on the wishlist: MiniMagLiteProPlus, P60 dropin and 25/32drill for the other minimags. :)