Just bought this for $5.49 on Meritline: http://www.meritline.com/focus-zoom-lens-flashlight-light---p-44807.aspx Seems to have the yellow warning triangle of the Sipik, but is not marked as such. They all seem so similar anyway, it's hard for me to tell which is which. Guess I'll see when it arrives.
Understood - I’m fully expecting Osram and 1 mode. I guess the led type is the main difference between the Meritline/ebay and others? Their appearances are all very similar to me.
midieval10 - you're quite welcome. I figured, for $5 and change for an Osram, how bad could it be? I have an RC-29, impressive light for $14, but following the hopeful "90/30" rule for budget lights (90% of the performance for 30% of the cost) I thought maybe (just maybe) I'll like this super-budget zoom.
sb - I saw that one too, very inexpensive. I just wish they would give more clues about the led type.
I strongly suspect it is an OSRAM like these other ones. Notice that they claim output of 100 lumens for 1 hour, which is exactly what these OSRAM zoomers are giving.
They really did some nice photography of this one, especially for a cheapie. Frankly, the design is hideous, but it looks rather high quality for the price. Disassembles on both ends.
Good news with that $5.49 "Sipik copy" on sale from Meritline - it's a Sipik w/Osram. Seems like a nice, solid build. Brightness on flood (evaluated with ceiling bounce) is somewhere in between medium and high on my iTP A3, perhaps 60 lumens? Nice focus on the throw, although not as bright in this condition. Good buy.
Nine days from HK to my front door in the US is a record. Also picked up one of their 11-led lanterns http://www.meritline.com/11led-adjustable-camping-light-lantern-946---p-35838.aspx on sale w/coupon for $2.30 and I must say I am very impressed with this little lantern. Not the prettiest beam pattern, but who cares - it's an emergency light. It's almost as bright as my Cree River Rock lantern (not as bright, but not far off).
The build quality is good with this one but it only has a cheap LED emitter...not bright at all. It's somewhat like a BLF Delight but with zooming capabilities.
This sounds like it could be an advantage. The OSRAMs in the Sipik SK58 and its clones are very power hungry. The battery hardly last an hour. Maybe the generic LED will have better runtime (at least 6 hours, possibly up to 20+ hours) as the BLF Delights do.
I tried to order this, but Meritline doesn't ship to my address... :(
The beam on flood is very smooth. Not ringy like admin's. It's also brighter than the 2 division C78 Golden Dragon light. Plus, the build quality is very good, looks very professional. The only thing I had to change was taking out the 2 metal o-rings and putting rubber ones in.
I just tried a 14500 in the Sipik and it works! No burnt driver or smell and it still takes an AA. It's now almost but not quite as bright as my Romisen RC-C6.