Flashlights that are great but you hate them

MS12. I don’t own it yet, but i can imagine its greatness and short coming compared to competitors and my experience using many other flashlight.

Great for its 50k output lumens and using 8x20700.
Hate its ineffective fan, difficult to access charging port, holes on bezel, difficult to find switch in the dark.

I wish it’s perfect.

Rovyvon A4 might be the thing for you:

mine is sofirn aaa red pen light. sometime i love it sometime hate . i do not know why? maybe the reason is the color. :smiley:

That’s the dreaded 3/5 firmware that I mentioned in my own entry. Your pitfall here is that in its case, it’s ON-time memory, so the light has to stay on for some 3 seconds to memorise the mode you’re using.

Tip: don’t buy Convoy from third parties, go to its own Aliexpress store, and when you purchase one, ask for the new Biscotti firmware on it via PM before paying. You can also buy the drivers separately there to upgrade your torches - I have two coming to slap onto my old S2 and my C8. After you try that, I guarantee you’ll never look at a Convoy sideways by principle again.

Found that one already but haven’t found a way to buy it except via amazon.es for 160 euro

I don’t really like the D4S too much. A lot of that has to do with the tint of the 219Cs on mine (very greenish), but I’m not too keen on the host that much either.

I love, love, love 26650 lights, as I feel the battery tube size is the perfect size to grasp on to, but I guess I only like them for throwers (Catapult V6, Manker U21). For something that has a more EDC type of beam, I feel the D4S is too large for EDC type use, yet at the same time something like the ROT66 I find myself using way more often, because it isn’t all that much larger (still a great fit in say a jacket pocket), and gives more power higher regulated output, and longer runtimes by a good margin. I also don’t like the sharp lanyard hole on the D4S either, as it grazes against my palm pretty aggressively.

I wouldn’t say I hate the D4S, I just don’t use it and don’t like it all that much. Without the tint issue I would probably use it a little more.

Now, of the lights I have purchased, the one I ended up hating was the Manker E14. This light was very much a looker, and felt great in the hand with its heft from the massive copper heatsink, but good lord the UI was absolutely horrible, and the 18350 battery just had no juice to it, so anything outside of less than 1-200 lumens felt useless.

BLF Q8 and Fenix ld75c , great lights but i don’t have any use for them, collecting dust in my drawer

Nice price….

Doesn’t buying from Rovyvon directly work for you?

Convoy L6/ Thorfire s70?. Both too big and stupid. Dust collectors!

They only sell a pair at the moment for 125 dollar(excl. shipping), which is indeed a much better price than the 160 euro amazon.es sells them for but still a lot of money. And I think I will have a hard time reselling one for 60 euro.

Any dutch BLF’ers interested?

They are available as long as you select trits as No or some colour combination instead of the default “Yes”.
It’s $55 then. Apply the discount and add $5 for shipping, you’re back at $55 without trits or $68 with.

Thanks for pointing that out!!

I ordered one and the shipping was free, so total price was $49.
Was looking for a place to buy for days…

Now lets find out if this one is gonna be loved or hated

Seen some discussion and griping here and there, so I figured this one is worth a…

My nickel’s worth; the S42.
Nice build, good design, acceptable light quality (XPL-v6) and beam, but the worst of UI. On first occasion changed the driver to Lexel’s. Pitfall is the parasitic drain with the charging module connecting the switch leds. OK as I taken to quarter turn before holstering it. There is a provision to use the Narsil firmware for these, but then you lose the on board charging status. And then the top of ramp is the turbo - gets very hot fast. Newer version with ceiling would be better. But as I put enough money in this model, don’t use as EDC (almost priceless! - puppy first love)).
@ BlueSwordM: I too have TK15 (2 as a matter of fact), and looking for the right e-switch to mount on a moppydrv driver from MTN. The LH351D emitter is an option too.

Convoy C8 with the 3/5 firmware. Fantastic size and good at focusing an intense beam at a specific spot, but the UI was so annoying. Sometimes it would have mode memory. Sometimes it would turn on in the next mode. The blink on low and ability to accidentally switch it into a blinky mode group was too much for me. The C8+ with biscotti firmware solved this with the ability to switch off mode memory and always start the flashlight at 100%. I suspect that lots of people with the ability to modify a flashlight’s firmware already solved the problem ages ago.

Acebeam K70. Really high quality, high performing flashlight, and I actually like the magnetic ring control. I just don’t like the gigantic size. It makes it into a very dedicated single-purpose flashlight, not something you can just throw into a camping gear bag or bring in your truck’s glove compartment on occasion. I feel like I need to think up situations to use it because I really don’t have any situations in my normal life in which I can find myself using it.

Yeah, 3/5 firmware is bad all around. I tolerated it on my C8 at first since a thrower for me is something that stays on for more than 5 seconds and never on low, but as soon as I did a driver swap on it to Biscotti, I found myself enjoying it lots more.

I have only one problem with it now, and that’s the lens. The AR coated lenses are thinner than the regular ones, and so it sits loose in the head. The noise when it bumps into anything and rattles is not pleasant, and it’s loose enough to let water in. I’m not sure, but at least hope the C8+ doesn’t have that problem.

This one was on the list, but removed after modding...

My Emisar D4. I had the Nichia 219C version, and I never used it. The green tint was just bad enough that everything looked sickly. But I put Luxeon Vs in it and now it's on my EDC rotation, even though the jead+switch is slightly bulky for me. Oh, I also still couldn't carry it until someone mentioned locking out the head instead of the tail. Life-changing for this light.

Another is my Nitecore EC23. It's un-pocketable. The switch is guaranteed to be pressed in a pocket. I need to have someone make me a tail-switch for lockout and I could stand carrying it. That and a warmer LED would actually make it a very nice light. I honestly didn't mind the UI, with shortcuts everywhere. I think they make something similar, but more tacticool looking, that has dual switches now. Alas, I also find the brand overpriced now.

Zebralight Mk IV (specific the H600Fc):

  • no more super useful 0.01lm firefly because ZL believes the couple times brighter 0.08lm is bettur
  • lime-green tint and 89CRI instead of the advertised 95CRI, the mediocre 219C outperformed it cri and tint wise
  • “programmable” ui which can’t be programmed to anything as intuitive as the factory one
  • it’s too easy to accidentally go to strobes mode
  • worst temperature threshold programming ever
  • it’s anodized with shiny olive oil :confounded:
  • stwitch boot is super thin and leaks light
  • rapid PID oscillation
  • bugs in the driver : sometimes the light refused to turn itself off, I don’t know if this is fixed in the newer batches

That kinda negates the “flashlights that are great” part, no?

Sounds like it just flat-out bites.

Mk II was great, Mk III as well, Mk IV not :weary: