AgentJen, I expected the worst, when I ordered it, and wasn't disappointed when it met it.
It will make a stocking-stuffer for a relative, who has no expectation, so it will be perceived as the next best thing since sliced bread!
Problem solved!
Last night I looked on youtube for any videos of flashlights from ultraok. I came upon one where this guy purchased a presumed 1400 lumen model and was testing it against another more expensive model. That ultraok model looked pretty impressive. It was putting out an incredible amount of light. Enough to brightly light up an entire garage with the zoom all the way open. Looked brighter than a patrol vehicle spotlight. With the zoom all the way tight, it made a small square spot that looked rather brilliant. It was about 30% brighter than the other more expensive light. That gives me some hope that if and when mine arrives maybe it will be more impressive than my rather presently meager expectations. I thought it had finally arrived today when a UPS truck stopped in front of my house. Instead the guy delivered a packaged next door. Damn :( Well it's only been about 17 days since I purchased the light, and I was expecting 3 weeks or longer. I'll try to find the video again and post it.
Well watching it again I don't know if I still think it's quite as bright as a spotlight, but close...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4vbvOivBdU
The flashlight arrived as ordered at about the 3 week mark. It came with 2 of the 18650 Li-ion batteries, charger, plastic insertable cylinder to hold 18650 Li-ion rechargable batteries that slips into the flashlight for snug fit, another inserter for 3 AAA batteries if you decide to use those instead, and of course the flashlight. One nice thing is that the flashlight only needs one of these 18650 version batteries, so the other can sit in the charger ready to go when the one in use dies. Not a bad deal so far considering I spent under $40 for the light, charger and batteries plus free shipping.
The flashlight cosmetically is construction well, and it's physical quality is actually very good, and not at all overblown or misrepresented in the photographs on their site. The unit is not flimsy, poorly built, etc. The theading where the parts screw together are all cut very professionally. And the magifying lens that is incorporated for use rather than a simple plastic or glass lens is indeed made of glass rather than plastic. These larger 18650 Li-ion bateries fit snugly and the zoom works smoothly. There are three light modes. Low, high and strobe.
Ultraok's site claims this flashlight is rated at 1000 lumens. Well this is not exactly accurate, but believe it or not, it's close. Don't believe it it if you like because I can't believe it and I have already tested this flashlight tonight. But consider this. When lumens is measured- a simple, easy to obtain and relatively inexpensive (yet accurate) light meter can be used to measure actual lumens. So this is a gray area sort of thing that happens where say- Optoma or Panasonic measure lumen outputs from their UHP lamps in their digital LCD and DLP projectors, where they might claim they meausred 1800 lumens but in reality the lamp can only do 1300. And this situation is no exception, but I have to say that if I had to guess and really think about it, this light when coupled with fully charged 18650 Li-ion batteries actually does come closer than I would have ever imagined. I was picturing something like 200 lumens is what I was expecting after hearing the recent unfortunate negative review, but I was wrong.
So, Well I don't have a light meter my self but I don't need one to know for certain that this flashlight puts out at least 700 lumens with the zoom set all the way out so that the beam is tight for a small concentrated spot and the brightest possible beam. I know this because I just changed the batteries in my $20 duracell LED flashlight which is rated at 180 lumens(about 3 times brighter than a standard maglite) and it's pretty much an accurate lumen claim on that flashlight and this Ultraok is massively brighter. And my Streamlight 240 lumen tactical flashlight was on hand too. Side by side I got about 10 feet from a white wall and put the beams of all 3 flashlights on the wall with the zooms of each adjusted so they look about the same diameter and on their tightest beams. The Utlraok set on the brightest beam.
The result is that the ultraok model was obviously much brighter by a large but not by any mean- massive difference that would indicate 1000 against 180 lumens or the 240 lumen model. Probably the ultraok was putting out 375-450 lumens more than the Streamlight. It's spot was slightly tighter than that of the streamlight and that might account for the appearance in lumen being in much greater favor of the Ultraok model. So the Ultraok is probably doing about 650-750 lumens. But likely as much as 800. But that is very good considering many tactical flashlights used by police, military, etc. do about the same or more usually 180 - 400 lumens. There are some swat and special ops that use very expensive flashlights that rate as high as 2000 lumens, but in general most cops and fire departments carry flashlights about as bright or less bright than this ultraok model. Comparing it to my DLP projector beam which is rated at 1000 lumens and is probably putting out about 850 in solid white would be pretty close. Still want to try that.
But the news is really very good. One thing this flashlight is very good at is concentrating a beam at a much further distance than the duracell or the streamlight are capable of. I trained the duracell beam on the wall of a house behind mine from the backyard in the dark from about 40 yards away. You could see very dull white ghostly looking light on the wall of that house, barely noticable. Then the streamlight, and the beam was obvious but not very bright. I then did it with the Ultraok with the beam set to brightest and the beam in for a tight focus and smallest beam. It put a pretty decent beam on that wall at 40 yards away and it was clear and still pretty bright. The Duracell can do the same brightness at no more about 30 feet away from a surface. So the Ultraok will throw a beam that can be visible on a wall as much as 100 yards away I am certain, and the duracell would cast no light at all on a wall or surface that far away. The streamlight will but not very well.
Then for the ultimate challenge. I drive an unmarked police interceptor with a spotlight on it for work. I pulled it into the garage and hit the spotlight onto the garage wall about 8' from it. I then stood right next to the spotlight and put the beam from the ultraok in tight zoom on the wall next to it. I still can't believe this but the ultraok was brighter than the spotlight. I was very suprised. So I put the beam of the ultraok over that of the spotlight. The whiter light of the ultraok helped and it drowned out the beam of the spotlight. The spotlight would certainly be visible on a wall some 75 yards away far more obviously than the ultraok would be at that distance, but the ultra ok would still be visible, just not as bright as the spotlight would be.
A bit more info here...
With the zoom all the way open so that there is a large flood and on full beam, it gives off a fairly good light in a totally dark room. About the brightness of a standard D cell LED maglite with a tight focus. And it will light up most of a totally dark room so that you can see everything very well. I'd say about as bright as one of those mirror strobe lights they sell for halloween if the light stayed on and never flickered. Not bad considering it's a full flood and wide open and it's giving off a good deal of light still.
But I found using this light on full open flood is something your not likely never going to do. Probably with a zoom no more than just slightly out of a totally tight beam. The beam set there is just right for the usual maglite beam and much brighter.
So what's the verdict? Well I must say I'm pretty much shocked. I have to say that. The flashlight is very bright, well made, and does what it claims. It may not be 1000 lumens, but it clearly is putting out at least 650 to 700 which is pretty bright. While other flashlights I have seen advertised on their site that include photos of these extremely bright beams that are so bright they seem to be putting out light at what looks like the level of 12,000 lumens while the flashlight is rated at 1000-1200 lumens is just plain horseshit. Those images are clearly heavily photoshopped or something.
I feel bad that the formentioned $10 flashlight wasn't any good but for stuffing stockings. The good news is that this flashlight does what it promises. While granted I envisioned and hoped for something much brighter like some of their photos suggested, I was wishing for too much. But this thing is cearly brighter than my professional tactical flashlight and is built pretty much as good as the streamlight is give or take. The conclusion is this is a winner and a steal considering you get all this listed below with free shipping for $34.95. I say it's worth every penny. And I definately recommend this light.
Contents:
1 zoomable tactical style flashlight with 3 modes . Low, high, strobe
2 rechargable 18650 Li-ion batteries
1 inserter for 3 AAA batteries.
1 stay tight tube for 18650 Li-ion batteries
1 charger with red, yellow and green indicator lights for charge progress(recharge took me about 90 minutes)
Here is a link to images I just took of the light in action. Comparisons to spotlight included. In reality, though the spotlight is larger, the Ultraok flashlight appeared to be a slight bit brighter. Please excuse the less than clear images. I used an old 5 mp fuji finepix camera and it's not so great, but the result is as accurate as I could get it. I did not do any actual photoshopping except on 2 images where I brightened the images up just a little to see the surrounding area around the beam. Would be interested in hearing feedback and opinions.
The ultraok website is down atm. But I have an UltraOK zoomie 3-mode Q5 that puts out about 300 lumens. It says "7W VS-O5" on the side. Here's the image.
The wrist strap didn't come with the flashlight. I ordered it separately and tied it into the clip. This is my smallest flashlight that will take a 18650 battery. Callie's Kustoms batteries are a tight fit because of their width. You can push one in, but they'll get stuck and you might have trouble getting it back out again. Redilast, AW, and Ultrafire batteries will fit more easily. The cost is usually about $11 on eBay.
It's a handy, lightweight "bright enough" flashlight that I use outside the house at night. If I were exploring a dark cave and might get lost for a few days, this wouldn't be my choice. I'd pick my Romisen RC-E4 with the XML T6 LED upgrade that has dim mode under 60 lumens, a real energy saver that gives me an 80-hour runtime with a Redilast 3100 mAh battery. But for brief uses at night inside or outside the house, I use this UltraOK VS-O5.
I have purchase many quality flashlights and batteries from ultraok.com in the past year. Just a few days ago I made a purchase in the amount of $50.00 using a credit card instead of Paypal like I normally pay for items at that site. A day later I received alerts from my credit card company that there was suspicious activity and 2 charges were posted one for $76 and one for $345 neither were for $50. The strange thing is that ALIEXPRESS was trying to post these charges. I have never bought or even heard of that company. I contacted ultraok customer service from a link on there site.They told me to contact ALIEXPRESS AND ULTRAOK customer service because they are a wholesaler and don't deal with collecting money. I thought I was contacting customer service that is the only link I could find on there site. I do not understand why aliexpress charges my card for ultraok's web site. I really hate to lose my favorite place to buy flashlights. Hopefully I can find some answers.
I have sent e-mails to customer service. The only response I received was "there must be something wrong with my credit card" I believe they are not going to honor this order
It looks like that site is on its way out it is just menus and lots of dead links no html
I love them. Super-fast shipping. Never a problem. Ordered multiple times. Prices can be great or not so great. Just depends on the item.
Hmm...Odd. I guess the primary vendor is the same. I've dealt with Alibaba (Aliexpress is their lesser vendor) and only recently have they cracked down on scams. Don't buy anything from there unless it is Paypal protected. I'd stay on UltraOK about this and see it through. They stand to lose business if it is not dealt with properly.
Welcome, btw.
@ redwings1usa:
That's a strange one. I've never (knowingly) dealt with either ALIEXPRESS or ULTRAOK but it sounds like something far wrong, sort of thing that always worries me about buying online.. Please keep us posted re how things go.
And, of course, welcome to BLF.
Welcome to the club, redwings1usa!
I think that there are scammers imitating UltraOK, especially in selling flashlights. I bought a flashlight from an eBay seller, and when it arrived it said Ultraok in inferior quality enamel paint on a side panel. Note the lower-case ok. UltraOK capitalizes the OK on its flashlights. The focusing flashlight was poorly designed in that the LED would not dissipate heat fast enough to prevent frying itself. I turned it on a few times and noticed smoke coming up from the LED as I changed the focus. The LED would begin fairly bright, but would slowly dim away to nothing without me ever changing modes. The problem got worse and before long the LED wouldn't work at all anymore.
I think this was a knock-off. I left the seller bad feedback because he tried to stall me until after the allowed time for leaving feedback would have expired, offering me instead of a refund a replacement that would have to be mailed from China, if he mailed it at all.