Yet Another Sipik SK68 Clone - $4.99 shipped

[agenthex]

Link to the tomtop 3mode?

[hank]

> Link to
Problem is, there’s no way to link to what you’re describing — they don’t send the same thing each time, from anywhere.

[Don]

@cainn

@Chicken Drumstick

@cainn Visually do you notice as much a variation in performance/brightness as the readings suggest there might be?

Good question. The short answer is, yes and no, and not always as you’d expect based on the tail cap readings. The long answer is in the table below. I did some ceiling bounce lux readings at 2m with beeCam light meter on my phone:

	Current Draw		Lux (flood/throw)
	NiMH	Li-Ion	NiMH	Li-Ion
Sipik SK68 (Silver, from DD):	2.15	1.16	16 / 11	31 / 22
Sipik SK68 (Black, from eBay):	1.10	1.46	22 / 16	51 / 35
Unbranded (Silver, from TomTop):	1.47	1.66	26 / 18	60 / 41
UltraOK ZS-2 (Black, from eBay):	0.61	0.76	12 / 9	32 / 21
UltraOK ZS-2 (Silver, from eBay):	1.12	0.95	23 / 16	41 / 28
Ultrashine 3-mode (Black, from eBay) (HI)	1.67	1.23	16 / 12	36 / 26

The results didn’t always make a lot of sense to me, so I went back and did some tail cap readings again afterwards, but it turns out I got them right the first 2 times, so now I’m just left scratching my head as I look over some of the anomalies.

Of course one has to ask how much one can trust ceiling bounce lux readings done with a mobile phone. The answer is, probably not very much, and possibly doubly so given the particular conditions. All this has inspired me to get a proper lux meter.

Having said all that though, the silver TomTop clone is indeed the brightest of the bunch visually. I have no idea whatsoever what is going on with the DD SK68 on NiMH though. Just strange. The numbers change around a bit if you start swapping around tail switches, but not by much. Even when bypassing the tail switch on the DD SK68 completely the lux readings are pretty much the same (way lower than current draw would suggest).

Anyway, as potentially flawed as this comparison may be, it’s been fun (I got to use tables!). Might as well add some beam shots too:

Left to right, top to bottom: UltraShine 3-mode, TomTop clone, SK68 (black), ZS-2 (black), ZS-2 (silver), DD SK68 (silver)

Note: No one out there should run off and buy a TomTop clone just because my results suggest that it’s the brightest. Similarly, no-one should avoid a black UltraOK clone, or a Silver SK68 from DD, just because they fared poorly. There’s so much variance between clones even of the same name, even from the same seller, that it’s more about luck of the draw than anything else. You’d need to look at a sample size orders of magnitude bigger than mine for it to be valuable, but even then…

You’ll double the output by setting them to wide beam - the zoom feature pays a very high price. I’ve verified this on basically every zoomie that has been through my hands.

[Lumatic]

overrated. I’m leaning these days to adjusting the zoomed beam to just above the castle-tower effect and living with a fairly decent semi-circle hot-spot at the expense of extra throw.

[cainn]

I tested the output at both wide and narrow beam. I slapped that table of results together pretty quickly without too much thought, so maybe it’s not obvious. There’s 2 values. First one is wide beam / second one is narrow.

[UDO]

What quality can be expected from this sk68: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300-Lumens-WC-CREE-Q5-LED-Zoomable-Adjustable-Focus-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-3-Mode-/150816970535?pt=US_Flashlights&hash=item231d645727 ?

[newuser01]

351 neg feed back for last month? I would stay away.

But for the question, of quality: YOU CAN NOT EXPECT QUALITY FROM ANY SELLER SINCE YOU ARE NOT LIKELY TO GET EVEN THE SAME LIGHT FROM SAME SELLER.!!

@UDO

What quality can be expected from this sk68: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300-Lumens-WC-CREE-Q5-LED-Zoomable-Adjustable-Focus-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-3-Mode-/150816970535?pt=US_Flashlights&hash=item231d645727 ?