Sunwayman T25C, 18650 zoomie (edit july4th: mod in post#4)

You get more light for your money with the Brinyte, better throw and more versatile, but also literally: with battery, the Brinyte weighs 305gram, the SWM 217gram (despite the glass lens). The Brinyte is way chunkier than the SWM, which is even slightly smaller than the UF-T20.
So it depends on how compact you want it to be.

One thing that I think is troublesome with the Brinyte is that I feel that at all times I should be careful not to scratch the lens, while these uncoated glass lens flashlights can be thrown around, carried in pockets together with key chains etc, it will not affect the performance.

That’s a good point. As I’ve been building lights, word has gotten around and I have been given some “business”. It’s not much, but it means something as it is the first sign or productiveness since I became ill seven years ago. It’s just a couple lights, but in my mind I am playing imagination as if I am the owner of a successful corporation. Anyway… There is a group of coyote hunters that have my number. I’ve never used lights for hunting so I have no idea as to what is practically needed. The T-20 with Cree 660 red is what I’ve been offering. However, Richard has run out of that host so I ordered a b158. You are right, it is much bulkier, but the finish of the light is much nicer. Hmmm… I might just try this T25C. I need to decide before the coupon is no longer valid. You never know with these coupons. They can be offered for weeks and then when I decide to go for it, nope. :slight_smile:

I went ahead and ordered one. Thanks for the help!

By chance have you directly compared the t25c lens to the t-20 lens? By swapping out the lens and testing the lux with each.

I have not directly tested it but you can do some calculation on it to get a feeling.

You can (roughly) predict what the S4 2B would have done in the UF-T20, an S5 compared to a R4 is 32% more light, so at 3A you expect 143kcd, at 4.3A that is 1.23 times more, =176kcd, which is very close to 181.

Not much you can say if it is that close, at higher current there is more heat sag so if both leds are in the middle of their bin, if the output effect of a dedome of a this 2B bin led has been the same as this 3C bin led, the T25C does indeed a bit better.

Coupon code mentioned by LightRider in the Deals thread now, T25C for about $20
Sounds — hey, lottery! — like there’s some chance of a good lens.
Here’s hoping they’ll be pulling and shipping a random sample from a good lot, and this is a chance of getting a good one.

Hm, “38mm lens” — would the tall one from DX work? http://www.dx.com/p/38mm-diameter-glass-lens-for-flashlight-19-5mm-high-279837

The chance is not good that it is any better than the t25a one. Jerommel reviewed that lens on dx and said it was ok but not great.

Bumping this. How did you disassemble the head? Have a driver and xhp50 I want to stuff in there.

You have to get inside the front with a pair of very pointy needlenose pliers spread wide, and unscrew a retaining ring that holds the lens in place.
Look for four little half-circle notches in the black ring around the lens.

Then there’s one of those wide flat retaining rings with a center hole for the LED and 2 holes for the needlenose to unscrew, to get to the emitter.

Thanks! I did send up finding this info elsewhere but good to have the info in multiple places as you never know what people might search for. In my case that retaining ring for the LED to the pill was glued so this should be a consideration

Somehow I missed this thread/mini review. The code is still good - a T25C for $20, posted here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/17986/1165, using code: LEDFLA.

Product listed here: http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_333584.html?wid=21

Thick lens, wow! :GLASSES:

Yesterday I ordered this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/high-transmittance-led-Convex-lens-34MM-high-21mm-optical-glass-lens-power-LED-Condenser-lens/807919726.html

It certainly looks to be of seemingful tier. Hope to see “some” throw out of it with an XHP70 beneath.

Cheers ^:)

The lens you linked is molded, like any of the lenses used in flashlights and that are sold by the usual chinese vendors, do not not necessarily expect a better performance than the stock lens.

The glass lenses used in flahslights are all manufactured as condensor lenses, which do not need high optical performance so a cheap molded lens is good enough. However, in flashlights they are used as projection lenses, for that application the optical quality does matter. An optical grade aspheric lens which is ground to shape does improve performance, but they are much more expensive and can not be found for cheap at aliexpress or ebay. You can find them for a considerable price at optics sellers like Edmund, Thorlabs and such.

No worries djozz, I said “some”. With such a wide projection lens, effective throw may not even reach to that of an XM-L driven a 7-8W under an aspheric, though it should provide 4x+ light corridor surface, which certainly may be nice for certain applications. Should make a pleasant uniform light distribution flooder. :-)

Cheers ^:)

Yeah, Edmund’s prices are crazy.

Got mine in. Really nice! Measured 864 lumens (@30s), 43 kcd (taken at 5m) stock - really good #'s for a stock zoomie of this size, and about matches what they claimed in lumens of 880.

I posted this in this thread: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/42053, but I got mine in from GearBest as noted above, but can't budge the lens retaining ring - using a lot of force with appropriate sized needlenose, all in the CCW (normal) direction. Nothing - not budging... Any ideas?

Just looked at the T25C on GB, £32 or $40 & when you apply the codes it goes up to $53 ?

Yes - reading what it says, LEDFLA coupon expired now, or could be I hit the 1 order limits per coupon.

Still need some advice on opening it up at the retaining ring of the lens.

Update: Got It open!

Weird, but I simply tried the other pair of notches in the bezel, off by 90 degrees, and it came off easy. Really weird...

On mine also, the reflector thing was glued on the threads, but hard to see it's there from the pics:

Here you can see the damage, but should be easy to touch up:

Glad you got it open! I can’t remember if in mine there was any glue on that reflector-ish ring…

(the number to beat is 181 kcd! :smiling_imp: )

It's really a gorgeous zoomie. Just went for a walk past dusk - used my Skilhunt H15 w/Narsil w/nice NW - U3 3D, and a ThorFire BD04 with a dedomed XPL V6 0D, and both worked great, but ended up using the BD04 mostly running Biscotti, 3A. Love flood for the walking in front of you, immediately up ahead, then zoom out to look up the trails, plus the 5 modes worked out great. I'd prefer though a quality zoomie, easy slide like the BD04 but with an e-switch to run Narsil - best of both.