Best option for a compact zooming flashlight 1x 18650

Can't find a reasonably priced mxdl sa-28 but found this:

http://www.lightake.com/detail.do/sku.SmallSun_ZY_C84_LED_Flashlight_Black-28737

About the same thing? Q3 though...

Yes the Smallsun looks quite nice. But the last Smallsun I bought wasn't very good quality. Not terrible overall, but it only has a flimsy "holllow" alu driver pill - the kind where all the heat from the LED star has to transfer via the thin edge of the star - there is nothing for the star to sit directly on. Probably many of the cheap lights has the same construction, but in my view this gives a very poor basis for upgrading led or modding, as you will never get adequate cooling for the led if it is driven hard(ish). Or yes, if you take the trouble to file out a round piece of copper and custom fit it in the pill as backing for the star - but that is a lot of work to put in a $10 light :)

- I might take the chance on the EDI-T P4 though, because I love the compact no-nonsense shape: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.44573

The KD version is a Q5

Again, they just printed Q5 on the side of the tube, just as all XP-G lights print R5 on the side. I can guarentee you not all XP-G's are R5.

Yes. Some vendors will try to sell everything fake. We have seen a lot of that here!

Hey, someone marked me as a spammer. I may still be a newbie, but I'm not trying to spam this awesome forum. I guess I shouldn't take it personally.

Stuff happens. Once I've got them in a machine readable form I'll post the cartoons about "stuff" happening.

Despite my 2,000 or more posts, someone or something has marked posts of mine as spam. Don't worry about it.

And since I've not said what I already should have, welcome to BLF racooncity. You are welcome here.

Enjoy your time here!

It is quickly clear who is a spammer and who isn't. You aren't. Don't sweat it.

Hey there raccoon city, don't worry, you're not a spammer. ;) I fixed your SPAM rating for you.

Cheers, thanks for participating here.

Thanks Don and Mr. Admin. I feel a lot better now. What's kinda funny is that on eBay I have perfect feedback spanning 12 years even though I deserved negative feedback at least twice.

Yes. Some vendors will try to sell everything fake. We have seen a lot of that here!

It's not because it's "fake". The Q5 is supposed to be more like a designation, like "3W Police", instead of a tech spec. Perhaps misleading, yes, but not a matter of intellectual property.

My theory is that these factories just have a few reels of whatever emitters they have, and if you order in large units you might get what you specify. For our type of small time order, you get what you get, so you should assume/expect the base bins.

OTOH, it doesn't really matter. A Q3 vs a Q5 is not going to visible to the naked eye anyway. A zoom light by design is going to put out less light OTF than a reflectored design. The benefit is that the optics makes it more flexible if you need wide vs focused beam.

I can tell the difference between the Romisen RC-C6 Q3 vs. Q5. The Q5 is slightly brighter and with less amps drawing at the tailcap. Perhaps it just has a better driver.

There's about a 10% difference between the two bins. Anything less than about 50% is hard to tell unless you compare them side by side or back to back. Even a 20% diff is not obvious back to back. Your visual system simply isn't designed to be that sensitive at remembering absolute lumination.

Q3 207-220 lm @ 1A
Q4 220-233 lm @ 1A
Q5 233-251 lm @ 1A

There's also zero guarentee that's a "Q3" and "Q5" you're comparing. ;)

Thanks for the information provided.

Perhaps i need a different approach. Is there a way to modify a P60 host with an r2 and r5 emitter to have a more floody beam? My DX R2 dropin is slightly off center and doesent make a ver tight hostspot. My manafont R5 dropin is actualyl very well centered and it is more like a spotlight. What should i do to disperese the beam a little? Special lens, diffusers or painting reflector black would do that?

Umm...nice theory you got there...but my eyes can definitely tell the difference between the two lights. I have them both turned on in my backyard and the Q5 version is brighter than the Q3. Now, are you going to say that my eyes are really blind and they're just playing tricks on me because there's no noticeable difference between the Q3 and Q5?

Personally i don't notice if i don't really put much effort if some emitter is 5-10% brighter in a same setup.

You keep calling them Q3 and Q5 as if you know what bin emitter is inside each. My "theory" is based on what I've measured, info from cree, and what is known about the human visual system.

If you really want to know, you can get a <$20 light meter off ebay. I can guarentee you that there is a >10% difference between those lights or I will pay for the meter. :)

Could you post a link to a good one below 20$. I may take you on that one.

Same here, but i just want a reasonable lux meter for cheap.

I use this one - $23.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20170

I believe Old4570 has the same one from something he said somewhere recently.

This is a good meter

http://cgi.ebay.com/Light-meter-100-000-Lux-4-Camera-Photo-1Lux-light-sens-/370411252699?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&amp;hash=item563e3b2bdb

It has a smaller area for measurement with a spherical shape to minimize variation due to incident angle. The only major negative is that its roundish shape makes it very hard to stand.

Remember that a light's output often varies more than 10% in the first minute it's on. You should try first to if see if you can tell how much any given light droops after you turn it on.

Even inside a very even hotspot, areas of lumination vary by over 10%. Again, see if you can tell this.

Both of these are best case scenarios. Your memory won't be anywhere near this if the comparison takes place at different times.