Did you order the custom BLF AA-Y4E?

Basic black for me too.

Wonder how many are going to vote for option 6? After all, you could get 30 BLF Specials or about 300 BLF DeLights for the same money.

You'd get quite a lot of lumens from 30 BLF Specials...

:)

Battery changing would be a pain though :(

Nope. I'm sure it's a great light, and god knows no blinkenlights modes is sorely needed, but no.

Why? Because of the lies. It's bad enough when the specs are inaccurate on product description pages on various shops, it's totally unforgivable when we're told "180 lumens, and yes, those figures are on AA" with a straight face right here on the forums and it doesn't do even half that in testing. Sorry, but I can't reward that kind of behavior with my hard-earned euros.

If the emitter/cell combo isn't capable of it, that's fine - I don't need the brightest light in the world, but you need to be honest about it.

This answer I could not find, so I did not vote. I have a C3 from Manafont in the mail somewhere.

I´ll take a look at that and also wait to I see the reviews on the AA Y4E before I make up my mind.

Specs look very good though, and I like 14500 lights.

Welcome, Juhaz! Yeah, there is no way this light is 180 lumens on a single AA. I don't know of any light that can do that given that you have to boost the voltage of the battery by 3 times with some major losses along the way. However, the J4 that this light is based on should easily be able to get 180 lumens with a li-ion battery (old4750's review says 250 lumens!). They are also saying it is HA III and I really doubt that. I don't think you can get a silver color with HA III ("natural" is just that: the natural color of anodizing; how do you cover that up with silver?). I'd like to believe the LED tint is a 5000K temperature too, but I'm skeptical, especially on High with li-ion where it will probably tend more towards cool.

I don't condone lies or bad information in ads, but with some of this information you have use some common sense. Some of the dealers have actually worked to get rid of the bad information too, so it is a little bit encouraging, though I don't expect them to use ANSI standards. It serves them better to be realistic about their information and have satisfied customers who will buy more lights than to sell one light to a new customer who will be disappointed and never return.

Hi Juhaz!

Where did you get that from? Could not find it right away but am interested to read that thread as I just ordered one.

It seems to be an unfortunate fact f life that manufacturers in new markets do this. In the 70's there were two sorts of horsepower numbers given for motorcycles - the Japanese horses were dramatically smaller and less powerful than anyone else's. These days, for various legislative reasons, the Japanese may well understate horsepower in some cases.

Has anyone ever bought a printer that could actually do the number of characters per second/pages per minute that they are rated at?

My "25ppm" printer might do 6. I have no doubt that using the right paper under ideal humidity, the mechanism is capable of transporting around 20 pages through the printer in a minute as long as you don't actually want any print on the paper.

Unfortunately lying (AKA, "marketing", "PR", "Corporate Communications") is rather common when someone wants to sell something to someone else.

Otherwise, sites like this one wouldn't exist.

"I plan on buying a $500 Wolf Eyez flashlight from Neverbuying.com"

No vote for now and also wait to I see the reviews.If support 14500 without burning, mine might be gray.

Thanks!

Looking at Don's database, EastwardYJ J09 High seems to come mighty close... for a few seconds anyway, but I digress. I'm not looking for the impossible, only that the people selling and making these things admit it's impossible.

I'm not sure common sense extends to knowing reasonable discharge current of a NiMH cell, or the efficiencies of LED emitters and driver/booster circuits used... but for the sake of the argument, and since we ARE on a light forum, let's say it does. Now, common sense tells me what they advertise is impossible but then what? The real light output of these "mid-range" budget lights is in a fork of maybe 50-130 lumens. Common sense can't tell me which one puts out 50 which 120 if they all boast 200 in the ads. The information given is totally useless.

Amen to that.

Hi. In the original thread, fran82 asked and znmzdx (whom I took to be a Lightake rep... sorry if I was mistaken) confirmed.

I grudgingly accept it's probably there to stay no dx, ebay, kd, etc. I guess what I'm really angry about is that the sellers have the nerve to parrot the same advertising propaganda on sites like this where most readers do understand the realities of the situation, and where people like you and old4750 can and will verify sooner rather than later that they're full of it. Especially in a case like this - if you can't trust the specs of a custom version, it hasn't been very well customized if you ask me...

Finally, to put my money where my mouth is, I hereby solemnly promise that my next light purchase shall be the itp EOS A3 since it seems to deliver what it promises. Unless, of course, someone comes up with a better AA or AAA light with honest marketing in the meanwhile... I could really use a version of R5-A3 with real medium and low, and without the damn strobe...

AHHHH. This is bad. I keep saying I am not buying any more lights, and then lo and behold, I come across another person on this site pointing out a must have or a good deal. I had ordered the J4 from lightake in silver, but had to get this in black. Gifting season is near, I am sure I know many ppl who would appreciate a quality light from my collection :)

Hi there Juhaz, thanks for mentioning this point. I also want to see accurate specs from manufacturers and sellers. But in this case I think you might be mixing up two different sellers.

The user "znmzdx" aka Daniel is from Lightake.com, and they were the first to offer a customized Mrlite J4 with 180+ lumens. He's not trying to mislead anyone with that number, in fact he and I were the ones that requested those exact mode settings from Mrlite. The thing is that the custom J4 apparently really is incredibly bright on 14500, according to the review by Old4570 (he measured somewhere near 250 lumens). Obviously on a NiMH AA it wouldn't be that bright, but I don't think Daniel knows that. At any rate, you might want to PM znmzdx and suggest he change that in his catalog.

I was talking first of all with Daniel at Lightake to see if we could get a customized BLF signature light. Since he wanted to offer the product as soon as possible, he didn't have time to wait for a new batch of the lights to be manufactured and custom labelled with the BLF AA-Y4E moniker. So I then went to Manafont.com and asked if they would like to work with us. They agreed, and they now offer the BLF AA-Y4E, custom labelled, with custom modes, and purportedly with a 5000K tint. So the BLF AA-Y4E is not quite the same as the custom J4 that Lightake sells. The Manafont product page states the following about modes:

  • Mode #1: Very low (1 lumen, 4ma current draw)
  • Mode #2: Low (6 lumens)
  • Mode #3: Medium (70 lumens)
  • Mode #4: Maximum (200+ lumens on 14500)

Does this sound accurate? I think it's clear and honest. I wasn't too sure what effect the voltage of the AA vs 14500 would have on the first three modes, since they are artificially limited on purpose, and I though it would be confusing to list two specs for AA and 14500. But the highest max mode really should be well over 200 lumens with a 14500, according to Old4570's review. I'm still not sure about the amperage of the lowest mode, and when we receive our lights in the mail I'm sure someone will take readings and suggest that Manafont adjust their product page if necessary.

Yes, black and silver. Tongue out

Lucky! I expect two full reviews out of you, sir!

LOL I wouldn't know where to start plus I have no testing equipment.

Black ..... 1

So how many of these BLF custom lights is Mr. Lite making?

Based on initial demand, I think. Actually the real question would be "How many is Manafont willing to order from Mrlite?". Mrlite will produce a minimum order of something like 20, or they can make thousands if someone orders them. As I mentioned elsewhere, the risk really falls on Manafont, because they are not doing the typical drop-shipping method of ordering from the manufacturer on-demand, but rather they actually purchased a batch of these from Mrlite, and now they have to sell them or else they lose out. This is an advantage for the customer because they ship within hours instead of waiting for days for the product to arrive from their supplier's warehouse, as DX does. Therefore it's a bit more risky for Manafont. But the good news is that I asked them how sales are going for the BLF AA-Y4E, and they were very happy with the initial response.

I'm in for a Black one. Still can't believe this light got done for $17. In the budget world this light is one of a kind without peer. The programmable Akoray-106 is a great light and has some advantages, but it does not have the low-low of the BLF.

Hey, admin, plz add "Waiting the review" option, or smth like that Tongue out

Done, good idea! Thanks.

Actually, I'm waiting for reviews from rzezniq and how2, both of whom "plan on buying a $500 Wolf Eyez flashlight from Neverbuying.com". You guys didn't think I would let you get away with clicking that option without suffering a public shaming, did you?