The Sky Ray 818: Bright, Lousy
<<updated with better pictures>>
This is my first triple and after the letdown of getting the shaft from YouWantLED and not receiving that triple, I was excited to get the 818. I'm not excited any more. Although the 818 is reliable and very bright, it is poorly made and I simply cannot get past its shoddy machine work and indifferent fit and finish.
Bottom line: It sucks.
What I like:
- bright, bright, bright
- bezel
- basic design
- run time
What I do not like:
- finish
- arrived with nicks/burrs
- threads
- loose lens
- blinky modes
- "Brightness Upto 4000 LM" printed on tube
Sky Ray 818 3 x XM-L/T6 2 x 18650 LED Flashlight from Lightmalls
$57.70 http://www.lightmalls.com/sky-ray-818-3xt6-cree-xml-t6-5modes-4000-lumens-led-flashlight-2x18650
3 x XM-L/T6 emitters
2 x 18650 batteries
5-mode: low, medium, high, fast strobe and SOS.
"anodic oxidation surface treatment"
aluminum alloy, 56mm head with stanless steel bezel
tail standing, reverse clicky tail switch, 16mm boot
not IPX rated
Foy's attempt to quantify relative brightness . . .
light meter lux . . .
in my dimly lit office - 34
4Sevens Quark AA2 (R5) - 64
Solarforce M8 - 129
E1320 modified Trustfire F15 - 150
Sky Ray 818 - 210
Is it 4,000 lumens as advertised? Nope. But, it is really bright.
tail cap amps with 2 x Panasonic 2350:
low - .15
medium - .81
high - 1.68
This Sky Ray is a very pleasant design with cooling fins suggesting uber-performance and Foy is a sucker for a cool stainless steel bezel. At anything closer than say, five feet however, the 818 looks cheap and it goes down hill from there when you pick it up. It never felt good in the hand, no matter how much I played with it . . .
The threads feel like crap and the o-rings on the tube and tail cap make little to no contact with the tube it screws onto . . .
The "anodization" looks and feels like paint, all edges are sharp and there are nicks everywhere.
Yessir . . . pre-nicked and chipped . . . goes well with the pleasing patina of a used flashlight.
This Sky Ray 818 shipped with no o-ring between the bezel and lens. The subsequent rattle is in keeping with a flashlight so sloppily manufactured.
Even after I blew out all the Singapore sourced dirt and sand, the threads feel gritty and rough.
Size comparison with a Solarforce M8. Not having compared run times with anything, I thought the one hour and thirty minutes I got with the Sky Ray with unprotected Panasonics was pretty good.
Beam shots taken at 1/4 second shutter speed @ 2.8.
Solarforce M8 and my cat "Marx" . . .
. . . side by side with the Sky Ray. (on the right) Obviously, the M8 throws but the Sky Ray overall is much brighter.
Marx again and this is my E1320 juiced-up F-15. Pretty dang bright - Erik is the man.
Side by side, F-15 on the left and the Sky Ray on the right. If you look at the eaves you can see that the Sky Ray is slightly brighter.
Full size shot of the Sky Ray.
As bright as the Sky Ray is, I was expecting more from three XM-Ls. I was also expecting more quality and a better flashlight for near $60.
The Sky Ray 818 is stupid.
idontlikeitFoy