Since I like flood I put some DC Fix on the lens and it now has a beam that is just about perfect for me. A huge wall of light. There is still a hotspot but it is quite diffused. The light still manages 10k cd through brute force. :)
So far I like this light a lot. I wish I'd paid $70 instead of closer to $90, but that's the price I pay for impatience. Its not a revolutionary light, but the combo of 26650's and 5 emitters just works nicely. I'm the opposite of most people here, I wish the medium was actually the high(1.3A on 3 cells) and then give me a lower medium.
By the way... the lens appears to be the same size as the big throwers (59mm), are we ever going to get some decent glass in this size? I don't want to chop up a UCLp. I'm half tempted to just pay for a run of them and then sell them myself.
I'm not sure what's wrong with my order. My order was placed on 1-1-2012 and was thrown into their new account management system. It was then labeled as BackOrder on the 4th. I filed a support ticket for this problem. Had this happen to another recent order - waited two months as "backorder" and canceled. Not sure when they will refund me.
Anyone else order from DX? I have the "FandyFire" L1 on its way but would really like to play with this one too.
I received few day ago, but my camera wasn’t here.
I will make a mini review later.
I ordered from KD first and DX.
For DX I ordered 12-31-2011 , but 01-09-2012 still in “Order Received”.
So I canceled from DX and WILL NOT ORDER ANYMORE!!!
DX is so slow that's why I ordered from manafont, but I'm in Australia so orders take around two weeks to get here from manafont over a month for DX I'm not realy a fan of KD either to be honest.
Service from DX KD MF
1st for me is MF but TR-J12 is too late in MF’s catalog.
From now
MF = Flashlights , DIY
KD = Flashlights (If cheaper than MF ) , DIY , driver
When I ordered 18 month ago it took 10 days to New Zealand. The time in between it got worse and worse. One month is not acceptable. Last order ever at least for me.
Oh....ergotelis has the SR 3800, not the SR 818. But it should be very similar IF the current draw is the same.
But the SR3800 is about 2.6A with freshly charged good cells that do not sag much (it may go up to near 3A with lousy cells even at 4.2V just freshly charged). However Matjazz is using Hi-Max, which are very good.
Actually I am measuring like 3.5-3.6A on TF Flames @ 4.2V. It is only the best of the best like Sanyo 2600 unprotected that i get 3.3x amps. (those buggers are crazy, even better than my Panasonic 2900/3100mAh).
Even with both 818 and J12 are at 3.3A, the J12 will still have a bit more output due to its 5 emitters nature (you can calculate that with the LED calculator).
Judging from ergolites measurements it's 50% brighter than Skyray 818 (818 is the same as 4800 v0 I used to own). 50% doesn't make much difference to the naked eye. I'll stick with my 818 till something 2x brighter comes out (perhaps TR-J12 with stronger driver)
Hmm....not sure where did you get the 818 figure (I'll do a search for ergo's post again later), actually your 818 could be brighter than usual somehow, as you did use Hi-Max cells at 4.19V in which the cells are pretty good in terms of internal resistance/current delivery for direct drive. I have included a long list of lights measurements in the first page of my TR-J12 post, and the SR3800 is 160 while the TR-J12 is 225. The Trustfire TR-3T6 and whichever variant that are 2.1A at the tail are doing about 130.
So 160 vs 225 is 1.4x more, 40%? But yeah I am actually very happy that you do recognise that you need a heck lot more output to make a real visible difference.
Edit : I found ergo's list. His Sky Ray 3T6 is the SR3800, i still remember his posts in CPF. That light does not have 3.0A at the tail, not with such good cells at 4.19V. Not sure what DMM are you using, but if your leads are thin and the DMM's internal resistance is high, it can artificially boost the readings i guess. (high resistance = higher current, lower resistance = lower current....circuitry tries to regulate to stay at the same power)
) , DIY , driver