Zooming Model List (2018 Updated) Tell us about your newest zoomie!

I did some rough measurements of Skywolfeye B16 lens. Rough because my calipers are plastic junk.
Outer diameter: 14 mm
Diameter of the convex part: 12 mm
Back focal length: 11 mm

The lens is press-fit.

How do you make a waterproof flashlight that zooms, and has a USB port?
I’d suspect hype …

The lens is not bad.
It projects a quite clear image of the LED.

…maybe get some Cree XQ-A and dedome it…

¼ die size of XP-E, or ½ die size of XP-C :laughing:

I’m looking to get my first SK68. Any suggestions on which should be my pick?

Pray.

Take a look at FastTech, there at least you can find some meaningful feedback and customer support pays attention to questions.

Thanks.
With the amount of deception going on on Aliexpress I’m increasingly using other sites. Fasttech has not failed me so far.
I need some more time to read through but I see that the cheapest model is recommended with the only review saying

I think I may splurge on something more expensive though because my gut says that it may be good for $2.81 light but probably not as good as the more expensive variants.

I can’t remember what name it was sold under, but probably 5 or 6 years ago I bought the cheapest standard (black) looking SK68 Fasttech had, and it was the best one I’ve come across to date. YMMV, but the price doesn’t correlate to quality on these it seems.

I’ve got my Skywolfeye B18 (the 14500 version). I expected it to be just as good as B16 (10440) but it’s not.

  1. The zooming action is not as smooth, rocking makes it get stuck sometimes. Not surprisingly zoom travel is larger and requires more force.
  2. Flood is quite narrow, too narrow for my liking
  3. B16 has a very clean throw beam. TBH I don’t understand why is it so, it shouldn’t be so good. B18 is very very ringy. A part of the difference is the plastic holder. With B18 it stays deeper, so LED illuminates it from the sides. B16 has the top of the LED dome just barely over the edge of the holder, so its white surface receives no direct illumination. B18 clearly shows the surface of the area that surrounds the LED. B16 doesn’t and I don’t know why. Die image has equally sharp to my eyes.
  4. B18 has no lanyard hole
  5. I’ve had a few misclicks with B18 shortly after I took it off but later it felt OK
  6. I don’t know how is it with B16 but B18 doesn’t accept flat top cells

I’ll EDC it for a while to get a better idea of how it feels.

Best SK68 I have is the UltraOK one I got from Mountain Electronics. Unfortunately it looks like he’s out of stock.

It has pill with a solid shelf, unlike many of the cheaper SK68s that have hollow pills. Also, its battery compartment is wide enough to hold a 16500 out-of-the box.

Thanks for the recommendation. I did a quick search and there’s UltraOK store on Ali. And they sell SK68…but branded Enjoydeal and very cheap. I won’t take the risk and my pick so far is the cheapest fasttech one. Though I’m waiting for a 15% off at least. :wink:

Good luck!

There are so many different variations of the SK68. I have ones with the following:

  • Original Sipik SK68 - Cree XRE led, single mode, solid pill, 18mm lens, metal C-ring instead of an o-ring under the sliding bezel giving the bezel action a grindy feeling that’s not at all smooth.
  • generic - with 3 modes XPE, o-ring under the sliding bezel instead of a metal c-ring for much smoother action.
  • generic - with 1 mode XPE, o-ring under the sliding bezel
  • generic - generic with XPE and 20mm lens (all the others have 18mm lens), o-ring under the sliding bezel.
  • UltraOK - solid shelf, interior of battery compartment is wider and can accomodate a larger cell, o-ring under the sliding bezel.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000321611399.html

Asafee has a B158 clone and now this new HT line of zoomies with clean looks and interchangeable lenses/heads

B158 here for less than 1/2 the price, but in red or green: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32831194642.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dAcJRJS

This is where I bought my last one. I got a SBT90.2 in a B158 now - not bad! Roughly ~300 kcd but it drops fast.

(oops! - corrected)

Asafee one looks way better and appears to have a better switch but who knows what you actually get. Maybe someone else will try and report back :slight_smile:

Thanks for the report on the performance of that one. A B158 is on my shortlist of upcoming purchases, and I’m always afraid of getting a clone with a under-performing lens.

I’m curious if the HT11 performs equivalently to the B158 in terms of throw. If so, that’d be a better investment IMO having the interchangeable heads. It looks like the HT line might share pills with the B158 as well, which would be a nice bonus.

I really like that (at least in their pictures) they don’t have any markings/laser etchings on them. Really a pet peeve of mine with otherwise nice lights.

I’m going to write to them and see if I can get a ‘BLF’ package including an extra pill or two and all the heads. I doubt it’ll save me any $$ though over just getting each full light. We’ll see…

14500 USB rechargable zoomie with side (momentary?) switch:


https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000200806816.html

If anyone is interested, I'm still working on my big head zoomie, the Xanes X915 P10 bought here, talked about here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/41081/401.

I have a 17mm FET+1 driver installed with my Anduril version, and working on mounting the flat white W1 LED on a 28 mm MCPCB, and adding a copper heatsink under the shelf. I'm hoping to kill off some voltage/amps by using thin long LED wires. Already replaced the driver side brass button with a spring, and it's got a big amp killing tail spring already.

Decided to go with a W1 instead of an SBT90.2 because the LED wires have to be very long for this light, and thermally, it's a typically poorly designed zoomie for heat mgt. Also the lens turns out to be about the same width as a UniqueFire 1504, and I already have a SBT90.2 in a 1504.

Using a FET+1 because I want to get as close to 6 amps as possible and don't have any other choice to run Anduril on to get 6 amps out of a 17 mm driver, least I'm aware of. (?)

Oh, with Anduril, I got the side blue and green LED's wired up, actually to 2 different input pins so in theory, they can be used/controlled separately. Right now stock Anduril doesn't take advantage of that though. Think the support was in the FireFlies config files.

I have one of those. It was sold as a Nebo Redline.

It looks quite nicely built with a side electronic switch, built-in USB support, and a tailcap magnet.

Unfortunately, the feeling that this might be a good light only lasted until I turned it on.

  • The output is cool white and quite dim. I’m not sure what the LED is, but if it’s like previous Nebo Redline entries, it is not using a CREE, or even a CREE clone. The LED’s output seems like something I would expect in an 5 or 8 year old light. It’s dim. My guess is 100 lumens max output.
  • I also worry about durability… the red line between the bezel and the head is a trademark of the Nebo Redline series lights. It is made of translucent red plastic and glows brightly when the light is on. But this also seems to be a major point of weakness. Most similar zoomies have a metal bezel that screws into a metal head. But in the Redline, that thin red plastic is all that’s holding the bezel and lens on. There is no metal-to-metal contact in the head. I worry that if I drop the light bezel down onto a hard surface, the red plastic might crack and possibly destroy the head.
  • The light makes no attempt to be waterproof or even water resistant. The USB socket under the zoom bezel is not sealed in any way.
  • The UI is high-low-off, with double-click for strobe. You have to cycle modes to turn the light off.
  • The entire light is also quite long. It is longer than some 18650 lights even though it uses a 14500.

NOTE: I have not tried opening this light to test modding potential, but I did try modding a smaller Nebo Redline that used a CR123 cell. that previous Redline proved an unsuitable host for modding. It had barely any superstructure around the LED and insufficient mass to run an LED at full power with a 16340.

Is this CountryMan B1 the first 21700 zoomie?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000448489466.html