Wow I hadn’t heard about this. I have the 4300K FF5 and the beam is indeed gorgeous but it’s tempting to get the 6000 for the wow factor
Ah I decided to go with the 4300K. Can’t wait to get this bad boy
The biggest wow factor light I ever owned was an in-house designed limited production handheld HID made by the company XeRay/XeVision called the "Barn Burner" 75W 7500 lumens circa 2005. Back then 35W HIDs were the rage and the Barn Burner was like the BLF GT94X to them, except constant full regulated output for almost 2 hours with a rechargeable Liion pack. How many LEDs produce over 1 Mcd for 2 hours and this was 17 years ago!
Grin, I'm dying to see your MF5 HID hybrid project come to pass. I urge you to contact the owner of XeRay for tech support/design help. I remember him to be an encyclopedia of HID wisdom and eager to assist with any questions.
True that HID requires complex driver electronics and is power hungry, yet the cool factor is off the charts and ridiculous fun to use. The spectral response mimics the broad even curve of sunlight with very narrow peaks in green (535nm) and red (600nm), far superior to the roller coaster shapes of LED curves. With the FF5, warmup time was less than 5 seconds to full 100W output. The fun factor alone should drive our hobby interest, and the FF5GT will deliver inquantity!
The only other affordable handheld HID searchlight I know of is the Lightforce 50W 5000K models (around $250). They require a 12V external power source, but have large 170mm and 240mm focusable head designs (7 and 10 inch reflectors). Just add a 12V SLA battery in a backpack and -presto- search and rescue kit for under $300! Here's the link:
https://www.lightforce.com/en_us/products/searchlights/hid-searchlights
Even though HID is a bit of throwback novelty, I think anyone considering themselves an enthusiast owes it to experience it firsthand. I think the FF5GT might have the same wow factor as my beloved Barn Burner did a lifetime ago.
It's all about laughing out loud, overall....
The MF5 HID project is really interesting, I think a smaller host like that of the MF04 would be fine, of course with an 8x 21700 battery pack, it would be more compact and would not affect the performance too much, I really hope that someone can make it as a prototype and in the future market it.
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My friend, I bought it today and I'm already happy ...
Guys, you have very bad influence on my wallet. 
I was so close to preordering the FF5GT a week ago, I had the money set aside but hesitated! I really wish i found this thread! I was most worried about not knowing anything about HID, and i was worried about durability? Is that a concern? I mean i wont be back packing with it of course lol, but if it gets accidentally bumped will the "bulb" be at risk for breaking? Are they replaceable by the user? I do modify LED lights.
The FF5 was around 2 or so years ago when i first got into this hobby, and i could never imagine spending $300 on a flashlight back then. Today, well now that is not a limiting factor for me thankfully!
I have come to LOVE neutral to warm tints, and the biggest intrigue to me beside the crazy output and candela was everything i hear about how Wonderful the 4300k tint is!
I dont care about runtimes, if i can get 8 minutes on High Mode and only have 2 modes, that is totally fine! Its that perfect ~4000k tint I'm dreaming about! And the awesome candela!
What do you think? Someone twist my arm in to buying this thing!
You will not be sorry if you buy one they are useful. I use it if the dogs are going off or want to light up the yard
4 x 4680 would be ideal
Hey so I bought the FF5 a few years ago in 4300K and it’s magnificent. It creates a massive beam that looks like it shines forever. It doesn’t get hot even on turbo and I’ve gone on walks for like an hour and had no issues with battery life. That being said, I bought an extra battery carrier and keep it with me so I can swap it out. I also bought the accessories to fix it but I doubt I’d be able to figure that out.
My GT just shipped. I can’t wait to get this thing
Here's a six minute Chinese language video comparing the FF5GT and Acebeam K75 with some great outdoor beamshot scenes that begin at the 2 minute mark. Best view in full screen mode.
...and another comparing the Acebeam K75, the FF5 from 2 years ago in 4300K, and the mega beast Mateminco 90plus (Astrolux MF05): the superlative iteration of the SBT90.2 ($600+)
Enjoy!
I will just tell you guys here, the ND25F code for 25% off on neal, works with FF5GT :D
ND25F (-$109.98 USD), so it's $329.97, and that actually made my buy it.
I too never imagine myself, being 330$ flashlight (400$ with accessories and shipping).
thanks everyone for videos and coupon. Time to think :))
You’ll know it’s worth it the first time you turn it on high and watch it get brighter and brighter. My FF5 took maybe 10 seconds to reach full power. Don’t turn it on and off quickly as that lowers the lifetime of the filament
Has anyone received their FF5GT yet and compared it to the regular FF5? I’m seeing from initial posts that the lumen output is only slightly more than the FF5 and completely missing the 15k lumen mark. Side by side comparisons between the two doesn’t show any difference. I’m just hoping this is an outlier and other samples will be more on point with the improved specs.
- I own and love my 2 year old 4300K FF5 and was really surprised by the FF5GT. Given the identical head/body design with boosted electronics I don't expect a large difference in output.
The eye's logarithmic nature for brightness sensitivity requires a doubling in light output power to result in a noticeable increase in brightness. Twice as bright requires 4X the output power. Herein is the law of diminishing returns of the lumenmonsters and its very important to consider.
Comparing the FF5 to FF5GT, from 10K to 15K (spec) lumens (even though it seems a big increase) isn't going to knock your socks off, despite numerically a 50% increase, its only half of the power increase necessary for a significantly noticable brighter beam.
A major constraint is the relatively compact 90mm reflector head. Great for portability, but it cries out for a 150mm or larger head design, which would yield 3+ Mcd.
FF5 specs at 1Mcd on high, compared to 1.4 Mcd with the FF5GT. The range difference at the hotspot should be noticeably better as opposed to overall brightness of the beam.
The most important consideration is the beam profile, which is very broad and evenly intense coupled with the intrinsic HID jaw dropping center spot. It casts a nice wide field of illumination downrange, which to my eyes is substantially more useful than an Acebeam K75 for example.
I measured mine at about 11000 lumens at peak... And yes, it's a very short runtime in Turbo (High)
My review should be ready in about a week from now.
This is my first HID flashlight, and that beam is something very interesting/strange when turned on. It shifts color temperature very drastically in the first minute or so, and the beam has multiple color temperatures at once.. kind of cool to see, but also a bit puzzling to look at. It almost looks like the light is 'living'.
Yes. HIDs do have a cct shift during startup as the arc heats the metal halide salts in the arc tube and they react with the xenon gas to create light. Very cool to watch. I had a car with HID headlights that did the same thing.
That’s really interesting about the head size. My FF5 GT just came in. I’d love to compare it with my FF5 but like an idiot I put the battery carrier in backwards several months ago and tightened it and now the pins to make contact.
Maybe the FF6 will have a 300mm head and four 46800 batteries instead of 18650s. 1 kilowatt 
Yeah, I wouldn’t expect to see a dramatic increase between the two, but if you happen to frequent the “other” flashlight forum, someone posted their measurements and found that the FF5GT is only putting out 11.5k lumens and 1.42Mcd whereas their regular FF5 is putting out 9.8k lumens and 1.36Mcd. So that’s pretty disappointing because in the case of the FF5, it totally outperformed it’s CD rating and met its lumen rating, but the FF5GT just only meets its CD rating but falls way short in its lumen rating.
And with ChibiM reporting his as outputing 11k lumens, it looks like this definitely is the case.