I think there are (those $400 lights?) but it won’t have Nichia 519a, and/or it’s not $100 w/ USB-C charging. Diving lights come to mind also, some surprisingly cheap on Amazon (for shallow depth only?), but I’m no expert. Even if tested ok, I wouldn’t take a chance with any USB-C light as I think that rubber cover piece will degrade with heat.
This discussion reminds me of that saying I once saw in a sports car forum. Something like FAST, CHEAP, RELIABLE; one could only have 2 of the 3. You could have a fast and cheap car, but it won’t be reliable. Or a cheap and reliable car but it won’t be fast. True as gospel.
I trust BUDGET lights’ water rating as much as I trust their oft-inflated output specs (except for Wurkkos TS32 and TS30S). Agreed w/ you that water resistant rating shouldn’t be there.
I took the Lishen battery that Neal/nealsgadgets had included with my Nightwatch Chaos and tested it in my Lumintop D3 and Mateminco PD90S. I don’t know what model it is (it’s pink and has no meaningful number or name on the label) but it very clearly and repeatedly gives the highest “Turbo” output when compared to Samsung 30T/40T and Molicel P42A.
Neagsgadgets Lishen vs Samsung 30T and Molicel P42A:
For Mateminco PD90S: Lishen ~7400 lm, Samsung 30T ~6700 lm
For Lumintop D3: Lishen ~6500 lm, Samsung 30T ~6200 lm
For Nightwatch Chaos: Lishen ~29300 lm Molicel P42A ~22600 lm
Capacity seems low as the Chaos seems to go into LVP a lot. But of course this could be the monstrous Chaos consuming unusually large amount of energy.
Of the batteries I recently got, the Lishen is the “star” of the show, at least when it comes to output at Turbo start. I have no idea what model it is; got it because Neal says it’s needed to get highest output from the Chaos. If you look closely on top of the Lishen there are little copper buttons that Neal has soldered on, for use with Chaos. The Lishen has not disappointed, easily besting Samsung 30T as mentioned in post above.
But there is a trade-off. I just tested with my Opus and the Lishen’s capacity is ~2800 mAh. Now I know why the Chaos seems to want to go into LVP mode all the time lol.
For the Haikelite HK05, Neal recommends Molicel P42A. It also has a little button added on to work with the Haikelite.
Thanks for sharing; your Nightwatch was first batch? Tim did mention in his Chaos review that there are two battery versions, pink and grey. Whatever the mystery, the pink Lishen I have is literally “killing” both Samsung 30T in Mateminco PD90S and Lumintop D3, and especially Molicel P42A in Nightwatch Chaos. I’ll post numbers a little later.
BTW this testing, Turbo brightness @ turn-on with fully charged batteries, is a. for my own curiosity re. the battery, and b. to seek best possible throw and output specs for the light being tested. YMMV but that extra turn on brightness matters VERY little to me. In fact the bright Turbo would just cause faster & more severe stepdown.
Unfortunately one of the lights, I think Lumintop D3 with its 21700 adapter, caused the top plate of my beloved Lishen to cave in. I almost had a heart attack when Chaos didn’t light up anymore and finally suspected the cause and lifted up the plate with small screw driver.
“2170HP” might just be a name Neal created? My number for capacity, 2800 mah, suggests something similar to LR21700LH? OTOH it most definitely doesn’t have weaker turn-on power than 30T in my lights.
I just added to the post above comparison of “Mystery” Nealsgadgets Lishen versus Molicel P42A.
The improvement is unequivocal and the largest I’ve ever seen from any battery comparison for output @ Turbo start:
Nealsgadgets Lishen: 29300 lm
Molicel P42A: 22600 lm
I had a day off from work and was able to run the Nightwatch several times to establish patterns of the outputs from my TA lumen tube. Keep in mind this mystery Lishen has a weakness: 2800 maH capacity. It does not last long in the Chaos if you get too happy playing with its astounding amount of light.
The plate that converts flat top to button top in TS32 fits Haikelite HK05 perfectly. This is how I could test the green flat top Samsung 30T vs Molicel P42A in Haikelite.
Lenses
Jin Heng JKK76: Purple Reflection AR
Haikelite HK05: Non AR (no change using ceiling light bulb reflection test)
Wurkkos TS32: Purple Reflection AR
Nightwatch Chaos: Green Reflection AR (good job Nightwatch)
Haikelite indicates in the HK05 manual that it has “double sided AR coated toughened glass lens 98% light transmission”, but it seems this is not the case. Using ceiling light bulb reflection test (put flashlight under a ceiling light bulb and using lens as mirror, look for the color of the light bulb reflection in the lens), I see no change in color. If I am wrong with my test please correct as needed. If you own HK05 I would appreciate your feedback. What kind of lens does yours have?
Wurkkos TS32 uses a Purple Reflection AR lens, IMvHO NOT A GOOD IDEA since the TS32 has green tint at non-Turbo output level and Purple Reflection AR lens makes the tint more green. About 20 points more positive per my home amateur test click here .
The Nightwatch Chaos otoh is the only one of the 4 that uses “green reflection” lens. Chaos btw is a very pretty light to my eyes; something about the several closely spaced concentric vanes. Like a sculpture & straight up flashlight porn .
The Chaos has highest output & lowest weight = it seems to stepdown quicker than the other lights in this group. That form is wonderful to hold, but 2 batteries means it runs out of gas all the time. That the brightness is so fun to watch doesn’t help.
Haikelite is huge and feels like a solid rock. I don’t think picture fully reflects the “monster” proportion. This one needs a shoulder strap or camera belt holster for long term carry. The size and weight help improve stepdown.
If you haven’t seen petals and/or pinwheel effect clearly before, you’ll see the most vivid example here. My other lights with multiple LEDs also have these patterns, mostly very faint and nearly invisible. One example is my D4V2 - turn to lowest brightness and rotate on wall to see pinwheel with 4 blades. Same with Convoy S21D.
In these particularly super-bright monsters, the pattern is visible when white wall hunting. In actual use, petals and pinwheels in all lights are faint and at the edge so they don’t bother me. I am showing them here just for “academic” interest.
The beamshot is VERY over exposed just to bring out the pinwheels and petals in hiding.
Haikelite has a green tint, somewhat visible here. So does TS32 but only in sub-Turbo brightness. IMHO both of these lights would benefit greatly if they had green reflection AR lenses, instead of their purple reflection AR lenses.
Light bulb reflection test for these 4 super-lights, plus some others for comparison. All of my eyeglasses has green reflection; maybe that should be a sign as to which one is best?
Of these 4 lights being reviewed, only the Nightwatch Chaos uses green reflection AR lenses. Wurkkos TS32 and Jin Heng JKK76 uses purple. Whether or not it is responsible, the Chaos has the nicest color among the 3 Chinese-LED lights.
Haikelite, despite of manual specs touting double-sided AR coated toughened lens, unfortunately seems to use non-reflective lens (wt* ) from this test. Unfortunately because the beam has a very green tint and this light would benefit from a green reflection AR lens.
(Could it be double sided AR coating makes it behave like non AR? I don’t think so, my B+W F-Pro and other camera filters all show color reflection. But anyone pls correct me as needed.)
I have found out the problem of combining a 2800 mAh power battery with a super-light: it runs out of battery ALL the time. With Convoy button, the Chaos could now be used with flat top batteries.So although the Nealsgadgets Lishen LR2700HP is great for bragging rights (29,300 lm), I am going to try the humble Littokala 5000 mAh battery.
With Littokala, output drops a whooping 10,000 lm from 29300 to 19300 at Turbo turn on. The Chaos is a truly uncontrollable beast.
So far, I have these outputs for Nightwatch Chaos at Turbo Turn-on - the light’s scary current draw is acting like a battery tester lol :
Nealsgadgets Lishen 29300
Samsung 30T 25800
Samsung 40T 22900
Molicel P42a 22600
Convoy Liitokala 19300
Wurkkos 5000 mAh 18800 (preliminary)
When I read people’s impression of these 15000+ lumen lights, the term “wall of light” would often enough turn up. I’ve finally decoded what parameters give these lights this characteristic. Basically you need two things: One, a floody beam and two, a hell of a lot of lumens.
What does it look like? To me, the “wall of light” effect is mostly seen rather close up, maybe 40-100m, where the flashlight would light up a whole side of a hill, or complete neighborhood. None of my other lights does this, not even the beloved Wurkkos TS30S with SBT90.2. What else that is interesting is that even though these monsters have top-class throws of 700 meters, the beams are NOT throwy. The extreme throws merely reflect the brute force coming from outputs that are in the tens of thousands.
The rarely seen & mysteriously named JKK76 is one such light and its numbers are typical for this class, using Samsung 30T:
Output: 20,400 lm (Below spec, but not complaining at 100 bucks!)
Throw: 773 m
I didn’t expect much since all of this power and throw costs so little relatively. But… it turns out the light is beautiful to look at and wonderful to hold. It feels rock solid. Owner and I assume designer is one Jin Heng. For US folks, I think the only way to buy is through Kai Domain HERE . I’ll post beamshot next that hopefully will reflect the tremendous output of this light.
If you know how crazy bright 4000+ lm Wurkkos TS30S with SBT90.2 is, then you would understand how ultra-crazy bright these “super-lights” are to create the wall of light. It’s a floody beam that lit up the whole hill side of my neighborhood.
I had to see these 20000 lm lights in person, and now that I have, I believe. I was self conscious of the brightness and was so afraid of bothering my neighbors when I tested these things. All pics taken within 1 second on and then off.
And owners of Wurkkos TS30S not to worry; it remains the king of throw and one of my most favorite lights.
Among the few high output or super throwy LED’s that I have, I’ve observed two beam “colors”:
CCT greater than ~5500: faint green in hotspot at lower output with white wall hunting, but in actual use a harsh white-blue tone predominates. Incidentally this tone is actually helpful for seeing distant objects for me. Examples: SST40 in Nitecore, SFT40 in Wurkkos, SFT40 in Sofirn IF22a, SFH55 in Mateminco, SFN55.2 in Jen Hing JKK76, etc.
CCT less than ~5500: more pleasant warm color but with strong green tint that’s clearly there, but less noticeable in actual use, especially in nature against dark objects. Examples: XHP70.2 “Neutral White in Thrunite, XHP35 HI in Olight, STB90.2 in Wurkkos, SFN60 in Haikelite, etc.
The beamshots above hopefully show well how JKK76 (6100k, harsh white-blue) and Wurkkos (5100k, warm green) are exact examples of the 2 beam colors I mentioned.
Nothing scientific just observation and opinions .
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