Best budget flashlights of 2012

Wait, released in 2012 or just the best of the year? SE-1, E09, C8 are older.

Lumens per dollar,sky ray king flood monster wins for flood category.I think the sleeper thrower of the year is thesmall sun zy-t13,at $24 price tag it's hard to beat.

That’s color-changing LED which changes it’s color every 3-5 seconds :stuck_out_tongue:
They can be easily found on eBay.

Edit: here’s vid of it doing same thing, but covered with piece of paper (this way camera fucks up color perception much less): http://youtu.be/PQzgwPKUSBk

Excellent post. Well put.

SkyRay King

HD2010 (all versions)

Thrunite Ti

TrustFire Mini-01

Small Sun ZY-T13

Lumatic: what’s the big deal with the rosefireboy C8s? Somehow different from the many other ebay C8s?

than me could explain it better, but essentially it’s their construction. Screw-in pills, EZ900 XRE’s, really nice aluminum reflectors, nice machining, anodizing, solid-brass flat machined surfaced tail-cap negative spring contacts, glass lenses, nice tight hot spot, throws plenty well, all in all for when they were at $7.69, well kinda an unbeatable thing. I hope they go back on sale again.

The only thing I don’t like about them is next memory 5-mode. But I just take care of that by solder-bridging the C1 Capacitor to make it just one-mode. I think Pulsar13 solders on a 1 megaohm resister over said C1 and he shortens the going back to high after shut off to the tune of just 3 secs.

Here’s one good thread on that general subject……

Good info. So how can one tell these C8s from others? Is this seller on ebay the only one with them?

Xintd c8 v3, there’s just something for everyone
Hd2010
Skyray king.

Also rans include the edc18650 from intl outdoor, the small sun zy-t08 which is a victim of its own popularity and the eagletac dc25 clicky seems to be gaining a lot of attention, at the prices I’ve seen though, its not budget to my mind.

Not busget but I would go with ThruNite TN30 and TN31.

Also Shadow JM-07 Pro and teh Apex 5T6.

As far as I can ferret out, yeah he’s the only one although one would surmise his maker is most likely supplying it to other sellers. But who knows. Maybe he has an exclusive arrangement with a small shop. I say small because my hunch is that the QC is too good on these to be a big maker who has a lot of different workers with varying skill levels. I think the shop prolly has relative few people and they’re able to keep the quality consistency up as a result. Just a hunch.

The tip-offs are these ‘different’ markings on the tube.

1). His units have, ‘HWA/WTS’. Most C8 clones have ‘HWA/WYS’.

2). UltraFire has the flames all solid white, and the “Registered” or R with a circle around it is also up by the flames instead of typically down by the ‘e’ in ‘fire’.

3). Lastly, it’s real subtle but on the tube again next to ‘CREE’ you’ll see the double-diamond symbols. His have the first diamond with black stripes with a white background and a solid thicker black line in the middle, with the backgrounnd or overlaid quarter-diamond being solid white. If you note on other clones they don’t quite match to his unique markings.

HTH……

HD2010
MXDL SA-16
Ti
E1320

Im sure there are more

Small Sun ZY-T08
L3 Illumination K40(may not be budget to some, but for what you get for $108 shipped is pure quality and super brightness and throw all in one package)
TK35 clone

For me, it's gotta be the L2M because it's not just one flashlight . . .

For gifting, $11 isn't as cheap as the L2i used to be but the L2M offers a lot of versatility/Legobility. Someone would think you spent more than you did when they feel this hefty guy in their hand.

Foy

Xin TD V3 XML neutral

Balder SE-1 XML neutral

Solarforce L2m

Thrunite Ti

Good picks jack ..

UF-2100--at like 10$ it was a screamer good deal

Jacob A-60

Quark 2xaa lights 1/2 off

Now depending on your needs , batteries etc ...

Small Sun ZY-T08 for multi 18650

Single 18650 - Solarforce L2 series

AA - Balder HD1

There have been a lot of new lights in 2012 [ good for us ] and more on the way .. So much to chose from !

Balder HD-1? Really?
I was going to purchase BUT:
An online search and review indicated some with piston/switching problems.
I’m sure they can be remedied, but that’s the price one sometimes has to pay for the First Version of any newcomer to the market.
I’ll wait a while on this one.

Since it has not been mentioned here yet…
Have to nominate the UniqueFire UF-V3 CREE-U2.
I’m quite pleased with the one I got from Tmart for $17.87 delivered.
Only pushing just over 2 amps but a nice clean beam profile and good throw.
Nice compact build quality for the price.

Just scored one for $8 from Rosefireboy. :slight_smile: Keep an eye on fleabay. Theres a few around. Hopefully mine is a good one.

I can tell you the most non budget flashlight of 2012 is a home made light.

Best 3 budget lights for 2012 are,

1, Group buy Ultrafire G4 MCU. To me this light throws further than a 15 year old kid.

2, HD-2010. There's been good and bad lights out there but the good ones out weight the bad. Flawed but orsm.

3, Solarforce L2M with a decent dropin. This size light rocks with different dropins and battery sizes you can have your own custom light.

4, Drum roll, the best budget light for 2012 is the one that rocks your socks of.