My son and I each got a 3 mode Ultrafire from T-Mart USA warehouse when ordering a 1 mode - not my brightest (of 3) but itâs become my favorite. After a few seconds of being off it comes back on in the high mode, otherwise itâs next mode if turned off and back on immediately.
Iâve bought more than 20 of these lights in the past year, because everyone wants one as soon as they see it. Iâve had at least 6 different versions. Starting with 2 of the real sipik68s then switching to the clones cuz they were just better lights IMO. Iâve tried the BBQbuy, Tomtop, Easebon, Manafont, Miniinthebox,and another ebay seller i cant remember name. The differences in performance are so very tiny if any between the clones in my opinion. I personally prefer the 3 mode version.
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I make a slight modification to mine by unscrewing the lens and adding another O ring around the threads. This changes the distance from the emitter to the aspheric lens just slightly, and makes the beam a little tighter when fully zoomed at short to medium range, and it also makes the beam solid instead of the lines being projected (which I donât really care for).
The switch on my UltraOK feels similar to my Sipiks. The main difference I notice between them is the zoom is tighter but smoother-feeling on the UltraOK. My BBQBuy is a bit rougher-finished than the others (mainly on the fins) and the domed lens thatâs over the LED on the Sipiks and the UltraOK isnât on the BBQBuy, which makes the beam a little differentâit doesnât have that ring around the outside like the rest do. The zoom on the BBQBuy is quite smooth. The unbranded SK68 I got from TomTop seems as nice as the Sipiks.
My experience has been the ring version is a larger die image, but not as bright.
Some people will like the smaller, brighter die (slightly longer useful distance), While others like the bigger spot. Nice thing is the spend to find and see the differences is small.
Exactly what I need to do for the opposite reason. OL put an XPG2 in my 3 mode and an o-ring should bring the beam into slightly better focus - which IMO is also brighter.
Outside, I donât see the dots (not lines like older LEDs) and want every bit of brightness that can be squeezed out of it.
I have ordered many of the TomTop clones and all were good. Just received some from FastTech and they dont seem as bright to me though, other then that that nice also maybe even a little smoother filling. Have tried other places but they are usually not as nice.
Ah, thanks. I was thinking the worker who puts the lenses on was on a break when mine came down the assembly line, but it didnât make sense to me that it seems to work fine without it.
The die image is larger with my Sipiks (which has the ring), like you say. The Sipik (at least the one I testedâbought from Manafont) is a bit brighter than the BBQBuy,though.
I agree, part of the fun of getting these was to see what the differences are.
I have one from FP, one from DX and one from Tmart.
I think FPâs product is fake. It can not tailstand. DX one is red, tmart one is green and both can tailstand.
@ fyesilova : funny, my FTâs one tailstands better than my silver ebay one.
@ cat eyes : right yesterday i got a cheapo flashlight from ebay (something on the 3 usd range) wich is great as extension tube. Why? you get 2 different combinations for less than a extension tube:
-a) sk68+2 segments of crappy FL= sp68 with 3AA + a lanyard
-b) sk68+1 segment= sp68 with 2AA PLUS a 1AA crappy FL + a lanyard
Someone (2-AA Sipik SK68 Mod) used a different model of the same brand for the extension tube, difference being side click and design more according to sk68âs. I didnât check runtime improvement yet, but it does look like a tad brighter on 2AA.
Side comment: FT (single mode) was brighter than Easebonâs ebay one (3 mode), and better finished, but i stand with 3 mode ones. letâs hope FT sells them soon. I gave the single mode as a present with a 14500 lifepo and you should have seen the guyâs face when he tested at night from the balcony⌠just epic
The SK-68 is actually how I got back into flashlights, sometime in mid-2012. I saw a â3 wattâ bike light at Walmart for about $30, wondered what was better/cheaper online, and soon found myself looking at the #1 most popular flashlight on Amazon â the Sipik SK-68 (called a âBBQbuy @ 7Wâ something something). I ordered two on Amazon from different vendors, then made a third order (for eight units) from the vendor with better quality. In three orders, I ended up with three different models and ten total torches.
The best ones I got were from BestDeal777 on Amazon, and I got eight of them which I have mostly given away as gifts. They were the only ones with an O-ring in the zoom mechanism (so it moves more smoothly), and they had slightly wider optics for a narrower zoomed beam. They were three-mode units with no mode memory (woot!), silver screws, and a generally incomplete set of O-rings. Theyâre branded as UltraFire and Cree Q5, but that doesnât mean much. Some were able to tailstand, others were not. One had a stripped clip screw, and the exact level of zoom focus varied. A ceiling bounce test shows a similar amount of total light to what my H51w puts out on high, with Eneloops in both, so I think my SK-68s are getting about 140 to 180 lumens.
Iâve heard that other people ordering from the same vendor sometimes got relatively crappy units, so itâs basically just luck whether you get a good one there.
In any case, I EDCâd one on my purseâs clip ring for about half a year, used it as a bike handlebar light, and generally played with it a lot. The anodization didnât stand up well to abrasion, so thereâs a silver streak where my clip ring slides across. I still use it indoors when I want a smooth circle of light, or zoomed on occasion when I want to point at something or get a reference point for testing throw⌠but most of my EDC use is now covered by Zebralights, and Iâve upgraded to an EDC 18650 on my bike and XinTD C8 for throwy purposes. The Ultrafire 838 works better as a wide, smooth wall of light, even on 3xAAA instead of 1x18650, so the SKâ68 is getting slowly reduced to a decoration.
While my SK-68s are significantly brighter on 14500 than with Eneloops, Iâve only tried it briefly because I donât want to burn out the emitters. Itâs over-spec for the Q5, and Iâve heard too many stories about people permanently dimming their lights that way.
Everyone I gifted a SK-68 to was very pleased with it. Itâs very versatile, bright, and small for its price. I think itâd be a particularly useful light for a pizza driver trying to find street addresses at night. One friend now uses it while doing theater tech work, both to see things up close in the rafters, and to point things out across the auditorium. Another guy replaced his old 2-D-cell incandescent, which the SK-68 put to utter shame. The girls I gifted lights to mostly keep them in their purse for misc uses. As for me, Iâve trained my cat to recognize the SK-68 strobe, to help with getting the cat back inside at night.
The SK-68 was my âgateway drugâ back into torches, and Iâve had a great time exploring all the new developments in LED tech since the last time I looked.
@ Toykeeper: thatâs really cool⌠somebody out of the FL world would think youâre talking about an old friend (well, actually, kind of, isnât it?)
So, youâve probably seen lots of SK-68 beam shots⌠but hereâs mine. It was the best pic I could get, considering that my camera only does 24-bit color. Itâs really hard to capture both the brightest and dimmest parts in a single shot without deeper color, but I was able to get something fairly representative:
The dark area is the shadow of my camera.
I like that its beam shows the wires feeding the emitter.
(edit: wow, this was my 100th post already)