$4.99 1xAA OSRAM Zoomable on eBay

Hello everyone, I just ordered one of these for less than I payed last night for a cheap Chinese dinner...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270578060123

This is apparently the same light as the DX Flood-to-Throw Zooming 3W 80-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*AA) that costs $9.04. This one off eBay is a great deal at $4.99.

I am especially excited about this in view of the fact that according to the DX comments it appears to sport an OSRAM Golden Dragon emitter, a device which I highly respect after seeing the beautiful beam in my Uniquefire AA-S1. I hope that this model isn't driven so hard as the AA-S1, hopefully giving decent battery life. Additionally, I've never owned any zoomable flashlights, so I'm curious to experiment with this new feature. If the specs are reliable, it should be about the same length as a BLF DeLight and slightly wider at the head. I really like the looks of the knurling throughout the body.

Here's a review (in Spanish) with good pictures of the disassembled light; he lists the following pros and cons:

Pros

  • Small size for an AA
  • Smallish head for a zoomer
  • Good tailswitch
  • In theory it looks good for mods
  • Very nice for a pocket-sized EDC


Cons

  • Antiquated LED (Osram golden dragon)
  • Less powerful than the C78
  • Doesn't work with 14500s
  • I've noticed that it gets really hot in the body after 5 minutes with an Alkaline, which isn't bad, but the bad part is taking out the battery which is also hot

Looks good might just have to order myself one of those..

I got a comparable SmallSun one which is my narrow beam dog spotting back door light. Works fine for that though like all such devices a longer range to test it would be nice. But then it doesn't really get fully dark at this time of year here - when I went to bed I didn't need any lights on, nor did I when I woke up 4 hours later.

Doesn't everyone need at least one zoom light? :)

Thanks for saying so, I think I do! 8)

I have both and the C78 is superior in everything. (Sorry)
You can see a review here (the same)

More cheap here. (and using "2OFF5" coupon,the price remains at 3.96$)

This coupon appears to be valid only until TODAY (05/31)

Hi there, XRAYBoY, thanks for the links! I did read several very positive reviews of the C78 at DX. But I really do prefer the small size of this one I just bought. But thanks for the Focalprice link, that's an EXCELLENT price!

I plan to mod mine, if the driver and emitter ever get here. Ordered them with no project in mind till now

a SSC z-bin and 1 of these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10084

The only 2 items they haven't shipped with in a few days of me ordering..

Hmm, the 2OFF5 coupon at Focalprice doesn't work.

Get onto the focal price site!! keep getting Chinese error messages :(

The site works today, just not the coupon code.

Yes, sorry, the page seems to have changed since my order, but it worked for me ...

Sorry about the mishap.

Well just for fun I ordered the other focusing light too from FocalPrice, which looks even nicer than my eBay buy.....

Sipik SK58

http://www.focalprice.com/detail_LF554X.html

$6.07

Even the regular price of $6.07 is great, but FocalPrice was very accommodating with giving me a new $2 coupon code just for me since the other "2OFF5" one didn't work for some reason. So for $4.07 I'll be pretty happy with this I think. It looks stellar this one, and maybe, just maybe it could be multi-mode. How do you understand this quote?

It looks like the Sipik SK58 definitely has either a Cree or an OSRAM too, most likely an OSRAM. And very possibly it could have three modes, judging from the following Alibaba page translated through Google: http://tinyurl.com/24gccvb

Please give us your input on the light....for the price i would not mind testing one out or have one in my collection of lights.

Seems there are versions with Q4 and others with an unknown Osram.

I'm thinking of buying a zooming AA light. SK58 or C78? Hard decision ;)

Hey there Anduril. For me the C78 is totally out just for its looks. It's much longer and has a much bigger head than the Sipik SK58. It also has a bump-style tailswitch. A real ugly prize winner in my opinion. And costs wayyyyyyy more, almost $4 more than the SK58! ;)

Thanks, Mr. Admin, Sir...! ;)

Then Sipik it shall be - I was recently given some money and obliged to choose myself a late birthday present :)

Bad luck the US$ rate skyrocketed last month and, to add insult to injury, I missed the focalprice 2OFF5 coupon by a few days...

Hello all, I just received the eBay zoomable light, initial impressions are:

  • pretty good quality
  • very nice beam
  • nice form factor
  • awful runtime of less than an hour
  • gets very hot

Here's the beamshot at full zoom. If you look closely you can see some features of the LED. Does this look like an OSRAM to you?

I'll try to do a detailed review after I receive the Sipik SK58, which I suspect will be a bit better.

I own both, the 'No. 5 Super bright" and the SK58 (which arrived today). Even looking almost the same, the SK58 is indeed superior.

Both are using Osram leds.

SK58:

+ less wobbly zooming mechanism

+ lanyard hole is now on the side (meaning perfect tailstanding)

+ brighter (YMMV)

+ no flicker issues whatsover, driver pill seems to be better contacted with the body

+ looks better, even the knurling is a bit better imho

- led shape visible on full flood(!), that's a premiere with a f2t-light for me

No. 5:

+ slightly wider flood

+ clicky feels a bit better

Both feature they same kind of over-current protection (on LiIon light turns off immediately after a short light burst). Both are 1-mode. Still, the driver PCBs look completely different (well, the downside).

Both have a rather bad tint (blueish and greenish). I think the tint will vary a lot, no matter which model you buy. The Osram GDP is on of the most precisely color-binned leds on the market, it's pretty obvious those budget lights are using second quality golden dragons with varying brightness and tint.

I didn't check power consumption or runtime.