Zebralights are some of the best and hard to beat. But there are a couple that spring to mind….
Trustfire mini-01 / BLF mini on 16340. about 500 lumens IIRC, not much bigger than the cell itself. heavy tho, because its SS.
Peak Eiger on fresh 10180 or 10440 is surprisingly bright. I think about 300 lumen?
I use 10440’s OK without a spacer.
Quark Cr2 mini, 180 lumens out of a really tiny light.
When talking about the D25c with XML, there’s only one year where they made a direct drive model that does 700+ lumens on an rcr123.
The new xml2 model isn’t as bright as last years due to a new driver from what I’ve read.
The Nitecore Ec1 throws really good for its size
Hi All,
I’ll take a look at your suggestion, but FYI, I do have a D25A Ti clicky, got about the same time as the SC52, and that was disappointing, even on 14500s. Is the D25C that much better than the D25A clicky?
I also have a mini-02 coming from the recent Aurabuy deal. Is the Reylight different from the mini-02?
Thanks,
Jim
P.S. I wasn’t limiting the question to JUST small lights. I’d also be interested in larger lights that out-perform their size. I can’t think of an example at this point though :(…
P.P.S. Also, either flood or throw, not limited to just throw.
Mini-01 is different body from mini-02 but I believe internals and performance are supposed to be similar. Should put out about 400-500 lumen on fresh li-ion. (Noticeably more than the SC52.)
Not sure why you were disappointed with the D25A? It is sort of similar to the SC52, but a bit different. Same class, similar output, etc. You’re not going to find another AA light that totally blows away the SC52.
I’m happy to help, but I’m having some doubts that you will find what you are looking for. As I said before, the SC52 is an extremely good light and pretty hard to beat. Having some trouble thinking of suggestions……
Maybe a Skyray King / UV-S5 clone for a wall of light from a cokecan-sized package? Its 4x18650 if you are not familiar.
Yes the D25c I’m talking about, has 200-300 lumens on the D25a of the same year. They used different drivers. The d25c was the only one that got it, and for maybe one year of production. The new ones don’t, its be brighter than the sc52 and the d25a by 200 lumens. Selfbuilt did a review, its easy to find online.
As CH wrote, the 2012 D25C XM-L is extremely powerful on a 3.7v 16340. The new (late 2012 - current) driver has less output on the same battery, but supposedly retains all modes and must have a longer runtime on “turbo.”
Or better yet…. instead of the SRKing…. the zebralight sc6330 - tiny handfull of 3x18650 3xU3 badness!!
http://www.zebralight.com/S6330-Triple-18650-Triple-XM-L-2400Lm-Flashlight_p_104.html
Maybe they've changed the design since I bought mine several years ago. As my 10440s are all shrink wrapped with the wrap extending around the corner on the negative end of the cell, they are unable to make contact with the flat contact on the tailcap switch. I had to use a small battery spacer to make contact until I finally disassembled the light and moved the spring to the switch.
Haterade,
Maybe I worded what I said unclearly. I am not disappointed in the SC52 at all. I love it, and it’s the only (unmodded) light that has really “Wowed” me aside from the DST.
As for the D25a Ti clicky… It may be hard to explain… I did side-by-side comparison of the D25A Ti clicky and the SC52 after I had both in-hand, and every time I do that, I still think “That SC52 is really bright”, but, for the D25A, it’s more like “it’s ok”. Again, hard to explain. I know from those side-by-side sessions that the D25A is more throwy and the SC52 is more floody, but even then, I keep finding myself impressed by the SC52, and not-so-much by the D25A. Sorry if I’m not explaining very well :(…
Maybe where I’m coming from is because where I started. When I started, I was mainly interested in smaller lights, only AA and AAA, and I thought that I’d never get into any other formats. But then, I got a couple of 18650, which opened up a bunch of lights, but even then, I’ve avoided the physically large lights (the DST is again an exception, mainly because I ran across garrybunk’s gigantic thread, and I happened to be in Home Depot after that).
I guess that I’m hoping to keep things that way, i.e., not start trying/getting physically gigantic lights, so I keep trying different lights within my admittedly vague “size parameter”, but maybe that effort is futile, and maybe the SC52 is the best that can be done within those parameters, and, maybe I need to start looking for “bigger” lights, but/so I figured that I’d throw the question out there via this post/thread.
Thanks,
Jim
Well, check out the suggestions listed already…
Also thinking maybe the Nitecore EA4? About 900 lumen on 4xAA. Very compact.
The Olight i1 on RCR123s has always impressed me.
Same goes for the Xtar WK21 Meteor.
I’m in the process of assembling one of these with parts supplied by Chicago x.
considering its about the diameter of and shorter than a 2d maglite tube, 3000 ish lumen should be fun 8)
If you pick up a hid FF3 you will get that feeling back. There aren’t too many lights that still give that wow feeling, but that would be one of them. I don’t know anything currently as impressive. 4000 real lumens and 225k lux in a beer can. There is nothing in this size available that comes close to that ratio or the numbers individually.
And it’s slightly bigger brother, the FF4 comes out next month. 60watt hid
I have to say I was pretty impressed with the output of my Nitecore EC25, nice UI, just wish it had a lower low. for a budget option the Ultra Fire HD 2011 is crazy bright for its size and price($12), but gets hot really fast on high.
Another vote for the EC1. If you like floody lights then the Convoy S3 is a great candidate with the 2.8A driver and U2 1B emitter. Its a much better host than the UF2100 or HD2011.
Yes, yes, am doing (going through the suggestions). I’m a bit overwhelmed though, so many choices :)…
JohnnyMac,
I hadn’t been too interested in the “tube” lights, until I just “accidentally” got an A8 last week (“accidentally”, because I got it for the tube, to try with a DST). Speaking of Convoy, I have one of the Convoy C8s from FT, the one with the 8*7135s. How does that do? It took FT like 5 days to ship, the first time it took them so long, but naturally, it was the order with the Convoy C8 :(!!