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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :(!!
I’ve been interested in the WK-21, when I saw it on md-lightsource.com when I was buying a Crelant (Mark has it on sale, for like $29). I really tempted to put it into the cart, but removed it at the last minute. Do you have one? And have you done anything with the mode programming? The things I’ve read are that it’s very floody, with very little throw?
