The C8 will smoke the M1 in throw regardless of emitter tint. You really have picked some great tints there. I might have gone the other way though, 4C in the C8 and 7C in the M1. Just, me I like WW in a flooder, NW in a thrower.
Thanks Relic,
I suspected that what you said about the M1 vs C8 may be true, thanks for confirming it. My choices in what emitters go into what hosts is shamefully arbitrary I must admit. So what drove my decision to put that one into the C8 was subjectively based on recent activities that had me in the woods every night on patrol and swapping out SD cards on IR surveillance cameras: in support of investigations into a cougar that had allegedly attacked someone (you may have seen it on the news as I recall the Toronto Star even joined into the media frenzy regarding this event). Before I would turn my back on the world to swap out the SD cards, I would scan the trees for the presence of a lurking cat. I scanned the trees with a Convoy M2 with a V10+ driver that had gone into single mode, and the tailcap was reading 4.4A. I can’t remember what emitter it had, but it was a T6 of some sort, it may even be that XM-L2 that FT is selling. However, although I got lots of illumination, I recall thinking it was too blue for what I was doing, looking through the vegetation to try and see if anything was lurking. It also got real hot, but in those circumstances, I didn’t need long to search the trees, and then the Spark headlamp was sufficient to travel to the next camera. So maybe that T4 is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it may be a good candidate for certain purpose built applications such as what I was doing at that time.
I guess you could call it next-mode memory. It has the NANJG style of memory, which records the next mode while on, instead of off.
I usually do not associate that with next-mode memory. To me, next-mode memory will ALWAYS start in the next mode, regardless of the power on or off duration.
Sorry for any confusion there.
That sucks. They come with a NANJG driver. That would be the first time I’ve seen one do that.
Try this:
- Turn the light on for at least five seconds, note the mode it is in.
- Turn it off for five seconds.
- Turn the light back on.
Did the light change modes?
If it did, can you take a pic of the driver (just remove the battery tube, no need to open up the head)? I’d like to know if they have changed the driver.
OK, good, that sounds like normal operation for a NANJG driver. Whew. I thought for a minute Convoy were silently changing drivers.
The NANJG style of mode switching is not as good as the short off cycle method, but I have gotten used to it.
Great review! i was looking for something small for my dad, must be very compact like this!
I guess this is the best pick for the money?
How many ANSI lumens would this be ? 500? at least a guess? 
C8 vs M2 vs M2? which one offer most output? thanks.
Thanks to your excellent review I decided to buy the C8 convoy, and I’m very happy with it.
Great quality plus the price is great.
Recently bought an ultrafire C8 T6 with Smooth Reflector for a change and comparison.
C8 throws better than the M2. Both should be about the same brightness in lumens. M2 has a smaller head
My measurements are not calibrated, so I have no idea of ANSI output. I think it is somewhere close to what I measured though and posted in the review.
Glad you like the light, Perikov. As this was your first post, Welcome to BLF!
Thanks!
I have long reading the forum and learning!
greetings to all
How does the Convoy C8 compare to the XinTD v4? Is it less bright? And is the battery life the same?
I believe there are members that have both lights. I do not fit that category so I cannot compare. My guess is the XinTD V4 will be brighter mostly due to the XM-L2 emitter it uses.
The V3 might be comparable in output to the Convoy.
I only have a xinTD v3 (no convoy)… but from what I have read I think they are pretty comparable in brightness. The xinTD should have a bit more throw because it has a slightly deeper (smooth) reflector.
How many minutes would the ultrafire 18650 battery deliver on the highest mode?
That is going to depend on the actual capacity of the battery. Usually the marked capacity will be inflated on xxxxFire branded lights.
I have a 3000mAh ultrafire. Would that translate to about an hour on high?
I’d guess that the light would remain in high mode for about an hour, but the actual output will begin to drop after 15-20 minutes. As the battery voltage drops, so does current. This will extend runtime, but not at full output.
The light begins to drop out around 3.7-3.8V, meaning as long as the battery remains at or above that value there will be full output. Under that, it will be less than full output.
Also, because the output decreases gradually you may not notice until it gets down to about half output or less.
Those TF are crap, sorry man.
Agent80,
I have 1 or 2 of those ultrafire batteries that are ok, quality seems to vary. I have not tested these batteries in my c8, but I would guess about an hour, if its a fairly decent battery. I recently tested a panasonic unprotected 2900mah, and got about 1hr 20 min. Nice thing is the light starts blinking when voltage gets low, I think battery was at 3.2 volt,IIRC.
I bought a “Raptor” battery from the local( South Africa) Chinese shops,( Latest cheap Chinese offering?) which says 3800mah, weighs 31 g, whereas a decent battery weighs in around 45g, and it lasted 20 mins in the c8.
So battery quality will make a huge difference…
Hmm any discount on the XinTD C8 V4? its 30$ not exactly cheap…