You're welcome Flashpilot! Im glad you really like this light as much as i do. I posted a real good deal on ebay a week ago for the X8 so whoever got it got a great light for almost half the price. I still enjoy this light and use it daily. I was testing it last night against the F15 after i swapped the F15 driver to the UF MF 3 mode dropin and the X8 was still a better thrower. Heat is no real issue. specially using it with 1 18650 it takes a while before it heats up. the body stays warm but not hot so you can still hold it. I would trade the blinking modes for lower modes but that is for a future upgrade. If you want it to tailstand a small oring to bring the boot up will do it. Im in search for an aspheric lens that might fit, just a curiosity. there should be enough threads to adjust the lens for a good focus. I'd still recommend this over the more expensive lights. I was thinking about the jetbeam BC40 but i think the X8 is still brighter and throwier at around the same pricepoint. Manafont sells it cheaper with less extras. the other stores vary on price and extra items. If you want a bright, throwy light, this is the one to get that is somewhat budget with good build quality and functional heatsinking. Can't wait to hear the results from those lights. Thanks Flash!
Ah... gotcha! I wasnt to impressed overall with 3 x XML's. If you need a massive amount of flood with medium throw, nothing beats it for efficiency.
Ive found that most single emitter XML's provide far more range and still maintain a decent amount of spill. But what the heck, might as well buy both if you cant decide.
Lol, the "budget" light philosophy!
62mm head on that one. How big is this one?
46mm outside head dia. think how far it would go if it was a deep 62mm.
You're welcome James. Alright, I admit it. I was the lucky ebay'er! I havent put this light down for about an hour now... it just feels so proper in the hand. I have 30 new 18650's that need to be discharged and this seems the correct light to do it.
62mm head on that Sky Ray? From the pics, the aspect ratio looks much wider than it is deep - as compared to the X8 lens. I guess you never know if its effective till someone tests it against a known powerhouse. Lens quality plays such a large part in transimitting lumens instead of absorbing them.
Im waiting for detailed reviews and pricing for the Fenix TK70, with its massive reflecting surfaces and 3 x XML. Initial Russian beam shots show it to be one absolute hell of a photon blaster. But it will still never equal 3 x X8's bound together... and will always weigh a ton and a half... and rival the length of a baseball bat. Now it is I who is day-dreaming aloud. I think Im done with multi-XML's for the time being. It was fun to own one of the best but equally as satisfying to have sold it.
Darkness approaches.
Cheers!
62mm is even bigger than the SF masterpiece at 57mm.
Im glad someone here got that light.
I keep mine under the bed just in case it is needed for other purposes. the head has enough weight on it to do damage.
I wish there was a driver mod like dropping a blob of solder to get rid of the blinking modes for the x8.
Your detailed comments are much appreciated James. Mine is actually a fixed 3 mode (as advertised). High, medium, strobe. I havent found a Nanj style switchable program group mode yet but I am completely satisfied. It remembers the last mode without being finicky about it, and it will spend most of its life remembering high mode. I just emailed the seller about this. If its been modded, I'll post my findings here. I definitely appreciate a 3 mode far more than the 5 mode disco dancing wand. 
All in all, its the steal of the year to date in power LED's and quality; even at Manafont pricing. Its been a while since Ive been this satisfied with a flashlight.
About 1.25 hrs till dark here. 
My camera has auto white balance/auto everything mode only, so it does a lousy job at comparing beam shots between lights.
TR-1200 vs. X8: Indoors, the 1200 looked like it would eat the X8 alive and I was actually quite disappointed. At 6 feet from a white wall, the 1200 beam would completely overlap and blot out the X8 beam and appeared to have a whiter tint. The XML T6 showed its characteristic green hue when comparing the two lights side by side. I was less than anxious to run outside and see my new light get trounced by a cheap ageing 1.5 year old multi-xre rig. After bringing 4 brand new 18650's to 4.18V, off I went into the night air with a light in each hand. After initial turn-on, I immediately noticed that the X8 was in fact brighter and whiter in tint with its beam, and showed slightly greater range. Power lights need range and composition to show off their stuff, and thats how they were designed and intended. After some time, Ive determined that the X8 is roughly only about 15% brighter to my naked eyes than the 1200 while exploring the limits of range. But the beams are distinctly different. The 1200 has a much wider beam, beginning at about 3 feet away from my feet when held at waist level, while the X8 beam is far more concentrated and starts about 7 feet away from my feet. The spill from the X8 is also brighter and for a much longer distance, however the massive wide angle spill from the 1200 is perhaps 30% wider, thus illuminating a much wider swath in the beam pattern... quite brightly at that, and it illuminates much more ground at close to mid-range. In sheer range illumination, the X8 wins, but not by a huge margin, with the spill also throwing much farther in the beam pattern (perhaps by as much as 50% farther than the 1200). In fact, the whiter tint of the X8 gives more definition to the target at the edge of its beam cut-off, therefore it tricks the eyes into thinking its even brighter than it actually is. Both are exceptional pieces and have different advantages over one another. All in all, I would chose the X8 but I would still want (and need) a properly fitted 1200 in my collection.
The TR1200 was a great light during the first production run and ran 5 XRE Q5 emitters full tilt. Subsequent production runs were built with a weak driver and the light suffered accordingly. Also, heat sinking in the 1200 was less than adequate, forcing me to build a small copper sleeve to allow the pill to contact the head and transmit heat. It was actually a lot of work by trial and error to make it conduct heat properly. Someone on this forum found another supplier that sold the same light under another brand (Small Sun or Sun Way comes to mind, but Im not sure). With my early example, one advantage is that the 1200 can accept 3 x 18650's and will run fully regulated until protected cells bang the PCB and cut power after cell depletion. It only runs regulated with 3 x 18650's, not with 2. No cheap 18650 lights that I have come across are truly regulated; instead, allowing most protected cells to be discharged all the way down to 0.0V if left on. Thats right... very few protected 18650's will disconnect power when undercharged unless their is a regulated circuit pulling proportionally more amperage from the cells at voltage drops, and usually during a high discharge load. Thats because there are so many different lights available that draw a wide range of current that its impossible to design one circuit to handle all the varying load requirements. Sensitive protection PCB's, as found in 14500's & 16340's are much more likely to work correctly on most lights because they can be designed with a narrower operating load range than what the all-mighty 18650 has to contend with. Maybe protection should be left to the designs of the flashlight driver, but that would be asking far to much from most cheap light manufacturers; and they would probably be extremely unreliable and perhaps even dangerous. More expensive lights already do this while utilizing various methods.
No doubt about it, I love my X8!
The ebay seller just got back to me and I invited him to join us on the forum. Here's the original sales link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150591699001&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
So this was a true 3 mode from the start as sold through this vendor... interesting. $50 delivered and it comes with all that is pictured. Not bad at all. From my example, I highly recommend it; especially if you're interested in losing some of the disco modes. If you're into the 5 mode, Manafont simply cant be beat from a customer service perspective.
Edit: Free Shipping to the US. Economy Shipping from outside US.
Flash, I'm not sure what this is and would hesitate to buy it. It's not a true X8 whatever it is. It's either a new Trustfire model or a counterfeit X8. The graphics are wrong and should say Trustfire X8, not T6. Also the real X8 has double o-rings at all joints. This one has double at only one joint. Whatever this is, I would never buy it when the real one is only a few dollars more from a reliable source.
I think he's implying that buying something off ebay with "differences" to the ostensibly genuine article is a risk. Perhaps not an issues, but sometime could be in this corner of our hobby.
I'm looking at a dive light right now and two vendors have different looking internal pics for what I'm guessing is the same thing, so....
If you say so. 
With the huge positive feedback from the ebay vendor, its a non-issue for me. The product is genuine and I do believe Im rather qualified to back my opinions.
Agentex, PM me if youre thinking about purchasing Xtar dive lights. I also SCUBA and hold several PADI certs.
Thanks for the offer FlashPilot, but I'm only a wannabe :). The closest I get to water these days is if someone invites me to their pool party and might go for a dip. However that doesn't preclude me from getting a budget one just in case, I'm likewise prepared for a zombie apocalypse :D.
I'll eagerly await your reviews of the lights so I"ll be ready for the flood; I've already got my pirate gear to buccaneer Noah types if need be.
Pool parties are the best! Im lucky to live close to many natural hot springs and thats where a lot of my dive lights get used. If you ever do get an opportunity to dive the oceans (and you feel comfortable in that environment) you wont believe what you've been missing out on all these years. Its aptly named "inner space" by the divers that enjoy it... just a totally different and amazing world unto its own.
Im holding off on my Xtar reviews pending a reply from their marketing rep. There are a few major congenital design flaws that need to be addressed before I could recommend that anyone deliberately submerge one of these in water, especially the 18650 powered version.
My advice: when choosing a dive light, be sure that all connections are of THICK double o-rings that properly seal and dont get torn when you screw the light together and that you can easily look inside the head while underwater to inspect it for water intrusion. That sounds obvious but you would be surprised that most budget dive lights dont do either very well. I personally would avoid and discourage LICO powered lights all together for underwater use unless you're looking into $2-3k HID setups with remote battery canisters. Ive had my eye on this one for a while but dont need another dive light.
The up and coming zombie apocalypse is a hot topic amongst knife and machete forums. I like this little number:
http://www.condortk.com/productsdetail.php?prodid=60940
What do you think of the D14 Lenser Frogman design and its various clone spawn? It's pretty simple with basically only one opening, a resistor for a "driver", and a magnetic switch. Pools aren't that deep so pressure should be ok.
For the upcoming apocalypse, I think it's smart to prep for the eventually of being a zombie. I hear football gear with a screen door works pretty well for protection, though a traffic cone instead of the helmet/door is necessary in case of magnets. If that made no any sense, then you need to play this.
Speaking of which, how well does the X8 work as a club compared to venerable models like maglites or tr1200's?