I ordered a sand colour L2R from them with flat bezel and they sent me a black one with strike bezel, but then they sent me a sand colour for free after I complained. So 2 for the price of 1 is nice. So I ordered a second 3 mode low voltage drop-in for my second L2R body.... the addional drop-in was significantly darker than the first. So they sent me an additional drop-in for free (unluckily also not as bright). So I got 2 bodies and 3 drop-ins for the price of 1 body and 2 drop-ins. Communication was good , when I contacted Jo (Managing Director of International Trading Company & Solarforce) directly and not so good when I mailed with other people there.. most likely due to lack of English skills on their end, but they always responded fast.
The drop-in story can be read here with pictures: LINK
ITC are listed on the Solarforce site http://www.solarforce.hk/PRD/main.jsp as a dealer. (LT aren’t but it doesn’t mean much, I think it’s clear LT isn’t an official dealer.)
I also don’t see any MC-E or P7. In addition this http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=229730 is quite interesting. Other then not tailstanding, the genuine L2 tailcaps don’t have lanyard holes. Well the L2-S3 tailstands and L2-S4 somewhat tailstands but these are quite a different design and don’t have lanyard holes. In other words, it seems clear to me the tailcaps on the LT ones aren’t genuine.
Great, thanks for the info guys. :D Will probably go for ITC once the skyline 1 arrives. I'm looking to build a powerful thrower with an sst-50 p-60 drop in, running off 3 x 18650s.
@1000yardstare: heat distribution is likely to be a problem for the configuration you're planning. The L2 doesn't have good contact between drop-in and the head. Minimum would be a tin foil tweak to fill the gap.
At the very least. The P60 format is not ideal for such high-powered devices. If you can get stuff machined where you are, I'd go for something that looked like the Malkoff dropins with very tight tolerances so it makes good thermal contact with the body - and make as much of it out of copper as is practical.
The Skyline 1 arrived in record time - about a week before I expected it. There was no sign as of a week ago (I'm about 250km from home just now) of a dropin I'd ordered a week before that.
Their normal shipping isn't as bad as DX, but they tend in that direction. I've always got what I ordered though - I presume the dropin has arrived since last week.
Thus far I've had no complaints about them at all.
I contacted Solarforce and was told that these are infact counterfeit lights as suspected. Now we will see what Lightake plans to do to correct this situation.
In China counterfeits are obviously less considered a crime, but as greatest form of flattering. Most likely nothing will happen. Makes me wonder if the more expensive ones are also counterfeits. Maybe we see some Folarsorce, Larcesorfe or Ecrofralos next
What do YOU think? Lightake will (eventually) pull those products, and that's it. Gees, what's up with you guys? You want "jenyouine" high quality super durable flashlight bodies for a few bucks? Won't happen.
In my opinion the deals in question are a steal (hehe) no matter what factory they're from. I couldn't care less if one hk company is copying from another hk company.
It is so f'ing obvious these models came of the *fire factories that I seriously question a) your intelligence or b) your china/hk shopping experience.
The look exactly alike in the pictures except for the tailcap, which I didn't notice until it was pointed out to me. And the prices aren't too good to be true either: ITC sells a genuine Solarforce L2 host for $11.05 on eBay vs. $9 something for the Solarfarce from Lightake.
Well the bezel is different too but that's not my point. My reference about demanding hq was because atlas was whining about the quality without any real evidence the quality is worse than that of a real SF.
The regular price is ~$16 (promotional price ends soon), quite a difference I think.
I own a L2M, bought of DX before they got pulled. I'm pretty sure it is of the same factory as the lightake ones and I'm very happy with the quality, not the mention the fact that it can tailstand. ;)
I don't want to get into the debate, at least not at the current time but AFAIK, the bezel isn't really different. Yes it doesn't have the tactical/strike bezel most of the L2 s have but some genuine ones with dropins from ITC shop do come with flat SS bezel that the LT ones seem to have like http://cgi.ebay.com/Solarforce-BLK-L2-R2-Cree-300lms-SS-Flat-18650-Torch-/270488240228 and a few even come with what I think is a completely different kind of bezel head http://cgi.ebay.com/Solarforce-BLK-L2-300-Lms-R2-CREE-Flat-Head-Flashlight-/270490374986
At a guess if you order enough Solarforce would have no problem fitting them with whatever bezel & ring you want. However it may not be cheaper and would probably be a special order (so it's probably not so likely for random Chinese sellers to have it).
As a final comment ITC do have the compulsory $2 tracking outside the US so it's actually $13.01 for many people or $17.79 without discount. Well Australians have the option on AU $17.08. LT don't have tracking of course unless you spend more then $15 but it's not compulsory either and I presume they take responsibility eventually if items never arrive. Yes I know I've mentioned this before just something that's on my mind because I'm still undecided the $2 may not be much but it obviously pushes the equation against the ITC shop/genuine SF.
Also I asked ITCshop about the R5 again and this time did get a response.
I have 2 - L2m's that I bought from SBFlashlights and 1 - L2 from Popbuying.com (billed to Focalprice on my paypal bill). I compared the L2 to the L2m's and I think that the L2 is a fake but it still looked very good. I bought it because it was only $9.99 and it was stainless steel which SBFlashlights did not have in stock. Fakes really don't bother me that much as long as it's cheap, it does what it's supposed to do and it of course it has to look good.
Since I do think it's a fake L2 then you're probably right about it not being real stainless steel. Another thing that tells me it's a fake is that it can tail stand where my L2m's can't. It does look good though.
You may want to start a thread if you're going to give a detailed review since this one is getting long and it's perhaps somewhat OT but how the's build quality, thickness etc in your opinion? Particularly compared to the L2m (but any comparable torch you own really). I take it from your comments it isn't quite as good as the L2m (not surprising) but is still fairly good but I'd be interested in any further details you can offer.
If you've already offered comments elsewhere you can just point me there.
