Best zoom XM-L for 2013/2014?

Uf-t20 for sure. Awesome light, uses C8 pills so you can buy a few for dirt cheap from fasttech and mod them and you have different drop ins (screw ins).

I have about 8 of these lights kicking around with anything from de-domed xp-e2’s to XM-l2’s and I’m about to find out how an mt-g2 at 4.4a does in it.

A lot of members mentioned about the T20, however for me I have bad luck with this light. I ordered a T20 from Manafont in last year with the intention of modding it. In full-focus the die image was so poorly zoomed, the lens is sitting too near with the LED. The brass pill does not accept 20mm stars as they are, some works needed to grind down the star diameter. Have tried to use this pill from FT but the focusing issue still persist.

On the other hand, I bought a Romisen RC-C8 in the year of 2012, gave it to my father and it is still working strong until now. Good focusing (plastic lens though) with twisting zoom, lens diameter is larger than the C30’s , and well built in everywhere. But I have not attempted to mod it until now and not planning to do so. From its design and mechanism I think it is good to be modded.

When I receive my pills from FT I use my dremel to grind off material on the top lip of the pill allowing it to screw in deeper. As of right now it’s a bit of trial and error to get the focus but once I figure out the perfect amount for each LED type I will take them to my friend to quickly machine down (if only I were still a machinist :frowning: )

wow, that marsfire is prolly the nicest zoomie ive seen. looks pretty well built and cool design features.
yea the two zoomies that i have modded, both have imperfect zoomed in hotspots. ive heard its a pita to get the focus on modding zoomies perfect.

I found out that DX is wrong! The Marsfire Z8 is not rotational zoom!
It is just like the regular one where you pull in and out…
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MarsFire-Z8-Zoom-Adjustable-LED-Flashlight-5-Mode-1000-Lumens-CREE-XM-L-T6-LED-26650/1548043878.html

I like my SK73 or some others of the same style for a small one and my Raysoon 398 if I get a 7135 * 8 driver with copper pill working in it. The Raysoon SK98 clone has more cooling potential. I have a larger one than that but don’t see much use for it. At the upper end of your range, maybe you can get better build than these.
I don’t see much info on the CANSO BO6. Is it good? Cheap?
The main question is how big do you want the head, but there are not a lot of zoomy throwers.

i still think its a rotational zoom. on the head i see the arrows showing left and right

Should I buy one from wallbuy and give it a shot?
It’s really the kind I’m looking for, I don’t like those larger heads.
I want a sleek zoomie!

Nah, that Marsfire has the usual long focal length lens: gives a promising very tight hotspot but that does nothing for the throw, and looses sooooo much light inside the body, even in flood mode!

Where can I buy a C8 pill for the T20 @Fasttech?!

Hmmm… So no one has any other suggestions?

no

Sadly, there seems to be little incentive to make better lights. There are no new emitters available. Led Lenser has the patents so nobody else really wants to make flood to throws in an innovative way.

I wouldnt mind seeing a X21 clone. Maybe something with 2x26650s/18650/whatever that uses 3 XM-L2s, with each barrel having its own aspheric lens, and all 3 are hooked together into 1 push-pull or rotational mechanism. That would be an awesome light.

Here

stock: Temporarily sold out ....

ya an x21 clone would be sick. but it needs to be more powerful than the x21.
fenix with their tk76 is sorta of a new flood zoom design

The X21R is pretty strong. They upgraded the XR-Es to the latest rev bin. No need to have XR-Es though. 3 XMLs would do the trick nicely and provide a good 2500 lumens of flood, and a respectable 900ish of throw.
With 2x26650s or 3x18650s it wouldnt be small, but still reasonable.

Mine focusses pretty good, both with the standard pill with XM-L and FastTech pill with XP-G2 on 20mm Noctigon. If you want to check whether you can improve, you can just unscrew the lens holding ring and screw that in first and put the lens on top of that. Just keep the lens facing up while testing. I’ve read that someone else added an extra O ring below the lens to fix the focus.

I did that and it works, but when I fully turn the head into full-flood (clockwise) the whole head will be taken off because the head cannot be locked by the lens anymore.

I have given up messing with this light. I have done Shocker mod and it was not even as problematic as this T20 I have. Maybe my T20 is just an inferior piece from the production, I don’t know.

Best is clear to yourself but usually not to anyone else. In systems engineering, I encountered the term “requirements” which means about “what the customer wants” but is defined with the usual red tape.