F13 produces the most horrible thread noise I have ever heard. Heat goes straight to tail section rather fast at HIGH, despite having so much radiating fins. Probably due to thin body wall thickness. AAA battery carrier (WB version) works but not fitting. F13 comes with several cosmetic defects and anodizing is weak.
Ultrafire F13 is very cheap, but you will realize that it also feel cheap after using it for a while. I hate to tell myself “You get what you pay for”. I have lot of fun modifying my F13s, throw distance is very good and heat management issue can be improved but I am not happy with it. Sorry but I have say that it is definitely not a light that I feel grabbing with.
Roxane M6 has slightly slimmer body. It is on par with Convoy grade in my opinion, in term of finishing, design and material. Downside will be lack of new CREE and powerful driver. I like my new setup with XM-L2 T6-1B on Noctigon with Qlite (+3x350mA) on 4th star. It has a bigger hotspot and spill than F13 or C8 with stock reflector. About 26KCD when I measured. Will post some shots if you guys are interested.
People will never stop asking though. :-\/quote]
I have read that famous ken rockwell piece and i disagree, an amateur with a poor camera will do poorly, and with a good camera will do slightly better. A professional with a poor camera will do well and far better with a good camera. A person does as well as their skill level, if they have poor equipment their skill can’t fully shine, if they have poor skills there is nothing to shine, if they have the knack the limiting factor becomes the equipment and with good equipment they can do amazing things.
I noticed the pictures are composed very well, but when i saw the picture of the driver i knew for sure you were using a good camera, there is no way in hell i can get such a clear photo from my point and shoot, no matter how i arrange the lighting or lighting source, no matter what aperture or shutter i use, the camera just cannot take such a sharp image with equivalent colour depth and sharpness
Checkout XINTD X3 group buy thread and you will see some discussions in it. I have 3 such switches in my flashlight collection now. All 3 work well, but one is feeling a bit “funky”. Wish there is a V2.0 version of it.
We shall not start a debate on it, it just a waste of time. Let the images speak for itself.
The cheapest and simplest way to achieve sharp images, is to shoot under large diffused lighting source(e.g sun with cloudy sky) and stable platform. Set camera to trigger by time (2s, 5s). Use white cardboard to reflector light into shadow area if needed.
[quote=freeme]
We shall not start a debate on it, it just a waste of time. Let the images speak for itself.
The cheapest and simplest way to achieve sharp images, is to shoot under large diffused lighting source(e.g sun with cloudy sky) and stable platform. Set camera to trigger by time (2s, 5s). Use white cardboard to reflector light into shadow area if needed.
I agree, lets just trade cameras and call it a day, i’m sure you don’t mind since skill is all you need :bigsmile:
Not hot on the threaded pill…the solid shelf of the F13 means the heat goes straight to the body faster…this is why the back heats up so fast, but with that said, modding it is a booger because you have to reach down inside to solder and whatnot which is a pain
Still not sure about that reflector screwing in on top of the star with that big flat shelf on it…definitely a point for shorting…but if it is a big ol honkering aluminum reflector it just might wick the heat away, it will eventually saturate, even with that mass of copper wire wrapped around it.
Still…not a bad light and at least its a named after a girl…like a hurricane
Are there any places that sells pre-assembled version of BLF17DD?
F13 integrate pill conducts heat easily, but too much heat is going to hand grip. I remembered that my battery got very warm, even tailcap got heat up. I prefer 65% of the heat to saturate at the head region, since the fins are there to cool down the flashlight.
My concept of wire wrapping is that I wanted to provide additional paths for heat to radiate out to the body. Reducing the chance of bottleneck effect, just like Aluminium wrap for P60 flashlights. Copper wire is easily available at my area and it only cost less than a dollar for the mod. :8)
I have sold all my F13s. I am not going to buy any more flashlights with Ultrafire name on it any more.
Oh no…I completely understood why you wire wrapped the reflector…so much more thermal mass there to soak up the heat (It make ALOT of sense actually)
The aluminum is doing what it’s supposed to do…the reason you don’t feel the heat as much in the fins is the increased surface area is radiating the heat much better…but either way…to each his own
Still and excellent review and build man…kudos to you