need help finding a flood light

hello
i’m looking for a cheap AA flashlight, can be 1XAA or multiple. must be warm or pure white, not purple/blue at all.
i really would like to find a real flood, with equal light dissipation, just like the led on the smartphones. sometimes i need to have to light up in night, and im using the phone’s led because the flashlights i have, one is too focused, one got focus lens but it’s too narrow on the widest, and the purple is uncomfortable, i want natural color with wide equal beam, like the phone’s led.
after searching i found those
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Modes-Black-Golden-Silver-Mini-600LM-CREE-XP-E-R5-LED-Zoomable-Flashlight-/161505625603?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item259a7c4603

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-1000LM-CREE-R5-LED-Mini-Flashlight-Torch-Keychain-Hunting-Handy-Light-AA-/400835516444?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d53a8981c

if anyone know if they meet some of my requirements please let me know
and i would like to have recommendations if you have to what im looking for
thanks

Hi.

There really is no such thing as “pure white”. However most people would tend to agree a high CRI neutral white is a nice tint to use.

As a rule you won’t find emitters like this fitted stock. Or only in a select few. And often not in the budget end of the market.

However if you don’t mind modding, then it is very easy to swap in such an emitter.

In terms of flood. Well I think the best bet here is to learn and understand the different types of beams. That way you can decide yourself which will or won’t work for you.

A traditional reflector based light will always give you a hot spot and a spill beam. The smaller the reflector the larger the hot spot and less focused it will be. Also the larger the LED in relation to the reflector size, again the more de-focused the hot spot will be. e.g. an XM-L2 in a 20mm reflector will give a much larger hot spot than an XP-G2 in a 20mm reflector.

Reflector texture will affect the transition from hot spot to spill beam. An Orange Peel (OP) or Heavy Orange Peel (HOP) reflector will give a more diffused beam making it appear much more floody. Vs a smooth reflector (SMO).

Reflector based lights can give a very wide spill beam angle. i.e. the amount of area they light up is very large. But they will always have a hot spot and a spill beam.

An example of a floody reflector light is the Convoy S2+

Example of the beam:

NOTE: The S2+ is an 18650 light, not AA. But is just an example.

Now if you want more of an even beam. You can add a diffuser to a reflector light. Some lights have purpose made ones, or you can make one or even just use some tissue and cover the lens.

A diffuser will lower lumen output Out The Front (OTF). But will give a much more even beam profile without the hot spot.

A ‘wand’ is a similar idea to a diffuser, but extends out the front of the light to offer more of a lantern 360 degree radiance, rather than a beam.

Other options are:

-Mule lights. Essentially these are reflector lights without the reflector. Often very easy to make yourself by removing the reflector from any given light. The size and depth of the head/bezel will dictate the size beam angle of the light. The only down side is, mule lights often aren’t much use beyond a few feet as they simply don’t focus and project the light far enough to be of any use at more than say 4 feet. Higher output lights will have greater ability in beam distance, but you won’t get high output with one or two AA’s.

-Zoomy lights. The most common being ones that use an aspheric lens. The Sipik SK68 (and clones) are the most well known of these. Although your first link is a light very similar to the SK68.

The aspheric in flood mode will offer a large evenly illuminated area, like a large circle:

However the smaller the lens the smaller the area it will normally light up (focal length will have an effect too and overall host design). This means that typically a 1AA sized light won’t have the widest beam angle.

In this pic, the light on the left is the 1AA SK68 (like the light in your first link, essentially the same lens), the 2nd light in from the left is an 18650 Zeusray. It too is an aspheric zoomy, but in flood mode makes a much larger beam.

It’s not the easiest to see in this picture, but if you image to draw a line around the circle of each beam, you can see the Zuesray is say 3x the area of the SK68.

I don’t know of any AA/2AA lights that use a larger aspheric lens. Although there might be some. Although I suspect projecting such a wide area the light would not appear overly bright on this power source.

The last option is a TIR optic. These work in a similar way to aspheric lenses, but are found on less lights. The most common one is Led Lenser. These too can offer a nice large flood area. However you are highly unlikely to find any with a Neutral or Warm white emitter.

Personally I like the POP lite T33. It runs on 3xAAA.

It’s the 2nd one in from the left:

See how big an area it lights up compared to an SK68:

thank you very much
diffuser loose most of the light. if don’t have ready one i can do easy modification. the light will be enough for me. i don’t need throw. it’s for short distance. this question will be off the original question, but i have convoy c8. i thought to just removing the reflector with it’s cap but i know that the reflectors using as a heatsink. will be be ok to remove it considering that it will be with no cover so cooling air will come from outside?

anyway, do you have have recommendation for a flashlight with 2/3/4 AA with reflector similar to the the convoy S2+, but with white or warm white beam and not expensive?

the first light Silver Mini 600LM is really junk. do yourself a favor and avoid it. the sk68 clones are much better. I wish I had a magic answer for you.

You might want to try this light. I don’t own one, but I think this one could come close to what you’re searching for. If you can spend some more money, take a look at the some models from Zebralight: SC52Fw L2 , H52Fw , H502w L2 , H502c L2 .

A very worthy flashlight is the Coast HP1 Focusing LED Flashlight. Search Amazon it should be $9.99.

It zooms, and the wide is the widest and smoothest I've seen. AA alkaline or lithium primary cell works best, its not designed to take advantage of lithium ion cell. It is single mode with a forward clickie. That means it turns ON with a partial press, and turns OFF upon release.

i already order one, but never mind it’s not expensive and i don’t like the cool white beams. thanks

hi
those are way too expensive. thanks anyway

looks very nice but they say on the Q&A that it’s a bluish white. thanks.

I would suggest any Sipik SK68 or any cheap lights with Cree XP-E if you don’t mind learning how to dedome an LED

It’s a matter of soaking the LED into gasoline or thinner overnight to remove the dome then you’ll get a better colored LED that’s close to phone LED light

if not then you have no choice but to fork out more money on lights

Edit:
This may be a gamble but the lights I’ve received from banggood had pretty white whites that isn’t blue or purple

The reflector isn’t really used as a heat sink in LED lights. Almost all of the heat is behind the emitter, rather than infront. So much so that even high output LED torches will usually be fine with a plastic reflector.

The only think you’ll want to watch for, is sometimes the reflector is used to press the star (the thing the LED is mounted on) into the torch body/pill. This means without the reflector in place it might flop about and not have a thermal path to the rest of the light. Best thing is just try it out and see how it works.

Sadly there are few lights you can buy with nice tint emitters.

EagleTac offer their D Series in either XM-L2 neutral white or a high CRI Nichia219 LED.

The Nichia219 is pretty much the best tint LED you can buy, but output is lower than the Cree LED’s.

The D Series can be had in either a clicky or twisty and 1AA or 2AA.

http://www.eagletac.com/html/d_series/index.html
http://www.eagletac.com/html/d25a2rc/specs.html

They aren’t budget, but you can usually find them for fairly sensible money and are actually really nice lights.

They also have just released a new diffuser series of lights. Which can also be had in NW. But probably more pricey than the D Series.

http://www.eagletac.com/html/p25lc2d/index.html

More budget orientated is the Xeno E03. These are nice compact 1AA lights. Usually find them on ebay.

The nice thing is, they are good torches and sold with lots of different emitter types (XP-G2/XM-L2) and tints, such as neutral white and warm white:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XENO-Tiger-E03-v3-Cree-XM-L2-T6-3B-Neutral-White-HDE-SOS-Strobe-Torch-Blue-/161143588717?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2584e8076d
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XENO-Tiger-E03-v3-Cree-XP-G2-R5-Neutral-NW-HDE-SOS-Strobe-Torch-Blue-/151621361664?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item234d566000
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XENO-Tiger-E03-v3-Cree-XM-L2-T4-Warm-WW-Torch-Black-/151325474067?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item233bb37d13

These are probably the closest to the Convoy S2+ in beam profile but AA powered.

They are pretty much the only ones I can think of off the top of my head that are not premium prices and offer a choice of tints while not being li-ion.

If you don’t mind li-ion, then there are more choices.

_

Other options would be to build or modify an existing light.

You can buy nice tint emitters fairly cheaply that are pre-mounted on a star:
http://intl-outdoor.com/led-nichia-c-107_140.html
http://intl-outdoor.com/led-xml2-c-107_136.html

All you need to do is replace the led/star in an otherwise suitable light with a better tint LED. Some lights are easier than others to do this too. But most budget ones it’s really not too bad. Only requires soldering of 2 wires.

If you are feeling more adventurous, then you could probably build a Mini Maglite p60 with a nice tint Led for very little money.

Building the p60 drop in is very easy and cheap.

There is a guide here:

thanks
i ordered this flashlight from amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IEMUOWU/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

all the links from last post are too expensive but i also found this SK68 one with warm white
http://www.dx.com/p/ultrafire-sk68-xp-e-q5-100lm-1-mode-warm-white-zoomable-led-flashlight-black-1-x-14500-376031#.VRvgZvmsVdU

as for the C8 modding, the reflector not using to push the led, it’s with thermal paste. thank you all

So? Does it fit your expectations?

(I feel a bit responsible as it was one of my suggestions...)

I think the floodiest light I have, without taking the optics out, is the Coast HP1 http://www.amazon.com/Coast-HP1-Focusing-LED-Flashlight/dp/B00IEMUOWU COAST HP1 $9.99 @ Amazon . It can also slide to throw a hot spot, similarly to a reflector light.
It has optics that is partly TIR reflecting and partly a convex lens, like a lighthouse. In flood mode, the reflector slides out of the way, and it has only a thin lens over the LED.

hi
yes, the HP1 is nice flashlight. it’s wide equal beam. but i also made diffuser for the C8 which works very good.
the HP1 is cool white but not so bad like other cool whites. when focusing, the spot is maybe natural white with little green tint and the other cool