Understood - I’m fully expecting Osram and 1 mode. I guess the led type is the main difference between the Meritline/ebay and others? Their appearances are all very similar to me.
midieval10 - you're quite welcome. I figured, for $5 and change for an Osram, how bad could it be? I have an RC-29, impressive light for $14, but following the hopeful "90/30" rule for budget lights (90% of the performance for 30% of the cost) I thought maybe (just maybe) I'll like this super-budget zoom.
sb - I saw that one too, very inexpensive. I just wish they would give more clues about the led type.
I strongly suspect it is an OSRAM like these other ones. Notice that they claim output of 100 lumens for 1 hour, which is exactly what these OSRAM zoomers are giving.
They really did some nice photography of this one, especially for a cheapie. Frankly, the design is hideous, but it looks rather high quality for the price. Disassembles on both ends.
Good news with that $5.49 "Sipik copy" on sale from Meritline - it's a Sipik w/Osram. Seems like a nice, solid build. Brightness on flood (evaluated with ceiling bounce) is somewhere in between medium and high on my iTP A3, perhaps 60 lumens? Nice focus on the throw, although not as bright in this condition. Good buy.
Nine days from HK to my front door in the US is a record. Also picked up one of their 11-led lanterns http://www.meritline.com/11led-adjustable-camping-light-lantern-946---p-35838.aspx on sale w/coupon for $2.30 and I must say I am very impressed with this little lantern. Not the prettiest beam pattern, but who cares - it's an emergency light. It's almost as bright as my Cree River Rock lantern (not as bright, but not far off).
The build quality is good with this one but it only has a cheap LED emitter...not bright at all. It's somewhat like a BLF Delight but with zooming capabilities.
This sounds like it could be an advantage. The OSRAMs in the Sipik SK58 and its clones are very power hungry. The battery hardly last an hour. Maybe the generic LED will have better runtime (at least 6 hours, possibly up to 20+ hours) as the BLF Delights do.
I tried to order this, but Meritline doesn't ship to my address... :(
The beam on flood is very smooth. Not ringy like admin's. It's also brighter than the 2 division C78 Golden Dragon light. Plus, the build quality is very good, looks very professional. The only thing I had to change was taking out the 2 metal o-rings and putting rubber ones in.
I just tried a 14500 in the Sipik and it works! No burnt driver or smell and it still takes an AA. It's now almost but not quite as bright as my Romisen RC-C6.
As I was swaping the GD emitter of C78, came in was a sweet surprise. These emitters seems to have got built in reverse polarity protection and even has a tiny RED LED. Would be nice if flashlight manufacturers can somehow utilize this as part of UI.
Thanks for the recommendation on this light. My light from priceangels is good! It's much much brighter than a powerlight, but not much more in cost. Its has a single mode switch. The build quality and feel is really nice. Its a little thicker than my Trustfire F20 but the same length.
I'll test the runtime soon.
I measured the lux using the camera method: at one meter I got 645 lux on spot mode, which is as bright as my Trustfire F20 and on flood at 1 meter I got 80 lux which is as bright as the powerlight. This is of course measuring the intensity of the light that fills the area of the paper at one meter. If I tailstand the light, it illuminates the room far more when on flood, bouncing off the ceiling. The beam on flood is very smooth without hot spots or other distractions. The light has very bluish tint, more than most of my other lights.
To make it into a mini lantern I cut a hole in the lid of a clear film canister so it fits snug over the top and tailstand the light. I get 40 lux when measuring the brightness of light on a paper beside it. This gives much brighter light than tailstanding and celing bouncing, or when there's no celing while camping.
However, I don't like how it doesn't sit perfectly flat when tailstanding because of the ring lanyard, so I might try cutting a notch out of the bottom so it can stand flat and more stable.
This one doesn't have the wire in the corner (the Osram Golden Dragon). It has a square emitter with two wired into the emitter. One on the top and one on the bottom side of the emitter. Anyone know what type that might be?