brightest and floodiest single 14500 light

from reading threads, i came up with either the xeno eo3, balder hd1, or the sipik sk68 clone.

is there any others that are brighter than these three?
in what order would these three be in from brightest/floodiest

Brightest and floodiest? That would be a 14500 xml mule. With a good IMR you'd be looking at over 800L, although runtime could most likely be measured with an egg timer. Would be an easy enough thing to build.

Oh, you mean factory offerings? Hell, I'm drawing a blank... Of those three you mentioned (I don't own any), the sipik would be the floodiest due only to it being an aspheric. The best factory offering (although not the cheapest) that pops to mind would be the eagletac D25a xml - puts out @600 +/- L on a 14500. There may be a light cheaper that could match it, but I don't know.

It’s hard to have more flood than a Xeno e03 with the light saber. I found that the light saber also works on my Fenix HP10.

xeno e03 with u2 xml and if you need more and dont care about battery life ,get this upgraded version : http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?257569-VinhNguyen54-Modded-Xeno-E03-1000-LED-Lumen-With-IMR14500&p=2717725

i moded mine with 3,4A driver with a AW IMR goes around 10minutes on high,but it gets SUPERHOT.medium is 1,05A and low 0,15A

The Balder SE-1 XM-L is hard to beat for the money!

Wow, I’m tempted to buy a second e03 to do this with. It’ll happen eventually.

its nice mod,you can use it for normal use with low and medium and for fun at high.
vinhnguyen54 sell them for good price completed.

Be patient , and wait for the batch of custom 14500 lights from E1320 .

It will be worth the wait .

Selfbuilts light box test came up with 770 lumens for the D25A clicky on 14500.

it looks like im getting mixed answers on this one. there was every single one of the three mentioned as the brightest and floodiest.
that modded eo3 sounds killer, but dont wanna spend that much.
then the wait for 2100 light sounds very cool, but not sure if itll be floody. im sure it will be bright as heck, but i want flood also.
the d25a sounds the best. im gonna go google this light and see what its all about.

Trouble is, everyone will have an opinion and likely only experienced a few or a handful of such lights. So it’s hard to really give a fair answer.

I guess a sensible question is what kind of flood and what sort of usage?

I’ve recently picked up a Trustfire Z8 from Tmart and I have to say the flood mode is superb. It’s a FTT light but runs an XML and 14500’s only. Flood gives a wonderfully smooth light beam with a faint hotspot. It’ll light up my entire garden pretty evenly which I think is quite impressive. The zoom throw more adds another dimension although it’s not a thrower like the sk68.

It has 3 modes. The only downer is its very Cool white and being stainless produces a lot of heat if you want extended on times. But it is cheap, looks great and is affective.

Note that I only said it was the floodiest with this $6 attachment.

The mod looks amazing, but you can do that later if you don’t want to spend that much money right now. It’s already a great light with a 14500.

ok, yea that eagletac is a little bit too pricey . looks like xeno eo3 it is then.
hey whats this light saber i keep hearing about. is it an attachment? i cant seem to find any info on it.

hows this guys mod on the eo3?
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?251654-NEW![](-XM-L-Xeno-E03)!![](-500LM-AA-14500-Pocket-Rocket)-(CW-NW-WW!)

he seems to sell it for the same price as how much they go for stock.

Look in the picture above. The light saber is that thing on the tip of the flashlights. To my eye it creates an even sphere of light. I have a lantern and a diffuser attachment for my Fenix HP10, and those pale in comparison to what I’m calling the light saber. I’ve been trying to think of how I can take a picture to illustrate this.

The Xeno e03 with light saber is now my preferred light around the house. If I get a headlight strap for it, it might become my favorite backpacking light too. I do wish it had more of a hotspot for night hiking on single track trails though. The light saber will be a nice compact lantern for my tent.

Unless I’m severely mistaken, that’s a factory stock Xeno e03 and essentially the same as the one I have, except the newest ones have a better bin and switch.

Really? I thought he hasn't tested the D25A clicky. D25C with RCR was 770lm.

My 2c about these lights:

- D25A Clicky is a quite nice light, but kind of loses it's modes with 14500 and becomes merely a two mode light (iff you notice to change the moonlight mode on. Then moon = low(ish), all other brightness modes are high)

- Xeno E03 has nice build quality, but low is more like a med with 14500

- Balder SE-1 is also good quality, very nice design, has three well spaced modes, and it keeps it's low (with about 300Hz PWM)

- TF Z8 is nice little light too, especially like the "uniform flood with hotspot". However it has strobe mode and low isn't low enough for my taste. And no NW option (yet)

=> This all results to the fact that my Balder is used daily, others are not.

Trouble is, you lose all modes but low and I think it direct drives the emitter. Also due to heat you can only use it for short periods at a time. Which in my book would make it pretty useless as a flashlight.

Any small light being pushed with 14500 should only be used in short spurts. They are all too small to dissipate the heat produced with Li Ion.

True, but if it retained more modes you could run it at a lower level for longer periods should you need something between low and 30 secs on turbo. :wink:

If you want the light with the best floody beam profile , my vote will be the Balder SE-1 .

I’m waiting for my SE-1 to be delivered. My HD-1 just gets too hot to handle on 14500.