Looking for a pocket thrower. The baseline for this type of light seems to be the ubiquitous C8. I had a C8 light (my first LED torch), and although I don’t think it was a particularly good example of the class - I also think its probably a bit too wide in the head.
It might be that this is just how it has got to be if you want throw, but I figure it’s best to ask.
I don’t need a pure thrower, but I would like to make a step up in throw from, say, a UF-T50.
Single cell 18650 would be my preference, though 26650 might be an interesting compromise between size and run times.
Well you are going to get more throw in a few ways. One is with a larger reflector. Two is with a brighter emitter. You can get a brighter emitter in two ways. More power or smaller die emitter. Say instead of an XM-L2 you put in a XP-G2. With an XP-G2 you can get more throw in a smaller package, but you lose total lumens and end up with a pencil thin beam. Another way to get more throw is to de-dome your led. You can do this by soaking it in gas until the dome falls off. Overnight is more than enough but don’t worry about soaking it too long. Another way to get more throw is with an aspheric lens. Then you have the choice of dedicated thrower or zoomie.
Your cheapest solution is to simply de-dome the emitter you have already and put it back in. This will get you more throw and a more neutral tint.
If you want to buy another light, a ZY-T08 is a good thrower but it’s larger than a C-8 but it will outthrow you C-8 by a bunch. If you want a zoomie you could consider the Uniquefire UF-T20 it’s much cheaper than the UF-T50 and it has a pretty good aspheric lens and you can get amazing throw by putting in a de-domed XP-G2. Then you have a true pocket thrower. It’s actually a Wolf eye clone.
XP-G2 and pencil beam? Not really. Personally I don’t like zoomies, they can throw nicely but their beam isn’t very useable. @gregs656, what’s your price limit?
I suppose it depends on what you call pencil beam but yes you put considerably less lumens out with a XP-G2 and to get the extra throw you have to concentrate that throw into a smaller and smaller beam. I have built around 50 throwers now so I’m pretty sure I have a good idea of how it works. For me personally I like a thrower with an XM-L2 that is running at 7amps through a large reflector. But that is kinda hard to do in a pocket size. If you want a pocket sized thrower that goes over 100kcd it’s hard to do it without an aspheric lens and a zoomie allows you to also have the more useable flood.
I think the best budget thrower around is the Small Sun ZY-T08, it isn’t huge and can be bought for $20 right now on Wallbuys. Pretty hard to beat if you ask me.
With the same reflector XP-G2 beam is tighter but in a smallish flashlight still far away from “pencil beam”. In the same reflector XM-L needs much more lumens (and heat, and short runtime) just to match XP-G2’s throw.
Noone mentioned 100klux/1m, OP wants it to be better than UF-T50 which have less than 10klux/1m. I don’t like the flood from aspheric, it’s brighter outside and dimmer inside which is not very comfortable.
OP is lookind for a pocket thrower, even C8 is too big (wide) for him and ZY-T08 is much bigger than C8.
you canbuy a real nice holster that fits the zy-t08 from fasttech, its the niwalker holster and is the biggest they do.
An over driven xp-g2 in a c8 class reflector is not too bad and nets 50kcd or so, dedome it and your close to 100kcd.
Zoomies are in my opinion not even worth looking at, give me a decent reflector any day of the week. I find the flood set up gives irritating tint shifts and the die image being thrown just bugs the crap out of me.
How far do you realistically need to throw? And what are you looking for? I’m assuming a run away pooch?
I can easily loose a zy-t08 or c8 in a winter jacket breast pocket, personally I’m with 18650, give me a two or three cell thrower with a 70mm head, for preference two 26650 cells in series, a proper traditional torch, if I need to be able to stash it, it’ll drop into a belt holster or the loop on contractors pants and be plenty secure.
Budget light wise you’ll struggle to beat 50kcd without doing a little work, unless you go for something like an stl-v6/maxtoch sn-6x/convoy l2 and accept that its best to have two cells in series in line, there’s not a budget alternative to the k40/tn31 etc yet but your going over the hundred pound barrier there.
thinking about what phantom23 has said above, ouchyfoot shared a nice build with me that is fairly easy to assemble and results in a really impressive working light.
@tallboybass, exactly! They forgot to read the first post. OP was pretty cleas - he wants a flashlight that is smaller than C8 but throws better than UF-T50 (which means more than 10klux/1m). Answers? Huuuge superthrowers with over 50klux/1m…
which is as compact as the solarforce l2 without having to use crappy p60’s, it could easily use all the above linked components and quite happily spent everyday in my left hand pocket till I got a holster for it, the same holster that takes a xiozhi, its used everyday and even with the floody xm-l2 5a1 in there provides a usefull amount of throw.
it depends, if you need to light up the length of a rugby pitch well enough to id someone, your struggling with a smaller reflector than a c8. If you just need to see the posts at that distance, both those hosts easily do that with an xm-l without overdriving, put a copper mounted xp-g2 in there with a 3a driver and the throw is something else for the size.
As I say though, the zy-t08 will easily fit into the sort of jacket the op is likely to be wearing in the UK at this time of year, I know that because funnily enough, I’ll be wearing a similar jacket since I’m also in the uk and I have both c8’s and zy-t08’s to compare, another good one is my trustfire t1, its old and been modded by both vihn and myself over the years but its suprisingly compact and still works very well with a 3 mode 3a driver and an xm-l2
Gords, I mean absolutely no offense, the dimensions are listed for your first host suggestion as “165MM*52MM*38MM”…maybe they got them wrong? So hard to tell from pics!
they are listed at that………Guess how disappointed I was when I actually got it.
the lense is 34mm diameter, so about an inch and a half, my one year old loves this light and runs around the house playing with it, its very very slender, just a touch bigger head than a tube host tbh
I would say it’s time to step back and allow the OP to let us know what he is considering before we end up in a flame war over simply trying to help somebody out. It’s rather silly to be arguing over something like this.
its small in diameter but a touch long but still easily pocket able, the uf-v3 is one of my favourite builds and will be getting a dedome in the near future, that drops into a jeans pocket quite easily.
The only thing holding me back from a C8 is the head size. You guys might think I am odd, but previous experience dictates I am much more likely to have/use kit if I can carry it with out really noticing it. Holsters are just not going to happen. The only thing I would wear a holster for is a gun. I don’t even like putting knives in belt pouches.
The Eagletac TX25C2 would definitely be a workable size - the side clicky is definitely a preference of mine but I can compromise on that.
I should have specified a price. Ideally something in the $30 range. Second hand would be fine.
I have one running at 2.1A with a warm tint, very well build light.
Keep in mind protected 18650s won’t fit (too long) unless you mod the front spring by taking it all apart and removing said spring and adding a bit of solder to the short spring you find under it.
