Thoughts on my TF Z8, XTAR WK26 & ZL SC52W (newbie)

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
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No flashaholic here (yet, I hope), but having moved years ago from a older non-LED Maglites to run-of-the-mill <= $10 LED ones picked up here & there was always disappointed with them. So decided to do something about it a few weeks ago. This is long & wordy (sorry) & a heck of a first post I guess.

Well after a dozen or more hrs researching here, CPF, AMAZ reviews, etc, first trying to economize, here I am with these flashlights. Throwing out my thoughts on these trying to give back a little from where I learned so much, for what its worth.

The flashlight(s) I wanted would be for EDC, occasional around the house & camping use (e.g. to/from bathroom/shower:). Wanted small, pocket size, preferred spill/flood over throw, that took rechargeables w/long shelf/idle life. Familiar & comfortable w/Li-ions, having a couple Ultrafire WF-139s around from my son’s RC car days, decided 14500s would be the way I’d go. Based on HKJ’s great reports and price/availability, got some EagleTac 14500 protected cells from GoingGear (recommended).

Could (should?) have started w/a couple $7-shipped SK68 clones but thought a step up from them might be nice.

So first got TrustFire Z8 (ebay/campingsurvivals/TMart) for $14 delivered. It worked but was heavy/bulky for the pocket, had no medium or memory and a strange beam pattern. Note: Though my Z8 looks identical to JohnnyMac’s review & is apparently genuine (see below), a very strong magnet does not attract at all to its center body, so perhaps these newer Z8s (w/o stainless steel body ?) are not clones - perhaps TrustFire has gone to (all?) aluminum? On the other hand maybe its this: “ferritic stainless steels are generally magnetic while austenitic stainless steels usually are not.”
In the end can’t see this for EDC / my intended uses so its in a drawer waiting for a power outage. It’s zoom was difficult to use & seeming useless to me, it just truncates spill/spread/flood to fuzzy, weak LED die square. No clip, nothing to stop roll, shaky tail stand even w/o strap, bulky & heavy compared to those below.

Next up was XTAR WK26 (ebay/xtar-direct) for $20 delivered (w/keyring lite surprise). To me this was a dramatic step up from the Z8 - less than half its empty weight, nice spill/flood + hotspot for throw, plenty of modes, memory, even a simple way of pruning out modes you don’t use. Nice machining, balance & overall feel as well. Hard to imagine anyone being disappointed with this lite, given its price ($6 over Z8 is well spent IMO) & features. Note: No clip, nothing to stop roll, good tail stand w/o strap, decent with.

A couple WK26s would have certainly served my purposes… Especially IF I’d not seen or heard of the ZL SC52:)

Then, in a moment of weakness (or strength, as known by others I bet) I ordered the in-stock Zebralight SC52W. And it is now what’s been residing in my pocket the last several days. It’s virtues have been expounded elsewhere, for me it has these over the WK26 (other than 3X its price:) size, side switch + its easy/quick locating & use, clip both for use & grip, no-roll design, good tail stand, better heat dissipating, customization of mode levels (e.g. I use a “lower” high).

Bottom line IMO the XTAR WK26 is a darn nice flashlight for its $20 delivered. One that I would have been quite happy with for my uses at least until Father’s Day or something:) I really did try to resist ordering the SC52 & instead asking for it as a gift. But I rationalized against it… Would my wife really buy me a tiny $60 flashlight? I couldn’t be sure….

Info - Weight: (all weights WITH 19g batt): Z8: 114g, WK26: 61g, SC52W: 60g
Spill/spread diameter very rough guess relateive to Z8 being 100% (of solid fill!), WK26: 150% (1/2 again as big), SC52W: 200% (2X Z8’s dia)

Some pictures. For nice, proper pictures see others’ real reviews of course. I’m no photographer & these were made with a little automatic. The beam pics are only to better compare patterns & diameter, and they’re not even very good for that because the wall’s dark blue (lites 4ft from it) and the two outer flashlights were pointed slightly outward to avoid overlap.

How they came (XTAR, at least maybe the AA WK25, seems very giftable as mentioned elsewhere):
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That ZL is a little guy:
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Front view w/SC52W standing on its clip:
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Relative beam patterns (WK26 left, SC52W center, Z8 right), fill & diameter (caveats WRT crappiness of my attempt above):
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Wait. I bet I have to take back that no flashaholic here bit above:)

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I have the sc52 and sc600 II. Two of my favorite lights!

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Welcome to BLF, nice post, thanks. I agree on all your observations, based on of the 3 lights just owning a Z8 and not liking it ;-)

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… for the welcome & thoughts. Yes maybe an 18650 lite like sc600 Mk II lies somewhere in my future.
For now I’ll be carrying the SC52W & maybe looking for a snap on clip that fits that 16mm dia X 6.3mm smooth section on the WK26…

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Thanks for the great post. Are the photos of those tints basically true to life? The two that aren’t Zebralights are remarkably blue.

I’d love to get a 1xAA for EDC, but I’ve run into a similar problem - I’ve considered several cheaper models, but the one I really want is the Zebralight SC52. The other models I’ve considered - right now, I’m thinking about the Solarforce Z2 and the Xeno E03 - both cost about $20-$25, but (as you pointed out) the SC52 costs $60 or so. There’s nothing wrong with the Xeno or the Solarforce, and I could easily see myself buying one of them the next time I have $20ish that I feel like spending on a light. But I’d have a hard time justifying spending $60 on a 1xAA when the other, similar models are available for much less, & if I really had $60 to spend I’d probably buy something different than a 1xAA anyway (like a 4xAA Sunwayman D40A).

So, like you I want to wait until someone wants to give me one as a gift, or somebody makes a really good SC52 clone, or something…

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It is impossible to get a white tint right in a photo, and if there is more than one in the same photo, fixing one tint by digital editing usually makes the other even worse. Relative to each other a photo gives a rough impression of tint difference, but even then nothing more than an impression.

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> Are the photos of those tints basically true to life?

No, not at all. SC52W has a more natural tint, like that of my older non-LED lites I’d say but the other two are cool white - don’t look blue to me.

> The two that aren’t Zebralights are remarkably blue.

My beam-on-dark-blue wall shot is pretty horrible, perhaps I should just edit/delete it or have not included it. I’ve no photography skills, the pic was more to show the lites’ beam saturation & spread BUT please search for proper reviews of the lights (they are around & have much better pics).
Mine is more of an opinion post.

I was considering the Xeno E03 & its probably a good light but I did find at least 3 reports of switch problems, so leaned toward others. Really just used those random reports to try to prune down choices.

Agree that $60 would seem like a lot for a 1xAA light to me at this point as well. But I had the Li-ion chargers so rationalized going 14500 & spending more. Like anything, at the start we learn what we really want through use of the things we do buy. In the end tho one rarely regrets buying quality. And households do need at least a couple decent flashlights:) Good luck in your search.