I am especially excited about this in view of the fact that according to the DX comments it appears to sport an OSRAM Golden Dragon emitter, a device which I highly respect after seeing the beautiful beam in my Uniquefire AA-S1. I hope that this model isn't driven so hard as the AA-S1, hopefully giving decent battery life. Additionally, I've never owned any zoomable flashlights, so I'm curious to experiment with this new feature. If the specs are reliable, it should be about the same length as a BLF DeLight and slightly wider at the head. I really like the looks of the knurling throughout the body.
Here's a review (in Spanish) with good pictures of the disassembled light; he lists the following pros and cons:
Pros
Small size for an AA
Smallish head for a zoomer
Good tailswitch
In theory it looks good for mods
Very nice for a pocket-sized EDC
Cons
Antiquated LED (Osram golden dragon)
Less powerful than the C78
Doesn't work with 14500s
I've noticed that it gets really hot in the body after 5 minutes with an Alkaline, which isn't bad, but the bad part is taking out the battery which is also hot
I got a comparable SmallSun one which is my narrow beam dog spotting back door light. Works fine for that though like all such devices a longer range to test it would be nice. But then it doesn't really get fully dark at this time of year here - when I went to bed I didn't need any lights on, nor did I when I woke up 4 hours later.
Hi there, XRAYBoY, thanks for the links! I did read several very positive reviews of the C78 at DX. But I really do prefer the small size of this one I just bought. But thanks for the Focalprice link, that's an EXCELLENT price!
Even the regular price of $6.07 is great, but FocalPrice was very accommodating with giving me a new $2 coupon code just for me since the other "2OFF5" one didn't work for some reason. So for $4.07 I'll be pretty happy with this I think. It looks stellar this one, and maybe, just maybe it could be multi-mode. How do you understand this quote?
It looks like the Sipik SK58 definitely has either a Cree or an OSRAM too, most likely an OSRAM. And very possibly it could have three modes, judging from the following Alibaba page translated through Google: http://tinyurl.com/24gccvb
Hey there Anduril. For me the C78 is totally out just for its looks. It's much longer and has a much bigger head than the Sipik SK58. It also has a bump-style tailswitch. A real ugly prize winner in my opinion. And costs wayyyyyyy more, almost $4 more than the SK58! ;)
I own both, the 'No. 5 Super bright" and the SK58 (which arrived today). Even looking almost the same, the SK58 is indeed superior.
Both are using Osram leds.
SK58:
+ less wobbly zooming mechanism
+ lanyard hole is now on the side (meaning perfect tailstanding)
+ brighter (YMMV)
+ no flicker issues whatsover, driver pill seems to be better contacted with the body
+ looks better, even the knurling is a bit better imho
- led shape visible on full flood(!), that's a premiere with a f2t-light for me
No. 5:
+ slightly wider flood
+ clicky feels a bit better
Both feature they same kind of over-current protection (on LiIon light turns off immediately after a short light burst). Both are 1-mode. Still, the driver PCBs look completely different (well, the downside).
Both have a rather bad tint (blueish and greenish). I think the tint will vary a lot, no matter which model you buy. The Osram GDP is on of the most precisely color-binned leds on the market, it's pretty obvious those budget lights are using second quality golden dragons with varying brightness and tint.