REVIEW: Uniquefire UF-1405 (XM-L2 , 2x26650/2x18650)

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
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First impressions:
Shipped from: GearBest http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_71429.html
Special Price $25.99 with coupon UF-1405

The first time i saw it, i thought “well how big it is”. It is a really nice flashlight to handle , maybe just a little heavy for a constant use, but it is not an EDC so it’s normal that it’s not so easy to carry on.

The first think that catch the attention is the REALLY BIG aspherical optic, the biggest one found on a flashlight to date (this should be true…).

Rear switch works good on my unit, but I’ve heard some members complaining about the quality of the switch. I am FAR FROM BEING an expert, but for what i can see and test it, the switch does work like should do.

Modes and estimated lumens:
Switch type: MECHANICAL
There are “ 5 ” modes in the following order:
Hi – med – low – strobo - sos

My estimated lumens are 500/600. i expected more……the led is clearly underdriven, so nice mods could be done.

>>LIGHT >>> The angle of refraction:

Weight and dimensions measurements (made myself, not by specs):
This flashlight weighs precisely 524 gr
Height 22,3 cm
Diameter 3 cm
Head diameter 7 cm

Construction quality:
Mine unit arrived without any scratch or external defect. All threads are well made and the overall quality is very high. The good weight of this flashlight make me fink it is really strong and hard-wearing.

Lanyard hole: PRESENT (one)

Threads came PARTIALLY GREASED, but this is not a big con, i used my grease.(mine isn’t an high quality one, but you can buy a top notch if you prefer).
The part that needed grease is the thread of the focus mechanism , that previously was hard to spin.

Led Tint, reflector and lense:
The led tint is a cold white
Reflector made of(JOKE!): there is no reflector! This kind of flashlight does not need it, thanks to the special aspherical lense.
Lense made of : GLASS

Being a zoomable flashlight, you should expect nice performance on long range beamshoot. NATURALLY it is so :wink: and you can reach(when the aspherical glass lense is in the furthest point from led) long distances with a nice narrow beam.
No light artifacts in zoom in ,neither in zoom out mode

Outside beamshot at 25 meters, only at FULL power (same place for all my reviews)

Wall beamshot at 250 centimeters, from lower to higher power (same place for all my reviews)

Ceiling bounce test with LUXmeter:


PROS:

- good price (the gearbest price is the lowest i found on google search)

- biggest aspherical lense flashlight

- good construcion for what you pay for

  • comfortable to hold, thanks to a “26650 made for” diameter body

CONS:

- slightly heavy

  • underdriven led

Final thoughts and why you should buy it:

With a driver/led mod which would drain MORE current, this flashlight accepting two 26650 battery will surely offer a good amount of power to the led.
At stock state, it’s not a monster. But it is a nice piece of original flashlight for the nice price at which it’s sold.
I’ve never modded a flashlight, but this one is too much original and eye catching for not being modded, in a next future!!!
I think everyone should buy this flashlight……just to own the biggest aspherical lense flashlight, and try to mod it.
At the moment, however i like it for being a special item in my collection and for the nice actual zoom performance, even more promising to increase if you choose to do a led/driver modification.

Thanks for reading……
….and if you notice some bad written phrases, feel free to correct me suggesting the right way to write it!! :slight_smile:

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Either this light, or the single cell version is on my VERY short list of want-to-buy flashlights. Unofortunately, I had to move out of the rural area and into a neighborhood, so I don't have as much use for an insane long-range flooder. :_(

Simple mod, just replace the emitter with a dedomed CW XP-G2 and leave everything else stock... See how that work out. Should get some improved throw.

I also see you have the same LG television remote as me...

And how about a review on that multimeter? I've looked at that model at Harbor Freight here, and really like the multiple functions that one has.

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Good review. Thank you. Don't worry about the language difference. We are used to Chinglish here, so your English is ok with us.

+1 on a review of that meter. I have also been thinking about getting one.

Oh, I hope you do a mod for this light and post it!

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Very nice review! It takes a lot of effort to write this up

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thank you the great review :party:

My current Mod: Driver LD-4B MT-G2 Q0 next mod: driver LD-2 6V/9A MT-G2 Q0 :evil:

(edited wrong driver :8) )

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Can you use two 18650 in series with the LD-25? I thought the input voltage is only 3-4.2V?

Its output voltage (3V) also doesn’t seems to be able to power 6V emitter?

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Sorry, you are right bibihang.
I’ve missed :bigsmile:

No LD-25 instead Driver LD-4B

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Hah, no worries man.

I’ve always wanted to look for a good buck driver for my 1405 but I have no luck so far. LD-4B is the one I use in my 1405, but it has stopped working since last month and I suspect that it is because it can’t handle high current (I stacked an R120 resistor on top of the stock one) and burned.

Richard is making some good 17mm buck drivers recently and these may be the hope for it. :slight_smile:

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1405 is born for 2x18650 parallel alteration.

I find one example here (post 559) on BLF:

Something like this could be altered with stock plastic tube with some dremeling, wiring, and thinking.

And then FET drivers or DD modes in Cajampa style would have more sense to me.

Edit: another one in this thread post 344.

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really ingenius! so with this battery mod, driver can be changed with one that use only 1x battery (2,8v to 4.2v range)

but….what if change driver plus led with an xhp-50 ( smaller than mt-g2) and a LITTLE internal reflector………that is BEFORE the aspherical lense? just to catch all the light and push if frontly toward the aspherical lense….what with this mode is FORCED to stay at max longer/distance from the led emitter ( no space to short it… because there’s the reflector internally)

what do u think of my idea?

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Realista,

Reflector in aspherics light is not good idea. Reflector does not contribute to hotspot intensity at all. It just adds ugly spill around main hotspot. I tried that before :). I even have Wolf eyes night hunter(first edition) aspherical flashlight that uses small reflector and beam is very ugly and ringy.

I also don't think XHP-50 or MT-G2 is right choice for this flashlight. This flashlight is dedicated for throw so throwy emitters are must with this light( XP-G2, XM-L2, XPL)

Reflector under aspherical lenses looks like this:

Orange peel reflector:

Smooth reflector:

Only thing that can enhance the throw is RA (recycling collar). MEM from BLF is original inventor of RA.

Look at this thread post 457

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recycling collar IMHO is a stupid thing. I can’t explain well because english is not my native language, but in my opinion it does only “CUT” the beam…. appearing more clean… more focused to infinity but it can’t be true. …beinc an “inversed” reflector… for example of you reflect inwards 30 or 40% of light power, this power does NOT return out through the central hole. expecially with DARK BASE PLATES like noctigun. yo should have a “mirror” surface ( where you mount the led) to make it return all light exterior….(light that inversed reflector put inwards)

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No problem. Make your version of reflector aspherics and post picture or two here so we can all see. :)

RA is best and most expensive thing for aspherical flashlights which can boost candela performance for 100%

If you are "lumen hunter" you should forget about aspherical flashlights and build yourself something like BTU Shocker.

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Thanks realista for another good review, did you, by case, measured the throw?
I think I’ve missed it on the review

As I said to realista I have that DMM too, since I work in a Hardware tool shop we haven’t fluke or such, but I’ve compared it to few meters we have here which cost few times more those are Milwaukee stuff, 2216 and 2237. Here they cost about 204 and 490 euros respectively, MRSP.
The best of the two milwaukees is 2216, 6000 counts, stable and accurate in my humble opinion
And the Mastech 8229 scores pretty decently for an all purpose meter, also comparing the luxmeter I got nearly the same results as manufacturers claim (nitecore, Jetbeam, thrunite etc…) and near a dedicated luxmeter.
It’s 4000 counts, Refresh is not fast this has to be said, If i estimate it now, based on my memory, i would say like 2 refresh per second.

These are my measurement with few differents cells with different Voltages

EFEST IMR26650,Panny NCR18650B, Efest IMR 10440, e ultrafire 10440 grey protected

Milw 2216 4.125V 3.668V 3.856V 3.986V
Milw 2237 4.12 V 3.67 V 3.85 V 3.98 V
Mast 8229 4.13 V 3.67 V 3.86 V 3.99 V

Now, i would not say this is precise in an absolute way, I mean all of those DMMs could be well uncalibrated and all could be wrong, but this will let you make your idea
Also here the CAT certifications is something you shouldn’t blindly rely on.

another good test would have been with cells below 3.6 volts comparing all the counts of 2216 to the 8229, but maybe another time.

A good inexpensive meter I will be buying soon or later is the UT61E with 22000 counts. If you don’t need , humidity, luxmeter, decibel, etc…but just plain testing low voltage, it should be a real bargain.

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The 1200 Lumen version with the XM-L2
http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_71429.html

The 1600 Lumen version with the XM-L T6
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/UniqueFire-UF-1405-Zoom-cree-XM-L-T6-led-flashlight-1600Lumen-5Mode-Self-Defense-Tactical-Flashlight/32229662740.html

The 1600 Lumen version with the XM-L U2
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HOT-UniqueFire-UF-1405-1-CREE-XM-L-U2-1600Lumen-5-Mode-Lanterna-LED-Flashlight-Self/32298639727.html

Looking to use a pair of these 26650’s in it:

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Rule #1 of budget flashlights: don’t trust chinese lumens numbers.

I say buy from gearbest because it is of known good quality and they take paypal

17

Fair enough.

Let me ask it a different way:

With all else being equal (v and ma), which of the 3 different emitters (in theory/ on paper) would produce the most light?

I know zip about emitters.

Thanks,
Dr_Dx

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XML2 beats XML, but you usually can’t trust emitter claims either, because the sellers can rarely tell the difference themselves. They just report what the manufacturer told them, whether it’s right or not. If you can learn to spot the difference, sometimes you can tell what emitter is there by the pictures, but sometimes even the pictures lie :slight_smile:

Edit: we know that the light from gearbest does indeed include the XM-L2, which replaced the older XM-L

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Start reading :slight_smile:

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I’ve got a 490+kcd 1405 with a stainless steel reflecting aperture I made on my lathe that says differently. But believe what you want.

You can see the increased intensity and tint shift when the reflection is correctly aimed back at the die when doing the adjustments, even without a meter, if/when you ever decide to experiment yourself. I’ve met MEM, his RA-fu is far greater than mine, my SS collars only add about 20-25% to the candela output due to size and material, his are a minimum of 70%.