Newbie question: Is there a generic budget floody? ~$20 or so, no mods needed. Like the C8, but for flood.

I’ve been having fun learning a lot here!
One general question, as I’m getting a feel for what’s out there. I have a cheapo C8 (Thorfire), and despite the cheap price ($14) and lack of mods (so far), it’s an impressively bright light! It’s at least as bright as my Dorcy SLA spotlight , despite being 1/3 the price and about 1/10 the weight. Seems like everyone here has a C8 (if not several). Easily available, easily mod-able yet very usable in stock configuration. But it’s clearly primarily a thrower.
My question: is there an equivalent in the flood world?
Something cheap & un-modded that provides a nice even flood.
I’ve seen some recommendations for the Convoy S3 or S2+ as a relatively floody light, but it still seems like those are more general purpose with some hotspot + spill, and they don’t seem _quite _as ubiquitous as the C8. (I may well be wrong on that - I don’t have any first-hand experience with either one). The early Skyray King might have sort of answered this, being an common and powerful floody, but a decent one is ~2X-4X the cost of a C8. And each full set of batteries for an SRK would run 4X the cost of C8 batteries - you’re easily talking >$100 for a newbie to get into a decent SRK.

Anything I’m missing? Is it more difficult to manufacture a good-quality flood, or are they just less trendy?

TIA for the beginner flashaholic education!
Andy

SRK has the batteries in parallel - so could work with 1 instead of 4. the cheapest ones I bought were 15-20$ in an era where we didn’t have LatticeBright. so I got 3-5x real Crees and decent flood. It is by far one of the cheapest methods to get a flooder.
but I understand your questions and it is not easy to compare a multi-emitter flooder with a 1 emitter C8.

A $2 sk68 clone with the lens removed is a “mule” — ’oogle “mule” and “flashlight” for more on that approach.

And that can be a problem when you’re trying to choose. The Convoy S2+ is highly regarded and is floody. The C8 is older which is why you hear more about it, plus it excels at throw for it’s size. The C2+ will meet or exceed that level of popularity in time I think. I don’t have a C2+ but it’s similar to my BLF A6 so I think you’d like it. Plus you won’t need another cell since it’s an 18650 light too. Neither is “the ultimate floody” but they do very well given their size. And most floodys will have something of a hotspot, that will vary among them, but you’ll still get a lot of light at the edges which floodys are all about.

I think the things to consider right now are how much light you need, then form-factor and size. Most good lights have decent emitter tints available to choose from or have a good tint as-is. A single 18650 can put out a lot of lumens for a decent period of time but if you need more it’s out there!

Phil

Convoy S2+ with some parchment paper in front of the lens might work for you.

Thanks for the tip! Yes, I’ve considered this. Right now all my 18650s are flat tops (laptop harvest), so I’d need to modify the batteries (soldering on magnets sounds risky) or buy new button-tops. I assume using two cells, with some sort of spacers between them, would allow the light to feel balanced, while still offering some half-decent runtime. I’m wondering if a chunk of PVC, or some other easily available non-conductive tubing, would work as a dummy / spacer? Then there’s the question of where to buy the light - Mtn Electronics certainly seems to be the reputable source, but not the cheapest.

In fact, this is about the best conclusion I’ve come to: buying light + a few good cells from Richard seems like the safest bet, but even that limited option (with no mods) is ~$60 shipped.

Yes, too many options is a wonderful problem to have! :slight_smile:

I actually ordered an S1 (= 2nd-gen BLF A6?), so I’ll get to play with that pretty soon. I’m mostly intending to try that (with short tube) as an EDC pocket light. While I’m on that topic, does anyone know offhand if optics for an S2+ will be a direct fit in the A6/S1? I’m liking the 60-degree lens in this thread , but not sure it’ll fit directly.

I’ll try that! Don’t think I have any parchment paper, but I’ll play with scotch tape or other options. Thanks!

I forgot about those TIR lenses. Those are very nice options for as cheap as they are. I think I paid $2 for 5 at Fasttech. I haven't used them in S2+ or an A6, but I have used them in various small mods. They make a very nice beam pattern.

Ultrafire WF-1500 - 5 Q5 emitters in a shallow reflector= mucho flood. Doesn’t have a real discernable hotspot except at very close range. I bought one of these early on toward the beginning of my collecting and it’s proved to be an extremely useful flooder. AND, you can run your laptop pulls in it. I included the first link I found when I Googled it but maybe with some shopping around you could find it closer to the $20 mark (it’s $29.99 in the link). It’s not a really huge light either. If it piques your interest, I can try to get some pics of it next to a C8 and some beamshots… Badger
http://www.dx.com/p/ultrafire-wf-1500-5-x-cree-xr-e-q5-1200lm-5-mode-white-flashlight-black-2-x-18650-184774#.Vplof8nn_qA