I am reviewing the BLF Q8 flashlight. An excellent high-power light designed by experts on this forum, built by Thorfire, and sold by Banggood.
Video review is here:
My written review is still in progress, but I will post it here soon.
I was given a discount code by Banggood which can be used to bring the price down to $48.50. (Regular price seems to be $80 right now.) Use the code on checkout, when you get the light here: https://goo.gl/s33rnu
IMO, I think the price is fair at the $80 regular price. At $48.50, I think it’s a steal. It’s not quite as cheap as the $40 initial group buy price, but I have no idea how they’re able to sell it for that. I think this was an outstanding design by the team on this forum.
My only complaint about the light (which I’ll mention in my written review), is that it’s a heavy light. Naturally, it is, because of the heat-sinking and build quality. So, it’s really not much of a complaint, since it’s required to make the light so great at handling the high output. But, hey, I have to come up with something.
As for muggles using the light. Don’t worry. Its standard default ramping configuration is very easy to use. The only thing I’d recommend is to turn off strobes.
Also, I really like they used batteries in parallel. That makes it safe even for muggles. I’d never recommend a multiple lithium-ion light that uses cells in series, for newbies.
I only took mine to work to get a thermal image of it... which didn't happen because we only have 2 imagers and they are constantly in use.
Long story short about half the department wanted to see how bright a multiple emitter light is. They already know if it is mine it will smoke anything in the building.
Once they saw it ramp up about half way that thought it was incredible lol... then I kicked it into turbo and they had to know where to get one.
After explaining the power source only 3 left that said they would still want one.
I got lucky and saw your review.
It really is a far better price than I would have imagined.
Now... what will I do when they see Giggles... lol they will be on their own. That could easily retail for 300...
Hi WITL
Nice review mate
I liked your clever use of stills in the video
It’s given me the courage to take on configuring the strobes off with confidence
Come on George you can do it , just say to yourself I am strong and I can do it …I am strong and I can do it
Heh, yeah, I have a video on my youtube page that shows me “smoking” paper with it in seconds. So, yes, it will literally smoke stuff!
Yes, lithium-ion powered lights aren’t for everyone. Luckily, this light uses them in parallel and has low-voltage protection for safety. But, good 18650’s can be hard to get at times. It’s not as easy as loading cheap alkaleaks into a dollar-store light and throwing them away when they’re done.
For people that have never used rechargeable batteries, I’d probably start out with something fail-safe, like Eneloops. You’re limited to about a thousand lumens on a 4xAA light, which is still pretty good for anyone that’s only ever used maglites.
Yeah, nothing in the docs about how to do it, but the last paragraph says “Switch Indicator LED - TBD…”, so I was hoping there might be a secret command…
Go into battery-check mode, by doing 3 quick clicks while the light is off.
Do a click&hold, then release.
The light will blink twice rapidly, then blink once.
Click once (before the light starts blinking the next configuration setting).
Wait a few seconds, the light should blink 4 times.
Done.
Or, what I prefer to do, it just disable it temporarily:
From off, press and hold the switch to start ramping up the light.
Then, let go of the switch, and quickly click it again.
The light will turn off, and the switch LED will remain off.
It will come on again the next time you use the light.