I didn’t find a site where someone compared the Osram Versions of the TK16 with TK17 with TK18.
Has someone all three flashlights in the Osram Version and can write something about them?
I’m interested in outdoor Beamshots with Turbo mode and distances between 1m and 10m and want to know if the strobe in the mode cycle of the TK17 is that annoying.
I have the TK16 copper with Osram and the TK17 aluminum with Samsung. I do not have a TK18, but assume it’s just a bigger TK16.
Some observations of the lights I do own:
About the TK16:
It is considerably smaller than the TK17. Throw is great for the size and beam is very bright.
The TK16 ships in muggle mode with reduced outputs. If you want max output carefully read the instructions and toggle it to power mode.
It has an electronic switch like an FW3A. Interface is very similar to Olight with long press for moonlight, double-click for turbo, short press for on-off and to go to last used mode, and press-and-hold for ramp up-down. This is a very intuitive interface with shortcuts to all the most-used modes.
Slip-on clip is not great. Felt good out of the box but I found the lip on it to be a little small. To clip the light to shorts or sweatpants was a two-handed operation to lift the tip of the clip up so it would slip on. Also, after having the light for a month or two one of the retaining arms of the clip snapped and caused it to fly off the light. This destroyed the clip and happened while the light was not on and was sitting on a table with nothing around it.
About the TK17:
Excellent feel in the hand and excellent grip.
Interesting styling. Reminds me a bit of my Lumintop LM10, but with everything a lot smaller and lighter.
The metal switch boot is nice.
The aluminum TK17 looks good. The titanium one looks incredible, but is outside my budget.
The interface is a big step backwards. It does not use an electronic switch. Instead it’s just a basic reverse-clicky with 5 brightness modes and strobe. There are no shortcuts to any mode. To get to any mode other than what you last used, you have to cycle through all the modes in sequence. This is the kind of interface I’d expect in a $20 Convoy light, not an $80 premium light.
Clip seems to be quite nice with an adequate lip for slipping onto pants or shorts. And since it screws on it shouldn’t break like the TK16’s clip did.
My conclusion: I like the more interesting styling of the TK17 better than the TK16. And I really like the styling of the gorgeous, but way overpriced, titanium TK17. However, for usefulness apart from the clip issue, I think the TK16 and TK18 are probably much better lights due to their electronic switches, more compact sizes for what they do and superior interface.
Update: TK17 maybe a clicky switch interface, but it’s not horribly done for one.
It uses off-time memory with what looks to me a 1-second timeout to cycle modes. This means you can turn on the light for a half second and then turn it off and it will remember the mode you last used.
If you want to switch modes, you have to turn the light off for less than 1 second before turning it back on again.
This makes it about the second-best clicky interface in my opinion. H17F’s interface is still the best clicky type as that interface actually has shortcuts to min and turbo.
However, I still find a well-designed electronic switch interface to be better than ANY clicky interface.