Recently I went on a buying binge to try to find the best pocket-size zoomable flashlight. Here are my impression so far:
1. Romisen RC-C8. Purchased from Shiningbeam.com. Version purchased came with upgraded emitter and 2 modes.
- Relatively lightweight with a small body and large head.
- well built with no obvious problems. Worked out of the box with no issues.
- Cost: about $20. Delivery was very fast.
- Brightness:
- This light comes with 2 brightness modes: high and medium. Unfortunately, they are so close together it is rather difficult to tell which mode you are in. I have to cycle the light a few times just to make sure I'm in high mode. Would be much better if the medium mode were instead an actual low mode.
- Brightness appears about the same when using CR123, RCR123 and AW protected 16340. One of the brighter pocket zoom lights. NOTE: I have no way to measure brightness, so am comparing brightness by shining the light at the ceiling while looking at the floor. This obviously isn't very accurate.
- Optics:
- Flood mode produces a very wide and useful amount of light with no artifacts or rings except for a single ring outside the area of the light.
- Spot mode focuses well and has a lot of throw. The image of the die is crisp and sharp. Overall, this light has very nice optics and produces a great beam on both flood and throw.
- Zooming -
- zooming on this light is awkward. It takes 3 full turns of the head to zoom from spot to flood. The head is quite stiff so it takes quite a bit of time and effort to zoom. Even worse, the body where you need to grip while zooming is quite small and has no knurling. The endcap juts out and has mild square knurling, but if you grip it while zooming it will unscrew instead of zooming the light.
- zooming this light takes time and is a 2-handed operation. Forget trying to zoom with one-hand.
- Tailstand - no
- Aesthetics -
- personal opinion only, but I think this light looks rather ugly with its copper lens ring and bright orange button. It's also rather slippery and difficult to hold.
- Modification - I added some grey indoor stairway grip tape purchased from my local hardware store in a ring around the main body of the light. This increased grip and made zooming easier, though still harder than any of the other lights I tried
2. Sipik SK-68 grey version. Purchased from Dealextreme.
- Solid and heavy body
- No obvious issues with construction. Worked out of the box.
- Cost: around $10 with slow delivery
- Brightness: single mode. Runs quite bright on AW 14500 battery. Brightness appears about the same as the Romisen.
- Tint isn't quite pure white.
- Optics:
- Very wide smooth flood and narrow perfectly focused zoom mode. Very useful in both modes with excellent throw.
- Sliding zoom mechanism allows for very fast transition between modes.
- Inside of the light contains a reflective cover around the die to help reflect light.
- Aesthetics -
- Looks very tacky in metallic silver grey with its bright orange button. In retrospect, the black one might be a better choice. I think I'd be embarassed to pull the silver one out of my pocket.
- Has a very complex looking appearance with lots of knurling, heat sink fins and crenellation on the bezel. I'd worry that this could tear up a pocket or could damage a wood floor if dropped.
- easy to hold and grip securely due to the knurling and heat sink fins.
- heat sink fins seem to do a good job at whicking off heat when using 14500 batteries.
- Tailstand: yes
- Modifcation - sliding zoom mechanism was stiff. Easily fixed by unscrewing the bezel and then applying some silicone lubricant to the sliding mechanism.
- Weight - relatively heavy.
3. Ultrafire 10W - purchased from either dealextreme or maybe Ebay (I forget)
- Cost: approximately $10
- Very small and lightweight. The thinnest of the AA sized zoom lights I've tried.
- Shoddy construction.
- Tailcap has a slot for an O-ring, but no ring was included. Also, the O-ring at the head of the light came partly broken and was not fully inside its slot.
- Star was not flat, but seems to have been installed at a noticeable angle.
- Brightness:
- 3 mode light: High-low-stroke. Very dim when running on AA. However, this light does run fine on 14500 and produces respectable brightness. However, it is noticeably dimmer than the previous two lights.
- Unlike the Romisen, the low mode on this light is considerably dimmer than the high mode.
- Optics:
- Flood mode is very ringy with lots of artifacts. Also even at max flood, the beam is still very narrow and unsuitable for close in work.
- Push-pull flood-zoom mechanism is fast and easy to use.
- Spot mode is fine and has a lot of throw. The image of the die is fuzzier than on the previous two lights. Overall, the spot mode on this light is useful for throw, but the flood mode is too focused to be useful.
- Aesthetics:
- Slimmest and lightest of all the 1xAA or CR123 zoom lights by far. Shape seems similar to some of the non-zoom fenix lights.
- No knurling except slight knurling at tailcap. This light is fairly slippery.
- Nice pocket size
- Tailstand: no
3. Dorcy AAA zoom. Purchased from Dorcydirect.com
- Cost: I forget. I think around $20.
- Very small and lightweight as it is a AAA light. By far the smallest of the zoom lights I looked at.
- Brightness:
- Single mode, rated at 45 lumens.
- light output appears incredibly dim compared to any of the other lights I looked at. This light is relatively worthless. I guess that's what I get for buying a light that's years out of date.
- Zoom:
- unscrew the lens to zoom out. Unfortunately, you can't actually zoom all the way out without unscrewing the bezel completely and holding it in front of the light. Unlike all the other lights I examined, this light has no stop to prevent you from unscrewing it too far.
- Aesthetics:
- Tacky silver metallic appearance with knurling
- Tailstand: no
4. Lens-light mini aluminum. Purchased from lenslight.com
- Cost: $159. Definitely not a budget light! By far the most expensive zoom light I purchased.
- Very heavy and solid construction. Feels big and heavy enough that it should have an 18650 inside, but it runs on a CR123. The biggest of the zoom lights I purchased.
- Brightness:
- Emitter is a high CRI XPG R5. This is the brightest of the zoom lights. The light produced by the high CRI emitter appears slightly brown tinted compared to the white light of the others.
- 2 modes: high and low, with mode memory. Low mode is rated at 20 lumens and high at 270 emitter lumens. Both modes ran fine on a CR123. When running on a 3.2v LifePo4 RCR123 low mode disappeared and instead became an irritating "almost high" mode. I was afraid to try 16340s in this light due to its high cost.
- Very good smooth regulation.
- Optics:
- high quality glass optics. However, the inside of the star is quite visible through the lens and the interior of the bezel is black. A lot of light probably isn't going to make it out of lens.
- Zoom:
- Unscrew the head to zoom. Takes approximately a 3/4 turn to fully transition modes. Due to well-placed knurling this can be accomplished easily with one-hand, though it still isn't as fast as any of the push-pull zoom lights.
- Very smooth even and bright beam in flood mode. Zoom mode shows a fuzzy image of the die.
- Surprisingly the flood isn't as wide and the zoom isn't as narrow as that produced by the Sipik or the Romisen. Even though those lights are slightly dimmer they may actually be better for very close in work or for when you want extreme throw because of this.
- When zooming to spot mode, the light will leave grease on the telescoped portion of the zoom mechanism. This is irritating because it's easy to put your fingers there and get grease on them. Even if you wipe the grease away, further zooming will deposit fresh grease in the same spot.
- Aesthetics:
- Huge and heavy
- Too heavy for pocket carry
- Shape and knurling are nicely placed.
- Awful Delrin plastic clip. Wouldn't fit on my belt at all. Due to its shape unclipping it is also an awkward 2-handed operation. Even worse, the clip can only be removed by using a very tiny hex key which did not come with the light. Unforgivable in a light this expensive.
- Tailstand - no
- Anodized threads for tailcap lockout - no. Tailcap button protrudes and is a foward clicky. It is quite likely that if you carry this in your pocket it will accidentally turn on and you'll have a dead light.
5. EDI-T11 purchased from dealextreme.com
- Cost: $11.80
- Construction:
- Medium weight and well built. This is not a small light. It's almost as big as the lens-light and is bigger than the Romisen, Ultrafire or Sipik. However, it is considerably lighter weight than the lenslight and has a clean shape.
- Anodized tailcap threads allow tailcap lockout. However, the threads seem slightly loose and there aren't many of them. Your tailcap might fall off if you leave it in lockout mode. The light locks out unless the tailcap is fully screwed down.
- Brightness:
- Runs fine one CR123, RCR123 and 16340. I was pretty impressed with performance on 16340.
- On 16340 this is easily as bright as the Sipik or Romisen, though still slightly dimmer than the lens-light
- 3 main modes: High-low and strobe.
- This light also has a ramping infinitely variable brightness selector, a feature not found on any of the other lights. This allows you to select a very low mode, that is much dimmer than that found on any of the other lights.
- It is not truly programmable however, as the light tends to forget the mode you selected after you turn it off.
- Zoom:
- Excellent. Very wide even flood with no rings or artifacts (apart from the small ring outside the flood that all the lights except the lenslight have). This light has probably the widest flood of the lights I tried which makes it excellent for close-in work.
- Very tight and focused zoom mode, with a clear image of the die. Probably the brighest of the zoom modes on any of the lights I tried. This light has the most throw.
- zoom mechanism is a simple push-pull. A little stiff, but moves smoothly and cleanly and can easily be cycled with one-hand.
- Aesthetics:
- clean black cylinder with aggressive knurling only around the tailcap. Stainless steel bezel around the head.
- Even though the knurling is only around tail, there is enough of it to greatly increase the grip. It's not a true substitute for having full knurling, but still feels much more secure in the hand than any of the other lights except the Sipik.
- Rim around button is enough that even when not locked out, this light will probably not accidentally turn on in the pocket.
- Tailstands: yes.
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Overall impression: I think I like the EDI-T11 the best. It has the widest zoom and tighest spot and is the only light with infinitely variable brightness. I don't know how long it will last considering this was a $12 flashlight and I haven't attempted to modify it or add heatsink grease, but so far at least it seems to work fine. I also like that it seems to work flawlessly with rechargeable batteries. I was really surprised that I liked this $12 light more than I liked the $159 lens-light.
