So new to the forum but already took the plunge on replacing a head torch with the group buy on Nitecore HC50 now looking for a hand torch to pair with it. I do pyrotechnics and so mostly use a head torch however I’d like a high power (waterproof) hand torch as backup but also with more power than the head torch for site checks following cleanup to make sure we havent left any litter anywhere. Budget wise as gear tends to be left behind looking at no more than $30 excluding batteries. Already have a couple of 18650 (3400mah) on order for the head torch so if it uses 18650 thats handy but not a problem if I need to buy 26650s too.
So whats the best buy in my price range and with good flood capability. currently thinking on Yezl Y3 as seen it recommended in some other thread I was reading??
The y3 is probably going to be more of a thrower than a flooder. My default suggestion for a good first light is either any of the convoy s series (just make sure it’s waterproof, my s4 isn’t submersible), or the solarforce l2 series. My personal favorite is the l2m, which gives me a good variety of choices for p60 drop-ins. I have one of the solarforce drop-ins that gives me 880 lumens and a good enough combination of flood and throw to use it both as my edc and for search and rescue missions.
The Convoy S series is indeed a good choice. For a floody light, you’ll want a small reflector or some sort of wide TIR or aspheric optic. And if you want it even floodier, you can add some diffuser film to the lens.
The most popular ones seem to be the S2 and the S3, which are both available with a variety of different emitters and power levels. I really like my S7, but it’s stainless steel so it can’t handle anywhere near as much heat.
FWIW, the cheap screw-on clip from fasttech works nicely on a S2, and the SolarForce L2 clip works nicely on a S3 (but requires a trivial mod to retain electrical contact using a paperclip in the tailcap). The L2 clip is a lot sturdier though, and has higher clearance, if that matters.
If you want something really really bright and floody, you’ll have to move up to something parallel like a Skyray King or a Supfire M6. But those are probably massive overkill, and outside the specified price range.
Edit: These last two are capable of lighting up an entire rugby pitch… which is why I called them overkill.
If you want something a bit throwy to complement your extra-floody headlamp, DBCstm’s suggestions are all good ones. It might be nice to have one flooder and one compact thrower, instead of two flooders.
I really like my XinTD C8 V4, but I don’t use it for anything closer than 5 meters (and usually much farther).
That's my EDC right there, clip too. Nice and floody. Order it in a NW tint (mine is a 4C) and you'll be happy for how great it is for the price. Mine also survived going through my snowblower and being lost in the snow for about a week.
Well I’m thinking for floody field work you want more runtime than the 18650s can give you. I suggest a DQG 26650 Triple, they’re very floody. The new model has a slightly better interface too. Pair it up with a 5200mah battery and it’s a great compact size, floody, great runtime.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys will go through the list provided and see which takes my fancy and update once the purchase has been made as to what the winner was.
This is a great light, i have more hours on it than any light i own, but keep in mind that it will get too hot to hold on high for more then 10 mins or so, so think of high as a manual turbo mode (vs other lights that have a timed turbo where you can use maximum for only a few mins at a time)
I think you should consider a Convoy M1, its a bit less floody but not very throwy, it the best all purpose light i’ve used, but all purpose means it does everything well and nothing perfect.
Of course you could also get one of the cheapo SRKs with 7x LEDs that go on sale at around $24-29 sometimes if you want a ton of flood to clean up a field. Convoy S2 pictured above is really nice and I like mine, but if I’m to imagine cleaning up a field, a cheap 3x, 4x, 5x 6x or7x SRK would blow it away, even if its with no heat sink and crappy by our standards. The low A per LED without mods is going to make the runtime good for you too. Its also parallel 4x18650, so you could buy some of the cheap laptop pulls various users are selling on this site for around $2 a piece and have enough power for it too without much of any real added risk as long as you dont run the light till it gets very dim…
When you say floody, what sort of use do you actually want to use it for? I’m guessing walking through a park/field in the dark and looking for stuff on the ground?
Do you have a preferred size? As in, are you wanting something pocket friendly, or is something a tad larger chunkier going to fit the bill?
Zoomy lights will light up the immediate ground with nice even illumination and would be ideal if you want to see 10-20 feet in front of you. But in flood mode they won’t light up much beyond that. When zoomed in, the beam is then quite narrow. But these types of lights might serve you well for this kind of use and are often quite compact.
Seems popular for the money. It might get a little hot on high, but it’s cheap enough to be worth a punt. It’s on pre-oder at the mo, although there has already been one batch that people have received.
Another option for flood is a multi emitter light. SkyRay King and clones of this light are available with 4, 5, 6 or 7 emitters. These chuck out a tonne of light and would probably work brilliantly for you. But they are a bit chunky, a little bigger than a can of Coke and heavier, as they require 4x18650 batteries. The advantage with a light like this is it will still give you some good distance too.
Oh BTW, ignore “Chinese” lumens. They basically lie about outputs. So take any listing for any torch than isn’t claiming ANSI FL1 statistics are potentially bogus. They can still be good lights though.
As others have mentioned, compact tube lights offer floody beams. And due to their size they are very pocket friendly. The only downsides are, while offering good flood, they may be restricted on how far they can light up an area. The other down side is, if they are driven hard for high output, then they get very hot, very quickly. This is ok if you only use it in short bursts, but if you think you’ll use the light for extended periods, then you may find you have to use a lower output mode to keep temps down. The lack of mass means these small lights just don’t handle the heat as well as larger ones.
Of course, you might be completely happy with a more throwy light that has plenty of output. While such lights aren’t what people round here call floody, they still put out a lot of light and are very useful.
The “C8” is probably one of the most well known models. And sold by many makers. It’s a nice sized light (I have a couple), as it’ll just about fit in a jeans pocket, but has the ability to light up a wide area and be on high output for prolonged periods.
On this note I think it’s worth mentioning tint. Tint is the colour of the light and affects the CRI, the colour rendering. Most LED lights are known as Cool White (CW), this is the ice white, to blue white most people associate with LEDs. The trouble is, CW doesn’t render colours all that well and especially outside, it will make things look like they have less colour saturation and make everything a little bit grey. In a grass field or somewhere with trees this can promote more eye strain and is simply harder to ID certain items. A Neutral White (NW) light might be a couple of lumens less output (not enough to notice in reality), but will offer a much more natural light that will make colours more vibrant and realistic, if you are searching for items in grass and brush areas or in fields, then I would highly recommend NW. Although maybe what you need to do is buy something CW and something NW so you can see the huge difference first hand.
Yes exactly this. So displays normally have multiple launch sites spread over 100-150m width + depth. So it would be nice to have a go to light in my toolbox that I can pull out at the end of the night stand in the middle of the field after doing the general pack away with headtorch to do a quick scan of the surrounding area like football field size just to spot any large shell casings that might need cleaning up before we leave. I’ve been using a LED Lenser h14 for the last 18 months but find it doesn’t cover enough area for this final check as its too small coverage in zoom mode and not powerful enough in spread mode to be able to just do a quick scan across a large area.
As its only for a final check I’m not expecting to run at full power for more than a few minutes but equally in November we can be doing 8-9 nights in a row and I don’t want to have to charge batteries more than every 3-4 days. Skyray King is looking like it might be a good option.
Get yourself a Sky Ray King and I think you’ll be bowled over by how much light it produces. You’ll need 4 matched batteries though, however they run in parallel, so you can run say 2 batteries. But it’ll hit them harder and won’t as long and maybe with less output.
So looking through the recommendations and have decided to increase my budget slightly to open up supfire M6 and sky ray king. At the moment looking at the light comparisons of each ( SupFire M6 - Beamshots (Night pics uploaded)) and the reviews of both sounds like the supfire M6 might be worth the slight premium for the better build quality. Unfortunately cant justify the extra to buy from Richard at mtn as shipping to UK adds $20 on straight away before I even look at his modified versions
So the shortlist is:
FarFar seem to have SupFire M6 at $47.29 delivered.
compared to 3 x XML2 SkyRay King at $36.99
or even SkyRay King 4 x XML2 at $39.99
So which should I splash the cash on?
edit: tripod mount on supfire looks like it could be handy as normally we have tripods on site for videoing the displays.
