I know bigger heads are what is really needed for throw but they are not easily inside-of-the-pocket-carried. What I seek is a factory-made light or a limited-mods combo which will give a more concentrated hotspot than my BLF A6. The criteria are:
- 1*18650
-Single emitter (Cree or Nichia preferred, no tint preference but NO cheap bluish junk!)
-Tube-style or very slightly enlarged head; 26mm dia. but may go as far as 28mm
-Modes and UI unimportant (but tell me about them)
-Tail or stiff side clicky that will likely never self-activate
-Tightest hotspot with good lumens, doesn’t have to be the highest level
-Budget priced, $50 max and about half that or less best
-Decent runtime on highest mode, say ~3 minutes before stepdown or overheat
Staying within the given price range I’m also open to minor modding like spring bypasses and drop-in parts, perhaps gas de-doming but no emitter or driver changes that would tax my old eyes and cheap soldering equipment (that stuff comes later in my learning curve).
Please keep within the criteria, I already know other and better is available but I will not consider it, I already have such lights or know what I’d buy if I wanted that. For this light I have looked at tons of threads here and just can’t quite find which to choose among the many, many choices so I humbly ask for your knowledgeable assistance so I can narrow it down.
Slightly larger head than the tube, and good throw for a picket light. Adding a xpg2 or xpl hi will help any light throw further, so consider that for any light you get.
In my experience with the convoy m1 and m2 the m2 throws better than the m1 especially dedomed. It's something about the reflector shape I guess. It's smaller than the m1 diameter wise and is more pocket friendly.
The older model tail switch twist head eagletac d25lc2 with custom 2.1A driver and XP-G2 throws good for its size and it's smaller than the A6 or convoys.
I think the A6 and convoy S"#" tube lights reflectors are very similar so they'll all produce similar beam patterns. The eagletac has a deep reflector in comparison but it's sized for the XP.
I'd go for the a M2 with an dedomed XML2 or XPL HI. Drive it hard it can handle it!
The S2+ and A6 have almost identical reflectors. However the S2/S6/S8 have a much different reflector and beam profile. The SMOs in particular throw quite a bit further but also have a smaller spill. The hot spot is very defined unlike the OP S2+ reflector.
You do not mention a minimum output. The XP-E2 is widely ignored, but with a Convoy S8 or S5 with smooth reflector it will give a nice bright distinctive hotspot. It is just limited to 2A and a few hundred lumens.
How about an XPL HI and an TIR? If y’all haven’t tried it yet then I may have to order one. I have a brand new blue S2+ host just itching for some attention.
I had a cheap ultrafire tube light with a smooth plastic reflector, where I dedomed the xp-e, and got a defined hotspot with little spill. A xml might have thrown further, but not with that defined hotspot.
For throw in a small reflector, 19mm in all my testing I haven't found anything to throw like an XPE Torch led. At 100 meters at 800mAh at the led it lights my test tree up better than XPL Hi, XML-2 or XPG2.
I haven't compared the XPE torch led with a dedomed XPG-2 but have built a few lights with them in optic's and they do perform well. The tints were a lottery though.
Thanks to all for the responses. I would like to get more hotspot from my A6 but as some here have noted it doesn’t seem to be the best initial approach due to reflector length limitations. The A6 does what it does very well and sometimes that is exactly what I want- just not all the time- hence the new approach.
At this point I think I’ll go with a Convoy S2 SMO and XPG2 and if that isn’t tight enough I’ll be doing my first emitter swap.
