I recently went camping with a large group of people, and as expected, they were all very amazed with my modest flashlight collection. In particular, with the SRK and BTU Shocker. They were so impressed, that several people expressed interest in purchasing a few through me (the ‘gift’ in this case is I do the research and purchasing for them - I won’t be paying for the lights myself).
So, here’s what I’m looking for:
3 or 4x 18650 batteries
SupFire or SRK size Reliable and decent heat dissipation
$40-60 USD price tag
They don’t care so much for blinkies. I ended up selling my SupFire to a friend who had no issue with having to cycle through the blinking every time he had to turn the light off.
The SupFire is a very well built light for the price, but they’re hard to come by now, since they are out of production. Is the SRK the only choice, now?
I’m looking to buy 5 of them, so I imagine a discount will be offered by the seller as well.
The $40 deal is excellent, but I am in Canada, so shipping will likely be high. I also can’t order them all in one package, or customs will charge me tax and duty. I’ll PM RMM and see if he’s willing to mark the items as gift.
If anyone is coming from the States to Kitchener/Toronto/London area in Ontario anytime soon, let me know if you’re willing to meet me with a flashlight order
I’ve also contacted Supfire directly to see if they can match the myled deal I’ve had previously (I think it came out to $42 after shipping, for the M6).
You list the range as $40-60. I would suggest the minimally customized Mountain Electronics M6 as it has 7 levels and eliminates strobe and SOS functions. High is also substantially greater than stock for a barely $10 premium over the standard light. The latest version of the user interface is very versatile as it has multiple options available to the user. Low is a moonlight mode of about 1/6 lumen to a high of 3000+ lumens IIRC. Not sure what postage to Canada would be though.
Friends will also need GOOD batteries for these relatively high current drain lights and a lithium ion charger.
A lot of it depends on what sales may be going on. The Solarstorm Warrior or now Warrior 2 is a good choice because the interface is simple, it is decently well built, and it uses the batteries in parallel so it is safer if using mismatched or unprotected cells. When it is selling for 30 to 40 dollars I think it’s not a bad choice.
$40-60 is for flashlight only. Another $20 for the i4, and $40 for 8x TF Flames or 4x Samsung 3400s. I’ve been in contact with RMM lately, trying to get pricing figured out. Since I live in Canada, shipping isn’t cheap, and have to be careful with customs. I don’t want to pay $40 in customs + $35 in shipping on $160 worth of lights.
I really like the T3 and T4, but they’re both so new that I don’t want to risk ordering for others so soon. There are very few reviews on the light, unfortunately.
Thanks for letting me know about mtnelectronics.com - I was always under the impression that they had high prices, but for the most part they’re quite good!
Picking lights for other people is so hard, because I don’t want to hear them complain about it getting too hot, improperly using batteries, maybe a dead LED…I have to be very careful to get a quality product (on a budget).
I have both the T3 and T4. Very high color temperature (Cold) LEDs in them so a blue corona is visible around the outer edges of the beam in a ceiling bounce beam inspection. Per FastTech they are using 8000 degrees K color temp LEDs. Also very powerful lights for the weight so on high they get hot fast. IMO not suitable for newbies to high power LED lights.
One reason I suggested the RMM modified M6 is that it has both a turbo timeout function and battery protection cutoff to prevent over discharging unprotected batteries. In other words at least partially idiot proofed. Better for novice users than other candidates for this reason.
Far outside the OPs price range but to me the safest high power light for the person unfamiliar with Lithium Ion lights and their feeding is probably the Nitecore EAX Hammer. Currently the most powerful AA battery light I know of but it HAS to be used with high current capable NiMH batteries such as Eneloops.
Agree with the use of higher power AA lights for rookie users.
IMHO- the StarryNight SA-22 puts out a lot of light using 4 AA cells, and is a great value at $26-ish ( got one a few weeks back duing IS Cleaning Sale for $18).
A lot of my camping buddies are familiar with electronics. I gave them all a lecture on lithium batteries, charging, discharging, series vs parallel, over-discharging, etc.
Rich, I actually wasn’t aware the stock M6 had no overdischarge protection. That’s a huge miss on their part. I think I’ll go with your recommendation and get the $10 mod.
Looks nice Rich, but after the problems with my EA4w switch boot and Nitecore's refusal to even acknowledge the issue for at least six months, I'm not too impressed.
Add in the questionable heat sinking on both the EA4 and the EA8, plus if I recall correctly, some heavy-handed interference in stopping group buys due to MAP policing and I'm not inclined inclined to buy any more of their products.
[quote=sirpaul]
A lot of my camping buddies are familiar with electronics. I gave them all a lecture on lithium batteries, charging, discharging, series vs parallel, over-discharging, etc.
[/quote]
Aren’t most 4x 18650 “can” lights by design “flooders”?
If throw & flood balance is desired, I would say there are many single, and
2 cell lights that would fill the bill.
Well, there’s a pretty substantial difference in flood between a 6x LED “can” light, and a 3x emitter light like the Supfire M6. The M6 also has deeper reflectors than an SRK or SRK clone.
