I chatted with a manufacturer who makes the C88 XM-L (or a clone - however you want to put it). I wonder how many manufacturers there are.
So what did you chat about?
How many orders they need to make BLF edition?
The problem with that is they're OEM so there isn't any brand recognition in it for them. They'd be doing it only for profit and it wouldn't be enough to make it worth the effort. Also, you would need a middleman to distribute because they're not set up to ship individual items inexpensively. They only ship UPS and DHL.
I borrowed this picture from -the- I hope he doesn't mind. I just wanted to show how badly they cheapened the pill size wise, weight wise and no threads connecting the head and body to dissipate the heat better compared to the Ultrafire C-88. Dissambly is going to be a real PAI now. This one might have problems sustaining 3.5 amps on high without burning up.
Here is the Ultrafire version notice how big the pill is and it's threaded.
The Ultrafire version had a brass ring on the driver so you could pull it out with pliers after you unscrewed the pill making a driver swap super easy.
I am not impressed at all and I am glad I waited for a review before ordering this mistake. Hopefully someone will make an aftermarket pill or this would be a good candidate for an XRE conversion.
Could someone please link =the='s review? I cant seem to find it. thanks
thank you pok. I dont usually visit that thread :)
E1320, thanks alot for warning!
Dont feel like spending hard earned $ on something that might have heat related issues in future and needs DIY mod straight out of the box, Id rather spend those 45$ in modding my noname 2xD mag clones instead. At least then I know that things might go wrong and will be responsible for everything myself.
And I thought that this is going to be the light to get on payday, I guess its not 
Wait a little while, I have some inside knowledge that someone is working on making a decent pill for it.
I'm gonna check back with the OEM to see what pill they're putting in theirs. Just out of curiosity 
Thats good to know, but it makes me uneasy when I know that brand new and somewhat supposed to be decent flashlight for such price ISNT as good as it should have been judging by its predecessor's massive guts, given it will need modification and at some cost makes it far less attractive ;)
IM CHEAP !
I'm taking one for the team on this wannabe. I'll do my best to fry it.
That pill is nothing like the UltraFire version. Very interesting.
savingfaceFoy
How ironic. The "updated" version with the most powerful CREE emitter has a much punier pill than the older version that had a weaker emitter. As Jerry Seinfeld would say: "Bizarro world"
UPDATE: I was informed by the OEM that their pill is the heavier, threaded one. I wonder where this light comes from then. They won't tell me who they make lights for, which is totally understandable. Too bad they skimped because everything else about this light is fantastic.
So the old question arises - can we gather funds and order directly from OEM or through some of more reliable online retailers and get ourselves BLF C88 edition 
?
I remember people talking about it months ago, but it could become more realistic if we arranged this deal through some of the online dealers that are present here on BLF.
It's difficult to buy directly from the OEM because their business almost always requires a distributor. Otherwise, it's costly for them to sell directly to the consumer. We would need one individual or one of the reliable vendors we deal with to make arrangements.
Okay, I'll give it a go. Please wait patiently...
EDIT: Even if the deal goes through, there almost certainly would't be much of a discount versus the Intl-outdoor offering. I say this because I already have a ballpark figure of the cost per unit for smaller orders (< 100). The point of the sale would have to be more focused around getting a better light (i.e. better pill). It wouldn't really be a 'group buy' but rather more like introducing a new product to our partnered vendor who will hopefully offer a discount to his loyal customers who will at least guarantee sales for a new product.
Are there any beam shot pictures available for the Cyclone C88? If not, how would it compare to the Zebralight SC600 (keep in mind I don't know much about flashlights and only looked at a few websites for beam shots to try to figure out what I think I would like to have). I was anxiously waiting for the Zebralight Q50 but this light seems like a good buy from what I'm reading here.
Weiser701: If you manage to get a deal for a modded version of this light, I'd likely join in if the cost was comparable. Just hoping to get a better idea of what to expect in this light. :)
Today came my C88 NW from intl-outdoor and I did some test with this very nice flashlight, also some beamshots so here we go:
My first impression it's solid, little bulky as I was used to thin Fenix L2d body.
I like its deep smooth mirror-like reflector - looks very good! emitter is well centered with two plastic things, it came with
greased tail-cap thread and thermal compound under the emitter.
I only had to put some grease between head and body where it was missing.
As E posted it is indeed different from the Ultrafire version in threads and heatsink (I'll get to the heatsink later),
- I agree the Ultrafire is easier to mod and I would prefer that design, but this new version is not bad at all!
Okay, some measurements:
I only have NiMH AAs, and most of them are old so at first the tailcap readings were
low 0.05
med 0.2
high 1.0
and the true is that battery holder is also not much by default - need mod.
Interesting was that I could barely fit the GP brand NiMHs inside the body tube, I'm wondering how eneloops would fit. Could somebody measure internal tube diameter of Ultrafire C88? - just for curiosity.
Some other notknownbrand NiMHs from local market -which performs very well I was completely unable to fit inside.
There was only maybe +0.5mm in tube width missing, so for testing I wired external pack of 6 (paralell 3+3) and with
this got expected tailcap readings:
low 0.1
med 0.8
high 2.75
So here are few beamshots, distance to house wall is about 20m, all shots were taken by f2.8, 1s exposure, iso 100.
C88 Low 0.1A - in real it is little brighter, guess low light conditions needs better camera :)
C88 Medium 0.8A
C88 High 2.75A -the light output on high is really amazing!!
Beamshots comparison with Fenix L2D premium Q5: (output from xml C88 is much stronger than L2D, but this is still good light :)
L2D Turbo -the tint of the led in Fenix is probably cool white, color rendering is visibly much better with NW in C88
L2D High
Now because I was curious how the smaller heatsing in Cyclone will perform, and how effective will the heat transfer to the body be I did also this test:
1.left the original heatsink with emitter without change - as it came
2.put some grease between head/body because the heat was barely transferred to the head without it
(better would be some thermal compound but this will be ok for the test)
Current from batteries was between 2.75-2.65A, 3.6V
begin: flashlight temperature 24C, ambient 21C
after 6min: 33C head, 36C body
after 12min: 41C, 43C
after 18min: 45C, 46.5C
Temperature was measured with infra thermometer, the flashlight was laying on soft chair (so almost no cooling from bottom), was without tailcap and partially wrapped with tape to hold good cable contact for full amperage.
Picture taken after testing, current went down to 2.6A
I was positivelly surprised that even with smaller heatsink the heat was transferred very well across whole flashlight, in real-use the light will be better cooled,
applying thermal paste to body/head thread could also help a little.
So overall - good flashlight I think!
If somebody will try it with the driver more than 2.8A - please post results! I'll do it but do not have parts yet.
And one question - I'm not sure about the glass - how do I know if it's AR coated or not?
Good to have you here, jamio.
Welcome to BLF jamio.
Thanks so much for sharing all the info on the new Cyclone C-88.
Thank you for welcome! :) I've been around for some time but only watching. E thanks for measurement, cyclone is 30.5mm