I was doing some reading and thought i would let everyone know for those who already dont about the Convoy s21D.
The e75 is all the rage right now for good reason; but if you’re looking for a good alternative the s21d is pretty good.
The performance isn’t quite as good but its close enough AND you can pick the cct you want and the TIR lens you want. Did i mention the price? Its about a third of the cost at least for me in Ontario 
. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but its a well deserved alternative.
Ps. I will probably be buying an e75 on the next sale. And probably a S21d. And an s21f. And a p17. And a s21e. And a ts22. And probably an sc33. Anyway…
Thoughts?
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I just said more or less the same thing here: Reddit - Dive into anything
Great minds and all that. 
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How can you not argue a case? Almost the same performance for a third of the price.
And you can buy all the tir optics for a couple bucks more.
I have three of the S21D flashlights in different CCT. Love them. I bought the TIR assortment. There is just so much flexibility there for a great price.
Another one to look at in this class is the Wurkkos TS25. Quite similar feature set. I would buy another for them before springing for the E75. Close to the deal that the Convoy is, and a solid option. Well built, most of the bells and whistles, decent UI. Magnetic tail cap.
I looked at the ts 25 but i dont like that its a direct drive. Thats a deal breaker for me. I was interested in it before i found that out. I LOVE acebeams runtime graphs.
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I have more S21Ds than any other light in my collection (and I also have the E75). Its my favorite for trail running with 519A 5700K (really 5200K) 60° TIR. There is no other light with this shape of beam, tint, and efficiency. Also, while 10% mode is plenty, I can also run with 30% mode during the hottest times of the year (over 100° ambient) without overheating.
what I would like to see is an S21D side clicky with an improved UI (improved over existing Convoy side clicky UI).
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Same here! Six S21Ds to be exact. It’s been a workhorse for me on the farm. I run it with the 60 degree beaded lens and a 5600 mAh battery at 35% brightness. Lasts a long time, and is bright enough for most purposes. The difference between 35% and 100% isn’t nearly as much as it sounds like on paper.
I would’ve bought the E75 already if it came in 4500K. I’m picky about CCT. Maybe someday they’ll have other options.
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Many of us have measured our E75 at 4700K, you might still like it. I often find with 519A in many lights, the CCTs are lower than advertised once the optics are taken into account. My D4SV2 / D4K measure:
- 5700K → 5200K
- 5000K → 4700K
- 4500K → 4100K
- 4000K → 3900K
and so on.
My E75 519A 5000K is much warmer than my E70 Mini 519A 5000K fwiw.
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What do you mean by “Direct Drive” ? I see a couple of thumbs ups on this so, apparently at least a couple of people agree. I used to build direct drive lights… they had no real driver.
Not that the fact it uses an FET for turbo means much to me, as I don’t use turbo. Actually I disabled it in Andruil 2.
At the levels I use (110/150 and below) runtime and heat is just fine. Heck Zeroair shows 250 plus lumens for over 4 hours…
Andruil 2, aux leds, nice beam. High max (yeah it get hot and steps down, but pretty much all lights of this size with the same output do that), long runtime. IDK, maybe ruling it out on one criteria is not the best thing. OK, OK, it could use a better driver 
But, t the current price of around $37 it may be worth consideration.
OH,and don’t get me wrong, I do love my S21D lights.
If you get the 3000K, it would compliment the ArmyTek Wizard C2 Nichia 3000K or Skilhunt H04 519A 3000K. A really nice combo.
Just a preference. I like constant current. You are way more serious than i am. 
Im fairly new to this.
I like to buy more light than i need; show it off in turbo and use the lower modes that run forever. Having a lower lumen light thats not capable of more didnt interests me until recently. I’ve been going down the rabbit hole on better emitters and warmer cct.
Thanks for the info on the cct of the 519’s! I was thinking my next one was going to be in 4k but sometimes i think why not 3k?
Might just have to get the s21f and see what i like.
Yup… as do I. So I get it! But the truth is any light like this will only give you MAX output for a short time. Better drivers are… well BETTER. No question. But, that doesn’t mean a light with an FET driver can’t be a reasonable option.
I have to set priorities too. But sometimes the overall value and features of a package will over shadow one specific (or the lack of a) feature . So I don’t rule any light out based on, say, the driver type.
Yes, several (most or all?) lights with magnetic ring are unregulated, still the ring outweighs this shortcoming. Among my lights, those are the ones I can tolerate in this class. Others have other priorities.
I measured the E75 519A hotspot at:
Turbo - 96.6 Ra CRI, 4683k CCT, -0.0018 DUV.
High - 97.5 Ra CRI, 4587k CCT, -0.0005 DUV.
Low - 98.0 Ra CRI, 4486 CCT, -0.0005 DUV.
so pretty close to 4500k.
Full review: https://www.stephenknightphotography.com/post/flashlight-review-acebeam-e75-5000k-90cri
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So one direct drive i could put on my list would be the ts25. You like this one? What others would you recommend?
I never noticed that before. Why is that?
Thanks stephen! Good to know! I wasnt thrilled about the high cct but its nice to know they’re coming in lower.
No electrical reason, I guess there’s too little space. The Jetbeam driver (all RRT01) is already a sandwich!
I just watched a Youtube video about how the blue LED, and therefore all useful LEDs, was first created at Nichia. So that lead me to have a look at my lights and which were Nichia. I have the S21D and it appears to no longer be availab le. Is that a temporary thing, or has Convoy discontinued them? If so I’m very glad I was able to get the Nichia 219B in this form factor while it was available.