so as this is *B*LF i have been eying some deals from WB…
I already have….:
LifeGear keychain light
a bunch of MDXL 3W AAAs stashed around the house
Tank007 E09
TN Saber 1A
Fenix LD01
L2P w/ XM-L2 (w/ a couple of ‘modded’ p60 drop-ins… parts incoming)
L2 mini (UF?) w/ XM-L T6 3C
ebay C8 (piece of junk)
BLF Mini02
DQG 18650 (incoming)
TF-R2 (incoming w/ copper sinkpads XM-L U3 / XM-L2 emitter, drivers… my first ‘big’ mod plans! ;))
(crap… i must have stashed them all very well because I swear I don’t actually have this many… its only been a couple of months since I started ‘looking’ at flashlights!!)
soo…
SC52 (~$60 from WB right now)
- excellent quality and UI (I like the idea of being able to programme lo-lows ;))
- amazing runtimes
- up to 500lm (for a minute) but a respectable 280lm for useable lengths
- i have 14500s (and can use AAs)
i would probably use it more (edc)
- 2x as expensive
or
SRK (~$30 from WB right now)
- big bright light!
- need more 18650s (i’d probably go with Sanyo’s or Pannys (~$20-30 for a set))
- triple emitter (kinda cool… don’t have any multi-emitter lights)
- more of a ‘fun’ light (not edc)
i don’t have a big a light
any other things I should consider? (on the technical or functionality side)
At least to my eyes, this light is as bright as, if not brighter, than the SC52, which I have, and also throws a little better. Plus, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper!
Any flashaholic collection is incomplete without a good throw light and a light that puts out a wall of light. Some lights cover both of those bases fairly well. If you want more throw but still lots of spill, TK75 is hard to beat. If you want a wall of light but still want good throw, BlackShadow Terminator will cover it. I know they are somewhat on the expensive side but both give top dollar performance for mid dollar cost. They are less money than some other lights in their class.
You seem to have a lot of duplicates. Especially for only doing this 3 months! Slow down bro.
Personally I have,
A brand new XM-L2 Flood to Throw. Great work light due to no hotspot. Good for walking in winter too. 1x18650, excellent all purpose light.
TK70 - my big light. Excellent throw. Surprisingly useful as worklight before F2T because I am create a “virtual 100W bulb” on any surface.
Keychain light - RCR123 using light for 400 lumens during winter. A small 99 cent squeezie from DX (the 10mm ones) works great too as I dont usually need THAT much light.
I would focus on determining your USE CASES for lights instead of randomly buying tons of them for no real purpose.
For example, right now I would like a AAA keychain light that is pretty bright as a lighter alternative to my RCR123 one which is fat and heavy.
Make sure you have a big light for really lighting up an area, maybe a high throw light, a keychain light, and a general work light.
BTW, how do you want to measure runtime? When it goes dim(mer)? I don’t know if I want this to run completely down/dead, as I don’t know if it has low-voltage protection.
Been running on high now for 10 minutes. Head is a little warm, but it’s still about as bright.
It started getting a little dimmer (not off, but not as bright as earlier) about 12 minutes. This was with a cheapo 16340 from tmart, supposedly 880 mAh, but I think I got about 400 mAh on a discharge test awhile ago.
Yes, I was thinking/looking for decent runtimes (and performance) on high… From what I have read the SC52 seems to be a benchmark in terms of performance… not reasonable to expect a light that is less than 1/3 the cost to do the same… but would be nice to see how it stacks up!
I have the SRK as one of my first lights. I started out with the highest lumens I can get for the cost, and determine what kind of lights I need (lower lumens one of course).
haha… good advice… i guess this would officially put me into the flashaholic category…
this is purely a hobby for me… i don’t ‘need’ flashlights for my day job, though they do come in handy sometimes.
I live in the city and have managed all of these years to survive without carrying a flashlight with me everyday. That said I am finding out how handy they can be…
Yes, I do agree I do have duplicates (in AA and AAA). I am finding that I value a good firefly mode (Saber 1A)… I got the LD01 because I really wanted to see what the hype was about (my least used light)… had already purchased the E09 (don’t use it as much but still love it!)…
The P60 and C8 stuff is for modding and experimenting…I like to tinker…
I did not want ‘duplicates’ originally but wanted one good sample in each battery type/size.
As for my choices, I am curious about and am assuming the SC52 would be an example of a top-shelf light with a programmable UI and performance to would be functional to pretty much any situation I might be in (relatively speaking) … and SRK, a big wall of light and a size/output I don’t have…
I wouldn’t be so harsh. I also don’t need to use flashlights in my work, and I live in a suburban area, but, without thinking much about it, I’ve “collected” a bunch of C8s and P60 hosts plus drop-ins. My wife thinks it’s ridiculous.
Why? It’s not because I like the C8s or P60s that much, but I keep looking for a “better one”, resulting in a box full of them :)…
re: C8s and P60s - also, seemed the easiest way to get into modding… my current goal is to build a light that can handle 3A comfortably (little or no heat issues)… hopefully a Qlite driver, TF-R2 and SinkPad will sort that out…
I don’t want to make you do what I did/have done, but here’s a funny story (true, too). The 1st C8 I bought was one with a Q5 emitter, from Amazon. There were actually two different ones when I ordered, one was the Q5 one and the other was a T6 one. The latter was more expensive, so I ordered the Q5 one.
Anyway, I didn’t like the Q5 one much. It was bright, but had a really, really narrow beam, so later, I was on Amazon, and there was different T6 one, which was actually cheaper than the Q5 one I had bought, so I order that T6 one.
The strange thing is that among all of the C8s I’ve got now, including an XM-L2 one and a P7 one, that T6 one I got from Amazon is definitely the brightest of any of the C8s I have, by far! I measured the tailcap current, and that light is pulling almost 4 amps!!
I don’t know if it’s a fluke or what. I’ve looked again at Amazon, and the seller I bought it from isn’t selling it anymore, so I didn’t want to take the chance to get another one. In case you’re wondering, this is the one I bought:
thanks for the link and experiences… don’t tempt me! lol!
in my head i kinda skipped ahead and figured I was buying a crap c8, which i did from ebay (~$6 special)… thought i would just build the one i ‘wanted’… (i have since made complaints to the seller, who offered me a refund of $3, which I guess I will take… )
I already have a driver, emitter, and pill on the way from FT… hopefully will have a 20mm SinkPad soon as well… will have to order an aluminum reflector from FT to complete the build as well…
I figure there is a less of a lottery/variance/defects on components than there are on complete (underdriven/poorly built) lights…
I’m not really recommending that C8, just telling what happened for me, plus the same seller is not selling it anymore. I’m really happy I got the one I got, but as I said, I think that it’s a fluke, even moreso than getting an HD2010 with the EAST-092 driver.
Also, I have a couple of the FT C8 pills. I haven’t really done anything with them, so maybe do a build thread whe you do that? I think that’d be helpful, esp. since their pill is a little different, with that wire that soldered inside the driver end. Also, which C8 are you going to use as host? I’ve read that the FT C8 pill doesn’t fit every one of them, but since you have a few C8s, you should have a good chance of finding one that fits :). Worst case, disassemble the existing one and use that pill :)!
As far as doing a build thread…. hmmm… I’ll consider it… When I work on stuff I tend to get tunnel vision and don’t like to stop for anything (pics included), but it do me good to slow down a bit on this one as I’m still new to building flashlights…
I just got the TF-R2 from FT today! Was actually hoping for another package first, but this was not an unwelcome surprise. As expected the fully functioning light itself is nothing to write home about… not very bring and a ringy beam (now I know what ringy means… i have been very fortunate with my other lights… exceptfor a sipik that I bought someone as a gift (I thought it had the ugliest beam I’ve ever seen… zoom or flood… also couldn’t get use to the emitter shaped beam on zoom, but I digress)). Unless my Qlite gets here before my other FT package (first Qlite I got was doa), I’ll be building this one first….
Great idea starting at the ‘top’! I didn’t have the ‘guts’ to drop that much on a light for my first light… now I can at least imagine what the real thing might be like based on the lights I have in comparison to the beamshots I’ve seen online….
(and can use AAs)
(i’d probably go with Sanyo’s or Pannys (~$20-30 for a set))
