Beamshots of various budget flashlights

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hello friends!

I took some beamshots of my flashlights collection.

The camera settings are: F 2,7, Iso 100, Exposure 1/1000 and WB Daylight.

The distance is 2 meters.

Batteries: trustfire flames 18650 fully charged 4,2V (DX)

Flashlights on HI mode.

Control shot

X2000 (DX)

C8 with smo reflector Q5 (KD)

Trustfire F3 (DX)


MTE P7 (DX)

HS-802 (DX)

SmallSun ZY-C37 with 50mm lens (DX)


MTE SF-15 P7 (DX)

Xenon Bulb 7.4V 15W P60 dropin with 2x18650 (DX)

XML T6 P60 Dropin (KD)

Skyray XPG R5 smo reflector (DX)

MTE SF-23 P7 (DX)

SmallSun ZY-C39 TIR optics (DX)

UltraFire M5 MCE Warm White (DX)

P60 XPE-Q3 5A Warm White dropin (KD) with 28mm lens

EastwardYJ YJ-XGR2 (DX)

Spiderfire P7 (DX)

WF-501B Philips Luxeon K2 White (DX)

MTE M3-2I MCE TIR optics (DX)

UF-008 Recoil Thrower (DX)

WF-501B R2 with 28mm lens (DX)

WF-501B MCE (DX)


UniqueFire M8 R2 (DX)

C78 with 14500 (DX)

C78 with AA (DX)

Romisen MXDL RC-G2 (DX)


C30 3xAAA (DX)

WF-501B Philips Luxeon K2 Red (DX)

WF-501B Philips Luxeon K2 Blue (DX)


WF-501B Philips Luxeon K2 Green (DX)

Romisen RC-T6 2x18650 (DX)

Sacredfire NF-009 2x18650 (DX)

WF-500 2x18650 (DX)

5xQ5 dropin (DX)

Trustfire P7 2x18650 (DX)


2

Thanks for this.

I know how time consuming it can be to get it all sorted out, and make sure that the pics apply to the light you think they do.

3

Awesome!

Have you took apart the SmallSun ZY-C37? Can it be disassembled completely? How's the pill inserted and made? Im wondering if it would make a good XM-L host. Seems bulky enough to disperse some decent heat.

I would kindly ask you, if you have the time to do a good exploded view of all the parts.

4

Very nice!! Thanks for this post, that is alot of work indeed. Some handy comparisons in there, so I appreciate it:)

5

Good to see your shots again... :)

The best (unmodded) thrower seems to be the HS-802...

Edit: Oh, I heard that image was taken with a driver-modded HS-802, so the NF-009 might still be the throwiest one (stock) - if it comes with the right reflector. I got one with an OP!

6

Interesting! I've done the same. How did you solve the problem of the focal length? (I put a coin between the drop in and the star of the led).

Budgeteer: Although it is very bulky, the drop-in doesn't make a good contact with the head, so that head is a bit useless for heatsink..

There are some pics of my mod here: http://forolinternas.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=490

7

Thanks for the great comparisons and all your hard work.

8

Miaw2,

Outstanding work. This should be a good reference for folks here. Thanks for posting this.

9

Wow! You really put a lot of work into this miaw2, thanks a ton! I made this sticky, it's a valuable reference for everyone.

10

Muchas gracias.

11

Agree.

Good to see, both of you found the way to this nice place here. Wellcome DrJones and ma.., ahem, miaw2.

12

Don, yes i had some work to assure that the beamshot was corresponding to the flashlight.

Budgeteer, yes it can be disasselmbled because its not glued. The pill is screwed into the body. I would not recommend because the led has not a good contact with the pill (same as X2000) so heatsinking is poor. If you want i can take pictures, just leave me a message.

Ezeqdb, i set the focal lenght by unscrewing/screwing the head into the body, then i put hot glue to fix it.

As soon as i get new lights, i'll update this thread.

Indeed i had a lot of work but this forum is really nice and im always learning here.

13

Miaw2, thanks for the offer (most kind) but i saw it on the link ezeqb posted. I had hopes but th design fails miserably for my purpose. The most decent thing would be a C8 or MRV. Too bad no1 offers the DIY body at a reasonable price.

14

KD C8 XML

Manafont p60 dropin Q5 single-mode orange peel

Q2-5A p60 dropin orange peel (DX)

P3-WH p60 dropin orange peel (DX)

"XP-E-G3" green p60 dropin (DX) - looks like its XRC and not XPE

Manafont XPG R5 p60 dropin single mode SMO

Budgeteer, you can see the C37 pictures here:

http://s1009.photobucket.com/albums/af219/b2k101/c37/

15

Thank you. :)

16

The beamshots of the MTE lights look dim. If you bought your MTE lights on dealextreme they are not authentic. You can only buy authentic MTE lights at www.gregmcgeeengineering.com or www.mte-usa.com as I am the only authorized distributor in the US, holder of the US trademark, and enforcer of the US and Chinese trademarks. Dealextreme has been removing the counterfeit lights as I report them to DX using their intellectual property violation form, but there are still some added as DX is a marketplace for other manufacturers and does not stock products. As the folks at DX explained it to me they are kind of like alibaba.com but the ordering is done through their site instead of the independent orders placed on alibaba. All MTE lights on alibaba are fake and one of the biggest problems with the fake lights are substandard electronics that burn out quickly, poor aluminum quality which literally splinters when you screw and unscrew the tailcap, and no 3 year MTE factory warranty.

Thanks,

Greg McGee

www.mte-usa.com

17

Huh, well I'll be damned... I learn something new everyday.

Thanks for joining up and informing us about that, Greg. Sometimes it's hard to tell the fakes till one holds them in their hand... others are easy to spot ( $40 Tiablo A9 springs to mind...). Even though it's said imitation is a form of flattery, it must get annoying having to protect your trademark (on top of the lost revenue of course ).

I do hope you stick around the forums here. I'd be nice to have a manufacturers perspective on certain questions.

And Welcome to BLF!

18

M3 2I with a XM-L: 92$. One can hardly call that a budgetlight.

19

I have a well driven (3.2A) Aurora M3-2I (larger head and optics than the MTE version). The host is top-notch quality, but the MC-E is miserable in tint & output. With any luck, I'll have a 20mm XM-L swapped in within the next week.

20

The MC-E diodes are very lot and bin dependent. I have seen a wide variety of light levels and colors from the various lights and mine are always the top two bins so they are pretty white and have great color. Which light had the bad MC-E?

Also, the XM-L for 92 dollars can be cut in price. If you want I will give your light forum a 20% off discount code, let me know.

I thought this post was dead as I peeked in on it a couple times and there was no activity...

Thanks,

Greg