Thanks, looks like the C8,I’ll keep it stock 
And to confirm, it will give more distance than the Ultrafire I have, the one in my original post?
Yes. The light in your original post is kind of a dud. If you are in the US, try mountain electronics. He has the convoy in stock, as well as batteries and is a great guy to deal with.
I have an account with fast tech so would prefer to order from there.
They have multiple C8s listed, T6 and B1 in 2100ma or 2800ma, can anyone tell me which one will be best in terms of distance and brightness, out of the below ones:
https://www.fasttech.com/search?Convoy%20c8
They all have multiple modes but am I right in thinking they all have a last mode function too? I don’t want to be cycling through modes to get to high.
Umm. I think those are all XM-L’s which are older LEDs. You can probably find the convoys with newer LEDs elsewhere for the same price
Alternatively, I’ve noticed FT sell the body alone, could I buy the newer type Led as a drop in and assemble myself?
What sort of pocket?
A C8 is possible to carry in say your jeans pocket, but it’s not overly comfortable and you have to be quite dedicated to do this.
Fits in a jacket pocket no probs however. But by this measure, so would a Jacob A60.
The thing is, throw usually means a large light. As it’s a large reflector that gives you the throw. A smaller LED in the same size reflector will give more throw, but the trade off is lumens, as in less of them. So spill beam is not as bright and the area the hot spot lights up is a lot smaller.
Are you able to give an expected use for the light or the type of beam you are wanting to achieve?
Memory and modes.
There is no hard and fast rule here. Crappy budget lights usually have next mode memory. But some don’t. And some can have memory.
If you want a C8 there are really two main choices:
1. The Convoy C8. Very nice build quality and very good price. Cheaper ones simply aren’t worth the hassle IMO. The Convoy is well built, machined and uses quality parts.
Lots of places to buy from such as:
You’ll see them listed with 7135*8 or 7135*6
This is the driver, is uses 7135 chips to regulate current. The higher the number of these the higher the current. The 7135*8 will give about 2.8amps which is a good usable output.
Make sure you get a SMO if you want more throw.
You can also choose your tint. If you haven’t tried a NW (neutral white) tint, you should. They work much better in rural areas.
2. XinTD.
http://intl-outdoor.com/xintd-c8-v5-xml2-u3-multioption-18650-flashlight-p-308.html
Bit higher quality than the Convoy. But the Convoy in fairness is very good.
The XinTD also gives you a choice of tints. And number of modes you might want. The XinTD C8 uses a similar driver to the Convoy but makes about 3.04 amps and should be slightly brighter. But we really aren’t talking a huge difference here.
If you think you’ll ever use it in doors or for reading you’ll want at least a 2 mode driver. 3 amps in one of these is quite bright and no good to try and read a map/book with as it’ll just glare.
IF you want the most throw from a C8, then the XinTD XP-G2:
http://intl-outdoor.com/xintd-c8-v5-xpg2-s2-multioption-18650-flashlight-p-789.html
Is a good option. The hot spot will be smaller and more intense, the spill beam less bright and the transition from spot to spill beam more distinct. But it will out throw the XM-L2/XP-L C8’s.
BTW - I highly advise learning how to solder. It’s not so bad and soldering irons are very cheap to buy.
Thanks Chicken Drumstick 
I’ll be looking at this one:
http://m.banggood.com/Gray-Convoy-C8-Cree-XML2-71358-35-Modes-LED-Flashlight-p-968305.html
It ticks all the boxes, especially being fairly compact and not having to cycle through modes.
There’s 5 designs/choices, which one will be the best?
I’ve noticed that Fast tech sell the smo C8 with the 7135*8 and it’s in stock, if this is a good choice I will order it today as I have some vouchers for FT
I’d go for the XM-L2 T6-3B it’s a nice tint for general use, not too warm, but renders colours so much nicer than cool white emitters.
Just so you know:
XM-L2 = This is the emitter type. Cree offer different emitters of different sizes.
T6 = This is the brightness Bin. Cree group emitters into different categories in brightness. But don’t worry too much, visually it’s almost impossible to see the difference between the higher output bins. Tint is far more important.
3B = This is the tint. Tint is important as you see it every time you use the light, no matter what you shine it at. As a rule the best tints (neutral white’s) with the best CRI (colour rendition index) are not available in the highest brightness bins.
Technically the XM-L2 U2-1A should be the highest output C8 banggood offer. But this will be cool white. Cool white works fine indoors and urban areas. But if you have green foliage or tree’s then NW is so much nicer.
This is a handy chart to gauge what the different tints might look like:
Here is a more real world example:
The Lumitop picture is using a Cool White XM-L2, something in the 1A range.
Will there be a big difference between 3B and 3C? If not, I’d rather just order the 3C from Fast Tech
I would expect the 3C to be nicer than 3B, but should be fairly close.
Even better, I was expecting it to be worse.
And the smooth surface will be better than OP?
Not a huge difference no. A tad warmer. But should be nice.
Just check FastTech is an XM-L2 and not XM-L.
You also want the 7135*8 driver and make sure it is the 3/5 group one. This driver allows you (via a button click sequence) to select:
H-M-L
or
H-M-L-SOS-Strobe
BTW - I wouldn’t get too hung up on loyalty to these Chinese sellers. Just buy from the one that offers the best deal and isn’t a complete unknown.
FastTech are no better or worse than banggood. I’ve bought from both lots of times.
Do make sure you pay via PayPal however. Covers you if anything isn’t right.
Don’t forget the BLF discount. The code “BLF” will normally get you 5-8% off flashlights at these places.
A smooth reflector will give better throw, but the beam will be less smooth and even. You won’t notice it outside though.
The fast tech one is XM-L, not L2,will this effect things largely?
XM-L is the previous emitter. Very similar to the XM-L2 and the XM-L2 directly replaced it.
There is nothing wrong with the XM-L but just be aware you likely buying old stock and an out dated emitter.
The XM-L2 is more efficient, it’ll put out more lumens for a given current and have better runtimes. Neither of these are by a huge margin, but they exist none the less.
Given this price point I’d go with the XM-L2.
In that case, I’ll order the L2 from banggood
Thanks for everyone’s advice
If you want easy extra throw for your zoomie you can try dedoming the LED. Almost double the throw and add a warmer tint.
Check out the UniqueFire M9. The head and reflector are just a little smaller than the C8, but the reflector is deeper relative to its width and throws better than the C8. As a bonus, it fits better in the pocket.
The Uniquefire M9 looks identical to the Yezl Y6-X reviewed here.
I am pretty sure the image below shows the Uniquefire M9 reflector on the left next to a C8 reflector. I found this image on Aliexpress product page for Yezl Y6-X.
