I ordered two of these buggers and one of them flickered before finally dying four days ago when they both arrived. The one that works is bright and almost the beginnings of throwy, but throwy it really is not. It is perhaps 50 or 75 lumens brighter than my Tom E-modded UF-V3 with XM-L U3 driven to 3.8 amps, but the V3 throws much better still and with a cleaner beam. The hotspot on the V3 is also less ringy (only a super mild issue with the C12 though. I counted just one easy-to-spot ring).
Beam tint is very blue, but not quite too blue. The bodies of both were flawless and well-machined for budget lights. Emitters were almost perfectly centered, but one was off enough to cause a tiny wave distortion in the beam up close. There is PWM in the lower modes noticeable only in a fan, but not in high mode.
I think I’m ready to put this form-factor “out to pasture.” I’ve just tired of anything “C”-ish, I see now. But it’s a lot of bang for the budget buck, I’ll say, and the brightest single emitter light I currently have (before my K40 gets here).
It tail-stands perfectly, has a decent rear switch, no battery rattle, is not as weighty or front-heavy as it looks, but still seems to not be driven to its true potential. Also, the grip is not bad at all like you’d suppose, coming from a standard C8. The light went for one 20-minute walk around the block with the dog. It got fairly warm, as warm as the ever-throwy STL-V2 on the same walk.
I tried tailcap readings and got 3.4 amps, but the meter was not consistent. I’d guess just over 1,000 lumens at start-up. As you can see below, this thing is really impressive up close! It also doesn’t get too hot, which makes me tend to doubt the 3.4 amps reading. But I see no advantage in this form-factor over the standard C8 from Lightmalls. It was, however, brighter than the KD C8 XM-L2 U2. That one was driven at 2.8 amps. Overall, ok value, just still not driven to where we’d want it to really utilize that nice, big head. I give it a Rusty Recommend Lite.
From a distance of about 8 ft to a beige-painted wall
About 6 ft to curtain