Convoy S2 (T5-5C, 1400mA)
Reviewer’s Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary:
Battery: 1x18650 (fits protected cell)
Switch: Rear, Glow-in-the-Dark (reverse clicky)
Modes: 2 Groups, 3/5 mode (hidden blinkies!)
LED Type: CREE XM-L T5 (5C tint)
Lens: glass lens, uncoated
Tailstands: Yes, rock-solid with strap in notch
Price Paid: $15
From: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1195020
Date Ordered: July 4, 2013
Pros:
- Small for an 18650 flashlight
- Great tint options
- “Low” low mode
- No blinkies! Almost.
- Nice color
- Rugged
- Glow in the Dark elements
Cons:
- Annoying single blink on low
- No XP-G emitter options
- Mid mode could be lower
- No clip (but available seperately)
- No pouch, and doesn’t fit regular pouches
Convoy?
I’m going to call Convoy the evolution of budget 18650 lights. It seems that Fasttech is currently one of the few sellers that really listens to their customers and sells customizeable flashlights under the Convoy brand. So what’s so special about this light?
Well, first off, it’s part of the S-series of lights. They’re all roughly the same form-factor (tube-style) and the differences are mostly cosmetic with one caveat: some S-series lights don’t fit protected cells. This one does.
Once you make the body choice, it’s time to choose an emitter and driver combo. Fast-tech currently only offers XM-L emitters with one type of driver board, but you can choose between many tints, binnings and driver power.
Features / Value: ★★★★☆
“Evolution of budget lights?” you might think. Let’s take a step back and look at the main annoyances on cheap chinese lights. Poor build quality, bad assembly, nasty tints and annoying strobe modes. This light basically solves all those issues.
First off, you have a wide range of tint choices. I went for the 5C tint because it looks very pleasant and makes it much easier to see what you are doing. For the uninitiated, the 5C tint is much warmer than your generic LED emitter. Not quite as warm as an incandescent light, but somewhere in between. A good tradeoff between colour temperature and efficiency (efficiency lowers when you increase the color temperature as there needs to be more phosphor coating on the emitter).
Secondly, there’s the drive power choice. I went for the 1400mA version because let’s face it, you don’t need insanely high output from an EDC light. All you do is heat up the body and burn your hands! Besides, the reflector is very floody which makes it even more pointless to go lumen-crazy. Let’s save that for the throwers. 
That leaves the annoying strobe modes for now and I’m pleased to say Convoy found a great compromise. They basically divided the flashlight’s operation into two groups: L-M-H and L-M-H-Strobe-SOS. You can change modes by pressing the clicky button once after the light flashes on low mode after 5 seconds of operation. This works well, but the mandatory flash every time you use low is kind of annoying.
The strobe mode is of course as annoying as always, blinking constantly at what I think is 15 Hz. The SOS signs correctly and a bit faster than most lights I’ve seen.
Design / Build Quality: ★★★★★
Design….well. It’s a tube. With knurling. There’s some glass in the front where the light comes out of, and a button on the back to make the aforementioned light come out. How to make it special? Well, Convoy figured it out.
First off, the color is a very nice grey-black color which looks a bit like the type Jetbeam uses. The knurling isn’t too deep which gives the light a “finished” feel. There’s also some heatsinking ribs near the front.
The reflector is orange-peel type, which I think is great for this kind of light. The light is very floody and the hotspot transfers smoothly to flood and eventually spill. The glass is singlecoated, but feels sturdy enough. If you look closely at the front, you’ll see a green o-ring near the front and yup, that’s a glow in the dark ring. Nice. It’s recessed enough that it doesn’t get in the way, but when you look right into the light you can spot somewhat of a green tint, which you won’t see when you point the light at something.
Flipping the light over shows the (also) glow in the dark tailcap, which is a reverse clicky. It feels very solid and it’s recessed enough to make the light tailstand. Which, by the way, also works with a strap attached thanks to the small notch in the side.
Since the S2 is a round light which doesn’t have too many sides to examine, let’s open it up:
What we see here is even more O-rings, and something very important: anodized rear threads! This makes it extremely easy to lock out the light for transport. All threads are properly lubed as well.
The anodizing is pretty decent, but didn’t survive falling onto stone from 2 feet, which left a small nick on the side.
Finally, the website states IPX-8 compliance which seems feasible looking at the O-rings, but I haven’t tested it’s waterproofness….yet.
Bonus picture:
Battery Life: ★★★★☆
Pretty good! Used the light for camping for a week, included a bit of reading (~500 pages) and it drained my 2200 mAh cell from 4.12 to 3.72V.
In both groups the power settings are 5, 50 and 100, which is okay. I like the “low” low mode, but I would have liked to see the Mid mode at 20 instead of 50, given how our eyes perceive brightness. A firefly mode would have been nice though.
Multimeter readings @ 4.12V (tailcap readings)
Low: 0.072A
Mid: 0.688A
High: 1.384A
Light Output: ★★★★★
It’s an XM-L T5 5C which is an interesting compromise. The XM-L emitter is pretty efficient at ~500 lumen output at 1500 mA. Then again, the 5C tint reduces output, the uncoated lens reduces output and the orange peel reflector reduces output. All in all I guess that at 1400mA the light output OTF is somewhere around 300 lumens, comparing it to the Trustfire T2.
300 lumens is pretty much all I’d ever want from a floody EDC light, as anything more will just blind you with the hotspot. On high you have about a 50-60 meter range of identifying a human standing in front of a tree.
Beamshots
The light is resting on the rightmost plant…thing. White balance is set to 4200K which is according to spec with the CREE ANSI chart for 5C emitters. The light appears to actually be a bit warmer than that though, crossing into 6C and thus incandescent light territory.
Control
Low
Medium
High
Beam pattern:
Summary: ★★★★☆
All in all the Convoy is a very solid flashlight for a budget price. At 15 dollars you used to get a crappy flashy light with an old emitter whereas now you get a fully sealed, lubed flashlight with the emitter type of your choice and with an option to hide the strobe modes. The light has some flaws like the mode operation and the mid mode spacing, but these are small annoyances on what’s otherwise a great light for a very decent price. If you want a budget EDC light with a nice tint, or maybe you’re just curious to see what the different tints look like, this is the right light for you. Plus, doesn’t it feel good to order a specialized flashlight that’s built exactly how you want it, just like you might do in a starbucks or subway?
One Latte Macciato Convoy S2 Venti, coming right up!
