I presume you're talking about the C8 copy and not the 3xAA, correct?
Wow, for a $7 light... pulls 2.45A/356lm on an XR-E without mod, NICE!
Lucky I followed lumatic's command to buy one! :D But still waiting for it.
And IMO, the 3xAA bought by lumatic is not CREE. I have a bunch of $2-$4 lights with those cheap emitters. They're not too bad though, at least, certainly good enough to be gifted.
‘356 lumens or 1/5th the advertised value’. The C8’s I bought don’t make that advertised claim.
Nonetheless, I think you’ll be happy enough with the light.
……
+2.99$ shipping, at least to my part of the world 
Need to supercharge the c8’s I have for a night hunting setup. Not sure what to do. Mod the c8 or go another route. I tried an aspheric in the red xp-e c8. It focused
the emitter and got rid of the spill, what I wanted, but killed the light output. Thought I bought a quality lens but I guess not. Getting the right focal length was a PIA.
he sez it’s zoomable but the pic shows otherwise. I just want a plain 3xAA (well I hope it’s 3AA!) so that’s why the pic clicked for me. So who knows. It very well could be another knock-off emitter. They’re everywhere aren’t they? Those emitters are ok enough for the most part - but the light better be priced real cheap. :cowboy_hat_face:
The C8’s I got from him for about $7 however are definitely CREE Q5. Some of these pics these guys on e-bay put out at times are indeed questionable and make everything else about the light somewhat ‘nebulous’ - that is until you receive it. lol
You notice I only ordered one. If it turns out to be poopy there’ll be no bulk-buy for Lumatic.
Sent you a pm
I’m talking about the exact light / seller linked to in the first post…
I got one of those and it is NOT zoomable and NOT CREE!!! Beware. I only paid 3.99 USD, but I never use it. The light is REALLY blue tinted and not bright at all.
Is it 3AA at least? :cowboy_hat_face: Been looking around for a decent 3AA host for some project I have in mind. Don’t worry about answering. This doesn’t belong here anyway.
(Postnote: We just junked-up RustyJoe’s C8 thread with this BS cheapo AA idle chatter. Sorry, Rusty. It’s gotten a bit out of hand. Didn’t mean to take it there. Side comment turned into a Whocaresville.)
Terrible tiny little hotspot. Not very bright. Thin plastic -like reflector. It looks like it was painted unevenly with metallic paint. Compared to my other C8, it is junk IMO.
Very generous. Your neighbours must love you. 
neighbor. He didn’t appreciate it when I torched off the Skyray King one dark and moonless night and caught him and the GF in a dark and full-moon position. 
Ya, that’s when I started going mainly towards throwers. 
Geez I hope he never reads this.
LMFAO!! 
OK, I've got the C8 clone (Q5 version) that lumatic "commanded" me to buy.
First thing's first. THANK YOU! This light is a gem at $7.35! However as of now, the listing has raised the price now to $10, may be a while before it goes down again.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/120889784258?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_5332wt_914
Now for the details. This light is 5 modes (sequential mode, but easily fixed, see below), draws 2.3A/ 1A /0.45A H/M/L. The low may seem too high, sure, but you don't really need a firefly thrower now do you? The low is actually gives good usable throw and will give you 5hrs of good light, nice compromise.
At high, 2.3A XR-E Q5 definitely gives a nice wow factor. it's a very nice tight thrower, just did a 130m shot without breaking a sweat. I think this one will reach 200m.
As for the build, it's very good, EVERYTHING's aluminium, body, solid screw-in pill, reflector (this one's very nice). Heat build up almost non-existent. Anodizing'g good & thick, only one tiny knicks visible. LED is perfectly centered with centering ring that also serves to prevent shorting by reflector. LED die seems to be smaller than my other XR-Es, I believe this is using EZ900 version.
The driver is very simple, one chip, one resistor, one capacitor. Next mode memory is ridiculous, so I soldered a 1M-ohm resistors across the capacitor, and problem solved. Turn off 3 seconds and it starts back on high. Perfect. No need to do driver swap.
Again, thank you lumatic for the recommendation. At $7.25, there's absolutely no other light that will come close to this one. Even at current price of $10, it's still an excellent buy.
thanks for the heads up! I am considering to go for this one, what do you think?
Of course I bought 15 of them because of the same sentiment.
Ya now he’s jacking up the price. Popularity sometimes isn’t so good for buying cheap. Still it’s ok at that price but IMO not the raging steal it was of course at $7 and change. lol I’m figuring out these guys are reading BLF like we read the morning newspaper. 8)
The driver mode is not exactly my favorite either to say the least. Well ya can’t have everything at once for $7. The mod you made, would you mind showing us if possible exactly in a pic what ya did? I know how to do it now but it always helps to see a real pro go at it and their finished product. No biggy if ya can’t or don’t have time to bother.
The light looks similar enough, if seller sends the light in the picture I think it's good. BUT I have a problem with the battery though. I do hope you consider buying better one.
The biggest problem with these cheap battery (not counting bad capacity/resistance/fake, that's a given) is that quite a lot of them don't even have vent protection. Combine that with cheap "overcharging" charger you're getting - the danger is quite real.
Sure, I'll open it up tomorrow afternoon and snap some pictures.
Though - I'm definitely not a pro ;) thanks for the vote of confidence though
‘HWA/WTS’ on the one we bought and other slight printing anamolies like where the ‘registered’ or R in a circle is located, your’s looks very similar indeed. It may be the exact same guts, but then again it may also boil down to how it’s assembled together too. Shoot at that price, why not? The charger quality? Crap shoot.
But do absolutely heed what Pulsar sez about that battery.