So I caught the addiction a few years ago when I bought a Maglite 2D LED Pro.
From there I kept it to EDCs, quickly accumulating CR123s:
Fenix E15
Nitecore SensCR
Fenix PD25U
Olight S1R (my current literally EDC)
Then last year a step up to the big boys:
Olight H35 wave
Imalent DX80
Then this week:
Astrolux MF04
Olight M2R CU
I’m quite excited that I finally joined a forum! I’ve never done any sort of forum before and looking forward to this one. I’ve read countless reviews & youtube videos from here and CPF so I’m grateful such an awesome resource exists!
What has me worried already is : I bought the MF04 yesterday and was thinking that would be my budget for quite a while :innocent: . Then I came across this thread: Budjet Light Forums - the BIG flashlight collection thread
After seeing some of your collections , I quickly realized how doomed I am :smiling_imp: and convinced myself I simply couldn’t NOT buy the M2R CU which is on a one-day-only flash sale. :person_facepalming:
I’m glad to finally be somewhere I can excitedly talk about flashlights and not have my friends say: “did you say you bought a $300 FLESHLIGHT? oh, a flashlight!…. I’m not sure which is weirder” (true story & quote that happened while I was showing off my DX80 to some non-flashaholic friends) LOL :person_facepalming: :disappointed: :person_facepalming:
I have it, and it is truly amazing
The UI is excellent, brightness is extreme(measured over 3000 lumens at startup with a 30A 20700). Probably more actually, but still amazing.
And color rendering is amazing.
I love the DX80 for the insane runtime I get. 13 000lm on high and in my cold Canadian climate I don’t even notice a step down.
I was looking just today at de-doming LEDs once I realized how awful the temp is on the DX80 (I think it’s 6500k?)
Do you think the pl47 is better than the Olight H2R? I’ve been keen on that lately. I also have the H35 which is an olight motion sensor separate battery pack headlamp
Thank you for the other two recommendations… I think I’ll get my name on the list!
Yeah. The problem with the Imalent DX80 and other large lights like it use CW (6000k+) LEDs since it’s easier and cheaper to find them in high brightness bins.
So, color temperature, and mostly color quality, is quite awful.
I would not risk dedoming LEDs with such an expensive flashlight. Even at 200$USD, that’s still 290$CA.
I wouldn’t consider the PL47 better overall, but better in ways that I can easily notice.
The H2R can keep its brightness longer if not thermally limited due to using a boost driver, which is not the case obviously at 1000+ lumens levels, has integrated charging, and is easier to find for most people.
However, the Pl47 is really small for using a 21700 cell, which you can get with 4000mAh of capacity, or even 5000mAh if you sacrifice a bit power of power.
It also has, perhaps, a better full featured UI called Anduril.
You can customize max/min brightness, use a ramping mode or a regular stepped mode group, get multiple kinds of strobes, candle mode, beacon, battery beacon, etc.
It also has much better color quality with the SST-20 4000k 95CRI LEDs.
It makes everything look gorgeous.
It also 1/2 the price of the H2R, so take that as you will
: I bought the MF04 yesterday and was thinking that would be my budget for quite a while :innocent: . Then I came across this thread:
