About a month ago, I showed some of my flashlights to my brother-in-law. A Meteor M43 and a modified JAXMAN E2L. First thing he asked me was what I used these flashlights for. I told him its more of a hobby than a tool, although they do come in handy for stuff around the house, including letting the dogs out. He didn’t seem that interested overall. But then this past weekend, after going out for dinner, he told me he got a new flashlight and wanted to show me. I thought wow, apparently he was impressed with my flashlights. But then he showed me what he got:
Noooooooo! I couldn’t believe he got one of those. I didn’t want to seem too disappointed, so I told him it was nice, but I could get him a much brighter flashlight. He was interested in a better flashlight, but said he didn’t want to spend more than $50. So I told him that could definitely get him a better and brighter flashlight.
After doing some research on BLF, I purchased a Convoy BD06 rechargeable flashlight. That way he does not have to take a battery out to recharge it, or mistakenly use some cheap alkaline AA batteries that would leak in a flashlight, like the ThruNite TN4A.
My wife and I decided to keep it simple with the 3 mode option, so no strobes, and get the ML2 T6-3B 5000-5200K neutral tint. I will also get him a protected 26650 battery (vs 18650) with lots of capacity. I think he will be super impressed with the flashlight. This set-up seems pretty safe for anyone, including my brother-in-law, and I’m actually looking forward to getting the flashlight and testing it out for myself.
Given that Convoy makes such great flashlights, it seemed like a no-brainer to go with them.
Just wanted to share my experience and perhaps this will lead to another flashlight enthusiast.
Please let me know if I should’ve gone with some other flashlight, or if you have any other thoughts.
Looks good, but these days you cant ignore the Emisar D4, produced by Hank Wang of Intl-Outdoor (link is external) and purchased from Mtn Electronics (link is external). TK’s Emisar D4 review
Yes, it appears the marketing is effective since my parents fell for the same hype. But given the incandescent and cheapo LED flashlights they had, they thought this flashlight was awesome!
The flashlight’s not all that bad… for a 5buk flashlight delivered right to your door, postage-included.
It’s the damned marketting proclaiming it the greatest revolution in flashlight tek since we stopped using kerosene lanterns or candelabras.
It’s all geared for people who still think of a “flashlight” as a plastic tube with hotwire PR-2 bulb that you stuff a coupla D cells in it and get a marginally useful circle of yellowish-orange light… while the cells are fresh.
Their idea of an “LED flashlight” is the same plastic tube but with a dinky little “1W” LED in the middle. Passable, but hardly impressive to any of us, ’though still a “wow” factor to them.
To them, a G700 is the Second Coming™.
“Wow… modes?!? And strobe?! I can blind burglars in black turtleneck shirts and woolen hats, and look so kewl doing it!”
Feh.
I think even Dante wrote that there’s a special place in Hell for those who are marketting those G700s for 20bux a pop (plus s&h extra).
Is the brand on that first light “outlight”? I think they were specifically designed for use going to the “outhouse”.
Everyone (including me) jokes about the multistory dropping, deep frying, run a car over it tactical flashlight commercials so let me ask about the “pounding on it with a sledge hammer while its frozen in a block of ice” part. I can safely assume that the lights run time isn’t long enough to stay lit while the ice block freezes around it, so I’m thinking they drill a hole part way thru the ice and insert the flashlight right before the pounding. Any other ideas?
The BD06 with the neutral tint is one my favorite flashlights; it’s the one I keep on the top of the fridge, so it’s always handy and it’s always the first one I grab. Most of the lights I buy quickly end up in a box in the closet, my BD06, Nitecore TIP, and Skilhunt headlight are really the only light’s I’ve bought that get used a lot.
However they do the block of ice trick, it certainly seems effective. My brother-in-law thought he had the greatest flashlight ever, so I had to be careful not to disappoint him too much.
That’s good to know. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it and hopefully being able to give it away. My brother-in-law is a good guy so it shouldn’t be that hard.
Hey, good choice on the BD06. Are you planning on keeping it stock for him? This is the easiest driver ever to add 7135s to. Also, even if you don’t touch the driver, you might want to bypass the brass cap on top of the driver spring. It has the most resistance of any I have tested. If you have the means, drill a small hole through the top, fill it with solder, tin the top of the cap while you’re at it, and then bypass the spring with braid or wire soldered to driver and cap. This will at least get you to the ~3A stock current. Without it, you are probably looking more at 2A. Of course, they might have a different brass cap now with better conductivity.
It’s quite scary how many people fall for these cheap zoomies. I’m in various light painting groups on FB and every time there is a what lights do you own thread, half the people come out with their **fire zoomy, claiming it’s the best light ever. I’m getting tired of telling them they’ve been ripped off if they’ve paid more than a few $, that the lumen claims are ludicrous, and that the LEDs are fake.
If he loses the little adapter, he loses his ability to recharge the flashlight. I would have considered a micro USB flashlight, like an Eagle Eye X2R or X5R. The main gotcha for these flashlights is that the flashlight must be turned ON for the recharging to work.
well your brother-in-law at least wanted to spent $50 on flashlight good for him :+1: most muggle i know wont spend more than $10.
In my country they call it SWAT flashlight or Cree flashlight to generalized a rather “expensive” flashlights :person_facepalming: \
Feel sorry to those who unenlightened
Can you imagine what would they think about the price of typical hobby grade flashlights? they would think we are the one who being ripped off.
