After asking for (& receiving) recommendations for a budget C8, & after some research on my part, I have just bought 2 Thorfire C8s & am blown away by the build quality & performance of such a cheap light compared to my others.
So I would now like some suggestions as to a good budget floody type light.
TIA 
Convoy S2+.
Shallow, small-diameter, OP reflector; this will give you a rather floody beam profile from an XM-L2 or similar emitter.
Available in your choice of Gray, Green, Blue, and Red.
Simon’s store is offline at this time, but should be open again soon. See comments from post #78 on in this thread for details:
Budget up to about say $50 ?
So then, get THREE Convoy S2+ lights! 8)
Shadow mtg2
I have already pre-ordered the joint CPFI/BLF Cometa which is a zoomie so I assume (based on a couple of cheap zoomies I already have) will be quite floody if not focussed tightly ?
How do you think the S2+ would compare to this ?
Glad you like the C8’s.
As for a floddy light, I think it’s best to define what you mean by floody. As people have different interpretations of this. And it largely boils down to your intended use.
For example,
I like floody to mean a largish even beam with consistent brightness throughout the beam, i.e. no hot spot. Typically you’ll get this type of beam from an aspheric or TIR zoomy light, although mule lights can do this too. I find lights like this very good for working on something, be it up close or even working under the bonnet of a car in the dark. The even illumination really is priceless.
However, it’s just as accurate to say floody means lighting up a wide area, or as wide an area as possible. Something like the multi LED SKyRayKing Coke Can style lights are often good at this. But they have a very defined hot spot, still. But the wide illumination is good for lighting up a whole back garden or for walking.
Tube lights tend to be floody too, although this is largely due to having a large dis-focused hot spot. An Orange Peel reflector can also smooth out the beam too. These are nice general purpose lights, but they still have a defined hot spot.
I’ll give you an example:
This is an aspheric lens on full flood. It gives a large even illumination. The down side is, it has very limited range and won’t light up much at any sort of distance.
This is an XM-L2 tube light. Typically described as “floody”. A Convoy S2 will be similar. Note how it isn’t as evenly illuminated and how you still have a defined hotspot. However despite the ligths compact size, the hotspot means it’ll throw a beam further than the flood mode of the aspheric light above. Making it more versatile in a single package.
Some tube lights can get a more even beam if they have an OP reflector. But you’ll always get a brighter centre to the beam and duller at the edges.
I don’t have a pic of a multi led to compare directly. However I do have these.
This is an XM-L C8 style light. Not the most powerful, but it gives a good mix of throw and spill beam. This one is probably 600 lumens, so not as powerful as your C8’s.
The tube light or the flood mode asperhic would be no good at this distance, this is a similar aspheric torch on flood mode (not as powerful as the one in the pics above, but still pretty good).
Last up, this is a 4 LED (XM-L2) SkyRay King. Note how it doesn’t throw any better than the C8 style light does. But the multiple LED’s and small shallow reflectors mean it lights up a very wide area, aka floody.
You can get a similar floody beam profile with some of the newer larger LED’s. Anything running an MT-G2 Led in a moderate reflector will be quite floody.
Bit of a hot spot but with good wide”ish useable illumination around it so probably not an out & out flood.
I wonder if the Cometa will give me that & maybe I should wait ?
The SRK”s (the ones with less led”s) would do the job as they have a bit of throw as well (I think ?) but from what I have read they are all pretty poor Chinese knock offs nowadays & require modding to make them usable & heat dissipation is a major problem ?
Wow Chicken Drumstick, what a nice post man!
Bella, mysef being a newbie just starting let me urge you to wait.
Have fun with the lights you have now and play around with the one on the way.
When too many arrive to close to each other you will not be able to enjoy them all.
I have had a influx of lights and now I use another every two days. I like this and agreed to do it like this with myself when I realised I only used 3 of the 23. Now I have put those away and just use the others first. To really get to know them (hi mrs flashlight how bright you look today ;))
So having some time before the next is not a bad thing. And leaves some time to jump in when a great oppotunity comes along 
This is a SRK style 3x Xml-2 led flashlight that gives a good mix of flood and focused light and are extremely good quality. I bought one from here last spring. Richard sells very good stuff so no worries about the cheap Chinese knockoffs with this one.
http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=80&product_id=250
The SRK’s are pretty cool. But tbh I don’t use mine that much. It’s big and heavy and requires 4 18650 batteries (it’ll run on less, but runtime and performance can suffer).
I actually use my Shadow JM35 a lot more. It’s a single 26650 light and more compact than an SRK and a lot lighter to carry. Output is similar too. Mine has the MT-G2 which is a nice tint. You can also get it with the XHP50 LED, which is a bit cooler but throws a bit better.
The beam on the JM35 is pretty unique in my collection. It has a massive spill beam, i.e. the area it lights up. And it’s pretty bright too. And a very large hot spot.
It’s odd, it doesn’t look at “wow” as the SRK does and maybe it’s not quite putting out the same lumens. But it is a very nice and critically very usable floody light.
Nice advice but the thing that puts me off that JM35 is that it uses 26650 cells which is a form that I do not have.
If it used 18650”s I might be tempted.
Although a M4D M4X review states that you can use hi drain hi amp 18650”s if you bridge the tail spring, firstly I just want a light that I can run stock & secondly wouldn”t using 18650”s reduce cell time ?
Keep the advice coming please.
18650 would provide a shorter runtime due to the reduced capacity. As 18650 and 26650 cells are the same length, you can put a sleeve, such as a small piece of tubing or cardboard, around an 18650 to use it in a 26650 light.
+1
and get the shorty tube, too:
If you’re looking for a pocket-sized room-filler, I can tell you from personal experience that if you take this roll-of-coins-sized S5 torch, and add this 60° optic, you’ll get a nice even pure-white (goodbye to ooky Cree color rings!!!) Flood that will fill a standard wall at ~10’. It’s a bit of a compromise leaning toward more Flood, but still reach a few dozen feet away with enough light to recognize faces.
For the ultimate in Flood, add this 120° optic. I can only imagine the ball of light…
For my next trick, I’m debating whether I want a pencil-beam roll of coins or even more Flood with this 90° optic.
I wouldn’t get too fussed with “format”. They are all the same 4.2v Li-ion batteries. The only difference is the size.
The only real hurdle is if you can charge them, although a lot of chargers support 26650’s. I have a 4Sevens and an Xtar charger, both will charge from RCR123’s through to 26650’s.
The only physical difference with a 26650 is it’s width, it’s the same length as an 18650.
In almost all 26650 lights you can run an 18650 if you want. Ideally you want some kind of insert, I have gained several over the years supplied with 26650 lights. All it is, is a bit of plastic tube to stop the 18650 rattling.
In all honesty I’ve never used 18650’s in any of my 26650 lights. Never really saw the point in having a physically larger light and running a smaller battery in it. 26650’s are pretty cheap to buy, and at least for me were no bother to charge. So it was no fuss at all to buy a couple.
In terms of performance. A 26650 has higher capacity than an 18650. So you’ll typically get better runtimes. Also some 26650 torches have very high amp demands. A higher capacity battery is always better for this, aka 26650’s. So you may find that running an 18650 gives you worse runtime and performance.
The JM35 is such a light, as the MT-G2 has a much higher voltage demand and would normally be run on 2x Li-ion. I don’t know what amps it is pulling, but it’s probably quite high. So you’d need a very good 18650 to make use of it.
This is my SRK and JM35:
The biggest thing to note is the weight difference:
Both with batteries in.
I will concede and say the SRK is brighter, I did a lux meter ceiling bounce test and the SRK was 1840 lux vs 1116 lux for the JM35. Although take these numbers with a pinch of salt as there is nothing to compare them too. It just demonstrates the SRK is brighter, but not by how much.
The SRK also has a brighter, tighter hot spot and does throw better. But the JM35 has a wider spill beam and a better tint.
If I get chance I’ll try and get some beam shots of them if you want.
I got my first good zoomie, the Brinyte B158, in the group buy organized by MHanlen. Since then, I have signed up for another, the CPFItalia Cometa. That thing looks great!
For indoor use, and most close work, I have discovered that I prefer the floody beam of a zoomie over the beams produced by my floody tube lights. It's not the zoom part I like—although that has its advantages—it is the broad beam produced by a zoomie set for flood. The Brinyte B158 has a wider beam than any of the flashlights I have that use a reflector.
You might wait, therefore, to see whether the Cometa can fill your flood requirements. The biggest issue I see with the Cometa is its size. The lights Dimbo recommends are significantly more pocket-friendly.
For readers who do not already know, let me make one other point about the Cometa. It is a 1x26650 flashlight that can also run on 1x18650. You may not have any 26650s now, but I can hear the lure of temptation calling...
Given my preference for wide beams, I need to learn more about the non-zooming flashlight builds that Dimbo recommends above. They provide the broad beam of a lens, without the bulk of a large zoomie such as the B158 or Cometa. I can tell already that one of them is in my future. Thanks, Dimbo.
If you want a small tube light with a reflector, I will second the Convoy recommendations above. If you buy the Convoy S2+, be sure to check out the optional short body tube. With one of those, you can run on 1x18350. That's a light that easily fits in the bottom of a pants pocket.
Of course, depending how much power you need, and what battery formats you prefer, the BLF A6, Astrolux S1, Astrolux A01, and BLF-348 should also be on your short list of candidates. The first two are floody, "general purpose" lights powered by 1x18650. In fact, the A6 and S1 are the same exact light, sold under different names. The only difference between them is that the S1 comes with short body tube that costs extra with the A6. The second two are small 1xAAA flashlights that are all flood. These last two lights are distinguished by the outstanding, high-CRI Nichia 219B emitters they use.
Another floody option that interests me a multi-emitter flashlight that uses the high-CRI Nichia 219B. Ronin42 showed me couple that he built using the 219C. They are excellent.
Where are they cheap? I’m seeing around US$10 each from a reputable source in small quantities. That’s as much as I paid for my first 26650 light! At that price it’s definitely tempting to just stick with 18650’s in spacer tubes for now, but I’m also curious to try 26’s.
More generally, thanks Chicken for all the info and advice in your thorough reply!
Thanks for the detailed replies CD.
I already have a Nitecore D4 & Liitokala Engineer 500 chargers so charging 26650”s is not a problem (I think that they both accept 26650”s ?) just I don”t have any 26650 cells but I already have upwards of 25 good quality 18650 cells.
Like you mention I would not really want to run a light on a less than optimimum cell, although I appreciate that it would be easy to sleeve an 18650 to stop it falling about in the tube.
I must admit that I hadn”t thought about running the Cometa on 26650”s (don”t think I had noticed that in the spec TBH) but based on my above statement I will have to get a couple so yes beam shots would be good.
I suppose cheap in a relative sense.
As in for something like the JM35 you only need one 26650 to make it usable. So splashing out for a single 26650 isn’t I suspect a huge cost vs how much we may spend on this hobby in total. But I agree, they do cost more than 18650’s to buy.