I’ve got a collection of maybe a dozen flashlights, many of them are P60 hosts / drop-ins. I don’t have anything that I’d consider a thrower, really the farthest throwing light I have is a Sipik sk68 running on 14500.
My father-in-law took me out fishing the other weekend before sunrise, and was using a Coast zoomable flashlight running on 3xAAA (Found it: HERE) to spot the channel markers. The trusty 90 CRI P60 that hangs on my belt was ashamed. I need something to one-up him…
My wishlist:
• 1x18650 (requirement)
• Heavy thrower (though it doesn’t have to be a laser beam)
• Reflector vs Aspheric – doesn’t matter really to me
• Budget: $45 or less
I think a Convoy C8 would be a good fit for what you want. It is a compact thrower; it won’t throw as far as a large diameter light, but it is very portable. It (with the right LED) will throw a lot better than your P60s, I think.
If you wanted an aspheric, the Brinyte B158 is a nice light, but I’d personally take either of the Convoys first. The Convoy L2 feels so impressive in your hand, everybody should have one
I checked the specs on that Coast HP7. It says it throws 226m, which means it has 12.8Kcd. The Convoy C8 I linked above probably has 65Kcd, so the beam would have ~5x the intensity. Just to give you an idea of the improvement you would see. Of course, it won’t look 5x as bright because of the logarithmic-like sensitivity of our eyes, but it would look like a big significant difference.
In my experience boating at night, I’ve found that minimizing the spill is just as important as hotspot intensity. Excess spill will light up the front of the boat and water in front of you, killing your acclimated night vision, and will also result in a lot of bounce-back from haze in the air.
I find that either a long/deep reflector or aspheric work best.
It’s an oldie, but heavily-modded UniqueFire HS-802 is by far, my favorite reflector-based thrower, if you wish to buy something as a mod host: http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_110133.html?wid=21
Mine is rebuilt with a 6x 7135 Qlite and a XP-E2 TORCH emitter on a DTP Noctigon. The reflector is painstakingly focused for maximum intensity, and this combination produces an extremely bright, and well focused hotspot with minimum spill.
Probably preferable, if you can build it yourself, would be an aspheric host:
I’d recommend either the UF-T20 or for MAXIMUM CARNAGE ™, the Ultrafire UF-1504 from MtnElectronics:
Either of these hosts, with a 3A Qlite and (my preference is a cool 1A tint for throwers) XP-G2 emitter would make a fantastic thrower, that would give you a solid hotspot with NO spill, would let you view markers at great distances, and would not murder your night vision.
You could also go with a XP-L HI emitter and a FET driver for Max Lumens, but I personally prefer the XP-G2 (and some regulation) in this style light.
The C8 is a great light, and is highly recommended, but I find that the shallow reflector results in a bit more spill than I like for long-range spotlighting.
Yeah bare ano Convoy C8 in neutral tint
Beautiful even during the day and very nice all rounder at night
The Courui stock is a good starting point but buy it cheaper since you need to mod it.
(Love the 3 parallel setup and how it feels bit when I got a modded one with copper heat sinking and led carefully fitted to the reflector I just knew my stock one needed some work or never would be taken out of the cupboard)
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If you insist on spending that much go for a Jaxman Z1 NW stock really really nice.
Wow, thanks so much for the quick and detailed responses!
Doesn’t exactly meet my 1x18650 wishlist, but it does look like a nice light.
Man, I would like that Convoy L2, but then the cost spirals out of control because then I “need” the 26650 cells… And a charger for them… and the 2 cell body tube… I think I will have to abstain before my $45 budget balloons to $100.
Great info, thanks.
The votes for C8 are building up, but keltex78 makes a good point:
My quick research has turned up Ahorton’s 27.2mm aspheric lens kit for P60 hosts. That may be an easy way to convert one of the P60 hosts I already own?
I think you might be disappointed. I built a P60 aspheric, and while it was impressive throw for the size factor, I wasn’t really impressed.
Another thing to keep in mind, a 26650 light can be used with 18650s if you have a spacer tube (PVC pipe or something) of the right diameter to center the cell in the light. 18650s are the same length as the 26650s; all you would give up is runtime due to the lower capacity.
Hmm, I like that the MH27 has a built-in red LED, would be good for loading and moving around the boat at 5am without killing our nightvision… but it’s double the budget.
What mod is that on the C8? I’ve never modded a flashlight, but I am not opposed to it either. Though, I probably would prefer an out-of-the-box solution I think.
